'Drag' Harlan - Charles Alden Seltzer (best ebook for manga .TXT) š
- Author: Charles Alden Seltzer
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āNot havinā any thoughts, eh?ā he jeered. āThereās some guys that would rather do their fightinā with women, anā their thoughts wouldnāt sound right if they put words around them. I aināt detaininā you no longer. Any man who thinks itās time to call for a show-down can do his yappinā right now. Them thatās dead certain theyāre through can mosey along, takinā care not to try any monkey business!ā
He stood, watching, his wide gaze including them all, until, one after another the men in the group silently moved away. They did not go far. Some of them merely stepped into near-by doorways, others sauntered slowly down the street and halted at a little distance to look back.
But no man made a hostile move, for they had seen the tragedy in which Laskar had figured, and they had no desire to provoke Harlan to express again the cold wrath that slumbered in his eyes.
Meeder Lawson was the first of Devenyās intimates to leave the group. His face sullen, his eyes venomous, he walked across the street to the First Chance, and stood in the doorway, beside Balleau, who had been an interested onlooker.
Then Strom Rogers moved. He wheeled slowly, flashing an inquiring glance at Devenyāwho still stood motionless. Deveny had lowered his handsāthey were hanging at his sides, the right hand having the palm toward Harlan, giving eloquent testimony of its ownerās peaceable intentions.
Rogersā glance included the out-turned palm, and his lips curved in a faint smile. The smile held as his glance went to Harlanās face, and for an instant as the eyes of the two men met, appraisal was the emotion that ruled in them. Harlan detected in Rogersā eyes a grim scorn of Deveny, and a malignant satisfaction; Rogers saw in Harlanās eyes a thing that not one of the men who had faced the man had seenācold humor.
Then Rogers was walking away, leaving Deveny to face the man who had disrupted his plans.
Deveny had not changed his position, and for an instant following the departure of Rogers, there was no word spoken. Then for the first time since he had dismounted from Purgatory, Harlanās eyes lost their wide, inclusive vacuity. They met Devenyās fairly, with a steady, direct, boring intensity; a light in them that resembled the yellow flame that Deveny had once seen in the eyes of a Mexican jaguar some year before at a camp on the Neuces.
Deveny knew what the light in Harlanās eyes meant. It meant the presence of a wild, rending passion, of elemental impulses; it meant that the man who faced him was eager to kill him, was awaiting his slightest hostile movement. It meant more. The gleam in Harlanās eyes indicated that the man possessed that strange and almost uncanny instinct of thought reading, that he could detect in anotherās eyes a mental impulse before the otherās muscles could answer it. Also, it meant certain death to Deveny should he obey the half-formed determination to draw and shoot, that was in his mind at this instant.
He dropped his lids, attempting to veil the thought from Harlan. But when he again looked up it was to see Harlanās lips twisting into a cold smileāto see Harlan slowly sheathing the gun he had held in his right hand.
And now Harlan was standing before him, both weapons in their holsters. He and Deveny were facing each other upon a basis of equality. Harlan had disdained taking advantage.
Apparently, if Deveny now elected to draw and shoot, his chances were as good as Harlanās.
And yet Deveny knew they were not as good. For Harlanās action in sheathing his gun convinced Deveny that the man had divined his thoughts from the expression of his eyes before he had veiled them with the lids, and he was convinced that Harlan had sensed the chill of dread that had swept over him at that instant. He was sure of it when he heard Harlanās voice, low and taunting:
āYou waitinā for a show-down?ā
Deveny smiled, pallidly. āI donāt mind telling you that I did have a notion that way a moment ago. But I was afraid I might be a little slow. When you downed Laskar I watched you, trying to learn the secret of your draw. I didnāt learn it, because there is no secretāyouāre just a natural gunslinger without a flaw. Youāre the fastest man with a gun I ever sawāand Iām taking my hat off to you.ā
Harlan smiled faintly, but his eyes did not lose their alertness, nor did the flame in them cool visibly. Only his lips betrayed whatever emotion he felt. He distrusted Deveny, for he had seen the half-formed determination in the manās eyes, and his muscles were tensed in anticipation of a trick.
āYou didnāt stay here to tell me that. Get goinā with the real talk.ā
āThatās rightāI didnāt,ā said Deveny. He was cool, now, and bland, having recovered his poise.
āHiggins was watching Barbara Morgan at my orders. But I meant no harm to the girl. I knew she was in town, and I heard there were a few of the boys that were making plans about her. So I set Higgins to guard her. Naturally, she thought I meant harm to her.ā
āNaturally,ā said Harlan.
Deveny said coolly: āIāll admit I have a bad reputation. But it doesnāt run to women. Itās more in your line.ā He looked significantly at the other.
