The Max Brand Megapack (162 page)

“A sneak always lies well,” he replied, as he sneered at Lanning.

He went on, while Andrew sat shivering with passion. “And any fool can get in a lucky shot now and then. But, when I’m out of this, I’ll hunt you down again and I’ll plant you full of lead, my son! You can lay to that!”

The hard breathing of Andrew gradually subsided.

“It won’t work, Dozier,” he said quietly. “You can’t make me mad enough to shoot a man who’s down. You can’t make me murder you.”

The marshal closed his eyes again, while his breathing was beginning to grow fainter, and there was an unpleasant rattle in the hollow of his throat. Andrew went into the next room.

“Scottie,” he said, “will you let me have your flask?”

Scottie smiled at him.

“Not for what you’d use it for, Lanning,” he said.

Andrew picked up a cup and shoved it across the table.

“Pour a little whisky in that, please,” he said.

Scottie looked up and studied him. Then he tipped his flask and poured a thin stream into the cup until it was half full. Andrew went back toward the door, the cup in his left hand. He backed up, keeping his face steadily toward the four, an
d kicked open the door behind him.

War, he knew, had been declared. Then he raised the marshal’s head and gave him a sip of the fiery stuff. It cleared the face of the wounded man.

Then Andrew rolled down his blankets before the door, braced a small stick against it, so that the sound would be sure to waken him if anyone tried to enter, and laid down for the night. He was almost asleep when the marshal said: “Are you really going to stick it out, Andy?”

“Yes.”

“In spite of what I’ve said?”

“I suppose you meant it all? You’d hunt me down and kill me like a dog after you get back on your feet?”

“Like a dog.”

“If you think it over and see things clearly,” replied Andrew, “you’ll see that what I’ve done I’ve done for my own sake, and not for yours.”

“How do you make that out—with four men in the next room ready to stick a knife in your back—if I know anything about ’em?”

“I’ll tell you: I owe nothing to you, but a man owes a lot to himself, and I’m going to pay myself in full.”

CHAPTER 39

He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but, though he came to the verge of oblivion, the voices from the other room finally waked him. They had been changing subtly during the past hours and now they rose, and there was a ring to them that troubled Andrew.

He could make out their talk part of the time; and then again they lowered their voices to rumbling growls. At such times he k
new that they were speaking of him, and the hum of the undertone was more ominous than open threats. When they talked aloud there was a confused clamor; when they were more hushed there was always the oily murmur of Scottie’s voice, taking the lead and directing the current of the talk.

The liquor was going the rounds fast, now. Before they left for the Murchison Pass they had laid in a comfortable supply, but apparently Allister had cached a quantity of the stuff at the Twin Eagles shack. Of one thing Andrew was certain, that four such practiced whisky drinkers would never let their party degenerate into a drunken rout; and another thing was even more sure—that Scottie Macdougal would keep his head better than the best of the others. But what the alcohol would do would be to cut the leash of constraint and dig up every strong passion among them. For instance, Jeff Rankin was by far the most equable of the lot, but, given a little whisky, Jeff became a conscienceless devil.

He knew his own weakness, and Andrew, crawling to the door and putting his ear to the crack under it, found that the sounds of the voices became instantly clearer; the others were plying Jeff with the liquor, and Jeff, knowing that he had had enough, was persistently refusing, but with less and less energy.

There must be a very definite reason for this urging of Rankin toward the whisky, and Andrew was not hard pressed to find out that reason. The big, rather good-natured giant was leaning toward the side of the new leader, just as steadily as the others were leaning away from him. Whisky alone would stop his scruples. Larry la Roche, his voice a guarded, hissing whisper, was speaking to Jeff as Andrew began listening from his new position.

“What I ask you,” said La Roche, “is this: Have we had any luck since the kid joined us?” “We’ve got a
pile of the coin,” said Jeff obstinately.

“D’you stack a little coin against the loss of Allister?” asked Larry la Roche.

“Easy,” cautioned Scottie. “Not so loud, Larry.”

“He’s asleep,” said Larry la Roche. “I heard him lie down after he’d put something agin’ the door. No fear of him.”

“Don’t be so sure. He might make a noise lying down and make not a sound getting up. And, even when he’s asleep, he’s got one eye open like a wolf.”

