The Man of the Forest - Zane Grey (white hot kiss txt) 📗
- Author: Zane Grey
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“She gives me the creeps,” said Moze.
Wilson got up to resume his pondering walk, head bent, hands
behind his back, a grim, realistic figure of perturbation.
“Jim — set down. You make me nervous,” said Anson,
irritably.
Wilson actually laughed, but low, as if to keep his strange
mirth well confined.
“Snake, I’ll bet you my hoss an’ my gun ag’in’ a biscuit
thet in aboot six seconds more or less I’ll be stampedin
like them hosses.”
Anson’s lean jaw dropped. The other two outlaws stared with
round eyes. Wilson was not drunk, they evidently knew; but
what he really was appeared a mystery.
“Jim Wilson, are you showin’ yellow?” queried Anson,
hoarsely.
“Mebbe. The Lord only knows. But listen heah… . Snake,
you’ve seen an’ heard people croak?”
“You mean cash in — die?”
“Shore.”
“Wal, yes — a couple or so,” replied Anson, grimly.
“But you never seen no one die of shock — of an orful
scare?”
“No, I reckon I never did.”
“I have. An’ thet’s what’s ailin’ Jim Wilson,” and he
resumed his dogged steps.
Anson and his two comrades exchanged bewildered glances with
one another.
“A-huh! Say, what’s thet got to do with us hyar? asked
Anson, presently.
“Thet gurl is dyin’!” retorted Wilson, in a voice cracking
like a whip.
The three outlaws stiffened in their seats, incredulous, yet
irresistibly swayed by emotions that stirred to this dark,
lonely, ill-omened hour.
Wilson trudged to the edge of the lighted circle, muttering
to himself, and came back again; then he trudged farther,
this time almost out of sight, but only to return; the third
time he vanished in the impenetrable wall of light. The
three men scarcely moved a muscle as they watched the place
where he had disappeared. In a few moments he came stumbling
back.
“Shore she’s almost gone,” he said, dismally. “It took my
nerve, but I felt of her face… . Thet orful wail is her
breath chokin’ in her throat… . Like a death-rattle,
only long instead of short.”
“Wal, if she’s gotta croak it’s good she gits it over
quick,” replied Anson. “I ‘ain’t hed sleep fer three nights.
… An’ what I need is whisky.”
“Snake, thet’s gospel you’re spoutin’,” remarked Shady
Jones, morosely.
The direction of sound in the glen was difficult to be
assured of, but any man not stirred to a high pitch of
excitement could have told that the difference in volume of
this strange wail must have been caused by different
distances and positions. Also, when it was loudest, it was
most like a whine. But these outlaws heard with their
consciences.
At last it ceased abruptly.
Wilson again left the group to be swallowed up by the night.
His absence was longer than usual, but he returned
hurriedly.
“She’s daid!” he exclaimed, solemnly. “Thet innocent kid —
who never harmed no one — an’ who’d make any man better fer
seein’ her — she’s daid! … Anson, you’ve shore a heap
to answer fer when your time comes.”
“What’s eatin’ you?” demanded the leader, angrily. “Her
blood ain’t on my hands.”
“It shore is,” shouted Wilson, shaking his hand at Anson.
“An’ you’ll hev to take your medicine. I felt thet comin’
all along. An’ I feel some more.”
“Aw! She’s jest gone to sleep,” declared Anson, shaking his
long frame as he rose. “Gimme a light.”
“Boss, you’re plumb off to go near a dead gurl thet’s jest
died crazy,” protested Shady Jones.
“Off! Haw! Haw! Who ain’t off in this outfit, I’d like to
know?” Anson possessed himself of a stick blazing at one
and, and with this he stalked off toward the lean-to where
the girl was supposed to be dead. His gaunt figure, lighted
by the torch, certainly fitted the weird, black
surroundings. And it was seen that once near the girl’s
shelter he proceeded more slowly, until he halted. He bent
to peer inside.
“SHE’S GONE!” he yelled, in harsh, shaken accents.
Than the torch burned out, leaving only a red glow. He
whirled it about, but the blaze did not rekindle. His
comrades, peering intently, lost sight of his tall form and
the end of the red-ended stick. Darkness like pitch
swallowed him. For a moment no sound intervened. Again the
moan of wind, the strange little mocking hollow roar,
dominated the place. Then there came a rush of something,
perhaps of air, like the soft swishing of spruce branches
swinging aside. Dull, thudding footsteps followed it. Anson
came running back to the fire. His aspect was wild, his face
pale, his eyes were fierce and starting from their sockets.
He had drawn his gun.
“Did — ye — see er hear — anythin’?” he panted, peering
back, then all around, and at last at his man.
“No. An’ I shore was lookin’ an’ listenin’,” replied Wilson.
“Boss, there wasn’t nothin’,” declared Moze.
“I ain’t so sartin,” said Shady Jones, with doubtful,
staring eyes. “I believe I heerd a rustlin’.”
“She wasn’t there!” ejaculated Anson, in wondering awe.
“She’s gone! … My torch went out. I couldn’t see. An’
jest then I felt somethin’ was passin’. Fast! I jerked
‘round. All was black, an’ yet if I didn’t see a big gray
streak I’m crazier ‘n thet gurl. But I couldn’t swear to
anythin’ but a rushin’ of wind. I felt thet.”
“Gone!” exclaimed Wilson, in great alarm. “Fellars, if
thet’s so, then mebbe she wasn’t daid an’ she wandered off.
… But she was daid! Her heart hed quit beatin’. I’ll
swear to thet.”
“I move to break camp,” said Shady Jones, gruffly, and he
stood up. Moze seconded that move by an expressive flash of
his black visage.