āMeaninā?ā
āOh, hellāyou know well enough what I mean. Youāre not such a law-abiding citizen, yourself. Iāve heard of youāoften. And Iāve admired you. To get right down to the pointāI could find a place where youād fit in just right. Weāre needing another manāa man of your general size and character.ā
Harlan grinned. āIām thankinā you. Anā I sure appreciate what youāve said. Youāve been likinā me so much that you tried to frame up on me about sendinā Lane Morgan out.ā
āThatās business,ā laughed Deveny. āYou were an unknown quantity, then.ā
āBut not nowāeh?ā returned Harlan, his eyes gleaming with a cold humor. āYouāve got me sized up right. The yappinā I done about stickinā to Barbara Morgan wasnāt the real goods, eh?ā
āCertainly not!ā laughed Deveny, āthere must be some selfish motive behind that.ā
āAnā you sure didnāt believe me?ā
āOf course not,ā chuckled Deveny, for he thought he saw a gleam of insincerity in Harlanās eyes.
āThen Iāve got to do my yappinā all over again,ā said Harlan. āNow get this straight. Iām stickinā to Barbara Morgan. Iām runninā the Rancho Seco from now on. Iām runninā it my way. Nobody is botherinā Barbara Morgan except them guys she wants to have bother her. That lets you out. Youāre a rank coyote, anā I donāt have no truck with you except at the business end of a gun. Now take your damned, sneakinā grin over anā wet it down, or Iāll blow you apart!ā
Devenyās face changed color. It became bloated with a poisonous wrath, his eyes gleamed evilly and his muscles tensed. He stood, straining against the murder lust that had seized him, almost persuaded to take the slender chance of beating Harlan to his weapon.
āYou got notions, eh?ā he heard Harlan say, jeeringly. āWell, donāt spoil āem. Iād admire to make you feel like youād ought to have got started a week ago.ā
Deveny smiled with hideous mirthlessness. But he again caught the flame in Harlanās eyes. He wheeled, saying nothing more, and walked across the street without looking back.
Smiles followed him; several men commented humorously, and almost immediately, knowing that this last crisis had passed, Lamoās citizens resumed their interrupted pleasures.
Harlan stood motionless until Deveny vanished into the First Chance, then he turned quickly and entered the sheriffās office.
Half an hour later, with Barbara Morgan, on āBillyāāa piebald pintoāriding beside him, Harlan loped Purgatory out of Lamo. They took a trailāfaint and narrowāthat led southward, for Barbara had said that the Rancho Seco lay in that direction.
Harlan had not seen Deveny or Rogers or Lawson after the scene in front of the sheriffās office. He had talked for some time with Gage, waiting until Barbara Morgan recovered slightly from the shock she had suffered. Then when he had told her that he intended to accompany her to the Rancho Secoāand she had offered no objectionāhe had gone on a quest for her pony, finding him in the stable in the rear of the Eating-House.
So far as Harlan knew, no one in Lamo besides Sheriff Gage had watched the departure of himself and Barbara. And there had been no word spoken between the two as they rode awayāLamo becoming at last an almost invisible dot in the great yawning space they left behind them.
Barbara felt a curious unconcern for what was happening; her brain was in a state of dull apathy, resulting from shock and the period of dread under which she had lived for more than a day and a night.
She did not seem to care what happened to her. She knew, to be sure, that she was riding toward the Rancho Seco with a man whom she had heard called an outlaw by other men; she was aware that she must be risking something by accepting his escortāand yet she could not bring herself to feel that dread fear that she knew any young woman in her position should feel.
It seemed to her that nothing mattered nowāvery much. Her father was deadāmurdered by some menātwo of whom had been punished by death, and anotherāa mysterious person called the āChiefāāwho would be killed as soon as she could find him. That resolution was deeply fixed in her mind.
Her gaze though, after a while, went to Harlan, and for many miles she studied him without his suspecting. And gradually she began to think about him, to wonder why he had protected her from the man, Higgins, and why he was going with her to the Rancho Seco.
She providedāafter a whileāan answer to her first question: He had protected her because she had run into his arms in her effort to escape the clutches of the man who had pursued herāHiggins. She remembered that while she had been at the window, watching Harlan when he had dismounted in front of the sheriffās office, he had seemed to make a favorable impression upon her.
That was the reason, when she had seen him before her in the street, after he had shot Laskar, she had selected him as a protector. That had seemed to be the logical thing to do, for he had arrayed himself against her enemies in killing Laskar, and it was reasonable to supposeāconceding Laskar and Higgins were leagued with Devenyāthat Harlan would protect her.
It all seemed exceedingly natural, that far. It was when she began to wonder why Harlan was with her now that an element of mystery seemed to rule. And she was puzzled.
She began to speculate over Harlan, and her mental efforts in that direction banished the somber thoughts that had almost overwhelmed her after the discovery of her fatherās death. Yet they had ridden more than ten miles before she spoke.
āWhat made you decide to ride with me to the Rancho Seco?ā she demanded sharply.
Harlan flashed a grin at her. He was riding a little in advance of her, and he had to turn in the saddle to see her face.
āI was headinā that way, anā wanted company. It sure gets lonesome ridinā alone.ā
She caught her breath at this answer, for it seemed that he had not revealed the real reason. And she had got her first good look at his face. It was lean and strong. His eyes were deep-set and rimmed by
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