And he said to himself: "She loves him with all her heart and soul!"

"It is he," said Donnegan in an agony. Pain may be like a fire that

tempers some strong men; and now Donnegan, because he was in torment,

smiled, and his eye was as cold as steel.

The girl flung away his hands.

"You bought murderer!" she cried at him.

"He is not dead."

"But you shot him down!"

"He attacked me; it was self-defense."

She broke into a low-pitched, mirthless laughter. Where was the

filmy-eyed girl he had known? The laughter broke off short--like a sob.

"Don't you suppose I've known?" she said. "That I've read my father?

That I knew he was sending a bloodhound when he sent you? But, oh, I

thought you had a touch of the other thing!"

He cringed under her tone.

"I'll bring him to you," said Donnegan desperately. "I'll bring him here

so that you can take care of him."

"You'll take him away from Lord Nick--and Lebrun--and the rest?" And it

was the cold smile of her father with which she mocked him.

"I'll do it."

"You play a deep game," said the girl bitterly. "Why would you do it?"

"Because," said Donnegan faintly. "I love you."

Her hand had been on the knob of the door; now she twitched it open and

was gone; and the last that Donnegan saw was the width of the startled

eyes.

"As if I were a leper," muttered Donnegan. "By heaven, she looked at me

as if I were unclean!"

But once outside the door, the girl stood with both hands pressed to her

face, stunned. When she dropped them, they folded against her breast,

and her face tipped up.

Even by starlight, had Donnegan been there to look, he would have seen

the divinity which comes in the face of a woman when she loves.

26

Had he been there to see, even in the darkness he would have known, and

he could have crossed the distance between their lives with a single

step, and taken her into his heart. But he did not see. He had thrown

himself upon his bunk and lay face down, his arms stretched rigidly out

before him, his teeth set, his eyes closed.

For what Donnegan had wanted in the world, he had taken; by force when

he could, by subtlety when he must. And now, what he wanted most of all

was gone from him, he felt, forever. There was no power in his arms to

take that part of her which he wanted; he had no craft which could

encompass her.

Big George, stealing into the room, wondered at the lithe, slender form

of the man in the bed. Seeing him thus, it seemed that with the power of

one hand, George could crush him. But George would as soon have closed

his fingers over a rattler. He slipped away into the kitchen and sat

with his arms wrapped around his body, as frightened as though he had

seen a ghost.

But Donnegan lay on the bed without moving for hours and hours, until

big George, who sat wakeful and terrified all that time, was sure that

he slept. Then he stole in and covered Donnegan with a blanket, for it

was the chill, gray time of the night.

But Donnegan was not asleep, and when George rose in the morning, he

found the master sitting at the table with his arms folded tightly

across his breast and his eyes burning into vacancy.

He spent the day in that chair.

It was the middle of the afternoon when George came with a scared face

and a message that a "gen'leman who looks riled, sir," wanted to see

him. There was no answer, and George perforce took the silence as

acquiescence. So he opened the door and announced: "Mr. Lester to see

you, sir."

Into the fiery haze of Donnegan's vision stepped a raw-boned fellow with

sandy hair and a disagreeably strong jaw.

"You're the gent that's here with the colonel, ain't you?" said Lester.

Donnegan did not reply.

"You're the gent that cleaned up on Landis, ain't you?" continued the

sandy-haired man.

There was still the same silence, and Lester burst out: "It don't work,

Donnegan. You've showed you're man-sized several ways since you been in

The Corner. Now I come to tell you to get out from under Colonel Macon.

Why? Because he's crooked, because we know he's crooked; because he

played crooked with me. You hear me talk?"

Still Donnegan considered him without a word.

"We're goin' to run him out, Donnegan. We want you on our side if we can

get you; if we can't get you, then we'll run you out along with the

colonel."

He began to talk with difficulty, as though Donnegan's stare unnerved

him. He even took a step back toward the door.

"You can't bluff me out, Donnegan. I ain't alone. They's others behind

me. I don't need to name no names. Here's another thing: you ain't alone

yourself. You got a woman and a cripple on your hands. Now, Donnegan,

you're a fast man with a gun and you're a fast man at thinkin', but I

ask you personal: have you got a chance runnin' under that weight?"

He added fiercely: "I'm through. Now, talk turkey, Donnegan, or you're

done!"

For the first time Donnegan moved. It was to make to big George a

significant signal with his thumb, indicating the visitor. However,

Lester did not wait to be thrown bodily from the cabin. One enormous

oath exploded from his lips, and he backed sullenly through the door and

slammed it after him.

"It kind of looks," said big George, "like a war, sir."

And still Donnegan did not speak, until the afternoon was gone, and the

evening, and the full black of the night had swallowed up the hills

around The Corner.

Then he left the chair, shaved, and dressed carefully, looked to his

revolver, stowed it carefully and invisibly away among his clothes, and

walked leisurely down the hill. An outbreak of cursing, stamping,

hair-tearing, shooting could not have affected big George as this quiet

departure did. He followed, unordered, but as he stepped across the

threshold of the hut he rolled up his eyes to the stars.

"Oh, heavens above," muttered George, "have mercy on Mr. Donnegan. He

ain't happy."

And he went down the hill, making sure that he was fit for battle with

knife and gun.

He had sensed Donnegan's mental condition accurately enough. The heart

of the little man was swelled to the point of breaking. A twenty-hour

vigil had whitened his face, drawn in his cheeks, and painted his eyes

with shadow; and now he wanted action. He wanted excitement, strife,

competition; something to fill his mind. And naturally enough he had two

places in mind--Lebrun's and Milligan's.

It is hard to relate the state of Donnegan's mind at this time. Chiefly,

he was conscious of a peculiar and cruel pain that made him hollow; it

was like homesickness raised to the nth degree. Vaguely he realized

that in some way, somehow, he must fulfill his promise to the girl and

bring Jack Landis home. The colonel dared not harm the boy for fear of

Donnegan; and the girl would be happy. For that very reason Donnegan

wanted to tear Landis to shreds.

It is not extremely heroic for a man tormented with sorrow to go to a

gambling hall and then to a dance hall to seek relief. But Donnegan was

not a hero. He was only a man, and, since his heart was empty, he wanted

something that might fill it. Indeed, like most men, suffering made him

a good deal of a boy.

So the high heels of Donnegan tapped across the floor of Lebrun's. A

murmur went before him whenever he appeared now, and a way opened for

him. At the roulette wheel he stopped, placed fifty on red, and watched

it double three times. George, at a signal from the master, raked in the

winnings. And Donnegan sat at a faro table and won again, and again rose

disconsolately and went on. For when men do not care how luck runs it

never fails to favor them. The devotees of fortune are the ones she

punishes.

In the meantime the whisper ran swiftly through The Corner.

"Donnegan is out hunting trouble."

About the good that is in men rumor often makes mistakes, but for evil

she has an infallible eye and at once sets all of her thousand tongues

wagging. Indeed, any man with half an eye could not fail to get the

meaning of his fixed glance, his hard set jaw, and the straightness of

his mouth. If he had been a ghost, men could not have avoided him more

sedulously, and the giant servant who stalked at his back. Not that The

Corner was peopled with cowards. The true Westerner avoids trouble, but

cornered, he will fight like a wildcat.

So people watched from the corner of their eyes as Donnegan passed.

He left Lebrun's. There was no competition. Luck blindly favored him,

and Donnegan wanted contest, excitement. He crossed to Milligan's. Rumor

was there before him. A whisper conveyed to a pair of mighty-limbed

cow-punchers that they were sitting at the table which Donnegan had

occupied the night before, and they wisely rose without further hint and

sought other chairs. Milligan, anxious-eyed, hurried to the orchestra,

and with a blast of sound they sought to cover up the entry of the

gunman.

As a matter of fact that blare of horns only served to announce him.

Something was about to happen; the eyes of men grew shadowy; the eyes of

women brightened. And then Donnegan appeared, with George behind him,

and crossed the floor straight to his table of the night before. Not

that he had forethought in going toward it, but he was moving

absent-mindedly.

Indeed, he had half forgotten that he was a public figure in The Corner,

and sitting sipping the cordial which big George brought him at once, he

let his glance rove swiftly around the room. The eye of more than one

brave man sank under that glance; the eye of more than one woman smiled

back at him; but where the survey of Donnegan halted was on the face of

Nelly Lebrun.

She was crossing the farther side of the floor alone, unescorted except

for the whisper about her, but seeing Donnegan she stopped abruptly.

Donnegan instantly rose. She would have gone on again in a flurry; but

that would have been too pointed.

A moment later Donnegan was threading his way across the dance floor to

Nelly Lebrun, with all eyes turned in his direction. He had his hat

under his arm; and in his black clothes, with his white stock, he made

an old-fashioned figure as he bowed before the girl and straightened

again.

"Did you send for me?" Donnegan inquired.

Nelly Lebrun was frankly afraid; and she was also delighted. She felt

that she had been drawn into the circle of intense public interest which

surrounded the red-headed stranger; she remembered on the other hand

that her father would be furious if she exchanged two words with the

man. And for that very reason she was intrigued. Donnegan, being

forbidden fruit, was irresistible. So she let the smile come to her lips

and eyes, and then laughed outright in her excitement.

"No," she said with her lips, while her eyes said other things.

"I've come to ask a favor: to talk with you one minute."

"If I should--what would people say?";

"Let's find out."

"It would be--daring," said Nelly Lebrun. "After last night."

"It would be delightful," said Donnegan. "Here's a table ready for us."

She went a pace closer to it with him.

"I think you've frightened the poor people away from it. I mustn't sit

down with you, Mr. Donnegan."

And she immediately slipped into the chair.

27

She qualified her surrender, of course, by sitting on the very edge of

the chair. She had on a wine-colored dress, and, with the excitement

whipping color into her cheeks and her eyes dancing, Nelly Lebrun was a

lovely picture.

"I must go at once," said Nelly.

"Of course, I can't expect you to stay."

She dropped one hand on the edge of the table. One would have thought

that she was in the very act of rising.

"Do you know that you frighten me?"

"I?" said Donnegan, with appropriate inflection.

"As if I were a man and you were angry."

"But you see?" And he made a gesture with both of his palms turned up.

"People have slandered me. I am harmless."

"The minute is up, Mr. Donnegan. What is it you wish?"

"Another minute."

"Now you laugh at me."

"No, no!"

"And in the next minute?"

"I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute."

"Of course, I can't."

"I know; it's impossible."

"Quite." She settled into the chair. "See how people stare at me! They

remember poor Jack Landis and they think--the whole crowd--"

"A crowd is always foolish. In the meantime, I'm happy."

"You?"

"To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you."

Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for some

iota of seriousness under this banter.

"Ah?" and Nelly Lebrun laughed.

"Don't you see that I mean it?"

"You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan."

"May I say a bold thing?"

"You have said several."

"No one can really watch you from a distance."

She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personal

quips was a seventh heaven to her.

"That's a riddle, Mr. Donnegan."

"A simple one. The answer is, because there's too much to watch."

He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not a

sound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.

"Ah, don't you see I'm serious?"

Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone might

have read his lips.

"Not a soul can hear me," murmured Donnegan, "and I'm going to be bolder

still, and tell you the truth."

"It's the last thing I dare stay to hear."

