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Updated: May 14, 2025
He was certain that he had again heard the sound. As he topped the rise he saw Corliss riding toward him. The rancher had evidently swung from the Concho trail and was making his way directly toward the unused trail which Fadeaway rode. The cowboy became doubly alert. He shifted a little in the saddle, sitting straight, his right hand resting easily on his hip.
One of the inventions to bring the twilight of the gathering into brotherhood with the shadows on the screen is a simple thing known to the trade as the fadeaway, that had its rise in a commonplace fashion as a method of keeping the story from ending with the white glare of the empty screen.
"Well, I could handle Chance," said Corliss. "And I know the combination to the safe, if it hasn't been changed. You said Jack was likely to be away nights, now." Fadeaway shook his head. "You're dreamin', Bill. 'Sides, I wouldn't touch a job like that for less'n five hundred." "Would you for five hundred?" "I dunno. Depends on who I was ridin' with."
"So you're tryin' to hang somethin' onto me, eh? Well, you want to call around early you're late." "No, I'm the first one on the job. Did you stampede Loring's sheep?" "Did I stampede the love-makin'?" sneered Fadeaway. Corliss shortened rein and drew close to the cowboy. "Just explain that," he said. "Oh, I don' know. You the boss of creation?" Corliss's lips hardened.
"Women are all crooked, when they want to be," he remarked, "or any I ever knowed. If they can't work a guy by talkin' and lovin', then they take to cryin'." Just then Corliss stepped to the girl and put his hand on her shoulder. Again she turned to him. He took her hands and held them while he talked. Fadeaway could see her lips move, evidently in reply.
A scattered few of the band had turned and were trotting aimlessly along the edge of the mesa. They separated as the rider swept up. One terror-stricken lamb, bleating piteously, hesitated on the very edge of the chasm. Fadeaway swung his hat and laughed as the little creature reared and leaped out into space.
Fadeaway cursed and wiped the blood from his mouth. He was playing his part well. Accident had helped him. To all intents and purposes they were open enemies. Still, he was afraid Corliss would talk, so he laughed and extended his hand. "Shake, Billy. I guess you didn't know what you were doin'. I was tryin' to keep you from fallin'." Corliss stared at the other with unwinking eyes.
Nobody takes her nowadays, so we'll be under cover till we hit the ford. We can camp there back in the brush and tackle her next evenin'. So-long." Fadeaway was downstairs and out on the street before Corliss realized that he had committed himself to a desperate and dangerous undertaking. He recalled the expression in Fadeaway's eyes when they had shaken hands.
Half starved, he ate ravenously the meal she prepared for him. Later, when she came and sat opposite, her plump hands folded in her lap, her whole attitude restful and assuring, he told her of the robbery, concealing nothing save the name of Fadeaway. Then he drew the canvas sack from his pocket. "I thought I could go back and face it out, but now, I can't. Will you return it and tell John?"
Nellie Loring knows, too. So do you, but you can't prove it. It was like Fade to put Loring's sheep into the cañon, but we can't prove even that, now. I'm pretty sure your scrap with Fade didn't have anything to do with his getting shot. You ain't that kind." "Well, here's my side of it, Jim. Fadeaway had it in for me for firing him.
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