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Updated: June 13, 2025
And for a moment he spoke hurriedly, as though fearful he would not be given time to say what he wanted to say: "Someone plugged me last night while I was sleepin'. Shot me in the chest here. Didn't give me no chance. There was three of them. My fire had gone out an' I couldn't see their faces. Likely Laskar an' Dolver was two. The other one must have sloped. It was him shot me.
Harlan had made no hostile movement as yet. He still stood where he had stood all along, except for the slight backward step he had taken before Laskar began to move.
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.
Watching the man narrowly, the rider noted his nervous glance, and his shrinking, dreading manner. Harlan's eyes gleamed with suspicion, and in a flash he was off the black and standing before Laskar, forbidding and menacing. "Take off your gun-belt an' chuck it under my horse!" he directed sharply. "There's somethin' goin' on here that ain't been mentioned. I'm findin' out what it is."
He was talking ramblingly when there came a sound from the opposite side of the rock a grunt, a curse, and, almost instantly, a shriek. The wounded man raised himself and threw a glance of startled inquiry at Harlan: "What's that?" Harlan watched the man steadily. "I reckon that'll be that man Laskar," he said slowly.
She saw Deveny standing near him, and the man Laskar behind Deveny and Sheriff Gage and several other men. And she saw Rogers and Lawson as they walked slowly toward him. And then a realization of her loss, of the tragedy that had descended upon her, again assailed her; and a fury of intolerance against inaction seized her.
She remembered that while she had been at the window, watching Harlan when he had dismounted in front of the sheriff's office, he had seemed to make a favorable impression upon her. That was the reason, when she had seen him before her in the street, after he had shot Laskar, she had selected him as a protector.
For, after Laskar's body had been carried away, Harlan stepped to where the sheriff stood and spoke shortly: "You wantin' me for this?" Sheriff Gage shook his head. "I reckon everybody saw Laskar go for his gun. There was no call for him to go for his gun. If you'd have shot him without him reachin' for it things would have been different." Harlan said coldly, "I'm ready for that trial, now."
It was Deveny who spoke. There was a snarl in his voice; he leaned forward and scowled at Laskar. Laskar nodded. Rogers cleared his throat, and Lawson moved his feet uneasily. Deveny's scowl faded; he grinned coldly. "Giving orders is he?" he snapped. "Well, we'll see." He laughed. "When Harlan hits town it will be a sign that old Morgan's crossed the Divide.
I bored Dolver, but I let Laskar off, not havin' the heart to muss up the desert with scum like him." The girl's eyes gleamed for an instant with venomous satisfaction. Then she said, tremulously: "And father?" "I buried him near the rock," returned Harlan, lowly. Soundlessly, closing her eyes, Barbara sank into the dust of the street.
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