"You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun."

He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, was

given pause, and became sober. She shook her head and raised a

cautioning finger. But Donnegan was not shaken.

"Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl," he said gravely.

"One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her. Are you

contented to look at a flower from a distance? That's an old comparison,

isn't it? But there is something like a fragrance about you, Nelly

Lebrun. Don't be afraid. No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I've

said such bold things to you. In the meantime, we have a truth party.

There is a fragrance, I say. It must be breathed. There is a glow which

must touch one. As it touches me now, you see?"

Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks. And the girl flushed more

deeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to such

a penetrating point. She was believing at least a little part of what he

said, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in this

strangest of lovemakings.

"I shall stay here to learn one thing," she said. "What deviltry is

behind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?"

"Is that fair to me? Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in The

Corner."

"And that?"

"Toward Nelly Lebrun."

"A beaten trail? You?" she cried, with just a touch of anger. "I'm not a

child, Mr. Donnegan!"

"You are not; and that's why I am frank."

"You have done all these things--following this trail you speak of?"

"Remember," said Donnegan soberly. "What have I done?"

"Shot down two men; played like an actor on a stage a couple of times at

least, if I must be blunt; hunted danger like--like a reckless madman;

dared all The Corner to cross you; flaunted the red rag in the face of

the bull. Those are a few things you have done, sir! And all on one

trail? That trail you spoke of?"

"Nelly Lebrun--"

"I'm listening; and do you know I'm persuading myself to believe you?"

"It's because you feel the truth before I speak it. Truth speaks for

itself, you know."

"I have closed my eyes--you see? I have stepped into a masquerade. Now

you can talk."

"Masquerades are exciting," murmured Donnegan.

"And they are sometimes beautiful."

"But this sober truth of mine--"

"Well?"

"I came here unknown--and I saw you, Nelly Lebrun."

He paused; she was looking a little past him.

"I came in rags; no friends; no following. And I saw that I should have

to make you notice me."

"And why? No, I shouldn't have asked that."

"You shouldn't ask that," agreed Donnegan. "But I saw you the queen of

The Corner, worshiped by all men. What could I do? I am not rich. I am

not big. You see?"

He drew her attention to his smallness with a flush which never failed

to touch the face of Donnegan when he thought of his size; and he seemed

to swell and grow greater in the very instant she glanced at him.

"What could I do? One thing; fight. I have fought. I fought to get the

eye of The Corner, but most of all to attract your attention. I came

closer to you. I saw that one man blocked the way--mostly. I decided to

brush him aside. How?"

"By fighting?" She had not been carried away by his argument. She was

watching him like a lynx every moment.

"Not by that. By bluffing. You see, I was not fool enough to think that

you would--particularly notice a fighting bully."

He laid his open hand on the table. It was like exposing both strength

and weakness; and into such a trap it would have been a singularly

hard-minded woman who might not have stepped. Nelly Lebrun leaned a

little closer. She forgot to criticize.

"It was bluff. I saw that Landis was big and good-looking. And what was

I beside him? Nothing. I could only hope that he was hollow; yellow--you

see? So I tried the bluff. You know about it. The clock, and all that

claptrap. But Landis wasn't yellow. He didn't crumble. He lasted long

enough to call my bluff, and I had to shoot in self-defense. And then,

when he lay on the floor, I saw that I had failed."

"Failed?"

He lowered his eyes for fear that she would catch the glitter of them.

"I knew that you would hate me for what I had done because I had only

proved that Landis was a brave youngster with enough nerve for nine out

of ten. And I came tonight--to ask you to forgive me. No, not that--only

to ask you to understand. Do you?"

He raised his glance suddenly at that, and their eyes met with one of

these electric shocks which will go tingling through two people. And

when the lips of Nelly Lebrun parted a little, he knew that she was in

the trap. He closed his hand that lay on the table--curling the fingers

slowly. In that way he expressed all his exultation.

"There is something wrong," said the girl, in a tone of one who argues

with herself. "It's all too logical to be real."

"Ah?"

"Was that your only reason for fighting Jack Landis?"

"Do I have to confess even that?"

She smiled in the triumph of her penetration, but it was a brief,

unhappy smile. One might have thought that she would have been glad to

be deceived.

"I came to serve a girl who was unhappy," said Donnegan. "Her fiancé had

left her; her fiancé was Jack Landis. And she's now in a hut up the hill

waiting for him. And I thought that if I ruined him in your eyes he'd go

back to a girl who wouldn't care so much about bravery. Who'd forgive

him for having left her. But you see what a fool I was and how clumsily

I worked? My bluff failed, and I only wounded him, put him in your

house, under your care, where he'll be happiest, and where there'll

never be a chance for this girl to get him back."

Nelly Lebrun, with her folded hands under her chin, studied him.

"Mr. Donnegan," she said, "I wish I knew whether you are the most

chivalrous, self-sacrificing of men, or simply the most gorgeous liar in

the desert."

"And it's hardly fair," said Donnegan, "to expect me to tell you that."

28

It gave them both a welcome opportunity to laugh, welcome to the girl

because it broke into an excitement which was rapidly telling upon her,

and welcome to Donnegan because the strain of so many distortions of the

truth was telling upon him as well. They laughed together. One hasty

glance told Donnegan that half the couples in the room were whispering

about Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun; but when he looked across the table he

saw that Nelly Lebrun had not a thought for what might be going on in

the minds of others. She was quite content.

"And the girl?" she said.

Donnegan rested his forehead upon his hand in thought. He dared not let

Nelly see his face at this moment, for the mention of Lou Macon had

poured the old flood of sorrow back upon him And therefore, when he

looked up, he was sneering.

"You know these blond, pretty girls?" he said.

"Oh, they are adorable!"

"With dull eyes," said Donnegan coldly, and a twinkle came into the

responsive eye of Nelly Lebrun. "The sort of a girl who sees a hero in

such a fellow as Jack Landis."

"And Jack is brave."

"I shouldn't have said that."

"Never mind. Brave, but such a boy."

"Are you serious?"

She looked questioningly at Donnegan and they smiled together, slowly.

"I--I'm glad it's that way," and Donnegan sighed.

"And did you really think it could be any other way?"

"I didn't know. I'm afraid I was blind."

"But the poor girl on the hill; I wish I could see her."

She was watching Donnegan very sharply again.

"A good idea. Why don't you?"

"You seem to like her?"

"Yes," said Donnegan judiciously. "She has an appealing way; I'm very

sorry for her. But I've done my best; I can't help her."

"Isn't there some way?"

"Of what?"

"Of helping her."

Donnegan laughed. "Go to your father and persuade him to send Landis

back to her."

She shook her head.

"Of course, that wouldn't do. There's business mixed up in all this, you

know."

"Business? Well, I guessed at that."

"My part in it wasn't very pleasant," she remarked sadly.

Donnegan was discreetly silent, knowing that silence extracts secrets.

"They made me--flirt with poor Jack. I really liked him!"

How much the past tense may mean!

"Poor fellow," murmured the sympathetic Donnegan. "But why," with

gathering heat, "couldn't you help me to do the thing I can't do alone?

Why couldn't you get him away from the house?"

"With Joe Rix and the Pedlar guarding him?"

"They'll be asleep in the middle of the night."

"But Jack would wake up and make a noise."

"There are things that would make him sleep through anything."

"But how could he be moved?"

"On a horse litter kept ready outside."

"And how carried to the litter?"

"I would carry him." The girl looked at him with a question and then

with a faint smile beginning. "Easily," said Donnegan, stiffening in his

chair. "Very easily."

It pleased her to find this weakness in the pride of the invincible

Donnegan. It gave her a secure feeling of mastery. So she controlled her

smile and looked with a sort of superior kindliness upon the red-headed

little man.

"It's no good," Nelly Lebrun said with a sigh. "Even if he were taken

away--and then it would get you into a bad mess."

"Would it? Worse than I'm in?"

"Hush! Lord Nick is coming to The Corner; and no matter what you've done

so far--I think I could quiet him. But if you were to take Landis

away--then nothing could stop him."

Donnegan sneered.

"I begin to think Lord Nick is a bogie," he said. "Everyone whispers

when they speak of him." He leaned forward. "I should like to meet him,

Nelly Lebrun!"

It staggered Nelly. "Do you mean that?" she cried softly.

"I do."

She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed. "I wonder!"

said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.

"All I ask is a fair chance," he said.

"He is a big man," said the girl maliciously.

The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.

"A large target is more easily hit," he said through his teeth.

Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.

"I can't do it," she said.

Donnegan played a random card.

"I was mistaken," he said darkly. "Jack was not the man I should have

faced. Lord Nick!"

"No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!"

"You can't persuade me. Well, I was a fool not to guess it!"

"I really think," said the girl gloomily, "that as soon as Lord Nick

comes, you'll hunt him out!"

He bowed to her with cold politeness. "In spite of his size," said

Donnegan through his teeth once more.

And at this the girl's face softened and grew merry.

"I'm going to help you to take Jack away," she said, "on one

condition."

"And that?"

"That you won't make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes."

"I shall not avoid him," said Donnegan.

"You're unreasonable! Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him.

I'll arrange it so that Lord Nick won't come hunting trouble."

"And he'll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?"

"Perhaps he'll persuade them to let him go of their own free will."

Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.

"In that case, of course, I shouldn't care at all." He added: "But do

you mean all this?"

"You shall see."

They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with

the girl on his arm. Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan's

followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door

of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill. And

big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man

walking in a fog.

In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a

door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung

between the two horses. In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the

hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him,

two lights were shown. He came back at that and hurried down the hill

with George behind and around the houses until they came to the

pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.

Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and

it was opened from within, softly. Nelly Lebrun stood within.

"It's done," she said. "Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep. They drank

too much."

"Your father."

"Hasn't come home."

"And Jack Landis?"

"No matter what you do, he won't wake up; but be careful of his

shoulder. It's badly torn. How can you carry him?"

She could not see Donnegan's flush, but she heard his teeth grit. And

he slipped through the window, gesturing to George to come close. It was

still darker inside the room--far darker than the starlit night outside.

And the one path of lighter gray was the bed of Jack Landis. His heavy

breathing was the only sound. Donnegan kneeled beside him and worked his

arms under the limp figure.

And while he kneeled there a door in the house was opened and closed

softly. Donnegan stood up.

"Is the door locked?"

"No," whispered the girl.

"Quick!"

"Too late. It's father, and he'd hear the turning of the key."

They waited, while the light, quick step came down the hall of the

cabin. It came to the door, it went past; and then the steps retraced

and the door was opened gently.

There was a light in the hall; the form of Lebrun was outlined black and

distinct..

"Jack!" he whispered.

No sound; he made as if to enter, and then he heard the heavy breathing

of the sleeper, apparently.

"Asleep, poor fool," murmured the gambler, and closed the door.

The door was no sooner closed than Donnegan had raised the body of the

sleeper. Once, as he rose, straining, it nearly slipped from his arms;

and when he stood erect he staggered. But once he had gained his

equilibrium, he carried the wounded man easily enough to the window

through which George reached his long arms and lifted out the burden.

"You see?" said Donnegan, panting, to the girl.

"Yes; it was really wonderful!"

"You are laughing, now."

"I? But hurry. My father has a fox's ear for noises."

