The Greatest Adventure Books - MacLeod Raine Edition. William MacLeod Raine

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СКАЧАТЬ damage. He was at the haid of the line, and it happens he is a dead shot. He is liable to rages, when he acts like a crazy man. He got one now. Before we could put a stopper on him, he had killed Campeau and Jennings, and wounded the herders. The whole thing was done before you could wink an eye six times. For just about that long we stood there like roped calves. Then we downed the man in his tracks, slammed him with the butt of a revolver.”

      Howard stopped and looked at the ranger before he spoke again. His voice was rough and hoarse.

      “Steve, I’ve seen men killed before, but I never saw anything so awful as that. It was just like they had been struck by lightning for suddenness. There was that devil scattering death among them and the poor fellows crumpling up like rabbits. I tell you every time I think of it the thing makes me sick.”

      The ranger nodded. He understood. The picture rose before him of a man in a Berserk rage, stark mad for the moment, playing Destiny on that lonely, moonlit hill. The face his instinct fitted to the irresponsible murderer was that of Jed Briscoe. Somehow he was sure of that, beyond the shadow of a doubt. His imagination conceived that long ride back across the hills, the deep agonies of silence, the fierce moments of vindictive accusation. No doubt for long the tug of conscience was with them in all their waking hours, for these men were mostly simple-minded cattlemen caught in the web of evil chance.

      “That’s how it was, Steve. In as long as it takes to empty a Winchester, we were every one of us guilty of a murder we’d each have given a laig to have stopped. We were all in it, all tied together, because we had broke the law to go raiding in the first place. Technically, the man that emptied that rifle wasn’t any more guilty than us poor wretches that stood frozen there while he did it. Put it that we might shave the gallows, even then the penitentiary would bury us. There was only one thing to do. We agreed to stand together, and keep mum.”

      “Is that why you’re telling me, Alec?” Fraser smiled.

      “We ain’t telling you, not legally,” the cow-puncher answered coolly. “If you was ever to say we had, Dick and me would deny it. But we ain’t worrying any about you telling it. You’re a clam, and we know it. No, we’re telling you, son, because we want you to know about how it was. The boys didn’t ride out to do murder. They rode out simply to drive the sheep off their range.”

      The Texan nodded. “That’s about how I figured it. I’m glad you told me, boys. I reckon I don’t need to tell you I’m padlocked in regard to this.”

      Arlie came to the door and looked in. “It’s time you boys were going. Doc said a half hour.”

      “All right, Arlie,” responded Dick. “So-long, Steve. Be good, you old pie eater.”

      After they had gone, the Texan lay silent for a long time. He understood perfectly their motive in telling him the story. They had not compromised themselves legally, since a denial would have given them two to one in the matter of witnesses. But they wished him to see that, morally, every man but one who rode on that raid was guiltless of the Squaw Creek murders.

      Arlie came in presently, and sat down near the window with some embroidery.

      “Did the boys tire you?” she asked, noting his unusual silence.

      “No. I was thinking about what they told me. They were giving me the inside facts of the Squaw Creek raid.”

      She looked up in surprise. “They were?” A little smile began to dimple the corners of her mouth. “That’s funny, because they had just got through forgiving me for what I told you.”

      “What they told me was how the shooting occurred.”

      “I don’t know anything about that. When I told you their names I was only telling what I had heard people whisper. That’s all I knew.”

      “You’ve been troubled because your friends were in this, haven’t you? You hated to think it of them, didn’t you?” he asked.

      “Yes. It has troubled me a lot.”

      “Don’t let it trouble you any more. One man was responsible for all the bloodshed. He went mad and saw red for half a minute. Before the rest could stop him, the slaughter was done. The other boys aren’t guilty of that, any more than you or I.”

      “Oh, I’m glad—I’m glad,” she cried softly. Then, looking up quickly to him: “Who was the man?” she asked.

      “I don’t know. It is better that neither of us should know that.”

      “I’m glad the boys told you. It shows they trust you.”

      “They figure me out a white man,” he answered carelessly.

      “Ah! That’s where I made my mistake.” She looked at him bravely, though the color began to beat into her cheeks beneath the dusky tan. “Yet I knew it all the time—in my heart. At least, after I had given myself time to think it over. I knew you couldn’t be that. If I had given you time to explain—but I always think too late.”

      His eyes, usually so clear and steely, softened at her words. “I’m satisfied if you knew—in your heart.”

      “I meant——” she began, with a flush.

      “Now, don’t spoil it, please,” he begged.

      Under his steady, half-smiling gaze, her eyes fell. Two weeks ago she had been a splendid young creature, as untaught of life as one of the wild forest animals and as unconsciously eager for it. But there had come a change over her, a birth of womanhood from that night when she had stood between Stephen Fraser and death. No doubt she would often regret it, but she had begun to live more deeply. She could never go back to the care-free days when she could look all men in the face with candid, girlish eyes. The time had come to her, as it must to all sensitive of life, when she must drink of it, whether she would or no.

      “Because I’d rather you would know it in your heart than in your mind,” he said.

      Something sweet and terrifying, with the tingle and warmth of rare wine in it, began to glow in her veins. Eyes shy, eager, frightened, met his for an instant. Then she remembered the other girl. Something hard as steel ran through her. She turned on her heel and left the room.

      Chapter XV.

       The Texan Pays a Visit

       Table of Contents

      From that day Fraser had a new nurse. Arlie disappeared, and her aunt replaced her a few hours later and took charge of the patient. Steve took her desertion as an irritable convalescent does, but he did not let his disappointment make him unpleasant to Miss Ruth Dillon.

      “I’m a chump,” he told himself, with deep disgust. “Hadn’t any more sense than to go scaring off the little girl by handing out a line of talk she ain’t used to. I reckon now she’s done with me proper.”

      He continued to improve so rapidly that within the prescribed two weeks he was on horseback again, though still a little weak and washed out. His first ride of any length was to the Dillon ranch. Siegfried accompanied him, and across the Norwegian’s saddle lay a very business-like rifle.

      As they СКАЧАТЬ