"Ah," said the girl a little coldly.
Donnegan went on. He had chosen frankness to be his role and he played
it to the full.
"It is a rather wonderful story," he went on. "You know that Lord Nick
went up the hill for Landis? And The Corner was standing around waiting
for him to bring the youngster down?"
"Of course."
"There was only one obstacle--which you had so kindly removed--myself."
"For your own sake, Mr. Donnegan."
"Ah, don't you suppose that I know?" And his voice touched her. "He came
to kill me. And no doubt he could have done so."
Such frankness shocked her into a new attention.
Perhaps Donnegan overdid his part a little at this point, for in her
heart of hearts she knew that the little man would a thousand times
rather die than give way to any living man.
"But I threw my case bodily before him--the girl--her love for
Landis--and the fear which revolved around your own unruly eyes, you
know, if he were sent back to your father's house. I placed it all
before him. At first he was for fighting at once. But the story appealed
to him. He pitied the girl. And in the end he decided to let the matter
be judged by a third person. He suggested a man. But I know that a man
would see in my attitude nothing but foolishness. No man could have
appreciated the position of that girl on the hill. I myself named
another referee--yourself."
She gasped.
"And so I have come to place the question before you, because I know
that you will decide honestly."
"Then I shall be honest," said the girl.
She was thinking: Why not have Landis back? It would keep the three men
revolving around her. Landis on his feet and well would have been
nothing; either of these men would have killed him. But Landis sick she
might balance in turn against them both. Nelly had the instincts of a
fencer; she loved balance.
But Donnegan was heaping up his effects. For by the shadow in her eyes
he well knew what was passing through her mind, and he dared not let her
speak too quickly.
"There is more hanging upon it. In the first place, if Landis is left
with the girl it gives the colonel a chance to work on him, and like as
not the colonel will get the young fool to sign away the mines to
him--frighten him, you see, though I've made sure that the colonel will
not actually harm him."
"How have you made sure? They say the colonel is a devil."
"I have spoken with him. The colonel is not altogether without
sensibility to fear."
She caught the glint in the little man's eye and she believed.
"So much for that. Landis is safe, but his money may not be. Another
thing still hangs upon your decision. Lord Nick wanted to know why I
trusted to you? Because I felt you were honest. Why did I feel that?
There was nothing to do. Besides, how could I conceal myself from such a
man? I spoke frankly and told him that I trusted you because I love
you."
She closed her hand hard on the edge of the table to steady herself.
"And he made no move at you?"
"He restrained himself."
"Lord Nick?" gasped the incredulous girl.
"He is a gentleman," said Donnegan with a singular pride which she could
not understand.
He went on: "And unfortunately I fear that if you decide in favor of my
side of the argument, I fear that Lord Nick will feel that you--that
you--"
He was apparently unable to complete his sentence.
"He will feel that you no longer care for him," said Donnegan at length.
The girl pondered him with cloudy eyes.
"What is behind all this frankness?" she asked coldly.
"I shall tell you. Hopelessness is behind it. Last night I poured my
heart at your feet. And I had hope. Today I have seen Lord Nick and I no
longer hope."
"Ah?"
"He is worthy of a lovely woman's affection; and I--" He called her
attention to himself with a deprecatory gesture.
"Do you ask me to hurt him like this?" said the girl. "His pride is the
pride of the fiend. Love me? He would hate me!"
"It might be true. Still I know you would risk it, because--" he paused.
"Well?" asked the girl, whispering in her excitement.
"Because you are a lady."
He bowed to her.
"Because you are fair; because you are honest, Nelly Lebrun. Personally
I think that you can win Lord Nick back with one minute of smiling. But
you might not. You might alienate him forever. It will be clumsy to
explain to him that you were influenced not by me, but by justice. He
will make it a personal matter, whereas you and I know that it is only
the right that you are seeing."
She propped her chin on the tips of her fingers, and her arm was a thing
of grace. For the last moments that clouded expression had not cleared.
"If I only could read your mind," she murmured now. "There is something
behind it all."
"I shall tell you what it is. It is the restraint that has fallen upon
me. It is because I wish to lean closer to you across the table and
speak to you of things which are at the other end of the world from
Landis and the other girl. It is because I have to keep my hands gripped
hard to control myself. Because, though I have given up hope, I would
follow a forlorn chance, a lost cause, and tell you again and again that
I love you, Nelly Lebrun!"
He had half lowered his eyes as he spoke; he had called up a vision, and
the face of Lou Macon hovered dimly between him and Nelly Lebrun. If all
that he spoke was a lie, let him be forgiven for it; it was the
golden-haired girl whom he addressed, and it was she who gave the tremor
and the fiber to his voice. And after all was he not pleading for her
happiness as he believed?