"He will not hear this, I think." There was a swift scuffle, very soft

of movement.

"Nelly!" called a far-off voice.

"Hurry, hurry! Don't you hear?"

"You forgive me?"

"No--yes--but hurry!"

"You will remember me?"

"Mr. Donnegan!"

"Adieu!"

She caught a picture of him sitting in the window for the split part of

a second, with his hat off, bowing to her. Then he was gone. And she

went into the hall, panting with excitement.

"Heavens!" Nelly Lebrun murmured. "I feel as if I had been hunted, and I

must look it. What if he--" Whatever the thought was she did not

complete it. "It may have been for the best," added Nelly Lebrun.

29

It is your phlegmatic person who can waken easily in the morning, but an

active mind readjusts itself slowly to the day. So Nelly Lebrun roused

herself with an effort and scowled toward the door at which the hand was

still rapping.

"Yes?" she called drowsily.

"This is Nick. May I come in?"

"This is who?"

The name had brought her instantly into complete wakefulness; she was

out of the bed, had slipped her feet into her slippers and whipped a

dressing gown around her while she was asking the question. It was a

luxurious little boudoir which she had managed to equip. Skins of the

lynx, cunningly matched, had been sewn together to make her a rug, and

the soft fur of the wildcat was the outer covering of her bed. She threw

back the tumbled bedclothes, tossed half a dozen pillows into place,

transforming it into a day couch, and ran to the mirror.

And in the meantime, the deep voice outside the door was saying: "Yes,

Nick. May I come in?"

She gave a little ecstatic cry, but while it was still tingling on her

lips, she was winding her hair into shape with lightning speed; had

dipped the tips of her fingers in cold water and rubbed her eyes awake

and brilliant, and with one circular rub had brought the color into her

cheeks.

Scarcely ten seconds from the time when she first answered the knock,

Nelly was opening the door and peeping out into the hall.

The rest was done by the man without; he cast the door open with the

pressure of his foot, caught the girl in his arms, and kissed her; and

while he closed the door the girl slipped back and stood with one hand

pressed against her face, and her face held that delightful expression

halfway between laughter and embarrassment. As for Lord Nick, he did not

even smile. He was not, in fact, a man who was prone to gentle

expressions, but having been framed by nature for a strong dominance

over all around him, his habitual expression was a proud

self-containment. It would have been insolence in another man; in Lord

Nick it was rather leonine.

He was fully as tall as Jack Landis, but he carried his height easily,

and was so perfectly proportioned that unless he was seen beside another

man he did not look large. The breadth of his shoulders was concealed by

the depth of his chest; and the girth of his throat was made to appear

quite normal by the lordly size of the head it supported. To crown and

set off his magnificent body there was a handsome face; and he had the

combination of active eyes and red hair, which was noticeable in

Donnegan, too. In fact, there was a certain resemblance between the two

men; in the set of the jaw for instance, in the gleam of the eye, and

above all in an indescribable ardor of spirit, which exuded from them

both. Except, of course, that in Donnegan, one was conscious of all

spirit and very little body, but in Lord Nick hand and eye were terribly

mated. Looking upon so splendid a figure, it was no wonder that the

mountain desert had forgiven the crimes of Lord Nick because of the

careless insolence with which he treated the law. It requires an

exceptional man to make a legal life attractive and respected; it takes

a genius to make law-breaking glorious.

No wonder that Nelly Lebrun stood with her hand against her cheek,

looking him over, smiling happily at him, and questioning him about his

immediate past all in the same glance. He waved her back to her couch,

and she hesitated. Then, as though she remembered that she now had to

do with Lord Nick in person, she obediently curled up on the lounge, and

waited expectantly.

"I hear you've been raising the devil," said this singularly frank

admirer.

The girl merely looked at him.

"Well?" he insisted.

"I haven't done a thing," protested Nelly rather childishly.

"No?" One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the

contrary but that he was restraining himself--it was not worthwhile to

bother with such a girl seriously. "Things have fallen into a tangle

since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father

has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this

was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?"

He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.

"How could I help it? I'm not a watchdog."

He was silent for a time. "Well," he said, "if you told me the truth I

suppose I shouldn't love you, my girl. But this time I'm in earnest.

Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint."

"I suppose you'll get him back?"

"First, I want to find out how he got away."

"I know how."

"Ah?"

"Donnegan."

"Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!" burst out Lord Nick, and though he did

not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly

so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger.

"Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one

of them! You, too!"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Donnegan thrills The Corner!" went on the big man in the same terrible

voice. "Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis;

Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him.

Why, Nelly, it looks as though I'll have to kill this intruding fool!"

She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.

"It's a long time since you've killed a man, isn't it?" she asked

coldly.

"It's an awful business," declared Lord Nick. "Always complications;

have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads

are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas."

"Well," murmured the girl, "don't cross that bridge until you come to

it; and you'll never come to it."

"Never. Because I don't want him killed."

"Ah," Lord Nick murmured. "And why?"

"Because he's in love--with me."

"Tush!" said Lord Nick. "I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare

fellow, but he couldn't have gotten Landis out of this house without

help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to

find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not

the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who

doesn't fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you're the

one!"

She hesitated a breathless instant.

"Yes," she said. "I am."

She added, as he stared calmly at her, considering: "There's a girl in

the case. She came up here to get Landis; seems he was in love with her

once. And I pitied her. I sent him back to her. Suppose he is a mint;

haven't we coined enough money out of him? Besides, I couldn't have kept

on with it."

"No?"

"He was getting violent, and he talked marriage all day, every day. I

haven't any nerves, you say, but he began to put me on edge. So I got

rid of him."

"Nelly, are you growing a conscience?"

She flushed and then set her teeth.

"But I'll have to teach you business methods, my dear. I have to bring

him back."

"You'll have to go through Donnegan to do it."

"I suppose so."

"You don't understand, Nick. He's different."

"Eh?"

"He's like you."

"What are you driving at?"

"Nick, I tell you upon my word of honor, no matter what a terrible

fighter you may be, Donnegan will give you trouble. He has your hair

and your eyes and he moves like a cat. I've never seen such a

man--except you. I'd rather see you fight the plague than fight

Donnegan!"

For the first time Lord Nick showed real emotion; he leaned a little

forward.

"Just what does he mean to you?" he asked. "I've stood for a good deal,

Nelly; I've given you absolute freedom, but if I ever suspect you--"

The lion was up in him unmistakably now. And the girl shrank.

"If it were serious, do you suppose I'd talk like this?"

"I don't know. You're a clever little devil, Nell. But I'm clever, too.

And I begin to see through you. Do you still want to save Donnegan?"

"For your own sake."

He stood up.

"I'm going up the hill today. If Donnegan's there, I'll go through him;

but I'm going to have Landis back!"

She, also, rose.

"There's only one way out and I'll take that way. I'll get Donnegan to

leave the house."

"I don't care what you do about that."

"And if he isn't there, will you give me your word that you won't hunt

him out afterward?"

"I never make promises, Nell."

"But I'll trust you, Nick."

"Very well. I start up the hill in an hour. You have that long."

30

The air was thin and chilly; snow had fallen in the mountains to the

north, and the wind was bringing the cold down to The Corner. Nelly

Lebrun noted this as she dressed and made up her mind accordingly. She

sent out two messages: one to the cook to send breakfast to her room,

which she ate while she finished dressing with care; and the other to

the gambling house, summoning one of the waiters. When he came, she gave

him a note for Donnegan. The fellow flashed a glance at her as he took

the envelope. There was no need to give that name and address in The

Corner, and the girl tingled under the glance.

She finished her breakfast and then concentrated in polishing up her

appearance. From all of which it may be gathered that Nelly Lebrun was

in love with Donnegan, but she really was not. But he had touched in her

that cord of romance which runs through every woman; whenever it is

touched the vibration is music, and Nelly was filled with the sound of

it. And except for Lord Nick, there is no doubt that she would have

really lost her head; for she kept seeing the face of Donnegan, as he

had leaned toward her across the little table in Milligan's. And that,

as anyone may know, is a dangerous symptom.

Her glances were alternating between her mirror and her watch, and the

hands of the latter pointed to the fact that fifty minutes of her hour

had elapsed when a message came up that she was waited for in the street

below. So Nelly Lebrun went down in her riding costume, the corduroy

swishing at each step, and tapping her shining boots with the riding

crop. Her own horse she found at the hitching rack, and beside it

Donnegan was on his chestnut horse. It was a tall horse, and he looked

more diminutive than ever before, pitched so high in the saddle.

He was on the ground in a flash with the reins tucked under one arm and

his hat under the other; she became aware of gloves and white-linen

stock, and pale, narrow face. Truly Donnegan made a natty appearance.

"There's no day like a cool day for riding," she said, "and I thought

you might agree with me."

He untethered her horse while he murmured an answer. But for his

attitude she cared little so long as she had him riding away from that

house on the hill where Lord Nick in all his terror would appear in some

few minutes. Besides, as they swung up the road--the chestnut at a

long-strided canter and Nelly's black at a soft and choppy pace--the

wind of the gallop struck into her face; Nelly was made to enjoy things

one by one and not two by two. They hit over the hills, and when the

first impulse of the ride was done they were a mile or more away from

The Corner--and Lord Nick.

The resemblance between the two men was less striking now that she had

Donnegan beside her. He seemed more wizened, paler, and intense as a

violin string screwed to the snapping point; there was none of the

lordly tolerance of Nick about him; he was like a bull terrier compared

with a stag hound. And only the color of his eyes and his hair made her

make the comparison at all.

"What could be better?" she said when they checked their horses on a

hilltop to look over a gradual falling of the ground below. "What could

be better?" The wind flattened a loose curl of hair against her cheek,

and overhead the wild geese were flying and crying, small and far away.

"One thing better," said Donnegan, "and that is to sit in a chair and

see this."

She frowned at such frankness; it was almost blunt discourtesy.

"You see, I'm a lazy man."

"How long has it been," the girl asked sharply, "since you have slept?"

"Two days, I think."

"What's wrong?"

He lifted his eyes slowly from a glittering, distant rock, and brought

his glance toward her by degrees. He had a way of exciting people even

in the most commonplace conversation, and the girl felt a thrill under

his look.

"That," said Donnegan, "is a dangerous question."

And he allowed such hunger to come into his eye that she caught her

breath. The imp of perversity made her go on.

"And why dangerous?"

It was an excellent excuse for an outpouring of the heart from Donnegan,

but, instead, his eyes twinkled at her.

"You are not frank," he remarked.

She could not help laughing, and her laughter trailed away musically in

her excitement.

"Having once let down the bars I cannot keep you at arm's length. After

last night I suppose I should never have let you see me for--days and

days."

"That's why I'm curious," said Donnegan, "and not flattered. I'm trying

to find what purpose you have in taking me riding."

"I wonder," she said thoughtfully, "if you will."

And since such fencing with the wits delighted her, she let all her

delight come with a sparkle in her eyes.

"I have one clue."

"Yes?"

"And that is that you may have the old-woman curiosity to find out how

many ways a man can tell her that he's fond of her."

Though she flushed a little she kept her poise admirably.

"I suppose that is part of my interest," she admitted.

"I can think of a great many ways of saying it," said Donnegan. "I am

the dry desert, you are the rain, and yet I remain dry and produce no

grass." "A very pretty comparison," said the girl with a smile.

