'Drag' Harlan - Charles Alden Seltzer (best ebook for manga .TXT) š
- Author: Charles Alden Seltzer
- Performer: -
Book online Ā«'Drag' Harlan - Charles Alden Seltzer (best ebook for manga .TXT) šĀ». Author Charles Alden Seltzer
Even when the driver was confronted by Harlan in the flesh he was doubtful, surrendering grudgingly, as though half convinced that Harlan had been able to transport himself over the distance from Dry Bottom to Pardo by some magic not mentioned.
So it had gone. But the terrible record of evil deeds attributed to Harlan had not affected him greatly. In the beginningāwhen he had killed the Taos bullyāhe had been reluctant to take life; and he had avoided, as much as possible, company in which he would be forced to kill to protect himself.
And through it all he had been able to maintain his poise, his self-control. The reputation he had achieved would have ruined some menāwould have filled them with an ambition to fulfil the specifications of the mythical terror men thought him. There was a danger there; Harlan had felt it. There was a certain satisfaction in being pointed out as a man with whom other men dared not trifle; respect of a fearsome equality was granted himāhe had seen it in the eyes of men, as he had seen an awed adulation in the eyes of women.
He had felt them allāall the emotions that a real desperado could feel. He had experienced the impulse to swagger, to poseāreally to live the part that his ill-fame had given him.
But he had resisted those impulses; and the glow in his eyes when in the presence of men who feared him was not the passion to kill, but a humorous contempt of all men who abased themselves before him.
On the night he had been with Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo, he had listened with steady interest to a story told him by the latter. It concerned the Lamo region and the great basin at which he and Barbara Morgan had been looking when the girl had accused him of a lack of poetic feeling.
āIāve heard reports about Sunset Valley,ā Hallowell had said, squinting his eyes at Harlan. āIāve met Sheriff Gage two or three times, anā heās had somethinā to say about it. Accordinā to Gage, everything aināt on the surface over there; thereās somethinā behind all that robbinā anā stealinā thatās goinā on. Thereās somethinā big, but itās hidāanā no man aināt ever been able to find out what it is. But itās somethinā.
āIn the first place, Devenyās gang aināt never been heard of as pullinā off anything anywheres else but in Sunset Valley. As for that, thereās plenty of room in the valley for them without gettinā out of it. But it seems theyād get out once in a while. They donātāthey stay right in the valley, or close around it. Seems to me theyāve got a grudge agāinā them Sunset Valley ranchers, anā are workinā it off.
āWhy? That question has got Gage guessinā. Itās got everybody guessinā. Stock is beinā run off in big bunches; men is beinā murdered without no cause; no man is able to get any money in or out of the valleyāanā theyāre doinā other things that is makinā the cattlemen feel nervous anā flighty.
āTheyāve scared one man outāa Pole named Launskiāfrom the far end. He pulled stakes anā hit the breeze runninā sellinā out for a song to a guy named Haydon. I seen Launski when he clumb on the Lamo stage, headinā this way, anā he sure was a heap relieved to get out with a whole skin.ā
Hallowell talked long, and the mystery that seemed to surround Sunset Valley appealed to Harlanās imagination. Yet he did not reveal his interest to Hallowell until the latter mentioned Barbara Morgan. Then his eyes glowed, and he leaned closer to the marshal.
And when Hallowell remarked that Lane Morgan, of the Rancho Seco had declared he would give half his ranch to a trustworthy man who could be depended upon to āwork his gunsā in the interest of the Morgan family, the slow tensing of Harlanās muscles might have betrayed the manās emotionsāfor Hallowell grinned faintly.
Hallowell had said more. But he did not say that word had come to him from Sheriff Gageāan appeal, ratherāto the effect that Morgan had sent to him for such a man, and that Gage had transmitted the appeal to Hallowell. Hallowell thought he knew Harlan, and he was convinced that if he told Harlan flatly that Morgan wanted to employ him for that definite purpose, Harlan would refuse.
And so Hallowell had gone about his work obliquely. He knew Harlan more intimately than he knew any other man in the country; and he was aware that the chivalric impulse was stronger in Harlan than in any man he knew.
And he was aware, too, that Harlan was scrupulously honest and square, despite the evil structure which had been built around him by rumor. He had watched Harlan for years, and knew him for exactly what he wasāan imaginative, reckless, impulsive spirit who faced danger with the steady, unwavering eye of complete unconcern.
As Hallowell had talked of the Rancho Seco he had seen Harlanās eyes gleam; seen his lips curve with a faint smile in which there was a hint of waywardness. And so Hallowell knew he had scattered his words on fertile mental soil.
And yet Harlan would not have taken the trail that led to the Rancho Seco had not the killing of his friend, Davey Langan, followed closely upon the story related to him by the marshal.
Harlan had ridden eastward, to Lazetteāa matter of two hundred milesātrailing a herd of cattle from the T Downāthe ranch where he and Langan were employed.
