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Not a sound escaped his lips. He clung to his rifle even though a free hand would greatly ease the jarring of the hurt leg. Back of a scrub cottonwood Bob rested for a moment. "Not far now," he said. Houck's eyes measured the distance to the willows. "No," he agreed. "Not far." "Think maybe I could carry you," Bob suggested. "Get you on my shoulder." "Might try," the wounded man assented.
A sound came from Houck's throat like a snarl. "Are you tryin' to tell me that Pete Tolliver's girl is too good for me? Is that where you're driftin'?" "Now don't you get mad, Jake," the older man pleaded. "These here are different times. I don't want my June mixed up with with them Brown's Park days an' all." "Meanin' me?"
Another husband Dud Hollister, for instance would have battled it out for her to a finish, till he had been beaten so badly he could no longer crawl to his feet. If Bob had done that, even though he had been hopelessly overmatched, he would have broken Houck's power over June. All the wild, brave spirit of her would have gone out to her husband in a rush of feeling.
I been wantin' to meet you," he said harshly. "Same here, Houck." Bandy Walker pushed to the front, jerking a forty-five from its scabbard. Houck's hand shot forward and caught the cowpuncher by the wrist. "What's bitin' you, Bandy? Time enough for that when I give the word." The yellow teeth of the bow-legged man showed in a snarl of rage and pain. "I'd 'a' got Dillon if you'd let me be."
An' now you think we'd ought to let two-three men get shot going after him across the mesa," Harshaw said. "Nothin' doing. Not right away anyhow. Houck's foolishness got him into the hole where he is. He'll have to wait till we clean out this nest in the gulch. Soon as we've done that we'll go after him." "But the Utes will rush the willows," Bob protested mildly.
They passed close to him and he recognized June by her walk. That was not what brought him to his feet a moment later with a gasp of amazement. He had recognized her companion, too, or he thought he had. It was not credible, of course. He must be mistaken. And yet if that was not Jake Houck's straddling slouch his eyes were playing tricks.
A man stepped out upon the platform in front of Platt & Fortner's. From his position he looked down on the little bunch of men moving toward the horses. Bandy Walker, beside the horses, called on Houck to hurry, that they were being surrounded. "I've got you covered. Throw down yore guns," the man on the platform shouted to the outlaws, rifle at shoulder. Houck's revolver flashed into the air.
No man can sacrifice his mate to save his own hide and still hold her respect. June looked at him in a nausea of sick scorn. She turned from him, wasting no more words. She and Houck vanished into the gathering darkness. Houck's jeering laugh of triumph came back to the humiliated boy. He noticed for the first time that two or three men were watching him from the door of the saloon.
Heat waves were shimmering in the hollow and mosquitoes singing. Occasionally Houck's voice rose in delirious excitement. Sometimes he thought the Utes were torturing him. Again he lived over scenes in the past. Snatches of babble carried back to the days of his turbulent youth when all men's cattle were his. In the mutterings born of a sick brain Bob heard presently the name of June.
Jake Houck he calls hisself." Bob's heart shriveled within him. Two enemies scarcely a stone's throw away, and probably both of them knew he was here. Had they come to settle with him? He dismissed this last fear. In Jake Houck's scheme of things he was not important enough to call for a special trip of vengeance. "We'll leave 'em alone," Harshaw decided. "If any of them drop over we'll be civil.
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