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"I've got a hunch that hell's a-goin' to pop right sudden, boys," he told them. "An' we're goin' away from it. If there's any trouble we want to be in on it. Deveny's up to somethin'. You-all know about the agreement made between Haydon an' Harlan that Harlan was to run the Rancho Seco without interference. Deveny's headed that way, an' Haydon ain't around.
And for an instant as their eyes met Harlan's level and cold, Deveny's aflame with a hostility unmistakable the crowd which had witnessed the shooting of Laskar again became motionless, while a silence, portending further violence, descended over the street. Then Deveny abruptly wheeled and began to walk across to the First Chance.
"I wouldn't lie to you now Morgan," he said; "I'm goin' to the Lamo country to bust up Deveny's gang."
Deveny ruled, but Deveny's rule was irksome to Strom Rogers the man to whom Deveny had just spoken. For while Deveny drank, Rogers watched him with covert vigilance, with a jeering gleam far back in his eyes, with a secret envy and jealousy, with hatred and contempt and mockery. Yet there was fear in Rogers' eyes, too a mere glimmer of it.
Rogers wheeled his horse and watched the horsemen as they traveled eastward, making good time. He called to a man, named Colver, who was riding close to him. "Them's Deveny's men from the Cache. What in blazes are they up to? Somethin's in the wind, Colver they're ridin' like the devil was after them an' burnin' the breeze for fair!"
She did not know what put the thought into her mind, but as she stood there watching the men she repeated mentally over and over the words: "If I stay." Why should she stay? She answered the question by stealing toward Deveny's horse. When she reached the animal she paused, glancing apprehensively at the men, her breathing suspended hoping, dreading, her nerves and muscles taut.
Deveny's face changed color. It became bloated with a poisonous wrath, his eyes gleamed evilly and his muscles tensed. He stood, straining against the murder lust that had seized him, almost persuaded to take the slender chance of beating Harlan to his weapon. "You got notions, eh?" he heard Harlan say, jeeringly. "Well, don't spoil 'em.
She made no objection, for she felt that further trouble impended, and she knew she must not impede any action her rescuer planned. Reaching the street a few minutes before, she had noted the preparations for the swift tragedy that had followed; and despite her wild desire to escape Deveny's man, she had halted, fascinated by the spectacle presented by the two men, gambling with death.
I'm acceptin' Deveny's invitation to throw in with you." Haydon was silent for an instant, and during the silence his gaze met Harlan's fairly. By the humorous gleam in Harlan's eyes Haydon divined that the man could not be misled that he knew something of the situation in the valley, and that he had come here with the deliberate intention of joining the outlaw band.
Something in his voice straightened Linton further, and he steadied himself in the saddle and looked fairly at the man. "Deveny's got her. An' they got me chasin' 'em. I was headin' back to the Rancho Seco, to get the T Down boys all Harlan's friends to wipe Deveny out. If you guys are men " Sheer will could no longer support Linton's failing muscles and he again collapsed over the pommel.
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