He covered his eyes with his hand; but when he looked up again she could
see the shadow of the pain which was slowly passing. She had never seen
such emotion in any man's face, and if it was for another, how could she
guess it? Her blood was singing in her veins, and the old, old question
was flying back and forth through her brain like a shuttle through a
loom: Which shall it be?
She called up the picture of Lord Nick, half-broken, but still terrible,
she well knew. She pitied him, but when did pity wholly rule the heart
of a woman? And as for Nelly Lebrun, she had the ambition of a young
Caesar; she could not fill a second place. He who loved her must stand
first, and she saw Donnegan as the invincible man. She had not believed
half of his explanation. No, he was shielding Lord Nick; behind that
shield the truth was that the big man had quailed before the small.
Of course she saw that Donnegan, pretending to be constrained by his
agreement with Lord Nick, was in reality cunningly pleading his own
cause. But his passion excused him. When has a woman condemned a man for
loving her beyond the rules of fair play?
"Whatever you may decide," Donnegan was saying. "I shall be prepared to
stand by it without a murmur. Send Landis back to your father's house
and I submit: I leave The Corner and say farewell. But now, think
quickly. For Lord Nick is coming to receive your answer."
37
If the meeting between Lord Nick and Donnegan earlier that day had
wrought up the nerves of The Corner to the point of hysteria; if the
singular end of that meeting had piled mystery upon excitement; if the
appearance of Donnegan, sitting calmly at the table of the girl who was
known to be engaged to Nick, had further stimulated public curiosity,
the appearance of Lord Nick was now a crowning burden under which The
Corner staggered.
Yet not a man or a woman stirred from his chair, for everyone knew that
if the long-delayed battle between these two gunfighters was at length
to take place, neither bullet was apt to fly astray.
But what happened completed the wreck of The Corner's nerves, for Lord
Nick walked quietly across the floor and sat down with Nelly Lebrun and
his somber rival.
Oddly enough, he looked at Donnegan, not at the girl, and this token of
the beaten man decided her.
"Well?" said Lord Nick.
"I have decided," said the girl. "Landis should stay where he is."
Neither of the two men stirred hand or eye. But Lord Nick turned gray.
At length he rose and asked Donnegan, quietly, to step aside with him.
Seeing them together, the difference between their sizes was more
apparent: Donnegan seemed hardly larger than a child beside the splendid
bulk of Lord Nick. But she could not overhear their talk.
"You've won," said Lord Nick, "both Landis and Nelly. And--"
"Wait," broke in Donnegan eagerly. "Henry, I've persuaded Nelly to see
my side of the case, but that doesn't mean that she has turned from you
to--"
"Stop!" put in Lord Nick, between his teeth. "I've not come to argue
with you or ask advice or opinions. I've come to state facts. You've
crawled in between me and Nelly like a snake in the grass. Very well.
You're my brother. That keeps me from handling you. You've broken my
reputation just as I said you would do. The bouncer at the door looked
me in the eye and smiled when I came in."
He had to pause a little, breathing heavily, and avoiding Donnegan's
eyes. Finally he was able to continue.
"I'm going to roll my blankets and leave The Corner and everything I
have in it. You'll get my share of most things, it seems." He smiled
after a ghastly, mirthless fashion. "I give you a free road. I surrender
everything to you, Donnegan. But there are two things I want to warn you
about. It may be that my men will not agree with me. It may be that
they'll want to put up a fight for the mine. They can't get at it
without getting at Macon. They can't get at him without removing you.
And they'll probably try it. I warn you now.
"Another thing: from this moment there's no blood tie between us. I've
found a brother and lost him in the same day. And if I ever cross you
again, Donnegan, I'll shoot you on sight. Remember, I'm not threatening.
I simply warn you in advance. If I were you, I'd get out of the country.
Avoid me, Donnegan, as you'd avoid the devil."
And he turned on his heel. He felt the eyes of the people in the room
follow him by jerks, dwelling on every one of his steps. Near the door,
stepping aside to avoid a group of people coming in, he half turned and
he could not avoid the sight of Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun at the other
end of the room. He was leaning across the table, talking with a smile
on his lips--at that distance he could not mark the pallor of the little
man's face--and Nelly Lebrun was laughing. Laughing already, and
oblivious of the rest of the world.
Lord Nick turned, a blur coming before his eyes, and made blindly for
the door. A body collided with him; without a word he drew back his
massive right fist and knocked the man down. The stunned body struck
against the wall and collapsed along the floor. Lord Nick felt a great
madness swell in his heart. Yet he set his teeth, controlled himself,
and went on toward the house of Lebrun. He had come within an eyelash of
running amuck, and the quivering hunger for action was still swelling
and ebbing in him when he reached the gambler's house.
