Six Feet Four

by Jackson Gregory

  CHAPTER XX

  POLLARD TALKS "BUSINESS"

  The promise of the night flat and stale in his mouth, Thornton turnedhis back upon the merriment in the little schoolhouse and strode away tohis horse awaiting him under the oak. He tightened the cinch with asavage jerk, coiled his tie rope and flung himself into the saddle. Didhe not already have enough on his hands without running after a girlwith grey eyes and a blazing temper? Had he not already enough to thinkabout, what with guarding his range interests from a possible visit fromthe marauder who was driving wrath into the hearts of the cattle men andterror into the hearts of the isolated families, what with scrapingevery dollar here and there that he might be on time with his finalpayment to Henry Pollard? Must he further puzzle over the insolent whimsof a captious girl?

  Which was all very well, and yet as he turned Comet's head toward thePoison Hole ranch the blood was still hot on his brow, his thoughts werestill busy with Winifred Waverly and the enigma she was to him, whilehis mind, still touched with the opiate of the loveliness of her, wasfilled with the picture she made in the moment of her flamingaccusation.

  "I have been calling her Miss Grey Eyes!" he mused angrily. "That namedoesn't suit her. Little Blue Blazes would be better!"

  "Mr. Thornton!"

  It was Henry Pollard's voice, and for a moment Thornton had no thoughtof heeding it. But the voice called again, and he drew an impatientrein, waiting.

  "Well," came his answer shortly. "What do _you_ want?"

  "I want to talk business with you or I wouldn't stop you," Pollardreturned coolly. He came close to Comet's head and in the same, cool,impersonal voice continued.

  "When time comes for your last payment are you going to be able to makeit?"

  "Until time does come," Thornton snapped at him, "it's my business whatI'm going to do."

  "Certainly it's your business. But since you've put fifteen thousandinto it already I guess you won't slip up on the last five thousand. Nowit's nearly five months until that payment falls due, isn't it?"

  "Well? Talk fast, Pollard."

  "I want to make you a proposition. I need money, and I don't mind sayingthat I need it bad! I've got a chance for something good, something big,in a mining speculation, and I'm short of cash. If I could raise themoney within thirty days..."

  Thornton laughed.

  "Nothing doing, Pollard," he cut in. "When your money's due you cancome talk to me. Not before."

  "I said I had a proposition, didn't I?" went on Pollard evenly. "I seewhere I can make by it, and I'm willing for you to profit at the sametime."

  "Spit it out. Where do I get off?"

  "You owe me five thousand yet."

  "Five thousand with interest, six per cent...."

  "Forget the interest; I don't want it. And I'll carve five hundreddollars off the five thousand too, if you'll raise it within thirtydays. That is my proposition. What do you say to it?"

  For a little Buck Thornton was silent, thinking swiftly. For the life ofhim he could not but look for some trickery in any proposition whichmight come from "Rattlesnake" Pollard. And when Pollard coolly offeredto give away eight hundred dollars, five hundred of it principal, threehundred interest, Thornton had an uneasy sense that there was somethingcrooked in the deal. But at the same time he knew that a year agoPollard had been short of funds and for this reason had been driven tosell the Poison Hole. Hence it might be that now Pollard was telling thetruth when he said that he needed money.

  "You mean," he said presently, speaking slowly, trying to see Pollard'sface in the shadows, "that if I come across with four thousand fivehundred dollars in thirty days you will give me the deed to the PoisonHole?"

  "That's what I mean," agreed Pollard bluntly. "It's a proposition youcan take or leave alone. Only you have got to take it right now if youwant it. What do you say?"

  "I've got out the habit of carrying forty-five hundred around in my vestpocket...."

  "You've got an equity of fifteen thousand in a range that is worth awhole lot more than you are paying for it, young man! The bank in DryTown would advance you the money and never bat an eye."

