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Updated: June 19, 2025
"I reckon you've noticed I've sort of shifted," he said. "I keep goin' up gettin' higher in the world." "What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Just loafin', I reckon," grinned the other. "An' obeyin' orders," he added instantly. "Much as I hate to disconvenience a lady, I ain't takin' no chances on rilin' Deveny." "Do you mean that Deveny placed you here to watch me?"
The other reason is that I'm goin' to see that you get a square deal from them guys. "An' you won't get a square deal ridin' out alone, like this especially when you head toward Sunset Trail, where Deveny an' his gang hang out. An' I'm settin' down hard on you ridin' that way. I'm keepin' you from runnin' any chances." Silently Barbara had watched Harlan's face while he had been talking.
They're to ride out an' join my boys the T Down outfit." Deveny was conscious that several men detached themselves from the group of riders he had brought with him, and rode to where the T Down men were standing. Then Harlan spoke again: "Now, she shapes up like this. If there's any of the Star gang wantin' to go straight, they can throw in with the T Down boys, too.
Thus Deveny knew he was standing in the presence of a man whose poise and self-control were marvelous; and he knew, too, that Harlan would be aware of the slightest move made by either of the three; more, he could detect any sign of concerted action. And concerted action was what Deveny and Laskar and the sheriff had planned.
A queer, cold chill had come over Deveny a vague dread, a dragging reluctance an indecision that startled him and made of his thoughts an odd jumble of half-formed impulses that seemed to die before they could become definite. He had faced gun-fighters before, and had felt no fear of them.
Harlan turned, sheathing his pistol, and began to walk toward his horse, his back toward Deveny. Then Deveny acted. His eyes flaming hate, he drew his pistol with a flashing movement, his face hideous with malignant passion. He sent one bullet into Harlan's back and two more as Harlan tumbled forward, sinking to his knees from the shock.
As she staggered to her feet she recognized the men who had been with Deveny. They were on their horses all facing away from her. Facing Deveny's men were all the T Down boys she recognized them instantly. Pistols glittered in their hands; they seemed to be in the grip of some strong passion, which wreathed their faces into grim, bitter lines. Near the T Down men flanking them were other men.
Since the day he had heard that Harlan had appeared at the Star and had been taken into the outlaw band by Haydon, Deveny had exhibited fits of a sullen moroseness that had kept his closest friends from seeking his companionship.
A sense of loss, of emptiness, still afflicted the girl, and yet through it all there ran a thrill of satisfaction, of assurance that the steady-eyed man who had saved her from Deveny, and who had treated her like a courtier of old on the night she had killed Lawson, seemed to have her welfare in mind, seemed despite the reputation the people of the country had given him to have constituted himself her guardian, without expectation of reward of the kind she had feared he sought.
His smile now was bitter with the hatred that was in his heart for Deveny for Deveny had cast longing, lustful eyes upon Barbara Morgan and the smile grew into a sneer as he drew out paper and tobacco and began to roll a cigarette.
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