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It was even possible, though improbable, that it might be Barb himself. And if the man were not alone less would be gained by killing him. The rifle came down from Laramie's shoulder as slowly as it had gone up. He made immediate disposition for his escape.
Chopping his ideas out as with an ax, Doubleday showed his companions what they should have thought of without being told. "The thing to do," he added, "is to go down to Laramie's cabin and see what we can see and find out what we can find out."
Trophies of the hunt, disposed sometimes in effective and sometimes in mere man fashion, flanked the racks and showed the tastes of the owner of the isolated habitation; for few trails led within miles of Laramie's ranch on the Turkey. "Breakfast?" Simeral looked at his companion, who stood vacantly musing at the door of the kitchen.
If they reached his ears he gave them no heed. By a happy chance, on the night of Laramie's great hour, Sawdy and Lefever returned from Medicine Bend. It was late when they arrived into the early morning hours, in fact, and at the Mountain House the bar was not only closed but securely closed barricaded against just such marauders. Even the night clerk had gone to bed.
He's a mile from Jim Laramie's cabin, not more; he's three miles from anybody else's what?" he exclaimed, as Bill Bradley interrupted to suggest that it was less than two miles over to Ben Simeral's. "All right," shouted Barb, "Hawk's here, ain't he? He's close to Laramie. Laramie's his friend. Where would he go what?"
He interrupted himself to hold his hand over toward Laramie: "Been looking for you, scout," he said, in balanced tones. "Been looking for you," he repeated, releasing Laramie's hand and holding up his own. "If you'd failed me today, Jim " "I wouldn't fail you, Harry." "It's well you didn't champagne, Luke," he added, calling to a solemn-faced bartender who wore a forehead shade.
She had heard the loose talk of men about her Stone, alone, to reckon no other, could be depended on to lie freely about him. Van Horn, he was as sure, would not scruple to blacken an enemy; and added to Laramie's discomfiture was the reflection that this man whose attentions to Kate he most dreaded, held her ear against him and could, if need be, poison the wells.
"Well" Sawdy resumed his supper, "it's your game, Jim, not mine; but I'd think twice before I'd get that range bunch after me on any man's account." Laramie's eyes flashed, but he spoke quietly: "I couldn't see Abe killed like a rattlesnake." "What are you down for?" "I've got to have a couple of needles, a little catgut and some gauze." "Where are you going to get them?"
"Y' won't do what's right, will y', Laramie?" demanded Stone thickly. There were probably fifty men in the room. As if by instinct each of them already knew on what a slender thread one man's life hung. Hawk, the quickest and surest of Laramie's friends, stood ten paces away, up the bar, but the silence was such that he could hear every deliberate word.
The very impudence of Laramie's move had taken Doubleday by surprise and Laramie was hurling angry words at him before Lefever had intervened: "Hold on, Doubleday," Laramie said bluntly, "you can't put your abuse all over me first and then run away with it. You'll hear what I've got to say. I rode this range before you ever saw it; I'll ride this range when you're gone.
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