  Again Thornton asked himself swiftly if there were some trap herePollard was setting for him to blunder into. But he could see none, andhe could understand that matters might stand so that the smaller sum_now_ would be worth more to him than the larger amount in five months.

  "This is the fifteenth," replied the cowboy. "On the twenty-fifth I'llhave the money ready at the Dry Town bank."

  "I don't want it in the bank," Pollard told him shortly. "I want it inmy fist! It's just about time for the stage to get held up again, andI'm taking no chances on this bet. You bring the money to _me_ or thebet's off."

  "An' _I_ take the chances of gettin' held up!" grunted Thornton.

  "You take all the chances there are. You stand to make eight hundreddollars, and you can take it or leave it! If you take it you can havethe papers made out in town, deed and receipt and all, and I'll signthem. You can bring them to me at the Corners, or," with a little sneercreeping into his cool voice, "if you don't like the Corners, anywhereyou say. And you can have half a dozen witnesses if you like."

  "Why don't you ride with me into Dry Town?"

  "Because I don't want to! Because, if you agree to put this thing over,I'm going to be mighty busy getting my deal in shape here and on theother side of the line."

  "All right. I'll take the chance," Thornton said crisply, his voice ascool as Pollard's had been. "I'll raise the money and I'll get thepapers made out. I'll bring them to you at Hill's Corners on the morningof the twenty-fifth."

  He reined Comet about, turning again toward the range, and gave him hishead. Pollard watched him a moment, then swinging about upon his heel,went back toward the school house. Chase Harper's voice from within roseabove the fiddle and guitar, calling for the quadrille. Broderick cameforward to meet Pollard.

  "Well?" he asked quickly. "You made him your proposition?"

  "Yes."

  "What did he say?" Broderick's voice and eyes alike were eager.

  "He swallowed it whole," laughed Pollard.

  Broderick laughed with him, and then suddenly, the laughter going out ofhis voice, his hand shutting down tight upon Pollard's arm and drawinghim away further from the door, deeper into the shadows, his wordsalmost a whisper, he said:

  "He danced with Winifred. You saw that?"

  "Yes, damn him. That's what he came for. But I don't think that theysaid anything...."

  "Shut up, man! Don't you suppose I know what you mean? I don't know whatthey said. It's up to you to find out. He gave her something, a littleparcel done up in paper. I don't know what. That's up to you, too. And,what's more," and his voice grew harsh with the menace in it, "it's upto you that they don't see each other again! I don't think that any harmwas done tonight. He went away red-mad. When I stopped him at the doorfor a minute he hardly knew I was there. They didn't say a word to eachother the last half of their dance. She said something to him, and hereyes were on fire when she said it, like his when he went out; that putan end to their talk. They didn't even say good night."

  "I've got a notion to send her away," muttered Pollard sullenly. "It wasa fool idea to drag a woman into this."

  "Send her away ... now?" cried Broderick sharply. "You're the fool,Pollard. She's the best bit of evidence we've got. Keep her here, butfor God's sake, man, keep her close! And let's jam this thing through toa quick finish."

  "You're right, I suppose, Broderick." Pollard ran his hand across a wetforehead. "We've got to put the whole thing across in a hurry. Ten days,and we'll wind it up.... What's Cole Dalton doing?"

  "He's getting mighty hot under the collar," said Broderick grimly. "He'sgot to get somebody in his little old jail damn' soon, or he'll have abunch of wild men in his hair. And he knows it. Now we can get our cropplanted and things will be ripe for him to gather in in eleven days."

  "Let's go inside." Pollard turned toward the front door. "I want to
seeWinifred. I want to see how she looks before she gets through thinkingabout Thornton."

  And Winifred Waverly, who, after her stunned hesitation when she hadseen Thornton and Broderick standing side by side in the doorway, andwho had hurried out through the back door, hoping to find Thorntonbefore he had gone, got to her feet in the black shadow where she hadcrouched by the school house wall, her face dead white, her eyes wideand staring, her heart pounding wildly.