“Well,” repeated Larry insistently, and now his voice was so faint that Andrew had to guess at half the syllables, “answer my question, Jeff: Have we had good luck or bad luck, takin’ it all in all, since he joined us?”

“How do I know it’s his fault?” asked Jeff. “We all knew it would be a close pinch if Allister ever jumped Hal Dozier. We thought Allister was a little bit faster than Dozier. Everybody else said that Dozier was the best man that ever pulled a gun out of leather. It wasn’t luck that beat Allister—it was a better man.”

There was a thud as his fist hit the rickety, squeaking table in the center of the room.

“I say, let’s play fair and square. How do I know that the kid won’t make a good leader?”

Scottie broke in smoothly: “Makes me grin when you say that, Jeff. Tell you what the trouble is with you, old man: you’re too modest. A fellow that’s done what you’ve done, following a kid that ain’t twenty-five!”

There was a bearlike grunt from Jeff. He was not altogether displeased by this gracious tribute. But he answered: “You’re too slippery with your tongue, Scottie. I never know when you mean what you say!”

It must have been a bitter pill for Scottie to swallow, but he was not particularly formidable with his weapons, compared with straight-eyed Jeff Rankin, and he answered: “Maybe there’s some I jolly along a bit, but, when I talk to old Jeff Ran
kin, I talk straight. Look at me now, Jeff. Do I look as if I was joking with you?”

“I ain’t any hand at readin’ minds,” grumbled Jeff.

He added suddenly: “I say it was the finest thing I ever see, the way young Lanning stood out there in the valley. Did you watch? Did you see him let Dozier get the jump on his gun? Pretty, pretty, pretty! And then his own gat was out like a flash—one wink, and there was Hal Dozier drilled clean! I tell you, boys, you got this young Lanning wrong. I sort of cotton to the kid. I always did. I liked him the first time I ever laid eyes on him. So did you all, except Larry, yonder. And it was Larry that turned you agin’ him after he come and joined us. Who asked him to join us? We did!”

“Who asked him to be captain?” said Scottie.

It seemed to stagger Jeff Rankin.

“Allister used him for a sort of second man; seemed like he meant him to lead us in case anything happened to him.”

“While Allister was living,” said Scottie, “you know I would of followed him anywhere. Wasn’t I his advance agent? Didn’t I do his planning with him? But now Allister’s dead—worse luck—but dead he is.”

He paused here cunningly, and, no doubt, during that pause each of the outlaws conjured up a picture of the scar-faced man with the bright, steady eyes, who had led them so long and quelled them so often and held them together through thick and thin.

“Allister’s dead,” repeated Scottie, “and what he did while he was alive don’t hold us now. We chose him for captain out of our own free will. Now that he’s dead we have the right to elect another captain. What’s Lanning done that he has a right to fill Allister’s place with us? What job did he have at the holdup? When we stuck up the train didn’t he have the easiest job? Did he give one good piece of advice while
we were plannin’ the job? Did he show any ability to lead us, then?”

The answer came unhesitatingly from Rankin: “It wasn’t his place to lead while Allister was with us. And I’ll tell you what he done after Allister died. When I seen Dozier comin’, who was it that stepped out to meet him? Was it you, Scottie? No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t you, La Roche, neither, nor you, Clune, and it wasn’t me. Made me sick inside, the thought of facin’ Dozier. Why? Because I knew he’d never been beat. Because I knew he was a better man than Allister, and that Allister had been a better man than me. And it ain’t no braggin’ to say I’m a handier gent with my guns than any of you. Well, I was sick, and you all were sick. I seen your faces. But who steps out and takes the lead? It was the kid you grin at, Scottie; it was Andy Lanning, and I say it was a fine thing to do!”

It was undoubtedly a facer; but Scottie came back in his usual calm manner.

“I know it was Lanning, and it was a fine thing. I don’t deny, either, that he’s a fine gent in lots of ways—and in his place—but is his place at the head of the gang? Are we going to be bullied into having him there?”

“Then let him follow, and somebody else lead.”

“You make me laugh, Jeff. He’s not the sort that will follow anybody.”

Plainly Scottie was working on Jeff from a distance. He would bring him slowly around to the place where he would agree to the attack on Andrew for the sake of getting at the wounded marshal.

“Have another drink, Jeff, and then let’s get back to the main point, and that has nothin’ to do with Andy. It is: Is Hal Dozier going to live or die?”