Lebrun was not in the gaming house, no doubt, at this time of night--but
the rest of Nick's chosen men were there. They stood up as he entered
the room--Harry Masters, newly arrived--the Pedlar--Joe Rix--three names
famous in the mountain desert for deeds which were not altogether a
pleasant aroma in the nostrils of the law-abiding, but whose sins had
been deftly covered from legal proof by the cunning of Nick, and whose
bravery itself had half redeemed them. They rose now as three wolves
rise at the coming of the leader. But this time there was a question
behind their eyes, and he read it in gloomy silence.
"Well?" asked Harry Masters.
In the old days not one of them would have dared to voice the question,
but now things were changing, and well Lord Nick could read the change
and its causes.
"Are you talking to me?" asked Nick, and he looked straight between the
eyes of Masters.
The glance of the other did not falter, and it maddened Nick.
"I'm talking to you," said Masters coolly enough. "What happened between
you and Donnegan?"
"What should happen?" asked Lord Nick.
"Maybe all this is a joke," said Masters bitterly. He was a square-built
man, with a square face and a wrinkled, fleshy forehead. In
intelligence, Nick ranked him first among the men. And if a new leader
were to be chosen there was no doubt as to where the choice of the men
would fall. No doubt that was why Masters put himself forward now, ready
to brave the wrath of the chief. "Maybe we're fooled," went on Masters.
"Maybe they ain't any call for you to fall out with Donnegan?"
"Maybe there's a call to find out this," answered Lord Nick. "Why did
you leave the mines? What are you doing up here?"
The other swallowed so hard that he blinked.
"I left the mines," he declared through his set teeth, "because I was
run off 'em."
"Ah," said Lord Nick, for the devil was rising in him, "I always had an
idea that you might be yellow, Masters."
The right hand of Masters swayed toward his gun, hesitated, and then
poised idly.
"You heard me talk?" persisted Lord Nick brutally. "I call you yellow.
Why don't you draw on me? I called you yellow, you swine, and I call the
rest of you yellow. You think you have me down? Why, curse you, if there
were thirty of your cut, I'd say the same to you!"
There was a quick shift, the three men faced Lord Nick, but each from a
different angle. And opposing them, he stood superbly indifferent, his
arms folded, his feet braced. His arms were folded, but each hand, for
all they knew, might be grasping the butt of a gun hidden away in his
clothes. Once they flashed a glance from face to face; but there was no
action. They were remembering only too well some of the wild deeds of
this giant.
"You think I'm through," went on Lord Nick. "Maybe I am--through with
you. You hear me talk?"
One by one, his eyes dared them, and one by one they took up the
challenge, struggled, and lowered their glances. He was still their
master and in that mute moment the three admitted it, the Pedlar last of
all.
Masters saw fit to fall back on the last remark.
"I've swallowed a lot from you, Nick," he said gravely.
"Maybe there'll be an end to what we take one of these days. But now
I'll tell you how yellow I was. A couple of gents come to me and tell me
I'm through at the mine. I told them they were crazy. They said old
Colonel Macon had sent them down to take charge. I laughed at 'em. They
went away and came back. Who with? With the sheriff. And he flashed a
paper on me. It was all drawn up clean as a whistle. Trimmed up with a
lot of 'whereases' and 'as hereinbefore mentioned' and such like things.
But the sheriff just gimme a look and then he tells me what it's about.
Jack Landis has signed over all the mines to the colonel and the
colonel has taken possession."
As he stopped, a growl came from the others.
"Lester is the man that has the complaint," said Lord Nick. "Where do
the rest of you figure in it? Lester had the mines; he lost 'em because
he couldn't drop Landis with his gun. He'd never have had a smell of the
gold if I hadn't come in. Who made Landis see light? I did! Who worked
it so that every nickel that came out of the mines went through the
fingers of Landis and came back to us? I did! But I'm through with you.
You can hunt for yourselves now. I've kept you together to guard one
another's backs. I've kept the law off your trail. You, Masters, you'd
have swung for killing the McKay brothers. Who saved you? Who was it
bribed the jury that tried you for the shooting up of Derbyville,
Pedlar? Who took the marshal off your trail after you'd knifed Lefty
Waller, Joe Rix? I've saved you all a dozen times. Now you whine at me.
I'm through with you forever!"
Stopping, he glared about him. His knuckles stung from the impact of the
blow he had delivered in Milligan's place. He hungered to have one of
these three stir a hand and get into action.
And they knew it. All at once they crumbled and became clay in his
hands.
"Chief," said Joe Rix, the smoothest spoken of the lot, and one who was
supposed to stand specially well with Lord Nick on account of his
ability to bake beans, Spanish. "Chief, you've said a whole pile. You're
worth more'n the rest of us all rolled together. Sure. We know that.
There ain't any argument. But here's just one little point that I want
to make.