"A very green one," and Donnegan smiled. "I am the wind and you are the

wild geese, and yet I keep on blowing after you are gone and do not

carry away a feather of you."

"Pretty again."

"And silly. But, really, you are very kind to me, and I shall try not to

take too much advantage of it."

"Will you answer a question?"

"I had rather ask one: but go on."

"What made you so dry a desert, Mr. Donnegan?"

"There is a very leading question again."

"I don't mean it that way. For you had the same sad, hungered look the

first time I saw you--when you came into Milligan's in that beggarly

disguise."

"I shall confess one thing. It was not a disguise. It was the fact of

me; I am a beggarly person."

"Nonsense! I'm not witless, Mr. Donnegan. You talk well. You have an

education."

"In fact I have an educated taste; I disapprove of myself, you see, and

long ago learned not to take myself too seriously."

"Which leads to--"

"The reason why I have wandered so much."

"Like a hunter on a trail. Hunting for what?"

"A chance to sit in a saddle--or a chair--and talk as we are talking."

"Which seems to be idly."

"Oh, you mistake me. Under the surface I am as serious as fire."

"Or ice."

At the random hit he glanced sharply at her, but she was looking a

little past him, thinking.

"I have tried to get at the reason behind all your reasons," she said.

"You came on me in a haphazard fashion, and yet you are not a haphazard

sort."

"Do you see nothing serious about me?"

"I see that you are unhappy," said the girl gently. "And I am sorry."

Once again Donnegan was jarred, and he came within an ace of opening

his mind to her, of pouring out the truth about Lou Macon. Love is a

talking madness in all men and he came within an ace of confessing his

troubles.

"Let's go on," she said, loosening her rein.

"Why not cut back in a semicircle toward The Corner?"

"Toward The Corner? No, no!"

There was a brightening of his eye as he noted her shudder of distaste

or fear, and she strove to cover her traces.

"I'm sick of the place," she said eagerly. "Let's get as far from it as

we may."

"But yonder is a very good trail leading past it."

"Of course we'll ride that way if you wish, but I'd rather go straight

ahead."

If she had insisted stubbornly he would have thought nothing, but the

moment she became politic he was on his guard.

"You dislike something in The Corner," he said, thinking carelessly and

aloud. "You are afraid of something back there. But what could you be

afraid of? Then you may be afraid of something for me. Ah, I have it!

They have decided to 'get' me for taking Jack Landis away; Joe Rix and

the Pedlar are waiting for me to come back!"

He looked steadily and she attempted to laugh.

"Joe Rix and the Pedlar? I would not stack ten like them against you!"

"Then it is someone else."

"I haven't said so. Of course there's no one."

She shook her rein again, but Donnegan sat still in his saddle and

looked fixedly at her.

"That's why you brought me out here," he announced. "Oh, Nelly Lebrun,

what's behind your mind? Who is it? By heaven, it's this Lord Nick!"

"Mr. Donnegan, you're letting your imagination run wild."

"It's gone straight to the point. But I'm not angry. I think I may get

back in time."

He turned his horse, and the girl swung hers beside him and caught his

arm.

"Don't go!" she pleaded. "You're right; it's Nick, and it's suicide to

face him!"

The face of Donnegan set cruelly.

"The main obstacle," he said. "Come and watch me handle it!"

But she dropped her head and buried her face in her hands, and, sitting

there for a long time, she heard his careless whistling blow back to her

as he galloped toward The Corner.

31

If Nelly Lebrun had consigned him mentally to the worms, that thought

made not the slightest impression upon Donnegan. A chance for action was

opening before him, and above all a chance of action in the eye of Lou

Macon; and he welcomed with open arms the thought that he would have an

opportunity to strike for her, and keep Landis with her. He went arrowy

straight and arrowy fast to the cabin on the hill, and he found ample

evidence that it had become a center of attention in The Corner. There

was a scattering of people in the distance, apparently loitering with no

particular purpose, but undoubtedly because they awaited an explosion of

some sort. He went by a group at which the chestnut shied, and as

Donnegan straightened out the horse again he caught a look of both

interest and pity on the faces of the men.

Did they give him up so soon as it was known that Lord Nick had entered

the lists against him? Had all his display in The Corner gone for

nothing as against the repute of this terrible mystery man? His vanity

made him set his teeth again.

Dismounting before the cabin of the colonel, he found that worthy in

his invalid chair, enjoying a sun bath in front of his house. But there

was no sign of Lord Nick--no sign of Lou. A grim fear came to Donnegan

that he might have to attack Nick in his own stronghold, for Jack Landis

might already have been taken away to the Lebrun house.

So he went straight to the colonel, and when he came close he saw that

the fat man was apparently in the grip of a chill. He had gathered a

vast blanket about his shoulders and kept drawing it tighter; beneath

his eyes, which looked down to the ground, there were violet shadows.

"I've lost," said Donnegan through his teeth. "Lord Nick has been here?"

The invalid lifted his eyes, and Donnegan saw a terrible thing--that the

nerve of the fat man had been crushed. The folds of his face quivered as

he answered huskily: "He has been here!"

"And Landis is gone?"

"No."

"Not gone? Then--"

"Nick has gone to get a horse litter. He came up just to clear the way."

"When he comes back he'll find me!"

The glance of the colonel cleared long enough to survey Donnegan slowly

from head to foot, and his amusement sent the familiar hot flush over

the face of the little man. He straightened to his full height, which,

in his high heels, was not insignificant. But the colonel was apparently

so desperate that he was willing to throw caution away.

"Compared with Lord Nick, Donnegan," he said, "you don't look half a

man--even with those heels."

And he smiled calmly at Donnegan in the manner of one who, having

escaped the lightning bolt itself, does not fear mere thunder.

"There is no fool like a fat fool," said Donnegan with childish

viciousness. "What did Lord Nick, as you call him, do to you? He's

brought out the yellow, my friend."

The colonel accepted the insult without the quiver of an eyelid.

Throughout he seemed to be looking expectantly beyond Donnegan.

"My young friend," he said, "you have been very useful to me. But I

must confess that you are no longer a tool equal to the task. I dismiss

you. I thank you cordially for your efforts. They are worthless. You see

that crowd gathering yonder? They have come to see Lord Nick prepare you

for a hole in the ground. And make no mistake: if you are here when he

returns that hole will have to be dug--unless they throw you out for the

claws of the buzzards. In the meantime, our efforts have been wasted

completely. I hadn't enough time. I had thrown the fear of sudden death

into Landis, and in another hour he would have signed away his soul to

me for fear of poison."

The colonel paused to chuckle at some enjoyable memory.

"Then Nick came. You see, I know all about Nick."

"And Nick knows all about you?"

For a moment the agate, catlike eyes of the colonel clouded and cleared

again in their unfathomable manner.

"At moments, Donnegan," he said, "you have rare perceptions. That is

exactly it--Nick knows just about everything concerning me. And so--roll

your pack and climb on your horse and get away. I think you may have

another five minutes before he comes."

Donnegan turned on his heel. He went to the door of the hut and threw it

open. Lou sat beside Landis holding his hand, and the murmur of her

voice was still pleasant as an echo through the room when she looked and

saw Donnegan. At that she rose and her face hardened as she looked at

him. Landis, also, lifted his head, and his face was convulsed with

hatred. So Donnegan closed the door and went softly away to his own

shack.

She hated him even as Landis hated him, it seemed. He should have known

that he would not be thanked for bringing back her lover to her with a

bullet through his shoulder. Sitting in his cabin, he took his head

between his hands and thought of life and death, and made up his mind.

He was afraid. If Lord Nick had been the devil himself Donnegan could

not have been more afraid. But if the big stranger had been ten devils

instead of one Donnegan would not have found it in his soul to run away.

Nothing remained for him in The Corner, it seemed, except his position

as a man of power--a dangerous fighter. It was a less than worthless

position, and yet, once having taken it up, he could not abandon it.

More than one gunfighter has been in the same place, forced to act as a

public menace long after he has ceased to feel any desire to fight. Of

selfish motives there remained not a scruple to him, but there was still

the happiness of Lou Macon. If the boy were taken back to Lebrun's, it

would be fatal to her. For even if Nelly wished, she could not teach her

eyes new habits, and she would ceaselessly play on the heart of the

wounded man.

It was the cessation of all talk from the gathering crowd outside that

made Donnegan lift his head at length, and know that Lord Nick had come.

But before he had time to prepare himself, the door was cast open and

into it, filling it from side to side, stepped Lord Nick.

There was no need of an introduction. Donnegan knew him by the aptness

with which the name fitted that glorious figure of a man and by the

calm, confident eye which now was looking him slowly over, from head to

foot. Lord Nick closed the door carefully behind him.

"The colonel told me," he said in his deep, smooth voice, "that you were

waiting for me here."

And Donnegan recognized the snakelike malice of the fat man in drawing

him into the fight. But he dismissed that quickly from his mind. He was

staring, fascinated, into the face of the other. He was a reader of men,

was Donnegan; he was a reader of mind, too. In his life of battle he had

learned to judge the prowess of others at a glance, just as a musician

can tell the quality of a violin by the first note he hears played upon

it. So Donnegan judged the quality of fighting men, and, looking into

the face of Lord Nick, he knew that he had met his equal at last.

It was a great and a bitter moment to him. The sense of physical

smallness he had banished a thousand times by the recollection of his

speed of hand and his surety with weapons. He had looked at men

muscularly great and despised them in the knowledge that a gun or a

knife would make him their master. But in Lord Nick he recognized his

own nerveless speed of hand, his own hair-trigger balance, his own

deadly seriousness and contempt of life. The experience in battle was

there, too. And he began to feel that the size of the other crushed him

to the floor and made him hopeless. It was unnatural, it was wrong, that

this giant in the body should be a giant in adroitness also.

Already Donnegan had died one death before he rose from his chair and

stood to the full of his height ready to die again and summoning his

nervous force to meet the enemy. He had seen that the big man had

followed his own example and had measured him at a glance.

Indeed the history of some lives of action held less than the

concentrated silence of these two men during that second's space.

And now Donnegan felt the cold eye of the other eating into his own,

striving to beat him down, break his nerve. For an instant panic got

hold on Donnegan. He, himself, had broken the nerve of other men by the

weight of his unaided eye. Had he not reduced poor Jack Landis to a

trembling wreck by five minutes of silence? And had he not seen other

brave men become trembling cowards unable to face the light, and all

because of that terrible power which lies in the eye of some? He fought

away the panic, though perspiration was pouring out upon his forehead

and beneath his armpits.

"The colonel is very kind," said Donnegan.

And that moment he sent up a prayer of thankfulness that his voice was

smooth as silk, and that he was able to smile into the face of Lord

Nick. The brow of the other clouded and then smoothed itself deftly.

Perhaps he, too, recognized the clang of steel upon steel and knew the

metal of his enemy.

"And therefore," said Lord Nick, "since most of The Corner expects

business from us, it seems much as if one of us must kill the other

before we part."

"As a matter of fact," said Donnegan, "I have been keeping that in

mind." He added, with that deadly smile of his that never reached his

eyes: "I never disappoint the public when it's possible to satisfy

them."

