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Updated: June 19, 2025
We're needing another man a man of your general size and character." Harlan grinned. "I'm thankin' you. An' I sure appreciate what you've said. You've been likin' me so much that you tried to frame up on me about sendin' Lane Morgan out." "That's business," laughed Deveny. "You were an unknown quantity, then." "But not now eh?" returned Harlan, his eyes gleaming with a cold humor.
Harlan smiled faintly, but his eyes did not lose their alertness, nor did the flame in them cool visibly. Only his lips betrayed whatever emotion he felt. He distrusted Deveny, for he had seen the half-formed determination in the man's eyes, and his muscles were tensed in anticipation of a trick. "You didn't stay here to tell me that. Get goin' with the real talk."
And then, with the steady, coldly flaming eyes of Harlan upon him, Harlan's right hand extended slightly, the fingers spread a little as though he was about to offer his hand to the other. Deveny became aware that he was doing an astonishing thing. He was raising his right hand! Already it was at his shoulder.
Deveny said coolly: "I'll admit I have a bad reputation. But it doesn't run to women. It's more in your line." He looked significantly at the other. "Meanin'?" "Oh, hell you know well enough what I mean. You're not such a law-abiding citizen, yourself. I've heard of you often. And I've admired you. To get right down to the point I could find a place where you'd fit in just right.
But Rogers was forced to conceal his jealousy and disappointment. He laughed mirthlessly. "So she can't get away, eh? she's corralled!" "Bah!" declared Deveny; "she won't want to get away once she knows what I mean that it's going to be a regular wedding. She'll raise a fuss, most likely, to make folks believe she's unwilling, but in the end she'll get over it."
And then there followed a long silence, during which Deveny glanced up the valley and saw the men riding away. He turned again, to face Harlan, with the consciousness that he stood alone. The T Down men, half of the Star men, and a large proportion of the Cache men were standing with Harlan. Deveny saw Colver and Rogers among those who had aligned themselves with Harlan.
For a long time the girl rested on her elbow, listening; but no further sounds came from the room into which Deveny had gone. At last, trembling, her face white with fear, the girl got up and stole noiselessly to the door. A light bolt was the door's only fastening; and the girl stood long, with a hand upon it, considering its frailty.
And when, after he had ridden a little farther, he saw Barbara's horse trotting slowly toward him, the stirrups swinging and flopping emptily against the saddle skirts, he drew a deep breath and brought his own horse to a halt, while he sat motionless in the saddle, tortured by bitter thoughts. He had no doubt that what Harlan feared would happen, had happened that Deveny had come for Barbara.
But something kept drumming into his ears at this instant with irritating insistence that this was not an ordinary man; that standing before him, within three paces, his eyes swimming in an unfixed vacuity which indicated preparation for violent action, was Harlan "Drag" Harlan, the Pardo two-gun man; Harlan, who had never been beaten in a gunfight. Could he Deveny beat him?
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.
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