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

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СКАЧАТЬ way that one had lost and the other had won the coveted championship. They had made no vows and no professions. The subject had not even been touched in words; a meeting of the eyes, followed by the handshake with which Bannister had congratulated the winner. That had been all. But it was enough.

      With the casual democracy of the frontier they had together escorted Helen Messiter and Nora Darling through a riotous three hours of carnival, taking care to get them back to their hotel before the night really began “to howl.”

      But after they had left the young women, neither of them cared to sleep yet. They were still in costume, Mac dressed as a monk, and his friend as a Stuart cavalier, and the spirit of frolic was yet strong in them.

      “I expaict, mebbe, we better hunt in couples if we're going to help paint the town,” smiled Mac, and his friend had immediately agreed.

      It must have been well after midnight that they found themselves “bucking the tiger” in a combination saloon and gambling-house, whose patrons were decidedly cosmopolitan in character. Here white and red and yellow men played side by side, the Orient and the Occident and the aboriginal alike intent on the falling cards and the little rolling ball. A good many of them were still in their masks and dominos, though these, for the most part, removed their vizors before playing.

      Neither McWilliams nor his friend were betting high, and the luck had been so even that at the end of two hours' play neither of them had at any time either won or lost more than fifteen dollars. In point of fact, they were playing not so much to win as just to keep in touch with the gay, youthful humor of the night.

      They were getting tired of the game when two men jingled in for a drink. They were talking loudly together, and it was impossible to miss the subject of their conversation.

      McWilliams gave a little jerk of his head toward one of them. “Judd Morgan,” his lips framed without making a sound.

      Bannister nodded.

      “Been tanking up all day,” Mac added. “Otherwise his tongue would not be shooting off so reckless.”

      A silence had fallen over the assembly save for the braggarts at the bar. Men looked at each other, and then furtively at Bannister. For Morgan, ignorant of who was sitting quietly with his back to him at the faro-table, was venting his hate of Bannister and McWilliams.

      “Both in the same boat. Did y'u see how Mac ran to help him to-day? Both waddies. Both rustlers. Both train robbers. Sho! I got through putting a padlock on me mouth. Man to man, I'm as good as either of them—damn sight better. I wisht they was here, one or both; I wisht they would step up here and fight it out. Bannister's a false alarm, and that foreman of the Lazy D—” His tongue stumbled over a blur of vilification that ended with a foul mention of Miss Messiter.

      Instantly two chairs crashed to the floor. Two pair of gray eyes met quietly.

      “My quarrel, Bann,” said Jim, in a low, even voice.

      The other nodded. “I'll see y'u have a clear field.”

      The man who was with Morgan suddenly whispered in his ear, and the latter slewed his head in startled fear. Almost instantly a bullet clipped past McWilliams's shoulder. Morgan had fired without waiting for the challenge he felt sure was at hand. Once—twice the foreman's revolver made answer. Morgan staggered, slipped down to the floor, a bullet crashing through the chandelier as he fell. For a moment his body jerked. Then he rolled over and lay still.

      The foreman's weapon covered him unwaveringly, but no more steadily than Bannister's gaze the man who had come in with him who lay lifeless on the floor. The man looked at the lifeless thing, shuddered, and backed out of the saloon.

      “I call y'u all to witness that my friend killed him in self-defense,” said Bannister evenly. “Y'u all saw him fire first. Mac did not even have his gun out.”

      “That's right,” agreed one, and another added: “He got what was coming to him.”

      “He sure did,” was the barkeeper's indorsement. “He came in hunting trouble, but I reckon he didn't want to be accommodated so prompt.”

      “Y'u'll find us at the Gimlet Butte House if we're wanted for this,” said Bannister. “We'll be there till morning.”

      But once out of the gambling-house McWilliams drew his friend to one side. “Do y'u know who that was I killed?”

      “Judd Morgan, foreman before y'u at the Lazy D.”

      “Yes, but what else?”

      “What do y'u mean?”

      “I mean that next to your cousin Judd was leader of that Shoshone-Teton bunch.”

      “How do y'u know?”

      “I suspected it a long time, but I knew for sure the day that your cousin held up the ranch. The man that was in charge of the crowd outside was Morgan. I could swear to it. I knew him soon as I clapped eyes to him, but I was awful careful to forget to tell him I recognized him.”

      “That means we are in more serious trouble than I had supposed.”

      “Y'u bet it does. We're in a hell of a hole, figure it out any way y'u like. Instead of having shot up a casual idiot, I've killed Ned Bannister's right-hand man. That will be the excuse—shooting Morgan. But the real trouble is that I won the championship belt from your cousin. He already hated y'u like poison, and he don't love me any too hard. He will have us arrested by his sheriff here. Catch the point. Y'U'RE NED BANNISTER, THE OUTLAW, AND I'M HIS RIGHT-BOWER. That's the play he's going to make, and he's going to make it right soon.”

      “I don't care if he does. We'll fight him on his own ground. We'll prove that he's the miscreant and not us.”

      “Prove nothing,” snarled McWilliams. “Do y'u reckon he'll give us a chance to prove a thing? Not on your life. He'll have us jailed first thing; then he'll stir up a sentiment against us, and before morning there will be a lynchingbee, and y'u and I will wear the neckties. How do y'u like the looks of it?”

      “But y'u have a lot of friends. They won't stand for anything like that.”

      “Not if they had time to stop it. Trouble is, fellow's friends think awful slow. They'll arrive in time to cut us down and be the mourners. No, sir! It's a hike for Jimmie Mac on the back of the first bronc he can slap a saddle on.”

      Bannister frowned. “I don't like to run before the scurvy scoundrels.”

      “Do y'u suppose I'm enjoying it? Not to any extent, I allow. But that sweet relative of yours holds every ace in the deck, and he'll play them, too. He owns the law in this man's town, and he owns the lawless. But the best card he holds is that he can get a thousand of the best people here to join him in hanging the 'king' of the Shoshone outlaws. Explanations nothing! Y'u rode under the name of Bannister, didn't y'u? He's Jack Holloway.”

      “It does make a strong combination,” admitted the sheepman.

      “Strong! It's invincible. I can see him playing it, laughing up his sleeve all the time at the honest fools he is working. No, sir! I draw out of a game like that. Y'u don't get a run for your money.”

      “Of course he knows already what has happened,” mused Bannister.

      “Sure СКАЧАТЬ