“Jim, if she’s dead — an’ gone — what ‘n hell’s come off?”
huskily asked Anson. “It, only seems thet way. We’re all
worked up… . Let’s talk sense.”
“Anson, shore there’s a heap you an’ me don’t know,” replied
Wilson. “The world come to an end once. Wal, it can come to
another end… . I tell you I ain’t surprised —”
“THAR!” cried Anson, whirling, with his gun leaping out.
Something huge, shadowy, gray against the black rushed
behind the men and trees; and following it came a
perceptible acceleration of the air.
“Shore, Snake, there wasn’t nothin’,” said Wilson,
“presently.”
“I heerd,” whispered Shady Jones.
“It was only a breeze blowin’ thet smoke,” rejoined Moze.
“I’d bet my soul somethin’ went back of me,” declared Anson,
glaring into the void.
“Listen an’ let’s make shore,” suggested Wilson.
The guilty, agitated faces of the outlaws showed plain
enough in the flickering light for each to see a convicting
dread in his fellow. Like statues they stood, watching and
listening.
Few sounds stirred in the strange silence. Now and then the
horses heaved heavily, but stood still; a dismal, dreary
note of the wind in the pines vied with a hollow laugh of
the brook. And these low sounds only fastened attention upon
the quality of the silence. A breathing, lonely spirit of
solitude permeated the black dell. Like a pit of unplumbed
depths the dark night yawned. An evil conscience, listening
there, could have heard the most peaceful, beautiful, and
mournful sounds of nature only as strains of a calling hell.
Suddenly the silent, oppressive, surcharged air split to a
short, piercing scream.
Anson’s big horse stood up straight, pawing the air, and
came down with a crash. The other horses shook with terror.
“Wasn’t — thet — a cougar?” whispered Anson, thickly.
“Thet was a woman’s scream,” replied Wilson, and he appeared
to be shaking like a leaf in the wind.
“Then — I figgered right — the kid’s alive — wonderin’
around — an’ she let out thet orful scream,” said Anson.
“Wonderin’ ‘round, yes — but she’s daid!”
“My Gawd! it ain’t possible!”
“Wal, if she ain’t wonderin’ round daid she’s almost daid,”
replied Wilson. And he began to whisper to himself.
“If I’d only knowed what thet deal meant I’d hev plugged
Beasley instead of listenin’… . An’ I ought to hev
knocked thet kid on the head an’ made sartin she’d croaked.
If she goes screamin’ ‘round thet way —”
His voice failed as there rose a thin, splitting,
high-pointed shriek, somewhat resembling the first scream,
only less wild. It came apparently from the cliff.
From another point in the pitch-black glen rose the wailing,
terrible cry of a woman in agony. Wild, haunting, mournful
wail!
Anson’s horse, loosing the halter, plunged back, almost
falling over a slight depression in the rocky ground. The
outlaw caught him and dragged him nearer the fire. The other
horses stood shaking and straining. Moze ran between them
and held them. Shady Jones threw green brush on the fire.
With sputter and crackle a blaze started, showing Wilson
standing tragically, his arms out, facing the black shadows.
The strange, live shriek was not repeated. But the cry, like
that of a woman in her death-throes, pierced the silence
again. It left a quivering ring that softly died away. Then
the stillness clamped down once more and the darkness seemed
to thicken. The men waited, and when they had begun to relax
the cry burst out appallingly close, right behind the trees.
It was human — the personification of pain and terror —
the tremendous struggle of precious life against horrible
death. So pure, so exquisite, so wonderful was the cry that
the listeners writhed as if they saw an innocent, tender,
beautiful girl torn frightfully before their eyes. It was
full of suspense; it thrilled for death; its marvelous
potency was the wild note — that beautiful and ghastly note
of self-preservation.
In sheer desperation the outlaw leader fired his gun at the
black wall whence the cry came. Then he had to fight his
horse to keep him from plunging away. Following the shot was
an interval of silence; the horses became tractable; the men
gathered closer to the fire, with the halters still held
firmly.
“If it was a cougar — thet ‘d scare him off,” said Anson.
“Shore, but it ain’t a cougar,” replied Wilson. “Wait an’
see!”
They all waited, listening with ears turned to different
points, eyes roving everywhere, afraid of their very
shadows. Once more the moan of wind, the mockery of brook,
deep gurgle, laugh and babble, dominated the silence of the
glen.
“Boss, let’s shake this spooky hole,” whispered Moze.
The suggestion attracted Anson, and he pondered it while
slowly shaking his head.
“We’ve only three hosses. An’ mine ‘ll take ridin’ — after
them squalls,” replied the leader. “We’ve got packs, too.
An’ hell ‘ain’t nothin’ on this place fer bein’ dark.”
“No matter. Let’s go. I’ll walk an’ lead the way,” said
Moze, eagerly. “I got sharp eyes. You fellars can ride an’
carry a pack. We’ll git out of here an’ come back in
daylight fer the rest of the outfit.”
“Anson, I’m keen fer thet myself,” declared Shady Jones.
“Jim, what d’ye say to thet?” queried Anson. “Rustlin’ out
of this black hole?”
“Shore it’s a grand idee,” agreed Wilson.
“Thet was a cougar,” avowed Anson, gathering courage as the
silence remained unbroken. “But jest the same it was as
tough on me as if it hed been a woman screamin’ over a blade
twistin’ in her gizzards.”
“Snake, shore you seen a woman heah lately?” deliberately
asked Wilson.
“Reckon I did. Thet kid,” replied Anson, dubiously.
“Wal, you
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