The Seventh Man Read online

  Chapter XIV. Suspense

  The help which Lee Haines wanted, it turned out, was guidance acrossa difficult stretch of country which he and Buck Daniels wantedto prospect, and while he talked Barry listened uneasily. It wasconstitutionally impossible for him to say no when a favor was asked ofhim, and Haines counted heavily on that characteristic; in the meantimeBlack Bart lay on the hearth with his wistful eyes turned steadily upto the master; and Buck Daniels went to Kate on the farther side of theroom. She sat quivering, alternately crushing and soothing Joan with thestrength of her caresses. Buck drew a chair close, with his back halftowards the fire.

  "Turn around a little, Kate," he cautioned. "Don't let Dan see yourface."

  She obeyed him automatically.

  "Is there a hope, Buck? What have I done to deserve this? I don't wantto live; I want to die! I want to die!"

  "Steady, steady!" he cut in, and his face was working. "If you keep onlike this you'll bust down in a minute or two. And you know what tearsdo to Dan; he'll be out of this house like a scairt coyote. Brace up!"

  She struggled and won a partial control.

  "I'm fighting hard, Buck."

  "Fight harder still. You ought to know him better than I do. When he'slike this it drives him wild to have other folks thinkin' about him."

  He looked over to Dan. In spite of the bowed head of the latter as helistened to Haines yarning he gave an impression of electric awarenessto all that was around him.

  "Talk soft," whispered Buck. "Maybe he knows we're talkin' about him."

  He raised his voice out of the whisper, breaking in on a sentence aboutJoan, as if this were the tenor of their talk. Then he lowered his toneagain.

  "Think quick. Talk soft. Do you want Dan kept here?"

  "For God's sake, yes."

  "Suppose the posse gets him here?"

  "We musn't dodge the law."

  They were gauging their voices with the closest precision. Talking likethis so close to Barry was like dancing among flasks of nitroglycerine.Once, and once only, Lee Haines cast a desperate eye across to them,begging them to come to his rescue, then he went back to his talk withDan, raising his voice to shelter the conference of the other two.

  "If they come, he'll fight."

  "No, he isn't at the fighting pitch yet, I know!"

  "If you're wrong they'll be dead men here."

  "He sees no difference between the death of a horse and the death of aman. He feels that the law has no score against him. He'll go quietly."

  "And we'll find ways of fightin' the law?"

  "Yes, but it needs money."

  "I've got a stake."

  "God bless you, Buck."

  "Take my advice."

  "What?"

  "Let him go now."

  She glanced at him wildly.

  "Kate, he's gone already."

  "No, no, no!"

  "I say he's gone. Look at his eyes."

  "I don't dare."

  "The yaller is comin' up in 'em. He's wild again." She shook her head inmute agony. Buck Daniels groaned, softly.

  "Then they's goin' to be a small-sized hell started around this cabinbefore mornin'."

  He got up and went slowly back towards the fire. Lee Haines was talkingsteadily, leisurely, going round and round his subject again and again,and Barry listened with bowed head, but his eyes were fixed upon thoseof the wolf-dog at his feet. When he grew restless, Haines chained himto the chair with some direct question, yet it was a hard game to play.All this time the posse might be gathering around the cabin; and theforehead of Haines whitened and glistened with sweat. His voice was theonly living thing in the cabin, after a time, sketching his imaginaryplans for the benefit of Barry--his voice and the wistful eyes of Joanwhich kept steadily on Daddy Dan. Something has come between them andlifted a barrier which she could not understand, and with all her achingchild's heart she wondered at it.

  For the second time that evening the wolf stood up on the hearth, buthe was not yet on his feet before Dan was out of his chair and standingclose to the wall, where the shadows swallowed him. Lee Haines sat withhis lips frozen on the next unspoken word. Two shadows, whose feet madeno sound, Black Bart and Dan glided to the door and peered into thenight--then Barry went back, step by step, until his back was once moreto the wall. Not until that instant did the others hear. It was a stepwhich approached behind the house; a loud rap at the back door.

  It was the very loudness of the knock which made Kate draw a breath ofrelief; if it had been a stealthy tap she would have screamed. He whorapped did not wait for an answer; they heard the door creak open, thesound of a heavy man's step.

  "It's Vic," said Dan quietly, and then the door opened which led intothe kitchen and the tall form of Gregg entered. He paused there.

  "Here I am again, ma'am."

  "Good evening," she answered faintly.

  He cleared his throat, embarrassed.

  "Darned if I didn't play a fool game today--hello, Dan."

  The other nodded.

  "Rode in a plumb circle and come back where I started." He laughed, andthe laughter broke off a little shortly. He stepped to the wall andhung up his bridle on its peg, which is the immemorial manner of askinghospitality in the mountain-desert. "Hope I ain't puttin' you out, Kate.I see you got company."

  She started, recalled from her thoughts.

  "Excuse me, Vic. Vic Gregg, Buck Daniels, Lee Haines."

  They shook hands, and Vic detained Haines a moment.

  "Seems to me I've heard of you, Haines."

  "Maybe."

  Gregg looked at the big man narrowly, and then swung back towards Dan.He knew many things, now. Lee Haines--yes, that was the name. One of thecrew who followed Jim Silent; and Dan Barry? What a fool he had been notto remember! It was Dan Barry who had gone on the trail of Silent's gangand hounded it to death; Lee Haines alone had been spared. Yes, half adozen years before the mountain-folk had heard that story, a wild andimprobable one. It fitted in with what Pete Glass had told him of theshooting of Harry Fisher; it explained a great deal which had mystifiedhim since he first met Barry; it made the thing he had come to do atonce easier and harder.

  "I s'pose Molly showed a clean pair of heels to the whole lot of 'em?"he said to Dan.

  "She's dead."

  "Dead?" His astonishment was well enough affected. "God amighty, Dan,not Grey Molly--my hoss?"

  "Dead. I shot her."

  Vic gasped. "You?"

  "They'd busted her leg. I put her out of pain."

  Gregg dropped into a chair. It was not altogether an affectation, notaltogether a piece of skilful acting now, for though the sheriff hadtold him all that happened he had not had a chance to feel the truth;but now it swept over him, all her tricks, all her deviltry, all thatlong companionship. His head bowed.

  No smile touched the faces of the others in the room, but a reverentsilence fell on the room. Then that figure among the shadows moved out,stepped to the side of Vic, and a light hand rested on his shoulder. Theother looked up, haggard.

  "She's gone, partner," Dan said gently, "but she's paid for."

  "Paid for? Dan, they ain't any money could pay me back for Grey Molly."

  "I know; I know! Not that way, but there was a life given for a life."

  "Eh?"

  "One man died for Molly."

  As the meaning came home to Gregg he blinked, and then, looking up, hefound a change in the eyes of Barry, for they seemed to be lighted fromwithin coldly, and his glance went down to the very bottom of Vic'ssoul, probing. It was only an instant, a thing of which Gregg could notmake sure, and then Dan slipped back into his place among the shadows bythe wall. But a chill sense of guilt, a premonition of danger, stayed inGregg. The palms of his hands grew moist.