the Night Horseman (1920)

by Max Brand

  "Partner," cut in Daniels, "I could do business with you."

  "Maybe you could."

  "My name's Daniels."

  "I'm Gary Peters. H'ware you?"

  They shook hands.

  "Peters," said Buck Daniels, "you look square, and I need you in a square game; but there ain't any questions that go with it. Twenty iron men for one day's riding and one day's silence."

  "M'frien'," murmured Peters. "In my day I've gone three months without speakin' to anything in boots; and I wasn't hired for it, neither."

  "You know them people up the line," said Daniels. "Do they know you?"

  "I'll tell a man they do! Know Gary Peters?"

  "Partner, this is what I want. I want you to leave Brownsville inside of ten minutes and start riding for Elkhead. I want you to ride, and I want you to ride like hell. Every ten miles, or so, I want you to stop at some place where you can get a fresh hoss. Get your fresh hoss and leave the one you've got off, and tell them to have the hoss you leave ready for me any time tonight. It'll take you clear till tomorrow night to reach Elkhead, even with relayin' your hosses?"

  "Round about that, if I ride like hell. What do I take with me?"

  "Nothing. Nothing but the coin I give you to hire someone at every stop to have that hoss you've left ready for me. Better still, if you can have 'em, get a fresh hoss. Would they trust you with hosses that way, Gary?"

  "Gimme the coin and where they won't trust me I'll pay cash."

  "I can do it. It'll about bust me, but I can do it."

  "You going to try for a record between Brownsville and Elkhead, eh? Got a bet up, eh?"

  "The biggest bet you ever heard of," said Daniels grimly. "You can tell the boys along the road that I'm tryin' for time. Have you got a fast hoss to start with?"

  "Got a red mare that ain't much for runnin' cattle, but she's greased lightnin' for a short bust."

  "Then get her out. Saddle her up, and be on your way. Here's my stake-I'll keep back one twenty for accidents. First gimme a list of the places you'll stop for the relays."

  He produced an old envelope and a stub of soft pencil with which he jotted down Gary Peters' directions.

  "And every second," said Buck Daniels in parting, "that you can cut off your own time will be a second cut off'n mine. Because I'm liable to be on your heels when you ride into Elkhead."

  "Ten extra if you get to Elkhead before me."

  "They's limits to hoss-flesh," remarked Peters. "What time you ridin' against?"

  "Against a cross between a bullet and a nor'easter, Gary. I'm going back to drink to your luck."

  A promise which Buck Daniels fulfilled, for he had need of even borrowed strength. He drank steadily until a rattle of hoofs down the street entered the saloon, and then someone came in to say that Gary Peters had started out of town to "beat all hell, on his red mare."

  After that, Buck started out to find Dan Barry. His quarry was not in the barn nor in the corral behind the barn. There stood Satan and Black Bart, but their owner was not in sight. But a thought came to Buck while he looked, rather mournfully, at the stallion's promise of limitless speed. "If I can hold him up jest half a minute," murmured Buck to himself, "jest half a minute till I get a start, I've got a rabbit's chance of livin' out the night!"

  From the door of the first shed he took a heavy chain with the key in the padlock. This chain he looped about the post and the main timber of the gate, snapped the padlock, and threw the key into the distance. Then he stepped back and surveyed his work with satisfaction. It would be a pretty job to file through that chain, or to knock down those ponderous rails of the fence and make a gap. A smile of satisfaction came on the face of Buck Daniels, then, hitching at his belt, and pulling his sombrero lower over his eyes, he started once more to find Dan Barry.

  He was more in haste now, for the sun was dipping behind the mountains of the west and the long shadows moved along the ground with a perceptible speed. When he reached the street he found a steady drift of people toward O'Brien's barroom. They came by ones and twos and idled in front of the swinging doors or slyly peeked through them and then whispered one to the other. Buck accosted one of those by the door and asked what was wrong.

  "He's in there," said the other, with a broad and excited grin. "He's in there-waitin'!"

  And when Buck threw the doors wide he saw, at the farther end of the deserted barroom, Dan Barry, seated at a table braiding a small horsehair chain. His hat was pushed far back on his head; he had his back to the door. Certainly he must be quite unaware that all Brownsville was waiting, breathless, for his destruction. Behind the bar stood O'Brien, pale under his bristles, and his ekyes never leaving the slender figure at the end of his room; but seeing Buck he called with sudden loudness: "Come in, stranager. Come in and have one on the house. There ain't nothing but silence around this place and it's getting on my nerves."