"We was doing fine. The gold was running fine and free. Along comes this
Donnegan. He busts up our good time. He forks in on your girl--"
A convulsion of the chief's face made Rix waver in his speech and then
he went on: "He shoots Landis, and when he misses killing him--by some
accident, he comes down here and grabs him out of Lebrun's own house.
Smooth, eh? Then he makes Landis sign that deed to the mines. Oh, very
nice work, I say. Too nice.
"'Now, speakin' man to man, they ain't any doubt that you'd like to get
rid of Donnegan. Why don't you? Because everybody has a jinx, and he's
yours. I ain't easy scared, maybe, but I knew an albino with white eyes
once, and just to look at him made me some sick. Well, chief, they ain't
nobody can say that you ever took water or ever will. But maybe the fact
that this Donnegan has hair just as plumb red as yours may sort of get
you off your feed. I'm just suggesting. Now, what I say is, let the rest
of us take a crack at Donnegan, and you sit back and come in on the
results when we've cleaned up. D'you give us a free road?"
How much went through the brain of Lord Nick? But in the end he gave his
brother up to death. For he remembered how Nelly Lebrun had sat in
Milligan's laughing.
"Do what you want," he said suddenly. "But I want to know none of your
plans--and the man that tells me Donnegan is dead gets paid--in lead!"
38
The smile of Joe Rix was the smile of a diplomat. It could be maintained
upon his face as unwaveringly as if it were wrought out of marble while
Joe heard insult and lie. As a matter of fact Joe had smiled in the face
of death more than once, and this is a school through which even
diplomats rarely pass. Yet it was with an effort that he maintained the
characteristic good-natured expression when the door to Donnegan's shack
opened and he saw big George and, beyond him, Donnegan himself.
"Booze," said Joe Rix to himself instantly.
For Donnegan was a wreck. The unshaven beard--it was the middle of
morning--was a reddish mist over his face. His eyes were sunken in
shadow. His hair was uncombed. He sat with his shoulders hunched up like
one who suffers from cold. Altogether his appearance was that of one
whose energy has been utterly sapped.
"The top of the morning, Mr. Donnegan," said Joe Rix, and put his foot
on the threshold.
But since big George did not move it was impossible to enter.
"Who's there?" asked Donnegan.
It was a strange question to ask, for by raising his eyes he could have
seen. But Donnegan was staring down at the floor. Even his voice was a
weak murmur.
"What a party! What a party he's had!" thought Joe Rix, and after all,
there was cause for a celebration. Had not the little man in almost one
stroke won the heart of the prettiest girl in The Corner, and also did
he not probably have a working share in the richest of the diggings?
"I'm Joe Rix," he said.
"Joe Rix?" murmured Donnegan softly. "Then you're one of Lord Nick's
men?"
"I was," said Joe Rix, "sort of attached to him, maybe."
Perhaps this pointed remark won the interest of Donnegan. He raised his
eyes, and Joe Rix beheld the most unhappy face he had ever seen. "A bad
hangover," he decided, "and that makes it bad for me!"
"Come in," said Donnegan in the same monotonous, lifeless voice.
Big George reluctantly, it seemed, withdrew to one side, and Rix was
instantly in the room and drawing out a chair so that he could face
Donnegan.
"I was," he proceeded "sort of tied up with Lord Nick. But"--and here he
winked broadly--"it ain't much of a secret that Nick ain't altogether a
lord any more. Nope. Seems he turned out sort of common, they say."
"What fool," murmured Donnegan, "has told you that? What ass had told
you that Lord Nick is a common sort?"
It shocked Joe Rix, but being a diplomat he avoided friction by changing
his tactics.
"Between you and me," he said calmly enough, "I took what I heard with a
grain of salt. There's something about Nick that ain't common, no matter
what they say. Besides, they's some men that nobody but a fool would
stand up to. It ain't hardly a shame for a man to back down from 'em."
He pointed this remark with a nod to Donnegan.
"I'll give you a bit of free information," said the little man, with his
weary eyes lighted a little. "There's no man on the face of the earth
who could make Lord Nick back down."
Once more Joe Rix was shocked to the verge of gaping, but again he
exercised a power of marvelous self control "About that," he remarked
as pointedly as before, "I got my doubts. Because there's some things
that any gent with sense will always clear away from. Maybe not one
man--but say a bunch of all standin' together."
Donnegan leaned back in his chair and waited. Both of his hands remained
drooping from the edge of the table, and the tired eyes drifted slowly
across the face of Joe Rix.
It was obviously not the aftereffects of liquor. The astonishing
possibility occurred to Joe Rix that this seemed to be a man with a
broken spirit and a great sorrow. He blinked that absurdity away.
"Coming to cases," he went on, "there's yourself, Mr. Donnegan. Now,
you're the sort of a man that don't sidestep nobody. Too proud to do it.
But even you, I guess, would step careful if there was a whole bunch
agin' you."