"No," and Lord Nick nodded, "you seem to have most of the habits of an

actor--including an inclination to make up for your part."

Donnegan bit his lip until it bled, and then smiled.

"I have been playing to fools," he said. "Now I shall enjoy a

discriminating critic."

"Yes," remarked Lord Nick, "actors generally desire an intelligent

audience for the death scene."

"I applaud your penetration and I shall speak well of you when this

disagreeable duty is finished."

"Come," and Lord Nick smiled genially, "you are a game little cock!"

The telltale flush crimsoned Donnegan's face. And if the fight had begun

at that moment no power under heaven could have saved Lord Nick from the

frenzy of the little man.

"My size keeps me from stooping," said Donnegan, "I shall look up to

you, sir, until the moment you fall."

"Well hit again! You are also a wit, I see! Donnegan, I am almost sorry

for the necessity of this meeting. And if it weren't for the audience--"

"Say no more," said Donnegan, bowing. "I read your heart and appreciate

all you intend."

He had touched his stock as he bowed, and now he turned to the mirror

and carefully adjusted it, for it was a little awry from the ride; but

in reality he used that moment to examine his own face, and the set of

his jaw and the clearness of his eye reassured him. Turning again, he

surprised a glint of admiration in the glance of Lord Nick.

"We are at one, sir, it appears," he said. "And there is no other way

out of this disagreeable necessity?"

"Unfortunately not. I have a certain position in these parts. People are

apt to expect a good deal of me. And for my part I see no way out except

a gunplay--no way out between the devil and the moon!"

Astonishment swept suddenly across the face of the big man, for

Donnegan, turning white as death, shrank toward the wall as though he

had that moment received cold steel in his body.

"Say that again!" said Donnegan hoarsely.

"I said there was no way out," repeated Lord Nick, and though he kept

his right hand in readiness, he passed his left through his red hair and

stared at Donnegan with a tinge of contempt; he had seen men buckle like

this at the last moment when their backs were to the wall.

"Between--" repeated Donnegan.

"The devil and the moon. Do you see a way yourself?"

He was astonished again to see Donnegan wince as if from a blow. His

lips were trembling and they writhed stiffly over his words.

"Who taught you that expression?" said Donnegan.

"A gentleman," said Lord Nick.

"Ah?"

"My father, sir!"

"Oh, heaven," moaned Donnegan, catching his hands to his breast. "Oh,

heaven, forgive us!"

"What the devil is in you?" asked Lord Nick.

The little man stood erect again and his eyes were now on fire.

"You are Henry Nicholas Reardon," he said.

Lord Nick set his teeth.

"Now," he said, "it is certain that you must die!"

But Donnegan cast out his arms and broke into a wild laughter.

"Oh, you fool, you fool!" he cried. "Don't you know me? I am the

cripple!"

32

The big man crossed the floor with one vast stride, and, seizing

Donnegan by both shoulders, dragged him under the full light of the

window; and still the crazy laughter shook Donnegan and made him

helpless.

"They tied me to a board--like a papoose," said Donnegan, "and they

straightened my back--but they left me this way--wizened up." He was

stammering; hysterical, and the words tumbled from his lips in a jumble.

"That was a month after you ran away from home. I was going to find you.

Got bigger. Took the road. Kept hunting. Then I met a yegg who told

about Rusty Dick--described him like you--I thought--I thought you were

dead!"

And the tears rolled down his face; he sobbed like a woman.

A strange thing happened then. Lord Nick lifted the little man in his

arms as if he were a child and literally carried him in that fashion to

the bunk. He put him down tenderly, still with one mighty arm around his

back.

"You are Garry? You!"

"Garrison Donnegan Reardon. Aye, that's what I am. Henry, don't say

that you don't know me!"

"But--your back--I thought--"

"I know--hopeless they said I was. But they brought in a young doctor.

Now look at me. Little. I never grew big--but hard, Henry, as leather!"

And he sprang to his feet. And knowing that Donnegan had begun life as a

cripple it was easy to appreciate certain things about his expression--a

cold wistfulness, and his manner of reading the minds of men. Lord Nick

was like a man in a dream. He dragged Donnegan back to the bunk and

forced him to sit down with the weight of his arms. And he could not

keep his hands from his younger brother. As though he were blind and had

to use the sense of touch to reassure him.

"I heard lies. They said everybody was dead. I thought--"

"The fever killed them all, except me. Uncle Toby took me in. He was a

devil. Helped me along, but I left him when I could. And--"

"Don't tell me any more. All that matters is that I have you at last,

Garry. Heaven knows it's a horrible thing to be kithless and kinless,

but I have you now! Ah, lad, but the old pain has left its mark on you.

Poor Garry!"

Donnegan shuddered.

"I've forgotten it. Don't bring it back."

"I keep feeling that you should be in that chair."

"I know. But I'm not. I'm hard as nails, I tell you."

He leaped to his feet again.

"And not so small as you might think, Henry!"

"Oh, big enough, Garry. Big enough to paralyze The Corner, from what

I've heard."

"I've been playing a game with 'em, Henry. And now--if one of us could

clear the road, what will we do together? Eh?"

The smile of Lord Nick showed his teeth.

"Haven't I been hungry all my life for a man like you, lad? Somebody to

stand and guard my back while I faced the rest of the world?"

"And I'll do my share of the facing, too."

"You will, Garry. But I'm your elder."

"Man, man! Nobody's my elder except one that's spent half his life--as I

have done!"

"We'll teach you to forget the pain I'll make life roses for you,

Garry."

"And the fools outside thought--"

Donnegan broke into a soundless laughter, and, running to the door,

opened it a fraction of an inch and peeped out.

"They're standing about in a circle. I can see 'em gaping. Even from

here. What will they think, Henry?"

Lord Nick ground his teeth.

"They'll think I've backed down from you," he said gloomily. "They'll

think I've taken water for the first time."

"Why, confound 'em, the first man that opens his head--"

"I know, I know. You'd fill his mouth with lead, and so would I. But if

it ever gets about--as it's sure to--that Lord, Nick, as they call me,

has been bluffed down without a fight, I'll have every Chinaman that

cooks on the range talking back to me. I'll have to start all over

again."

"Don't say that, Henry. Don't you see that I'll go out and explain that

I'm your brother?"

"What good will that do? No, do we look alike?"

Donnegan stopped short.

"I'm not very big," he said rather coldly, "but then I'm not so very

small, either. I've found myself big enough, speaking in general.

Besides, we have the same hair and eyes."

"Why, man, people will laugh when they hear that we call ourselves

brothers."

Donnegan ground his teeth and the old flush burned upon his face.

"I'll cut some throats if they do," he said, trembling with his passion.

"I can hear them say it. 'Lord Nick walked in on Donnegan prepared to

eat him up. He measured him up and down, saw that he was a fighting

wildcat in spite of his size, and decided to back out. And Donnegan was

willing. They couldn't come out without a story of some kind--with the

whole world expecting a death in that cabin--so they framed a crazy

cock-and-bull story about being brothers.' I can hear them say that,

Donnegan, and it makes me wild!"

"Do you call me Donnegan?" said Donnegan sadly.

"No, no. Garry, don't be so touchy. You've never got over that, I see.

Still all pride and fire."

"You're not very humble yourself, Henry."

"Maybe not, maybe not. But I've been in a certain position around these

parts, Don--Garry. And it's hard to see it go!"

Donnegan closed his eyes in deep reverie. And then he forced out the

words one by one.

"Henry, I'll let everybody know that it was I who backed down. That we

were about to fight." He was unable to speak; he tore the stock loose at

his throat and went on: "We were about to fight; I lost my nerve; you

couldn't shoot a helpless man. We began to talk. We found out we are

brothers--"

"Damnation!" broke out Lord Nick, and he struck himself violently across

the forehead with the back of his hand. "I'm a skunk, Garry, lad. Why,

for a minute I was about to let you do it. No. no, no! A thousand times

no!"

It was plain to be seen that he was arguing himself away from the

temptation.

"What do I care what they say? We'll cram the words back down their

throats and be hanged to 'em. Here I am worrying about myself like a

selfish dog without letting myself be happy over finding you. But I am

happy, Garry. Heaven knows it. And you don't doubt it, do you, old

fellow?"

"Ah," said Donnegan, and he smiled to cover a touch of sadness. "I hope

not. No, I don't doubt you, of course. I've spent my life wishing for

you since you left us, you see. And then I followed you for three years

on the road, hunting everywhere."

"You did that?"

"Yes. Three years. I liked the careless life. For to tell you the truth,

I'm not worth much, Henry. I'm a loafer by instinct, and--"

"Not another word." There were tears in the eyes of Lord Nick, and he

frowned them away. "Confound it, Garry, you unman me. I'll be weeping

like a woman in a minute. But now, sit down. We still have some things

to talk over. And we'll get to a quick conclusion."

"Ah, yes," said Donnegan, and at the emotion which had come in the face

of Lord Nick, his own expression softened wonderfully. A light seemed to

stand in his face. "We'll brush over the incidentals. And everything is

incidental aside from the fact that we're together again. They can

chisel iron chain apart, but we'll never be separated again, God

willing!" He looked up as he spoke, and his face was for the moment as

pure as the face of a child--Donnegan, the thief, the beggar, the liar

by gift, and the man-killer by trade and artistry.

But Lord Nick in the meantime was looking down to the floor and

mustering his thoughts.

"The main thing is entirely simple," he said. "You'll make one

concession to my pride, Garry, boy?"

"Can you ask me?" said Donnegan softly, and he cast out his hands in a

gesture that offered his heart and his soul. "Can you ask me? Anything I

have is yours!"

"Don't say that," answered Lord Nick tenderly. "But this small thing--my

pride, you know--I despise myself for caring what people think, but I'm

weak. I admit it, but I can't help it."

"Talk out, man. You'll see if there's a bottom to things that I can

give!"

"Well, it's this. Everyone knows that I came up here to get young Jack

Landis and bring him back to Lebrun's--from which you stole him, you

clever young devil! Well, I'll simply take him back there, Garry; and

then I'll never have to ask another favor of you."

He was astonished by a sudden silence, and looking up again, he saw that

Donnegan sat with his hand at his breast. It was a singularly feminine

gesture to which he resorted. It was a habit which had come to him in

his youth in the invalid chair, when the ceaseless torment of his

crippled back became too great for him to bear.

And clearly, indeed, those days were brought home to Lord Nick as he

glanced up, for Donnegan was staring at him in the same old, familiar

agony, mute and helpless.

33

At this Lord Nick very frankly frowned in turn. And when he frowned his

face grew marvelously dark, like some wrathful god, for there was a

noble, a Grecian purity to the profile of Henry Nicholas Reardon, and

when he frowned he seemed to be scorning, from a distance, ignoble,

earthly things which troubled him.

"I know it isn't exactly easy for you, Garry," he admitted. "You have

your own pride; you have your own position here in The Corner. But I

want you to notice that mine is different. You've spent a day for what

you have in The Corner, here. I've spent ten years. You've played a

prank, acted a part, and cast a jest for what you have. But for the

place which I hold, brother mine, I've schemed with my wits, played fast

and loose, and killed men. Do you hear? I've bought it with blood, and

things you buy at such a price ought to stick, eh?"

He banished his frown; the smile played suddenly across his features.

