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Before he had reached Sentinel Rock he had been determined to begin his campaign against the outlaws at the Rancho Seco. It was his plan to ask Morgan for a job, and to spend as much of his time as possible in getting information about Deveny and his men, in the hope of learning the identity of the man who had assisted in the murder of Langan.
"You two wait here, Laskar and myself will do the talking to Gage." He started away with the man who had answered him; then called back over his shoulder: "Hang around; if there's trouble, you'll want to get in on it." Deveny and Laskar walked down the street; the girl saw them enter the building occupied by the sheriff.
This time the girl heard the woman's voice and her words: "Yes she's there, the stuck-up hussy!" The voice was that of the slattern. The man laughed jeeringly. "Jealous, eh?" he said. "Well, she is a mighty good-looking girl, for a fact!" That was all. The girl heard Deveny step into a room the room adjoining hers; she could hear his heavy boots striking the floor as he removed them.
It seemed to her that Deveny must have misunderstood Stroud's action, for it was clear to her even in the stress and confusion of the moment that Deveny thought Stroud had attacked her through motives that were strictly personal. Anyway, before Stroud could speak Deveny's pistol glittered. And malignantly, his eyes blazing with a jealous, evil light, he shot Stroud twice.
For in the days that had fled Deveny had said certain things to her that she had not repeated to her father; he had looked at her with a significance that no man could have understood; and there had been a gleam in his eyes at these times which had convinced her that behind the bland smoothness of him back of the suave politeness of his manner was a primitive animalism.
He had not taken many steps, however, when there were sounds of commotion farther down the street toward the Eating-House a man cursing and a girl screaming. Deveny halted and faced the point from which the sounds came, and a scowl appeared on his face. Harlan wheeled, also.
We're out to 'get' Deveny if you say the word; and that thief, Haydon, too." Harlan did not answer. He grinned at the men, though, and at Rogers acknowledging his gratitude for their decision to be "with" him; then he turned, leaped on Purgatory, and sent the big beast thundering toward the timber that led to the main trail.
There was a taunt in his voice, and an irony that made Deveny squirm with fury. And yet Deveny fought hard for composure. He could see in Harlan's manner something akin to what he had seen that day, in Lamo, when Harlan had baited him. His manner was the same, yet somehow it was not the same. There was this difference: In Lamo, Harlan had betrayed the threat of violence that Deveny had felt.
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."
"There ain't anyone knows where their hang-out is no one seems to know anything about them, except that they're on hand when there's any devilment to be done. "I've got to talk fast, for I ain't got long. I've never had any trouble with Deveny or Rogers, or any of the rest of them, because I've always tended to my own business.
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