"No doubt," remarked Donnegan.
"I don't mean any ordinary bunch," explained Joe Rix, "but a lot of hard
fellows. Gents that handle their guns like they was born with a holster
on the hip."
"Fellows like Nick's crowd," suggested Donnegan quietly.
At this thrust the eyes of Joe narrowed a little.
"Yes," he admitted, "I see you get my drift."
"I think so."
"Two hard fighters would give the best man that ever pulled a gun a lot
of trouble. Eh?"
"No doubt."
"And three men--they ain't any question, Mr. Donnegan--would get him
ready for a hole in the ground."
"I suppose so."
"And four men would make it no fight--jest a plain butchery."
"Yes?"
"Now, I don't mean that Nick's crowd has any hard feeling about you, Mr.
Donnegan."
"I'm glad to hear that."
"I knew you'd be. That's why I've come, all friendly, to talk things
over. Suppose you look at it this way--"
"Joe Rix," broke in Donnegan, sighing, "I'm very tired. Won't you cut
this short? Tell me in ten words just how you stand."
Joe Rix blinked once more, caught his breath, and fired his volley.
"Short talk is straight talk, mostly," he declared. "This is what Lester
and the rest of us want--the mines!"
"Ah?"
"Macon stole 'em. We got 'em back through Landis. Now we've got to get
'em back through the colonel himself. But we can't get at the colonel
while you're around."
"In short, you're going to start out to get me? I expected it, but it's
kind of you to warn me."
"Wait, wait, wait! Don't rush along to conclusions. We ain't so much in
a hurry. We don't want you out of the way. We just want you on our
side."
"Shoot me up and then bring me back to life, eh?"
"Mr. Donnegan," said the other, spreading out his hands solemnly on the
table, "you ain't doin' us justice. We don't hanker none for trouble
with you. Any way it comes, a fight with you means somebody dead besides
you. We'd get you. Four to one is too much for any man. But one or two
of us might go down. Who would it be? Maybe the Pedlar, maybe Harry
Masters, maybe Lester, maybe me! Oh, we know all that. No gunplay if we
can keep away from it."
"You've left out the name of Lord Nick," said Donnegan.
Joe Rix winked.
"Seems like you tended to him once and for all when you got him alone in
this cabin. Must have thrown a mighty big scare into him. He won't lift
a hand agin' you now."
"No?" murmured Donnegan hoarsely.
"Not him! But that leaves four of us, and four is plenty, eh?"
"Perhaps."
"But I'm not here to insist on that point. No, we put a value on keepin'
up good feeling between us and you, Mr. Donnegan. We ain't fools. We
know a man when we see him--and the fastest gunman that ever slid a gun
out of leather ain't the sort of a man that me and the rest of the boys
pass over lightly. Not us! We know you, Mr. Donnegan; we respect you; we
want you with us; we're going to have you with us."
"You flatter me and I thank you. But I'm glad to see that you are at
last coming to the point."
"I am, and the point is five thousand dollars that's tied behind the
hoss that stands outside your door."
He pushed his fat hand a little way across the table, as though the gold
even then were resting in it, a yellow tide of fortune.
"For which," said Donnegan, "I'm to step aside and let you at the
colonel?"
"Right."
Donnegan smiled.
"Wait," said Joe Rix. "I was makin' a first offer to see how you stood,
but you're right. Five thousand ain't enough and we ain't cheapskates.
Not us. Mr. Donnegan, they's ten thousand cold iron men behind that
saddle out there and every cent of it belongs to you when you come over
on our side."
But Donnegan merely dropped his chin upon his hand and smiled
mirthlessly at Joe Rix. A wild thought came to the other man. Both of
Donnegan's hands were far from his weapons. Why not a quick draw, a snap
shot, and then the glory of having killed this manslayer in single
battle for Joe Rix?
The thought rushed red across his brain and then faded slowly. Something
kept him back. Perhaps it was the singular calm of Donnegan; no matter
how quiet he sat he suggested the sleeping cat which can leap out of
dead sleep into fighting action at a touch. By the time a second thought
had come to Joe Rix the idea of an attack was like an idea of suicide.
"Is that final?" he asked, though Donnegan had not said a word.
"It is."
Joe Rix stood up.
"You put it to us kind of hard. But we want you, Mr. Donnegan. And
here's the whole thing in a nutshell. Come over to us. We'll stand
behind you. Lord Nick is slipping. We'll put you in his place. You won't
even have to face him; we'll get rid of him."
"You'll kill him and give his place to me?" asked Donnegan.
"We will. And when you're with us, you cut in on the whole amount of
coin that the mines turn out--and it'll be something tidy. And right
now, to show where we stand and how high we put you, I'll let you in on
the rock-bottom truth. Mr. Donnegan. out there tied behind my saddle
there's thirty thousand dollars in pure gold. You can take it in here
and weigh it out!"
