The U. P. Trail by Zane Grey (historical books to read TXT) 📗

“Reddy dear—where, oh, where is Neale?” she breathed, all her heart in her voice.

As he released her Allie felt a difference. His whole body seemed to gather, to harden, then vibrate, as if he had been stung.

“My Gawd!” he whispered in hoarse accents of amaze and horror. “Is it you—Allie—here?”

“Of course it’s I,” replied Allie, blankly.

His face turned white to the lips.

“Reddy, what in the world is wrong?” she gasped, beginning to wring her hands.

Suddenly he leaped at her. With rude, iron grasp he forced her back, under the light, and fixed piercing eyes upon hers. He bent closer. Allie was frightened, yet fascinated. His gaze hurt with its intensity, its strange, penetrating power. Allie could not bear it.

“Allie, look at me,” he said, low and hard. “For I reckon you mayn’t hev very long to live!”

Allie struggled weakly. He looked so gray, grim, and terrible. But she could resist neither his strength nor his spirit. She lay quiet and met the clear, strange fire of his eyes. In a few swift moments he had changed utterly.

“Larry—aren’t—you—drunk?” she faltered.

“I was, but now I’m sober.... Girl, kiss me again!”

In wonder and fear Allie complied, now flushing scarlet.

“I—I was never so happy,” she whispered. “But Larry—you—you frighten me.... I—”

“Happy!” ejaculated Larry. Then he let her go and stood up, breathing hard. “There’s a hell of a lie heah somewheres—but it ain’t in you.”

“Larry, talk sense. I’m weak from long waiting. Oh, tell me of Neale!”

What a strange, curious, incomprehensible glance he gave her!

“Allie—Neale’s heah in Benton. I can take you to him in ten minutes. Do you want me to?”

“Want you to!... Reddy! I’ll die if you don’t take me—at once!” she cried, in anguish.

Again Larry loomed over her. This time he took her hands. “How long had you been heah—before I came?” he asked.

“Half an hour, perhaps; maybe less. But it seemed long.”

“Do you—know—what kind of a house you’re in—this heah room—what it means?” he went on, very low and huskily.

“No, I don’t,” she replied, instantly, with sudden curiosity. Questions and explanations rushed to her lips. But this strangely acting Larry dominated her.

“No other man—came in heah? I—was the first?”

“Yes.”

Then Larry King seemed to wrestle with—himself—with the hold drink had upon him—with that dark and sinister oppression so thick in the room. Allie thrilled to see his face grow soft and light up with the smile she remembered. How strange to feel in Larry King a spirit of gladness, of gratefulness for something beyond her understanding! Again he drew her close. And Allie, keen to read and feel him, wondered why he seemed to want to hide the sight of his face.

“Wal—I reckon—I was nigh onto bein’ drunk,” he said, haltingly. “Shore is a bad habit of mine—Allie.... Makes me think of a lot of—guff—jest the same as it makes me see snakes—an’ things.... I’ll quit drinkin’, Allie.... Never will touch liquor again—now if you’ll jest forgive.”

He spoke gently, huskily, with tears in his voice, and he broke off completely.

“Forgive! Larry, boy, there’s nothing to forgive—except your not hurrying me to—to him!”

She felt the same violent start in him. He held her a moment longer. Then, when he let go of her and stepped back Allie saw the cowboy as of old, cool and easy, yet somehow menacing, as he had been that day the strangers rode into Slingerland’s camp.

“Allie—thet woman Stanton locked you in heah?” queried Larry.

“Yes. Then she—”

Larry’s quick gesture enjoined silence. Stealthy steps sounded out in the hall. They revived Allie’s fear of Durade and his men. It struck her suddenly that Larry must be ignorant of the circumstances that had placed her there.

The cowboy unlocked the door—peeped out. As he turned, how clear and cold his blue eyes flashed!

“I’ll get you out of heah,” he whispered. “Come.”

They went out. The passage was empty. Allie clung closely to him. At the corner, where the halls met, he halted to listen. Only the low hum of voices came up.

“Larry, I must tell you,” whispered Allie. “Durade and his gang are after me. Fresno—Mull—Black—Dayss—you know them?”

“I—reckon,” he replied, swallowing hard. “My Gawd! you poor little girl! With that gang after you! An’ Stanton! I see all now.... She says to me, ‘Larry, I’ve a new girl heah’.... Wal, Beauty Stanton, thet was a bad deal for you—damn your soul!”

Trembling, Allie opened her lips to speak, but again the cowboy motioned her to be quiet. He need not have done it, for he suddenly seemed terrible, wild, deadly, rendering her mute.

“Allie if I call to you, duck behind me an’ hold on to me. I’ll take you out of heah.”

Then he put her on his left side and led her down the righthand passage toward the wide room Allie remembered. She looked on into the dance-hall. Larry did not hurry. He sauntered carelessly, yet Allie felt how intense he was. They reached the head of the stairway. The room was full of men and girls. The woman Stanton was there and, wheeling, she uttered a cry that startled Allie. Was this white, glaring-eyed, drawn-faced woman the one who had gone for Neale? Allie began to shake. She saw and heard with startling distinctness. The woman’s cry had turned every face toward the stairway, and the buzz of voices ceased.

Stanton ran to the stairway, started up, and halted, raising a white arm in passionate gesture.

“Where are you taking that girl?” she called, stridently.

Larry stepped down, drawing Allie with him. “I’m takin’ her to Neale.”

Stanton shrieked and waved her arms. Indeed, she seemed another woman from the one upon whose breast Allie had laid her head just a little while before.

“No, you won’t take her to Neale!” cried Stanton.

The cowboy stepped down slowly, guardedly, but he kept on. Allie saw men run out of the crowded dance-hall into the open space behind Stanton. Dark, hateful, well-remembered faces of Fresno—Mull—Black! Allie pressed the cowboy’s arm to warn him, and he, letting go of her, appeared to motion her behind him.

“Stanton! Get out of my way!” yelled Larry. His voice rang with a wild, ruthless note; it carried far and