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Updated: June 19, 2025
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.
The gleam in his eyes indicated that he felt some relief over the prospect presented by Deveny's suggestion. "Of course we ain't sure Harlan means to make trouble here," he told Deveny; "but it's just as well to shove him off onto the sheriff." The four men walked to the front door of the First Chance, after pausing for a few minutes at the bar.
The information did not surprise Deveny; but it sent his mind into a chaos of conjecture and speculation, out of which at last a conviction came that Harlan was seeking control of the outlaw band; that Haydon's days as a leader were almost over, so far as he was concerned. For if Haydon insisted on taking Harlan into the secret councils of the camp he Deveny was going to operate independently.
"You've got me sized up right. The yappin' I done about stickin' to Barbara Morgan wasn't the real goods, eh?" "Certainly not!" laughed Deveny, "there must be some selfish motive behind that." "An' you sure didn't believe me?" "Of course not," chuckled Deveny, for he thought he saw a gleam of insincerity in Harlan's eyes. "Then I've got to do my yappin' all over again," said Harlan.
His suave politeness was a velvet veil of character behind which he masked the slavering fangs of the beast he really was. At ten o'clock the following morning, in a rear room of "Balleau's First Chance" saloon which was directly across the street from the Lamo Eating-House Luke Deveny and two other men were sitting at a card-table with bottle and glasses between them.
The sheriff's eyes glowed with some secret significance as they met Harlan's. He was standing at a little distance from Deveny, and he deliberately closed an eye at Harlan. "Trial hell!" he declared, "you've destroyed the evidence." Harlan wheeled, to see Deveny standing near.
He was handsome, and yet the suggestion of ruthlessness in the atmosphere of him lurking behind the genial, easy-going exterior that he wore for appearances or because it was his nature to conceal his passions until he desired to unleash them was felt by those who knew him intimately. It had been felt by Barbara Morgan. Deveny was king of the lawless element in the Lamo section.
Deveny glanced out of the window at the blot that was now closer. "It's Laskar, all regular," he said. "He's leading a sorrel horse Dolver's horse. Old Morgan got Dolver looks like, the damned old gopher! Men as willing as Dolver are not found every day." He looked at the third man, who had not spoken. "Lawson," he said, "you mosey down the trail a little piece and meet Laskar. Bring him here!"
The possibility, dangling at the other end of the slender thread of chance, did not allure him. For he knew he could not draw the pistol at his hip with Harlan's gaze upon him that would be suicide. "Deveny!" Harlan's voice, snapping with menace roused him, straightened him, brought an ashen pallor to his face. "It's your turn, Deveny. You stay here. Flash your gun!"
"That's right I didn't," said Deveny. He was cool, now, and bland, having recovered his poise. "Higgins was watching Barbara Morgan at my orders. But I meant no harm to the girl. I knew she was in town, and I heard there were a few of the boys that were making plans about her. So I set Higgins to guard her. Naturally, she thought I meant harm to her." "Naturally," said Harlan.
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