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For her father had told her about Lamo's men how they were slaves to the will of the man whose deeds of outlawry had made him feared wherever men congregated; and she knew Lamo itself was a sink-hole of iniquity where women were swallowed by the evil passions of men. She might have appealed to Gage, the sheriff, and she thought of Gage while she sat at the window.
The magnetism of him; the arrogance, glossed over with the calm and cold politeness of his manner; his unvarying immaculateness; the air of large and complete confidence which marked his every action; the swiftness with which he struck when he was aroused, or when his authority was questioned, placed him without dissent at the head of the element that ruled the Lamo country.
That talk of yourn about Lane Morgan makin' you manager was straight goods. I know Dolver an' Laskar an' the guy they call 'Chief' plugged Morgan for I heard Stroud an' some more of them talkin' about it. An' I heard that you got Dolver an' Laskar, an' kept Deveny from grabbin' off Barbara Morgan, over in Lamo. But I thought you was playin' for Barbara, too an' I wasn't figurin' on lettin' you."
For an instant it seemed that the other man was to share the fate of the first. The man seemed to think so, too, for he got up trembling, his hands outstretched along the rock, the fingers outspread and twitching from the paralysis of fear that had seized him. "Shoot your gab off quick!" commanded the rider. "Who are you?" "I'm Laskar," the man muttered. "Where you from?" "Lamo."
If you'd have been good over in Lamo, the day that damned Harlan came, this wouldn't have happened. I'd sent for a parson, an' I intended to give you a square deal. But now it's different. Then I was scared of running foul of Haydon I didn't want to make trouble. But I'm running my own game now Haydon and me have agreed to call it quits. Me not liking the idea of Haydon adopting Harlan."
A dozen of the twenty, for one reason or another, need receive no further mention. Of the remaining few, one was occupied by Sheriff Gage; two others by stores; one answered as an office and storage-room for the stage company; and still another was distinguished by a crude sign which ran across its weather-beaten front, bearing the legend: "Lamo Eating-House." The others were private residences.
It had been a slight incident that had suggested the plan to him merely a glance at Strom Rogers, while the latter, in Lamo, had been watching Deveny. Harlan had seen hatred in Rogers' face, and contempt and jealousy; and he knew that where such passion existed it could be made to grow and flourish by suggestion and by example. And he was determined to furnish the example.
Lamo wouldn't please me none if I was to find you there when I ride in. You slope, now an' keep on hittin' the breeze until there ain't no more of it. I'd blow you apart if this man Morgan was anything to me. But it ain't my game unless I see you again." He watched until Laskar, still holding his chest, walked to where the two horses were concealed, and mounted one of them.
Harlan laughed lowly. "Things don't always shape up the way a man thinks they will, Red. I started for Lamo, figurin' to salivate Dolver an' the other guy who killed Davey Langan. I got Dolver at Sentinel Rock, an' I figured I'd be likely to run into the other guy somewheres mebbe findin' him in Deveny's gang. But runnin' into Lane Morgan sort of changed the deal.
It seemed to her that they would mock her as the slattern had mocked her, should she appeal to them. And as for the men of Lamo, they were not to be considered. She was certain she could not induce one of them to act contrary to Deveny's wishes.
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