When he returned he heard the story of the killing of his friend by Dolver and another man, not identified, but who rode a horse branded with the L Bar Māwhich was the Rancho Seco brand.
It was Hallowell who broke the news of the murder to Harlan, together with the story of his pursuit of Dolver and the other man, and of his failure to capture them.
There was no thought of romance in Harlanās mind when he mounted Purgatory to take up Dolverās trail; and when he came upon Dolver at Sentinel Rockāand later, until he had talked with Lane Morganāhe had no thought of offering himself to Morgan, to become that trustworthy man who would āwork his gunsā for the Rancho Seco owner.
But after he had questioned Laskarāand had felt that Laskar was not the accomplice of Dolver in the murder of Langanāhe had determined to go to the ranch, and had told Morgan of his determination.
Now, sitting on the threshold of the Rancho Seco bunkhouse, he realized that his talk with Morgan had brought him here in a different rƓle than he had anticipated.
From where he sat he had a good view of all the buildingsālow, flat-roofed adobe structures, scattered on the big level with no regard for system, apparentlyāerected as the needs of a growing ranch required. Yet all were well kept and substantial, indicating that Lane Morgan had been a man who believed in neatness and permanency.
The ranchhouse was the largest of the buildings. It was two stories high on the side fronting the slope that led to the river, and another sectionāin what appeared to be the rear, facing the bunkhouse, also had a second storyāa narrow, boxlike, frowning section which had the appearance of a blockhouse on the parapet wall of a fort.
And that, Harlan divined, was just what it had been built forāfor defensive purposes. For the entire structure bore the appearance of age, and the style of its architecture was an imitation of the Spanish type. It was evident that Lane Morgan had considered the warlike instincts of wandering bands of Apache Indians when he had built his house.
The walls connecting the fortlike section in the rear with the two-story front were about ten feet in height, with few windows; and the entire structure was built in a huge square, with an inner court, or patio, reached by an entrance that penetrated the lower center of the two-story section in front.
Harlanās interest centered heavily upon the ranchhouse, for it was there that Barbara Morgan had hidden herself, fearing him.
She had entered a door that opened in the wall directly beneath the fortlike second story, and it was upon this door that Harlanās gaze was fixed. He smiled wryly, for sight of the door brought Barbara into his thoughtsāthough he was not sure she had been out of them since the first instant of his meeting with her in Lamo.
āTheyāve been tellinā her them damn stories about me beinā a hell-raiserāanā she believes āem,ā he mused. And then his smile faded. āAn she aināt none reassured by my mug.ā
But it was upon the incident of his meeting with Barbara, and the odd coincidence of his coming upon her father at Sentinel Rock, that his thoughts dwelt longest.
It was oddāthat meeting at Sentinel Rock. And yet not so odd, either, considering everything.
For he had been coming to the Rancho Seco. Before he had reached Sentinel Rock he had been determined to begin his campaign against the outlaws at the Rancho Seco. It was his plan to ask Morgan for a job, and to spend as much of his time as possible in getting information about Deveny and his men, in the hope of learning the identity of the man who had assisted in the murder of Langan.
What was odd about the incident was that Morgan should attempt to cross to Pardo to have his gold assayed at just about the time Harlan had decided to begin his trip to the Rancho Seco.
Harlan smiled as his gaze rested on the ranchhouse. He was glad he had met Lane Morgan; he was glad he had headed straight for Lamo after leaving Morgan. For by going straight to Lamo he had been able to balk Devenyās evil intentions toward the girl who, in the house now, was so terribly afraid of him.
He had told Morgan why he was headed toward the Rancho Seco section, but he had communicated to Morgan that information only because he had wanted to cheer the man in his last moments. That was what had made Morganās face light up as his life had ebbed away. And Harlanās eyes glowed now with the recollection.
āThe damned cussāhow he did brighten up!ā he mused. āHe sure was a heap tickled to know that the deck wasnāt all filled with dirty deuces.ā
And then Harlanās thoughts went again to Lamo, and to the picture Barbara had made running toward him. It seemed to him that he could still feel her in his arms, and a great regret that she distrusted him assailed him.
He had sat for a long time on the threshold of the bunkhouse door, and after a time he noted that the moon was swimming high, almost overhead. He got up, unhurriedly, and again walked to the stable door, looking in at Purgatory. For Harlan did not intend to sleep tonight; he had resolved, since the Rancho Seco seemed to be deserted except for his and Barbaraās presence, to guard the ranchhouse.
For he knew that the passions of Deveny for the girl were thoroughly aroused. He had seen in Devenyās eyes there in Lamo a flameāwhen Deveny looked at Barbaraāthat told him more about the manās passions than Deveny himself suspected. He grinned coldly as he leaned easily against the stable door; for men of the Deveny type always aroused himātheir personality had always seemed to strike discord into his soul; had always fanned into flame the smoldering hatred he had of such men; had always
Comments (0)