  Buck Daniels obeyed the invitation at once, and behind him, stepping softly, some of them entering with their hats in their hands and on tiptoe, came a score of the inhabitants of Brownsville. They lined the bar up and down its length; not a word was spoken; but every head turned as at a given signal toward the quiet man at the end of the room.

  Chapter 16. THE COMING OF NIGHT

  IT WAS not yet dusk, for the shadows were still swinging out from the mountains and a ghost of color lingered in the west, but midnight lay in the open eyes of Jerry Strann. There had been no struggle, no outcry, no lifting of head or hand. One instant his eyes were closed, and then, indeed, he looked like death; the next instant the eyes opened, he smiled, the wind stirred in his bright hair. He had never seemed so happily alive as in the moment of his death. Fatty Matthews held the mirror close to the faintly parted lips, examined it, and then drew slowly back the door, his eyes steady upon Mac Strann.

  "Mac," he said, "it's come. I got just this to say: whatever you do, for God's sake stay inside the law!"

  And he slipped through the door and was gone.

  But Mac Strann did not raise his head or cast a glance after the marshal. He sat turning the limp hand of Jerry back and forth in his own, and his eyes wandered vaguely through the window and down to the roofs of the village.

  Night thickened perceptibly every moment, yet still while the eastern slope of every roof was jet black, the western slopes were bright, and here and there at the distance the light turned and waned on upper windows. Sleep was coming over the world, and eternal sleep had come for Jerry Strann.

  It did not seem possible.

  Some night at sea, when clouds hurtled before the wind across the sky and when the waves leaped up mast-high; when some good ship staggered with the storm, when hundreds were shrieking and yelling in fear or defiance of death; there would have been a death-scene for Jerry Strann.

  Or in the battle, when hundreds rush to the attack with one man in front like the edge before the knife-there would have been a death-scene for Jerry Strann. Or while he rode singing, a bolt of lightning that slew and obliterated at once-such would have been a death for Jerry Strann.

  It was not possible that he could die like this, with a smile. There was something incompleted. The fury of the death-struggle which had been omitted must take place, and the full rage of wrath and destruction must be vented. Can a bomb explode and make no sound and do no injury?

  Yet Jerry Strann was dead and all the world lived on. Someone cantered his horse down the street and called gayly to an acquaintance, and afterward the dust rose, invisible, and blew through the open window and stung the nostrils of Mac Strann. A child cried, faintly, in the distance, and then was hushed by the voice of the mother, making a sound like a cackling hen. This was all!

  There should have been wailing and weeping and cursing and praying, for handsome Jerry Strann was dead. Or there might have been utter and dreadful silence and waiting for the stroke of vengeance, for the brightest eye was misted and the strongest hand was unnerved and the voice that made them tremble was gone.

&nb
sp; But there was neither silence nor weeping. Someone in a nearby kitchen rattled her pans and then cursed a dog away from her back door. Not that any of the sounds were loud. The sounds of living are rarely loud, but they run in an endless river-a monotone broken by ugly ripples of noise to testify that men still sleep or waken, hunger or feed. Another ripple had gone down to the sea of darkness, yet all the ripples behind it chased on their way heedlessly and babbled neither louder nor softer.

  There should have been some giant voice to peal over the sleeping village and warn them of the coming vengeance-for Jerry Strann was dead!

  The tall, gaunt figure of Haw-Haw Langley came on tiptoe from behind, beheld the dead face, and grinned; a nervous convulsion sent a long ripple through his body, and his Adam's apple rose and fell. Next he stole sideways, inch by inch, so gradual was his cautious progress, until he could catch a glimpse of Mac Strann's face. It was like the open face of a child; there was in it no expression except wonder.

  At length a hoarse voice issued from between the grinning lips of Haw-Haw.

  "Ain't you goin' to close the eyes, Mac?"

  At this the great hand of Mac Strann rolled back and he raised his glance to Haw-Haw, who banished the grin from his mouth by a vicious effort.

  "Ain't he got to see his way?" asked Mac Strann, and lowered his glance once more to the dead man. As for Haw-Haw Langley, he made a long, gliding step back toward the door, and his beady eyes opened in terror; yet a deadly fascination drew him back again beside the bed.