He stepped back to watch this blow take effect. To his unutterable
astonishment the little man had not moved. His chin still rested upon
the back of his hand, and the smile which was on the lips and not in the
eyes of Donnegan remained there, fixed.
"Donnegan," muttered Joe Rix, "if we can't get you, we'll get rid of
you. You understand?"
But the other continued to smile.
It gave Joe Rix a shuddering feeling that someone was stealing behind
him to block his way to the door. He cast one swift glance over his
shoulder and then, seeing that the way was clear, he slunk back, always
keeping his face to the red-headed man. But when he came to the doorway
his nerve collapsed. He whirled, covered the rest of the distance with a
leap, and emerged from the cabin in a fashion ludicrously like one who
has been kicked through a door.
His nerve returned as soon as the sunlight fell warmly upon him again;
and he looked around hastily to see if anyone had observed his flight.
There was no one on the whole hillside except Colonel Macon in the
invalid chair, and the colonel was smiling broadly, beneficently. He had
his perfect hands folded across his breast and seemed to cast a prayer
of peace and goodwill upon Joe Rix.
39
Nelly Lebrun smelled danger. She sensed it as plainly as the deer when
the puma comes between her and the wind. The many tokens that something
was wrong came to her by small hints which had to be put together before
they assumed any importance.
First of all, her father, who should have burst out at her in a tirade
for having left Lord Nick for Donnegan said nothing at all, but kept a
dark smile on his face when she was near him. He even insinuated that
Nick's time was done and that another was due to supersede him.
In the second place, she had passed into a room where Masters, Joe Rix,
and the Pedlar sat cheek by jowl in close conference with a hum of deep
voice. But at her appearance all talk was broken off.
It was not strange that they should not invite her into their confidence
if they had some dark work ahead of them; but it was exceedingly
suspicious that Joe Rix attempted to pass off their whispers by
immediately breaking off the soft talk and springing into the midst of a
full-fledged jest; also, it was strangest of all that when the jest
ended even the Pedlar, who rarely smiled, now laughed uproariously and
smote Joe soundingly upon the back.
Even a child could have strung these incidents into a chain of evidence
which pointed toward danger. Obviously the danger was not directly hers,
but then it must be directed at some one near to her. Her father? No, he
was more apt to be the mainspring of their action. Lord Nick? There was
nothing to gain by attacking him. Who was left? Donnegan!
As the realization came upon her it took her breath away for a moment.
Donnegan was the man. At breakfast everyone had been talking about him.
Lebrun had remarked that he had a face for the cards--emotionless. Joe
Rix had commented upon his speed of hand, and the Pedlar had
complimented the little man on his dress.
But at lunch not a word was spoken about Donnegan even after she had
dexterously introduced the subject twice. Why the sudden silence?
Between morning and noon Donnegan must have grievously offended them.
Fear for his sake stimulated her; but above and beyond this, indeed,
there was a mighty feminine curiosity. She smelled the secret; it reeked
through the house, and she was devoured by eagerness to know. She
handpicked Lord Nick's gang in the hope of finding a weakness among
them; some weakness upon which she could play in one of them and draw
out what they were all concealing. The Pedlar was as unapproachable as a
crag on a mountaintop. Masters was wise as an outlaw broncho. Lester was
probably not even in the confidence of the others because since the
affair with Landis his nerve had been shattered to bits and the others
secretly despised him for being beaten by the youngster at the draw.
There remained, therefore, only Joe Rix.
But Joe Rix was a fox of the first quality. He lied with the smoothness
of silk. He could show a dozen colors in as many moments. Come to the
windward of Joe Rix? It was a delicate business! But since there was
nothing else to do, she fixed her mind upon it, working out this puzzle.
Joe Rix wished to destroy Donnegan for reasons that were evidently
connected with the mines. And she must step into his confidence to
discover his plans. How should it be done? And there was a vital need
for speed, for they might be within a step of executing whatever
mischief it was that they were planning.
She went down from her room; they were there still, only Joe Rix was
not with them. She went to the apartment where he and the other three of
Nick's gang slept and rapped at the door. He maintained his smile when
he saw her, but there was an uncertain quiver of his eyebrows that told
her much. Plainly he was ill at ease. Suspicious? Ay, there were always
clouds of suspicion drifting over the red, round face of Joe Rix. She
put a tremor of excitement and trouble in her voice.
"Come into my room, Joe, where we won't be interrupted."
He followed her without a word, and since she led the way she was able
to relax her expression for a necessary moment. When she closed the door
behind him and faced Joe again she was once more ready to step into her
part. She did not ask him to sit down. She remained for a moment with
her hand on the knob and searched the face of Joe Rix eagerly.
