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I'm givin' you a chance to take it like a man standin', with your face to me. Lift her now damn you!" There was no change in his expression as he watched the man he had called Dolver. There came no change in the cold, steady gleam of his eyes as he saw the man stiffen and swing the muzzle of his pistol upward with a quick, jerky motion.
Death was in front of him; he knew it. Death or a deathless fame. The fates had willed one or the other, and he chose to take the gambler's chance, the chance he and Dolver and the Chief had refused Lane Morgan. Deathless fame, the respect and the admiration of every man in the section was his if he beat "Drag" Harlan to the draw.
"Day before yesterday Dolver an' me meets up in Lamo, an' Dolver asks me to help him give Morgan his pass-out checks on the ride over to Pardo which Morgan's intendin' to make. I ain't got any love for Morgan, an' so I took Dolver up." "You're a liar!" Harlan's fingers were sinking into Laskar's shoulder again, and once more the man screamed with pain and impotent fury. "I swear " began Laskar.
Morgan rode a bay an' the Chief run it off after he shot Morgan. But Morgan didn't die right away, an' the Chief he had to slope, he said an' he did leavin' me an' Dolver to finish old Morgan. "We was tryin' our damnedest when this guy on the black horse pops up out of nowhere an' salivates Dolver." "Who was it?" This was Deveny.
If I'd been an inch nearer, or if he'd have kicked me a foot lower, or a foot higher, I'd be layin' out there where Dolver is now, the coyotes an' the buzzards gnawin' at me." Unmoved by Laskar's incoherence, Deveny calmly watched him. And now, when Laskar paused for breath, Deveny spoke slowly: "A black horse, you said. How did a black horse get there?
I ain't no angel, but when I down a man I do it fair an' square givin' him his chance. I sent that sneak Dolver out an' that coyote Laskar. It was a dirty, rotten deal, the way they framed up on Morgan. It's irritated me I reckon you can hear my rattles right now. I'm stayin' in Lamo, an' I'm stickin' by this Barbara girl until you guys learn to walk straight up, like men!"
He laughed as the other cringed, his face dead white, his eyes fixed on the rider with a sort of dread fascination. "Dolver, didn't you know when you got my little partner, Davey Langan, that I'd be comin' for you?" said the rider in a slow, drawling whisper. "In the back you got him, not givin' him a chance. You're gettin' yours now.
"Harlan," he said softly, "some of the boys feel a little resentful over the way you sent Dolver and Laskar out. There are several friends of those two men outside now. Suppose I should call them in and tell them that the bars are down on you eh?" If Haydon expected his threat to intimidate Harlan, he was mistaken. Harlan sat, motionless, watching the outlaw chief steadily.
And for a moment he spoke hurriedly, as though fearful he would not be given time to say what he wanted to say: "Someone plugged me last night while I was sleepin'. Shot me in the chest here. Didn't give me no chance. There was three of them. My fire had gone out an' I couldn't see their faces. Likely Laskar an' Dolver was two. The other one must have sloped. It was him shot me.
"You said Harlan told you he was coming here as soon as Morgan cashed in. According to that, Morgan must have been hit bad." "The Chief said he bored him plenty. An' me an' Dolver must have got him some." "You didn't get a chance to search Morgan?" "No chance he fit like a hyena; an' when he got behind that damned rock there was no way of gettin' at him."
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