The time had come, Andrew saw, to make his final play. A little more of this talk and the big, good-hearted, strong-handed Rankin would be c
ompletely on the side of the others. And that meant the impossible odds of four to one. Andrew knew it. He would attack any two of them without fear. But three became a desperate, a grim battle; and four to one made the thing suicide.

He slipped silently to his feet from beside the door and picked up the canvas bag which represented his share of the robbery. Then he knocked at the door.

“Boys,” he called, “there’s been some hard thoughts between the lot of you and me. It looks like we’re on opposite sides of a fence. I want to come in and talk to you.”

Instantly Scottie answered: “Why, come on in, captain; not such hard words as you think—not on my side, anyways!”

It was a cunning enough lure, no doubt, and Andrew had his hand on the latch of the door before a second thought reached him. If he exposed himself, would not the three of them pull their guns? They would be able to account for it to Jeff Rankin later on.

“I’ll come in,” said Andrew, “when I hear you give me surety that I’ll be safe. I don’t trust you, Scottie.”

“Thanks for that. What surety do you want?”

“I want the word of Jeff Rankin that he’ll see me through till I’ve made my talk to you and my proposition.”

It was an excellent counterthrust, but Larry la Roche saw through the attempt to win Jeff immediately.

“You skunk!” he said. “If you don’t trust us we don’t trust you. Stay where you be. We don’t want to hear your talk!”

“Jeff, what do you say?” continued Andrew calmly.

There was a clamor of three voices and then the louder voice of Jeff, like a lion shaking itself clear of wolves: “Andy, come in, and I’ll see you get a square deal—if you’ll trust me!” Instantly Andrew th
rew open the door and stepped in, his revolver in one hand, the heavy sack over his other arm, a dragging weight and also a protection.

“I’ll trust you, Jeff,” he said. “Trust you? Why, man, with you at my back I’d laugh at twenty fellows like these. They simply don’t count.”

It was another well-placed shot, and he saw Rankin flush heavily with pleasure. Scottie tilted his box back against the wall and delivered his counterstroke: “He said the same thing to me earlier on in the evening,” he remarked casually. “But I told him where to go. I told him that I was with the bunch first and last and all the time. That’s why he hates me!”

CHAPTER 40

While he searched desperately for an answer, Andrew found none. Then he saw the stupid, big eyes of Jeff wander from his face to the face of Scottie, and he knew that his previous advantage had been completely neutralized.

“Boys,” he said, and he surveyed the restless, savage figures of Clune and La Roche, “I’ve come for a little plain talk. There’s no more question about me leadin’ the gang. None at all. I wouldn’t lead you, La Roche, nor you, Clune, nor you, Scottie. There’s only one man here that’s clean—and he’s Jeff Rankin.”

He waited for that point to sink home; as Scottie opened his lips to strike back, he went ahead deliberately. By retaining his own calm he saw that he kept a great advantage. Rankin began fumbling at his cup; Scottie instantly filled it half full with whisky. “Don’t drink that,” s
aid Andrew sharply. “Don’t drink it, Jeff. Scottie’s doin’ that on purpose to get you sap headed!”

“Do what he says,” said Scottie calmly. “Throw the dirty stuff away, Jeff. Do what your daddy tells you. You ain’t old enough to know your own mind, are you?”

Big Jeff flushed, cast a glance of defiance that included both Andrew and Scottie, and tossed off the whisky. It was a blow over the heart for Andrew; he had to finish his talking now, before Jeff Rankin was turned mad by the whisky. And if he worked it well, Jeff would be on his side. The madness would fight for Andrew.

He said: “There’s no more question about me being a leader for you. Personally, I’d like to have Jeff—not to follow me, but to be pals with me.”

Jeff cleared his throat and looked about with foolish importance. Not an eye wavered to meet his glance; every look was fixed with a hungry hate upon Andrew.

“There’s only one thing up between the lot of us: Do I keep Hal Dozier, or do you get him—to murder him? Do you fellows ride on your way free and easy, to do what you please, or do you tackle me in that room, eat my lead, and then, if you finish me, get a chance to kill a man that’s nearly dead now? How does it look to you, boys? Think it over. Think sharp!”

He knew while he spoke that there was one exquisitely simple way to end both his life and the life of Dozier—let them touch a match to the building and shoot him while he ran from the flames. But he could only pray that they would not see it.