"Do you think he can hear?" she whispered, gesturing over her shoulder.
"Who?"
"Who but Lord Nick!" she exclaimed softly.
The bewilderment of Joe clouded his face a second and then he was able
to smooth it away. What on earth was the reason of her concern about
Lord Nick he was obviously wondering.
"I'll tell you why," she said, answering the unspoken question at once.
"He's as jealous as the devil, Joe!"
The fat little man sighed as he looked at her.
"He can't hear. Not through that log wall. But we'll talk soft, if you
want."
"Yes, yes. Keep your voice down. He's already jealous of you, Joe."
"Of me?"
"He knows I like you, that I trust you; and just now he's on edge about
everyone I look at."
The surprising news which the first part of this sentence contained
caused Joe to gape, and the girl looked away in concern, enabling him to
control his expression. For she knew well enough that men hate to appear
foolishly surprised. And particularly a fox like Joe Rix.
"But what's the trouble, Nelly?" He added with a touch of venom: "I
thought everything was going smoothly with you. And I thought you
weren't worrying much about what Lord Nick had in his mind."
She stared at him as though astonished.
"Do you think just the same as the rest of them?" she asked sadly. "Do
you mean to say that you're fooled just the same as Harry Masters and
the Pedlar and the rest of those fools--including Nick himself?"
Joe Rix was by no means willing to declare himself a fool beforehand. He
now mustered a look of much reserved wisdom.
"I have my own doubts, Nell, but I'm not talking about them."
He was so utterly at sea that she had to bite her lip hard to keep from
breaking into ringing laughter.
"Oh, I knew that you'd seen through it, Joe," she cried softly. "You see
what an awful mess I've gotten into?"
He passed a hurried hand across his forehead and then looked at her
searchingly. But he could not penetrate her pretense of concern.
"No matter what I think," said Joe Rix, "you come out with it frankly.
I'll listen."
"As a friend, Joe?"
She managed to throw a plea into her voice that made Joe sigh.
"Sure. You've already said that I'm your friend, and you're right."
"I'm in terrible, terrible trouble! You know how it happened. I was a
fool. I tried to play with Lord Nick. And now he thinks I was in
earnest."
As though the strength of his legs had given way, Joe Rix slipped down
into a chair.
"Go on," he said huskily. "You were playing with Lord Nick?"
"Can't you put yourself in my place, Joe? It's always been taken for
granted that I'm to marry Nick. And the moment he comes around everybody
else avoids me as if I were poison. I was sick of it. And when he showed
up this time it was the same old story. A man would as soon sign his own
death warrant as ask me for a dance. You know how it is?"
He nodded, still at sea, but with a light beginning to dawn in his
little eyes.
"I'm only a girl, Joe. I have all the weakness of other girls. I don't
want to be locked up in a cage just because I--love one man!"
The avowal made Joe blink. It was the second time that day that he had
been placed in an astonishing scene. But some of his old cunning
remained to him.
"Nell," he said suddenly, rising from his chair and going to her. "What
are you trying to do to me? Pull the wool over my eyes?"
It was too much for Nelly Lebrun. She knew that she could not face him
without betraying her guilt and therefore she did not attempt it. She
whirled and flung herself on her bed, face down, and began to sob
violently, suppressing the sounds. And so she waited.
Presently a hand touched her shoulder lightly.
"Go away," cried Nelly in a choked voice. "I hate you, Joe Rix. You're
like all the rest!"
His knee struck the floor with a soft thud.
"Come on, Nell. Don't be hard on me. I thought you were stringing me a
little. But if you're playing straight, tell me what you want?"
At that she bounced upright on the bed, and before he could rise she
caught him by both shoulders.
"I want Donnegan," she said fiercely.
"What?"
"I want him dead!"
Joe Rix gasped.
"Here's the cause of all my trouble. Just because I flirted with him
once or twice, Nick thought I was in earnest and now he's sulking. And
Donnegan puts on airs and acts as if I belonged to him. I hate him, Joe.
And if he's gone Nick will come back to me. He'll come back to me, Joe;
and I want him so!"
She found that Joe Rix was staring straight into her eyes, striving to
probe her soul to its depths, and by a great effort she was enabled to
meet that gaze. Finally the fat little man rose slowly to his feet. Her
hands trailed from his shoulders as he stood up and fell helplessly upon
her lap.
"Well, I'll be hanged, Nell!" exclaimed Joe Rix.
"What do you mean?"
"You're not acting a part? No, I can see you mean it. But what a
cold-blooded little--" He checked himself. His face was suddenly
jubilant. "Then we've got him, Nell. We've got him if you're with us. We
had him anyway, but we'll make sure of him if you're with us. Look at
this! You saw me put a paper in my pocket when I opened the door of my
room? Here it is!"