  Mac Strann said: "Kind of looks like Jerry was ridin' the home trail, Haw-Haws. See the way he's smilin'?"

  The vulture stroked his lean cheeks and seemed once more to swallow his silent mirth.

  "And his hands," said Mac Strann, "is just like life, except that they's gettin' sort of chilly. He don't look changed, none, does he, Haw-Haw? Except that he's seeing something off there-away off there. Looks like he was all wrapped up in it, eh?" He leaned closer, his voice fell to a murmur that was almost soft. "Jerry, what you seein'?"

  Haw-Haw Langley gasped in inaudible terror and retreated again toward the door.

  Mac Strann laid his giant hand on the shoulder of Jerry. He asked in a raised voice: "Don't you hear me, lad?" Sudden terror caught hold of him. He plunged to his knees beside the bed, and the floor quaked and groaned under the shock. "Jerry, what's the matter? Are you mad at me? Ain't you going to speak to me? Are you forgettin' me, Jerry?"

  He caught the dead face between his hands and turned it strongly toward his own. Then for a moment his eyes plumbed the shadows into which they looked. He stumbled back to his feet and said apologetically to Haw-Haw at the door: "I kind of forgot he wasn't livin' for a minute." He stared fixedly at the gaunt cowpuncher. "Speakin' man to man, Haw-Haw, d'you think Jerry will forget me?"

  The terror was still white upon the face of Haw-Haw, but something stronger than fear kept him in the room and even drew him a slow step toward Mac Strann; and his eyes moved from the face of the dead man to the face of the living and seemed to draw sustenance from both. He moistened his lips and was able to speak.

  "Forget you, Mac? Not if you get the man that fixed him."

  "Would you want me to get him, Jerry?" asked Mac Strann. And he waited for an answer.

  "I dunno," he muttered, after a moment. "Jerry was always for fightin', but he was never for killin'. He never liked the way I done things. And when he was lyin' here, Haw-Haw, he never said nothin' about me gettin' Barry. Did he?"

  Astonishment froze the lips of Haw-Haw. He managed to stammer: "Ain't you going to get Barry? Ain't you goin' to bust him up, Mac?"

  "I dunno," repeated the big man heavily. "Seems like I've got ho heart for killing. Seems like they's enough death in the world." He pressed his hand against his forehead and closed his eyes. "Seems like they's something dead in me. They's an ache that goes ringin' in my head. They's a sort of hollow feelin' inside me. And I keep thinkin' about times when I was a kid and got hurt and cried." He drew a deep breath. "Oh, my God, Haw-Haw, I'd give most anything if I could bust out crying' now!"

  While Mac Strann stood with his eyes closed, speaking his words slowly, syllable by syllable, like the tolling of a bell, Haw-Haw Langley stood with parted lips-like the spirit of famine drinking deep; joy unutterable was glittering in his eyes.

  "If Jerry'd wanted me to get this Barry, he'd of said so," repeated Mac Strann. "But he didn't." He turned toward the dead face. "Look at Jerry now. He ain't thinkin' about killin'. Nope, he's thinkin' about some quiet place for sleep. I know the place. They's a spring that comes out in a holler between two mountains; and the wind blows up the valley all the year; and they's a tree that stand over the spring. That's where I'll put him. He loved the sound of runnin' water; and the wind'll be on his face; and the tree'll sort ofr mark the place. Jerry, lad, would ye like that?"

  Now, while Mac Strann talked, inspiration came to Haw-Haw Langley, and he stretched out his gaunt arms to it and gathered it in to his heart.

  "Mac," he said, "don't you see no reason why Jerry wouldn't ask you to go after Barry?"

  "Eh?" queried Mac Strann, turning.

  But as he turned, Haw-Haw Langley glided toward him, and behind him, as if he found it easier to talk when the face of Mac was turned away. And while he talked his hands reached out toward Mac Strann like one who is begging for alms.

  "Mac, don't you remember that Barry beat Jerry to the draw?"

  "What's that to do with it?"

  "But he beat him bad to the draw. I seen it. Barry waited for Jerry. Understand?"

  "What of that?"

  "Mac, you're blind! Jerry knowed you'd be throwing yourself away if you went up agin Barry."

  At this Mac Strann whirled with a suddenness surprising for one of his bulk. Haw-Haw Langley flattened his gaunt frame against the wall.