"Why, I'm arguing with myself. But that look you gave me a minute ago

had me worried for a little while."

At this Donnegan, who had allowed his head to fall, so that he seemed

to be nodding in acquiescence, now raised his face and Lord Nick

perceived the same white pain upon it. The same look which had been on

the face of the cripple so often in the other days.

"Henry," said the younger brother, "I give you my oath that my pride has

nothing to do with this. I'd let you drive me barefoot before you

through the street yonder. I'd let every soul in The Corner know that I

have no pride where you're concerned. I'll do whatever you wish--with

one exception--and that one is the unlucky thing you ask. Pardner, you

mustn't ask for Jack Landis! Anything else I'll work like a slave to get

for you: I'll fight your battles, I'll serve you in any way you name:

but don't take Landis back!"

He had talked eagerly, the words coming with a rush, and he found at the

end that Lord Nick was looking at him in bewilderment.

"When a man is condemned to death," said Lord Nick slowly, "suppose

somebody offers him anything in the world that he wants--palaces,

riches, power--everything except his life. What would the condemned man

say to a friend who made such an offer? He'd laugh at him and then call

him a traitor. Eh? But I don't laugh at you, Garry. I simply explain to

you why I have to have Landis back. Listen!"

He counted off his points upon the tips of his fingers, in the confident

manner of a teacher who deals with a stupid child, waiting patiently for

the young mind to comprehend.

"We've been bleeding Jack Landis. Do you know why? Because it was Lester

who made the strike up here. He started out to file his claim. He

stopped at the house of Colonel Macon. That old devil learned the

location, learned everything; detained Lester with a trick, and rushed

young Landis away to file the claims for himself. Then when Lester came

up here he found that his claims had been jumped, and when he went to

the law there was no law that could help him. He had nothing but his

naked word for what he had discovered. And naturally the word of a

ruffian like Lester had no weight against the word of Landis. And, you

see, Landis thought that he was entirely in the right. Lester tried the

other way; tried to jump the claims; and was shot down by Landis. So

Lester sent for me. What was I to do? Kill Landis? The mine would go to

his heirs. I tried a different way--bleeding him of his profits, after

I'd explained to him that he was in the wrong. He half admitted that,

but he naturally wouldn't give up the mines even after we'd almost

proved to him that Lester had the first right. So Landis has been mining

the gold and we've been drawing it away from him. It looks tricky, but

really it's only just. And Lester and Lebrun split with me.

"But I tell you, Garry, that I'd give up everything without an

afterthought. I'll give up the money and I'll make Lebrun and Lester

shut up without a word. I'll make them play square and not try to knife

Landis in the back. I'll do all that willingly--for you! But, Garry, I

can't give up taking Landis back to Lebrun's and keeping him there until

he's well. Why, man, I saw him in the hut just now. He wants to go. He's

afraid of the old colonel as if he were poison--and I think he's wise in

being afraid."

"The colonel won't touch him," said Donnegan.

"No?"

"No. I've told him what would happen if he does."

"Tush. Garry, Colonel Macon is the coldest-blooded murderer I've ever

known. But come out in the open, lad. You see that I'm ready to listen

to reason--except on one point. Tell me why you're so set on this

keeping of Landis here against my will and even against the lad's own

will? I'm reasonable, Garry. Do you doubt that?"

Explaining his own mildness, the voice of Lord Nick swelled again and

filled the room, and he frowned on his brother. But Donnegan looked on

him sadly.

"There is a girl--" he began.

"Why didn't I guess it?" exclaimed Lord Nick. "If ever you find a man

unreasonable, stubborn and foolish, you'll always find a woman behind

it! All this trouble because of a piece of calico?"

He leaned back, laughing thunderously in his relief.

"Come, come! I was prepared for a tragedy. Now tell me about this girl.

Who and what is she?"

"The daughter of the colonel."

"You're in love with her? I'm glad to hear it, Garry. As a matter of

fact I've been afraid that you were hunting in my own preserve, but if

it's the colonel's daughter, you're welcome to her. So you love the

girl? She's pretty, lad!"

"I love her?" said Donnegan in an indescribably tender voice. "I love

her? Who am I to love her? A thief, a man-killer, a miserable play

actor, a gambler, a drunkard. I love her? Bah!"

If there was one quality of the mind with which Lord Nick was less

familiar than with all others, it was humbleness of spirit. He now

abased his magnificent head, and resting his chin in the mighty palm of

his hand, he stared with astonishment and commiseration into the face of

Donnegan. He seemed to be learning new things every moment about his

brother.

"Leave me out of the question," said Donnegan.

"Can't be done. If I leave you out, dear boy, there's not one of them

that I care a hang about; I'd ride roughshod over the whole lot. I've

done it before to better men than these!"

"Then you'll change, I know. This is the fact of the matter. She loves

Landis. And if you take Landis away where will you put him?"

"Where he was stolen away. In Lebrun's."

"And what will be in Lebrun's?"

"Joe Rix to guard him and the old negress to nurse him."'

"No, no! Nelly Lebrun will be there!"

"Eh? Are you glancing at her, now?"

"Henry, you yourself know that Landis is mad about that girl."

"Oh, she's flirted a bit with him. Turned the fool's head. He'll come

out of it safe. She won't break his heart. I've seen her work on

others!"

He chuckled at the memory.

"What do I care about Landis?" said Donnegan with unutterable scorn.

"It's the girl. You'll break her heart, Henry; and if you do I'll never

forgive you."

"Steady, lad. This is a good deal like a threat."

"No, no, no! Not a threat, heaven knows!"

"By heaven!" exclaimed Lord Nick. "I begin to be irritated to see you

stick on a silly point like this. Listen to me, lad. Do you mean to say

that you are making all! this trouble about a slip of a girl?"

"The heart of a girl," said Donnegan calmly.

"Let Landis go; then take her in your arms and kiss her worries away. I

warrant you can do it! I gather from Nell that you're not tongue-tied

around women!"

"I?" echoed Donnegan, turning pale. "Don't jest at this, Henry. I'm as

serious as death. She's the type of woman made to love one man, and one

man only. Landis may be common as dirt; but she doesn't see it. She's

fastened her heart on him. I looked in on her a little while ago. She

turned white when she saw me. I brought Landis to her, but she hates me

because I had to shoot him down."

"Garry," said the big man with a twinkle in his eye, "you're in love!"

It shook Donnegan to the core, but he replied instantly; "If I were in

love, don't you suppose that I would have shot to kill when I met

Landis?"

At this his brother blinked, frowned, and shook his head. The point was

apparently plain to him and wiped out his previous convictions. Also, it

eased his mind.

"Then you don't love the girl?"

"I?"

"Either way, my hands are cleared of the worry. If you want her, let me

take Landis. If you don't want her, what difference does it make to you

except silly sentiment?"

Donnegan made no answer.

"If she comes to Lebrun's house, I'll see that Nell doesn't bother him

too much."

"Can you control her? If she wants to see this fool can you keep her

away, and if she goes to him can you control her smiling?"

"Certainly," said Lord Nick, but he flushed heavily.

Donnegan smiled.

"She's a devil of a girl," admitted Henry Reardon. "But this is beside

the point: which is, that you're sticking on a matter that means

everything to me, and which is only a secondhand interest to you--a

point of sentiment. You pity the girl. What's pity? Bah! I pity a dog in

the street, but would I cross you, Garry, lad, to save the dog?

Sentiment, I say, silly sentiment."

Donnegan rose.

"It was a silly sentiment," he said hoarsely, "that put me on the road

following you, Henry. It was a silly sentiment that turned me into a

wastrel, a wanderer, a man without a home and without friends."

"It's wrong to throw that in my face," muttered Lord Nick.

"It is. And I'm sorry for it. But I want you to see that matters of

sentiment may be matters of life and death with me."

"Aye, if it were for you it would be different. I might see my way

clear--but for a girl you have only a distant interest in--"

"It is a matter of whether or not her heart shall be broken."

"Come, come. Let's talk man talk. Besides, girls' hearts don't break in

this country. You're old-fashioned."

"I tell you the question of her happiness is worth more than a dozen

lives like yours and mine."

There had been a gathering impatience in Lord Nick. Now he, also, leaped

to his feet; a giant.

"Tell me in one word: You stick on this point?"

"In one word--yes!"

"Then you deny me, Garry. You set me aside for a silly purpose of your

own--a matter that really doesn't mean much to you. It shows me where I

stand in your eyes--and nothing between the devil and the moon shall

make me sidestep!"

They remained silent, staring at each other. Lord Nick stood with a

flush of anger growing; Donnegan became whiter than ever, and he

stiffened himself to his full height, which, in all who knew him well,

was the danger signal.

"You take Landis?" he said softly.

"I do."

"Not," said Donnegan, "while I live!"

"You mean--" cried Lord Nick.

"I mean it!"

They had been swept back to the point at which that strangest of scenes

began, but this time there was an added element--horror.

"You'd fight?"

"To the death, Henry!"

"Garry, if one of us should kill the other, he'd be cursed forever!"

"I know it."

"And she's worth even this?"

"A thousand times more! What are we? Dust in the wind; dust in the wind.

But a woman like that is divine, Henry!"

Lord Nick swayed a little, setting himself in balance like an animal

preparing for the leap.

"If it comes to the pinch, it is you who will die," he said.

"You've no chance against me, Garry. And I swear to you that I won't

weaken. You prove that you don't care for me. You put another above me.

It's my pride, my life, that you'd sacrifice to the whim of a girl!" His

passion choked him.

"Are you ready?" said Donnegan.

"Yes!"

"Move first!"

"I have never formed the habit."

"Nor I! You fool, take what little advantage you can, because it won't

help you in the end."

"You shall see. I have a second sight, Henry, and it shows me you dead

on the floor there, looking bigger than ever, and I see the gun smoking

in my hand and my heart as dead as ashes! Oh, Henry, if there were only

some other way!"

They were both pale now.

"Aye," murmured Lord Nick, "if we could find a judge. My hand turns to

lead when I think of fighting you, Garry."

Perspiration stood on the face of Donnegan.

"Name a judge; I'll abide by the decision."

"Some man--"

"No, no. What man could understand me? A woman, Henry!"

"Nell Lebrun."

"The girl who loves you? You want me to plead before her?"

"Put her on her honor and she'll be as straight as a string with both of

us."

For a moment Donnegan considered, and at length: "She loves you, Henry.

You have that advantage. You have only to let her know that this is a

vital matter to you and she'll speak as you wish her to speak."

"Nonsense. You don't know her. You've seen yourself that no man can

control her absolutely."

"Make a concession."

"A thousand, Garry, dear boy, if they'll get us clear from this horrible

mess."

"Only this. Leave The Corner for a few hours. Give me until--tonight.

Let me see Nelly during that time. You've had years to work on her. I

want only this time to put my own case before her."

"Thank heaven that we're coming to see light and a way out!"

"Aye, Henry."

The big man wiped his forehead and sighed in his relief.

"A minute ago I was ready--but we'll forget all this. What will you do?

How will you persuade Nelly? I almost think that you intend to make love

to her, Garry!"

The little man turned paler still.

"It is exactly what I intend," he said quietly.

The brow of Lord Nick darkened solemnly, and then he forced a laugh.