He displayed before the astonished eyes of Nelly Lebrun a paper covered
with an exact duplicate of her own swift, dainty script. And she read:
Nick is terribly angry and is making trouble. I have to get
away. It isn't safe for me to stay here. Will you help me?
Will you meet me at the shack by Donnell's ford tomorrow
morning at ten o'clock?
"But I didn't write it," cried Nelly Lebrun, bewildered.
"Nelly," Joe Rix chuckled, flushing with pleasure, "you didn't. It was
me. I kind of had an idea that you wanted to get rid of this Donnegan,
and I was going to do it for you and then surprise you with the good
news."
"Joe, you forged it?"
"Don't bother sayin' pretty things about me and my pen," said Rix
modestly. "This is nothin'! But if you want to help me, Nelly--"
His voice faded partly out of her consciousness as she fought against a
tigerish desire to spring at the throat of the little fat man. But
gradually it dawned on her that he was asking her to write out that note
herself. Why? Because it was possible that Donnegan might have seen her
handwriting and in that case, though the imitation had been good enough
to deceive Nelly herself, it probably would not for a moment fool the
keen eyes of Donnegan. But if she herself wrote out the note, Donnegan
was already as good as dead.
"That is," concluded Joe Rix, "if he really loves you, Nell."
"The fool!" cried Nelly. "He worships the ground I walk on, Joe. And I
hate him for it."
Even Joe Rix shivered, for he saw the hate in her eyes and could not
dream that he himself was the cause and the object of it. There was a
red haze of horror and confusion in front of her eyes, and yet she was
able to smile while she copied the note for Joe Rix.
"But how are you going to work it?" she asked. "How are you going to
kill him, Joe?"
"Don't bother your pretty head," said the fat man, smiling. "Just wait
till we bring you the good news."
"But are you sure?" she asked eagerly. "See what he's done already. He's
taken Landis away from us; he's baffled Nick himself, in some manner;
and he's gathered the mines away from all of us. He's a devil, Joe, and
if you want to get him you'd better take ten men for the job."
"You hate him, Nell, don't you?" queried Joe Rix, and his voice was both
hard and curious. "But how has he harmed you?"
"Hasn't he taken Nick away from me? Isn't that enough?"
The fat man shivered again.
"All right. I'll tell you how it works. Now, listen!"
And he began to check off the details of his plan.
40
The day passed and the night, but how very slowly for Nelly Lebrun; she
went up to her room early for she could no longer bear the meaning
glances which Joe Rix cast at her from time to time. But once in her
room it was still harder to bear the suspense as she waited for the
noise to die away in the house. Midnight, and half an hour more went by,
and then, at last, the murmurs and the laughter stopped; she alone was
wakeful in Lebrun's. And when that time came she caught a scarf around
her hair and her shoulders, made of a filmy material which would veil
her face but through which she could see, and ventured out of her room
and down the hall.
There was no particular need for such caution, however, it seemed.
Nothing stirred. And presently she was outside the house and hurrying
behind the houses and up the hill. Still she met nothing. If The Corner
lived tonight, its life was confined to Milligan's and the gambling
house.
She found Donnegan's shack and the one next to it, which the terrible
colonel occupied, entirely dark, but only a moment after she tapped at
the door it was opened. Donnegan, fully dressed, stood in the entrance,
outlined blackly by the light which came faintly from the hooded lantern
hanging on the wall. Was he sitting up all the night, unable to sleep
because he waited breathlessly for that false tryst on the morrow? A
great tenderness came over the heart of Nelly Lebrun.
"It is I," she whispered.
There was a soft exclamation, then she was drawn into the room.
"Is there anyone here?"
"Only big George. But he's in the kitchen and he won't hear. He never
hears anything except what's meant for his ear. Take this chair!"
He was putting a blanket over the rough wood to make it more
comfortable, and she submitted dumbly to his ministrations. It seemed
terrible and strange to her that one so gentle should be the object of
so much hate--such deadly hate as the members of Nick's gang felt for
him. And now that he was sitting before her she could see that he had
indeed been wakeful for a long time. His face was grimly wasted; the
lips were compressed as one who has endured long pain; and his eyes
gleamed at her out of a profound shadow. He remained in the gloom; the
light from the lantern fell brightly upon his hands alone--meager,
fleshless hands which seemed to represent hardly more strength than that
of a child. Truly this man was all a creature of spirit and nerve.
Therein lay his strength, as also his weakness, and again the cherishing
instinct grew strong and swept over her.
"There is no one near," he said, "except the colonel and his daughter.
They are up the hillside, somewhere. Did you see them?"
"No. What in the world are they out for at this time of night?"
"Because the colonel only wakes up when the sun goes down. And now he's
out there humming to himself and never speaking a word to the girl. But
they won't be far away. They'll stay close to see that no one comes near
the cabin to get at Landis."