  "Mac!" he pleaded. "I didn't say you'd be throwin' yourself away. It was Jerry's idea."

  "Did Jerry tell you that?" he asked.

  "So help me God!"

  "Did Jerry want me to get Barry?"

  "Why wouldn't he?" persisted the vulture, twisting his bony hands together in an agony of alarm and suspense. "Ain't it nacheral, Mac?"

  Mac Strann wavered where he stood.

  "Somehow," he argued to himself, "it don't seem like killin' is right, here."

  The long hand of Langley touched his shoulder.

  He whispered rapidly: "You remember last night when you was out of the room for a minute? Jerry turned his head to me-jest the way he's lyin' now-and I says: 'Jerry, is there anything I can do for you?'"

  Mac Strann reached up and his big fingers closed over those of Haw-Haw.

  "Haw-Haw," he muttered, "you was his frien'. I know that."

  Haw-Haw gathered assurance.

  He said: "Jerry answers to me: 'Haw-Haw, old pal, there ain't nothin' you can do for me. I'm goin' West. But after I'm gone, keep Mac away from Barry.'

  "I says: 'Why, Jerry?'

  "'Because Barry'll kill him, sure,' says Jerry.

  "'I'll do what I can to keep him away from Barry.' Says I, 'but don't you want nothin' done to the man what killed you?'

  "'Oh, Haw-Haw,' says Jerry, 'I ain't going to rest easy, I ain't goin' to sleep in heaven-until I know Barry's been sent to hell. But for God's sake don't let Mac know what I want, or he'd be sure to go after Barry and get what I got.'"

  Mac Strann crushed the hand of Haw-Haw in a terrific grip.

  "Partner," he said, "d'you swear this is straight?"

  "So help me God!" repeated the perjurer.

  "Then," said Mac Strann. "I got to leave the buryin' to other men what I'll hire. Me-I've got business on hand. Where did Barry run to?"

  "He ain't run," cried Haw-Haw, choking with a strange emotion. "The fool-the damned fool!-is waiting right down there in O'Brien's bar for you to come. He's darin' you to come!"

  Mac Strann made no answer. He cast a single glance at the peaceful face of Jerry, and then started for the do
or. Haw-Haw waited until the door closed; then he wound his arms around his body, writhed in an ecstasy of silent laughter, and followed with long, shambling strides.

  Chapter 17. BUCK MAKES HIS GETAWAY

  STRAIGHT FROM the room of the dead man, Fatty Matthews had hurried down to the bar, and there he stepped into the silence and found the battery of eyes all turned upon that calm figure at the end of the room. Upon this man he trotted, breathing hard, and his fat sides jostled up and down as he ran. According to Brownsville, there were only two things that could make Fatty run; a gun or the sight of a drink. But all maxims err. When he reached Barry he struck him on the shoulder with a heavy hand. That is, he struck at the shoulder, but as if the shadow of the falling hand carried a warning before it, at the same time that it dropped Barry swerved around in his chair. Not a hurried movement, but in some mysterious manner his shoulder was not in the way of the plump fist. It struck, instead, upon the back of the chair, and the marshal cursed bitterly.

  "Stranger," he said hotly, "I got one thing to say: Jerry Strann has just died upstairs. In ten seconds Mac Strann will be down here lookin' for you!"

  He stepped back, humming desperately to cover the wheezing, but Barry continued to braid the horsehair with deft fingers.

  "I got a double knot that's kind of new," he said. "Want to watch me tie it?"

  The deputy sheriff turned on the crowd.

  "Boys," he exclaimed, waving his arms, "he's crazy. You heard what he said. You know I've give him fair warning. If we got to dig his grave in Brownsville, is it my fault? It ain't!" He stepped to the bar and pounded upon it. "O'Brien, for God's sake, a drink!"

  It was a welcome suggestion to the entire nervous crowd, but while the glasses spun across the bar Buck Daniels walked slowly down the length of the barroom toward Barry. His face was a study which few men could have solved; unless there had been someone present who had seen a man walk to his execution. Beside Dan Barry he stopped and watched the agile hands at work. There was a change in the position of Barry now, for he had taken the chair facing the door and the entire crowd; Buck Daniels stood opposite. The horsehair plied back and forth. And Daniels noted the hands, lean, tapering like the fingers of a girl of sixteen. They were perfection steady; they were the hands of one who had struggled, in life, with no greater foe than ennui.