"She'll be afraid to turn me down, Garry. But try your own way." He bit

his lips. "Why, if you influence her that way--do it. What's a fickle

jade to me? Nothing!"

"However I do it, you'll stick by her judgment, Henry?"

The perspiration had started on Lord Nick's forehead again. Doubt swayed

him, but pride forced him on.

"I'll come again tonight," he said gloomily. "I'll meet you

in--Milligan's?"

"In Milligan's, then."

Lord Nick, without a word of farewell, stamped across the hut and out.

As for Donnegan, he stepped backward, his legs buckled beneath him, and

when big George entered, with a scared face, he found the little man

half sitting on the bunk, half lying against the wall with the face and

the staring eyes of a dead man.

34

It was a long time before Donnegan left the hut, and when he came out

the crowd which had gathered to watch the fight, or at least to mark the

reports of the guns when those two terrible warriors met, was scattered.

There remained before Donnegan only the colonel in his invalid's chair.

Even from the distance one could see that his expression was changed,

and when the little red-headed man came near the colonel looked up to

him with something akin to humility.

"Donnegan," he said, stopping the other as Donnegan headed for the door

of the hut, "Donnegan, don't go in there just now."

Donnegan turned and came slowly toward him.

"The reason," said the colonel, "is that you probably won't receive a

very cheery reception. Unfortunate--very unfortunate. Lou has turned

wrong-headed for the first time in her life and she won't listen to

reason."

He chuckled softly.

"I never dreamed there was so much of my metal in her. Blood will tell,

my boy; blood will tell. And when you finally get her you'll find that

she's worth waiting for."

"Let me tell you a secret," said Donnegan dryly. "I am no longer waiting

for her!"

"Ah?" smiled the colonel. "Of course not. This bringing of Landis to

her--it was all pure self-sacrifice. It was not an attempt to soften her

heart. It was not a cunning maneuver. Tush! Of course not!"

"I am about to make a profound remark," said Donnegan carelessly.

"By all means."

"You read the minds of other people through a colored glass, colonel.

You see yourself everywhere."

"In other words I put my own motives into the actions and behind the

actions of people? Perhaps. I am full of weaknesses. Very full. In the

meantime let me tell you one important thing--if you have not made the

heart of Lou tender toward you, you have at least frightened her."

The jaw on Donnegan set.

"Excellent!" he said huskily.

"Perhaps better than you think; and to keep you abreast with the times,

you must know another thing. Lou has a silly idea that you are a lost

soul, Donnegan, but she attributes your fall entirely to my weakness.

Nothing can convince her that you did not intend to kill Landis; nothing

can convince her that you did not act on my inspiration. I have tried

arguing. Bah! she overwhelmed me with her scorn. You are a villain, says

Lou, and I have made you one. And for the first time in my memory of

her, her eyes fill with tears."

"Tears?"

"Upon my honor, and when a girl begins to weep about a man I don't need

to say he is close to her heart."

"You are full of maxims, Colonel Macon."

"As a nut is full of meat. Old experience, you know. In the meantime Lou

is perfectly certain that I intend to make away with Landis. Ha, ha,

ha!" The laughter of the colonel was a cheery thunder, and soft as with

distance. "Landis is equally convinced. He begs Lou not to fall asleep

lest I should steal in on him. She hardly dares leave him to cook his

food. I actually think she would have been glad to see that fiend, Lord

Nick, take Landis away!"

Donnegan smiled wanly. But could he tell her, poor girl, the story of

Nelly Lebrun? Landis, in fear of his life, was no doubt at this moment

pouring out protestations of deathless affection.

"And they both consider you an archdemon for keeping Lord Nick away!"

Again Donnegan winced, and coughed behind his hand to cover it.

"However," went on the colonel, "when it comes to matters with the

hearts of women, I trust to time. Time alone will show her that Landis

is a puppy."

"In the meantime, colonel, she keeps you from coming near Landis?"

"Not at all! You fail to understand me and my methods, dear boy. I have

only to roll my chair into the room and sit and smile at Jack in order

to send him into an hysteria of terror. It is amusing to watch. And I

can be there while Lou is in the room and through a few careful

innuendoes convey to Landis my undying determination to either remove

him from my path and automatically become his heir, or else secure from

him a legal transfer of his rights to the mines."

"I have learned," said Donnegan, "that Landis has not the slightest

claim to them himself. And that you set him on the trail of the claims

by trickery."

The colonel did not wince.

"Of course not," said the fat trickster. "Not the slightest right. My

claim is a claim of superior wits, you see. And in the end all your

labor shall be rewarded, for my share will go to Lou and through her it

shall come to you. No?"

"Quite logical."

The colonel disregarded the other's smile.

"But I have a painful confession to make."

"Well?"

"I misjudged you, Donnegan. A moment since, when I was nearly distraught

with disappointment, I said some most unpleasant things to you."

"I have forgotten them."

But the colonel raised his strong forefinger and shook his head,

smiling.

"No, no, Donnegan. If you deny it, I shall know that you are harboring

the most undying grudge against me. As a matter of fact, I have just

had an interview with Lord Nick, and the cursed fellow put my nerves on

edge."

The colonel made a wry face.

"And when you came, I saw no manner in which you could possibly thwart

him."

His eyes grew wistful.

"Between friends--as a son to his future father," he said softly, "can't

you tell me what the charm was that you used on. Nick to send him away?

I watched him come out of the shack. He was in a fury. I could see that

by the way his head thrust out between his big shoulders. And when he

went down the hill he was striding like a giant, but every now and then

he would stop short, and his head would go up as if he were tempted to

turn around and go back, but didn't quite have the nerve. Donnegan, tell

me the trick of it?"

"Willingly. I appealed to his gambling instinct."

"Which leaves me as much in the dark as ever."

But Donnegan smiled in his own peculiar and mirthless manner and he went

on to the hut. Not that he expected a cheery greeting from Lou Macon,

but he was drawn by the same perverse instinct which tempts a man to

throw himself from a great height. At the door he paused a moment. He

could distinguish no words, but he caught the murmur of Lou's voice as

she talked to Jack Landis, and it had that infinitely gentle quality

which only a woman's voice can have, and only when she nurses the sick.

It was a pleasant torture to Donnegan to hear it. At length he summoned

his resolution and tapped at the door.

The voice of Lou Macon stopped. He heard a hurried and whispered

consultation. What did they expect? Then swift foot-falls on the floor,

and she opened the door. There was a smile of expectancy on her lips;

her eyes were bright; but when she saw Donnegan her lips pinched in. She

stared at him as if he were a ghost.

"I knew; I knew!" she said piteously, falling back a step but still

keeping her hand upon the knob of the door as if to block the way to

Donnegan. "Oh, Jack, he has killed Lord Nick and now he is here--"

To do what? To kill Landis in turn? Her horrified eyes implied as much.

He saw Landis in the distance raise himself upon one elbow and his face

was gray, not with pain but with dread.

"It can't be!" groaned Landis.

"Lord Nick is alive," said Donnegan. "And I have not come here to

torment you; I have only come to ask that you let me speak with you

alone for a moment, Lou!"

He watched her face intently. All the cabin was in deep shadow, but the

golden hair of the girl glowed as if with an inherent light of its own,

and the same light touched her face. Jack Landis was stricken with

panic: he stammered in a dreadful eagerness of fear.

"Don't leave me, Lou. You know what it means. He wants to get you out of

the way so that the colonel can be alone with me. Don't go, Lou! Don't

go!"

As though she saw how hopeless it was to try to bar Donnegan by closing

the door against him, she fell back to the bed. She kept her eye on the

little man, as if to watch against a surprise attack, and, fumbling

behind her, her hand found the hand of Landis and closed over it with

the reassurance of a mother.

"Don't be afraid, Jack. I won't leave you. Not unless they carry me away

by force."

"I give you my solemn word." said Donnegan in torment, "that the colonel

shall not come near Landis while you're away with me."

"Your word!" murmured the girl with a sort of horrified wonder. "Your

word!"

And Donnegan bowed his head.

But all at once she cast out her free hand toward him, while the other

still cherished the weakness of Jack Landis.

"Oh, give them up!" she cried. "Give up my father and all his wicked

plans. There is something good in you. Give him up; come with us;

stand for us: and we shall be grateful all our lives!"

The little man had removed his hat, so that the sunshine burned brightly

on his red hair. Indeed, there was always a flamelike quality about him.

In inaction he seemed femininely frail and pale; but when his spirit was

roused his eyes blazed as his hair burned in the sunlight.

"You shall learn in the end," he said to the girl, "that everything I

do, I do for you."

She cried out as if he had struck her.

"It's not worthy of you," she said bitterly. "You are keeping Jack

here--in peril--for my sake?"

"For your sake," said Donnegan.

She looked at him with a queer pain in her eyes.

"To keep you from needless lying," she said, "let me tell you that Jack

has told me everything. I am not angry because you come and pretend that

you do all these horrible things for my sake. I know my father has

tempted you with a promise of a great deal of money. But in the end you

will get nothing. No, he will twist everything away from you and leave

you nothing! But as for me--I know everything; Jack told me."

"He has told you what? What?"

"About the woman you love."

"The woman I love?" echoed Donnegan, stupefied.

It seemed that Lou Macon could only name her with an effort that left

her trembling.

"The Lebrun woman," she said. "Jack has told me."

"Did you tell her that?" he asked Landis.

"The whole town knows it," stammered the wounded man.

The cunning hypocrisy spurred Donnegan. He put his foot on the threshold

of the shack, and at this the girl cried out and shrank from him; but

Landis was too paralyzed to stir or speak. For a moment Donnegan was

wildly tempted to pour his torrent of contempt and accusation upon

Landis. To what end? To prove to the girl that the big fellow had coolly

tricked her? That it was to be near Nelly Lebrun as much as to be away

from the colonel that he wished so ardently to leave the shack? After

all, Lou Macon was made happy by an illusion; let her keep it.

He looked at her sadly again. She stood defiant over Landis; ready to

protect the helpless bulk of the man.

So Donnegan closed the door softly and turned away with ashes in his

heart.

35

When Nelly Lebrun raised her head from her hands, Donnegan was a far

figure; yet even in the distance she could catch the lilt and easy sway

of his body; he rode as he walked, lightly, his feet in the stirrups

half taking his weight in a semi-English fashion. For a moment she was

on the verge of spurring after him, but she kept the rein taut and

merely stared until he dipped away among the hills. For one thing she

was quite assured that she could not overtake that hard rider; and,

again, she felt that it was useless to interfere. To step between Lord

Nick and one of his purposes would have been like stepping before an

avalanche and commanding it to halt with a raised hand.

She watched miserably until even the dust cloud dissolved and the bare,

brown hills alone remained before her. Then she turned away, and hour

after hour let her black jog on.

To Nelly Lebrun this day was one of those still times which come over

the life of a person, and in which they see themselves in relation to

the rest of the world clearly. It would not be true to say that Nelly

loved Donnegan. Certainly not as yet, for the familiar figure of Lord

Nick filled her imagination. But the little man was different. Lord

Nick commanded respect, admiration, obedience; but there was about

Donnegan something which touched her in an intimate and disturbing

manner. She had felt the will-o'-the-wisp flame which burned in him in

his great moments. It was possible for her to smile at Donnegan; it was

possible even to pity him for his fragility, his touchy pride about his

size; to criticize his fondness for taking the center of the stage even

in a cheap little mining camp like this and strutting about, the center

of all attention. Yet there were qualities in him which escaped her, a

possibility of metallic hardness, a pitiless fire of purpose.

