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"I ain't takin' no chance of missin' him," Sanderson shot back at Nyland as they mounted their horses; "you fan it to Okar an' I'll head for his shack!" Nyland's agreement to this plan was manifested by his actions.
Dale did not believe, now, that the man who had interfered to save Nyland was Will Bransford. Dale rode slowly homeward, scowling, inwardly fuming with rage, but unable to form any decided plan of action. It was several miles to the Bar D, Dale's ranch, and when he arrived there he was in an ugly mood. He curtly dismissed the two men who had accompanied him and went into the house.
So he kept Streak in the dead run he had been in when approaching the house, and when he reached the corner around which Dale had vanished, he saw his man, two or three hundred yards ahead, flashing across a level toward the far side of the big basin. He knew that Dale thought his pursuer was Nyland, and that thought gave Sanderson a grim joy.
And if Maison had been less interested in Peggy, and with his thoughts of Dale, he would have heard the slight sound at the door; he would have seen Ben Nyland standing there in the deepening dusk, his eyes aflame with the wild and bitter passions of a man who had come to kill. Maison did not see, nor did he hear until Ben leaped for him.
I'm goin' to cash in, eh?" Nyland nodded and the man sighed. He closed his eyes for an instant, but opened them slightly at Nyland's question: "What did you do to Peggy? Where is she?" The man was sinking fast, and it seemed that he hardly comprehended Nyland's question. The latter repeated it, and the man replied weakly: "She's over in Okar at Maison's in his rooms. She "
This was the girl. She had stepped forward until she was within a short pace from the big man. She stood erect, rigid, her hands clenched at her sides; her chin lifted, her eyes flashing with defiant passion. Dale smirked at her. "Peggy Nyland," he said, "you're handin' it to me pretty strong, ain't you? You'd fight for your brother's life, of course.
He's been hanging around here, passing himself off as your brother, aiming to get on the good side of you getting you to love him good and hard. Then mebbe he'd tell you, thinking that you'd forgive him. But mebbe that wasn't his game at all. Mebbe he'd figured to grab the ranch and turn you out. "Now, I'm offering you a whole lot. Mebbe you've thought I was sweet on that Nyland girl.
What I want to say to you is this: "Sanderson and Nyland are running maverick around the country tonight. Nyland has killed Maison and is hunting for Dale. Sanderson and his men have cleaned up the bunch of guys that went out this morning to wipe Sanderson out. And Sanderson is looking for Dale. And after he gets Dale he'll come for you, for he's seeing red, for sure. "I ain't interfering.
And if the man were there for any good purpose he would have made his presence known to Nyland, and would not have hidden himself in the kitchen, to peer at Nyland through one of the windows. Nyland was convinced that Peggy had been foully dealt with. But haste and recklessness would avail Nyland little.
He closed his eyes and his lips, opening the latter again almost instantly to cough a crimson stream. Nyland got up, his face chalk white. Standing beside the man he removed the two spent cartridges from the cylinder of his pistol and replaced them with two loaded ones.
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