To Lord Nick, he was as the bull terrier to the mastiff.

But above all she could not dislodge the memory of his strange talk with

her at Lebrun's. Not that she did not season the odd avowals of Donnegan

with a grain of salt, but even when she had discounted all that he said,

she retained a quivering interest. Somewhere beneath his words she

sensed reality. Somewhere beneath his actions she felt a selfless

willingness to throw himself away.

As she rode she was comparing him steadily with Lord Nick. And as she

made the comparisons she felt more and more assured that she could pick

and choose between the two. They loved her, both of them. With Nick it

was an old story; with Donnegan it might be equally true in spite of its

newness. And Nelly Lebrun felt rich. Not that she would have been

willing to give up Lord Nick. By no means. But neither was she willing

to throw away Donnegan. Diamonds in one hand and pearls in the other.

Which handful must she discard?

She remained riding an unconscionable length of time, and when she drew

rein again before her father's house, the black was flecked with foam

from his clamped bit, and there was a thick lather under the stirrup

leathers. She threw the reins to the servant who answered her call and

went slowly into the house.

Donnegan, by this time, was dead. She began to feel that it would be

hard to look Lord Nick in the face again. His other killings had often

seemed to her glorious. She had rejoiced in the invincibility of her

lover.

Now he suddenly took on the aspect of a murderer.

She found the house hushed. Perhaps everyone was at the gaming house;

for now it was midafternoon. But when she opened the door to the

apartment which they used as a living room she found Joe Rix and the

Pedlar and Lester sitting side by side, silent. There was no whisky in

sight; there were no cards to be seen. Marvel of marvels, these three

men were spending their time in solemn thought. A sudden thought rushed

over her, and her cry told where her heart really lay, at least at this

time.

"Lord Nick--has he been--"

The Pedlar lifted his gaunt head and stared at her without expression.

It was Joe Rix who answered.

"Nick's upstairs."

"Safe?"

"Not a scratch."

She sank into a chair with a sigh, but was instantly on edge again with

the second thought.

"Donnegan?" she whispered.

"Safe and sound," said Lester coldly.

She could not gather the truth of the statement.

"Then Nick got Landis back before Donnegan returned?"

"No."

Like any other girl, Nelly Lebrun hated a puzzle above all things in the

world, at least a puzzle which affected her new friends.

"Lester, what's happened?" she demanded.

At this Lester, who had been brooding upon the floor, raised his eyes

and then switched one leg over the other. He was a typical cowman, was

Lester, from his crimson handkerchief knotted around his throat to his

shop-made boots which fitted slenderly about his instep with the care of

a gloved hand.

"I dunno what happened," said Lester. "Which looks like what counts is

the things that didn't happen. Landis is still with that devil, Macon.

Donnegan is loose without a scratch, and Lord Nick is in his room with a

face as black as a cloudy night."

And briefly he described how Lord Nick had gone up the hill, seen the

colonel, come back, taken a horse litter, and gone up the hill again,

while the populace of The Corner waited for a crash. For Donnegan had

arrived in the meantime. And how Nick had gone into the cabin, remained

a singularly long time, and then come out, with a face half white and

half red and an eye that dared anyone to ask questions. He had strode

straight home to Lebrun's and gone to his room; and there he remained,

never making a sound.

"But I'll give you my way of readin' the sign on that trail," said

Lester. "Nick goes up the hill to clean up on Donnegan. He sees him;

they size each other up in a flash; they figure that if they's a gun it

means a double killin'--and they simply haul off and say a perlite

fare-thee-well."

The girl paid no attention to these remarks. She was sunk in a brown

study.

"There's something behind it all," she said, more to herself than to the

men. "Nick is proud as the devil himself. And I can't imagine why he'd

let Donnegan go. Oh, it might have been done if they'd met alone in the

desert. But with the whole town looking on and waiting for Nick to clean

up on Donnegan--no, it isn't possible. There must have been a showdown

of some kind."

There was a grim little silence after this.

"Maybe there was," said the Pedlar dryly. "Maybe there was a

showdown--and the wind-up of it is that Nick comes home meek as a

six-year-old broke down in front."

She stared at him, first astonished, and then almost frightened.

"You mean that Nick may have taken water?"

The three, as one man, shrugged their shoulders, and met her glance with

cold eyes.

"You fools!" cried the girl, springing to her feet. "He'd rather die!"

Joe Rix leaned forward, and to emphasize his point he stabbed one dirty

forefinger into the fat palm of his other hand.

"You just start thinkin' back," he said solemnly, "and you'll remember

that Donnegan has done some pretty slick things."

Lester added with a touch of contempt: "Like shootin' down Landis one

day and then sittin' down and havin' a nice long chat with you the next.

I dunno how he does it."

"That hunch of yours," said the girl fiercely, "ought to be roped and

branded--lie! Lester, don't look at me like that. And if you think Nick

has lost his grip on things you're dead wrong. Step light, Lester--and

the rest of you. Or Nick may hear you walk--and think."

She flung out of the room and raced up the stairs to Lord Nick's room.

There was an interval without response after her first knock. But when

she rapped again he called out to know who was there. At her answer she

heard his heavy stride cross the room, and the door opened slowly. His

face, as she looked up to it, was so changed that she hardly knew him.

His hair was unkempt, on end, where he had sat with his fingers thrust

into it, buried in thought. And the marks of his palms were red upon his

forehead.

"Nick," she whispered, frightened, "what is it?"

He looked down half fiercely, half sadly at her. And though his lips

parted they closed again before he spoke. Fear jumped coldly in Nelly

Lebrun.

"Did Donnegan--" she pleaded, white-faced. "Did he--"

"Did he bluff me out?" finished Nick. "No, he didn't. That's what

everybody'll say. I know it, don't I? And that's why I'm staying here by

myself, because the first fool that looks at me with a question in his

face, why--I'll break him in two."

She pressed close to him, more frightened than before. That Lord Nick

should have been driven to defend himself with words was almost too much

for credence.

"You know I don't believe it, Nick? You know that I'm not doubting you?"

But he brushed her hands roughly away.

"You want to know what it's all about? Then go over to--well, to

Milligan's. Donnegan will be there. He'll explain things to you, I

guess. He wants to see you. And maybe I'll come over later and join

you."

Seeing Lord Nick before her, so shaken, so gray of face, so dull of eye,

she pictured Donnegan as a devil in human form, cunning, resistless.

"Nick, dear--" she pleaded.

He closed the door in her face, and she heard his heavy step go back

across the room. In some mysterious manner she felt the Promethean fire

had been stolen from Lord Nick, and Donnegan's was the hand that had

robbed him of it.

36

It was fear that Nelly Lebrun felt first of all. It was fear because

the impossible had happened and the immovable object had been at last

moved. Going back to her own room, the record of Lord Nick flashed

across her mind; one long series of thrilling deeds. He had been a great

and widely known figure on the mountain desert while she herself was no

more than a girl. When she first met him she had been prepared for the

sight of a firebreathing monster; and she had never quite recovered from

the first thrill of finding him not devil but man.

Quite oddly, now that there seemed another man as powerful as Lord Nick

or even more terrible, she felt for the big man more tenderly than ever;

for like all women, there was a corner of her heart into which she

wished to receive a thing she could cherish and protect. Lord Nick, the

invincible, had seemed without any real need of other human beings. His

love for her had seemed unreal because his need of her seemed a

superficial thing. Now that he was in sorrow and defeat she suddenly

visualized a Lord Nick to whom she could truly be a helpmate. Tears came

to her eyes at the thought.

Yet, very contradictorily and very humanly, the moment she was in her

room she began preparing her toilet for that evening at Lebrun's. Let no

one think that she was already preparing to cast Lord Nick away and turn

to the new star in the sky of the mountain desert. By no means. No doubt

her own heart was not quite clear to Nelly. Indeed, she put on her most

lovely gown with a desire for revenge. If Lord Nick had been humbled by

this singular Donnegan, would it not be a perfect revenge to bring

Donnegan himself to her feet? Would it not be a joy to see him turn pale

under her smile, and then, when he was well-nigh on his knees, spurn the

love which he offered her?

She set her teeth and her eyes gleamed with the thought. But

nevertheless she went on lavishing care in the preparation for that

night.

As she visioned the scene, the many curious eyes that watched her with

Donnegan; the keen envy in the faces of the women; the cold watchfulness

of the men, were what she pictured.

In a way she almost regretted that she was admired by such fighting men,

Landis, Lord Nick, and now Donnegan, who frightened away the rank and

file of other would-be admirers. But it was a pang which she could

readily control and subdue.

To tell the truth the rest of the day dragged through a weary length. At

the dinner table her father leaned to her and talked in his usual

murmuring voice which could reach her own ear and no other by any

chance.

"Nelly, there's going to be the devil to pay around The Corner. You know

why. Now, be a good girl and wise girl and play your cards. Donnegan is

losing his head; he's losing it over you. So play your cards."

"Turn down Nick and take up Donnegan?" she asked coldly.

"I've said enough already," said her father, and would not speak again.

But it was easy to see that he already felt Lord Nick's star to be past

its full glory.

Afterward, Lebrun himself took his daughter over to Milligan's and left

her under the care of the dance-hall proprietor.

"I'm waiting for someone," said Nelly, and Milligan sat willingly at her

table and made talk. He was like the rest of The Corner--full of the

subject of the strange encounter between Lord Nick and Donnegan. What

had Donnegan done to the big man? Nelly merely smiled and said they

would all know in time: one thing was certain--Lord Nick had not taken

water. But at this Milligan smiled behind his hand.

Ten minutes later there was that stir which announced the arrival of

some public figures; and Donnegan with big George behind him came into

the room. This evening he went straight to the table to Nelly Lebrun.

Milligan, a little uneasy, rose. But Donnegan was gravely polite and

regretted that he had interrupted.

"I have only come to ask you for five minutes of your time," he said to

the girl.

She was about to put him off merely to make sure of her hold over him,

but something she saw in his face fascinated her. She could not play her

game. Milligan had slipped away before she knew it, and Donnegan was in

his place at the table. He was as much changed as Lord Nick, she

thought. Not that his clothes were less carefully arranged than ever,

but in the compression of his lips and something behind his eyes she

felt the difference. She would have given a great deal indeed to have

learned what went on behind the door of Donnegan's shack when Lord Nick

was there.

"Last time you asked for one minute and stayed half an hour," she said.

"This time it's five minutes."

No matter what was on his mind he was able to answer fully as lightly.

"When I talk about myself, I'm always long-winded."

"Tonight it's someone else?"

"Yes."

She was, being a woman, intensely disappointed, but her smile was as

bright as ever.

"Of course I'm listening."

"You remember what I told you of Landis and the girl on the hill?"

"She seems to stick in your thoughts, Mr. Donnegan."

"Yes, she's a lovely child."

And by his frankness he very cunningly disarmed her. Even if he had

hesitated an instant she would have been on the track of the truth, but

he had foreseen the question and his reply came back instantly.