JOHNNY DICE COMES BACK TO LIFE
When Aaron Gallup retired to his home at seven o’clock that evening
he knew that if Johnny Dice hovered in or near Standing Rock he had
heard by now the story of his—Gallup’s—supernatural visitor.
Figuratively speaking, Aaron patted himself on the back for having
set his trap for the smooth Johnny. The old man’s confidence in his
scheme was such that he even whistled snatches of an old tune
popular in the days of the Santa Fe Trail.
He finished his supper without lighting a lamp. Having eaten, he
climbed the stairs and made ready for the expected visitor. He saw
to it that his gun was in order; he lighted a lamp; he raised the
curtains—it was as if he were a stage manager preparing for the
evening’s show.
When his old brain refused to suggest any additional bit of
stagecraft, Aaron took his seat. He had arranged the lamp so that he
sat in shadow. Four or five times he drew a bead upon an imaginary
face in the window—it made him smile. He was ready—he wouldn’t miss
tonight.
It was too early for ghosts, so he half dozed in his chair. A clock
struck eight, but Aaron heard it not, nor did he catch the soft
_pad-pad_ of naked feet ascending the stairs. Gallup was in a
strange world confronting a horde of Johnny Dices. He shot them
down, one after another, until his trigger finger grew tired.
Minutes slipped by as the old man sat lost in reverie, a smile of
satisfaction upon his face. The door had opened noiselessly, a bony
hand forcing it inward. The visitor squinted his eyes at Gallup and
took a step into the room, closing the door behind him as he did so.
He stood still, waiting for the other to catch sight of him.
Aaron became aware of the man’s presence by degrees. When he saw him
and recognition followed, he uttered no word of surprise or fear,
but just stared and stared at him. And eyes as cold as his own
stared back at him.
This specter out of the past was no ghost, and yet it well might
have been, for if, in appearance, there was ever a living dead man
it was this gaunt visitor.
Gallup’s thoughts were no longer on the window. Johnny Dice no
longer obsessed him. He knew there could be no connection between
the boy and this shriveled shadow of a man confronting him.
And yet there was, and not so remote at that. But Johnny knew
nothing of the man’s coming. The boy was playing a lone hand this
night. He had already circled Gallup’s house several times. That a
light should be burning in that same room again tonight looked
suspicious to Johnny. It said all too plainly that he was expected.
Well, it is a poor general who has only one plan of attack. Johnny
flattered himself that he was equal to this occasion.
The eastern freight had not pulled in yet. Two carloads of ore from
the Black Prince mine stood upon the side track. They would have to
be picked up and cut into the train. Very likely the freight would
bring a car of merchandise from San Francisco for the Rock. That
would take more time. Cars would be switched back and forth past the
house. One should be able to see into that lighted upper story room
from the top of one of those cars.
Gallup had not replaced the shattered glass as yet. With fair skill
a man should be able to flip a piece of cardboard into the room.
Johnny had such a thing to toss at Gallup’s feet—the picture of
Molly which he had found in Traynor’s wallet.
The boy had the best of reasons for doing this. Surely if Gallup did
not recognize the picture it would worry him sore just because he
could not place the child’s face. A picture, delivered as this one
would be, carried a message, a warning. And perhaps the man would
fail to reason that it had been tossed into the room from the top of
a passing freight car. If so, he would be at some pains to figure
how it came there upon his floor.
If the incident produced no other effect than this, Johnny told
himself he would be satisfied. It would be another straw added to
Aaron’s load, and to break and unnerve the man was Johnny’s game.
But he stood to win more than this. He had made Kent admit that he
had known Crosbie Traynor. If Gallup recognized that picture it was
proof enough that he, too, had known the man. Then, Johnny felt that
he would have discovered the reason for Kent’s subservience to
Gallup.
As he walked the tracks to the head of the switch just this side of
the shipping pens he told himself that he could not lose. No matter
how the play went, he won.
The freight pulled in half an hour late, but Johnny’s calculation in
regard to the amount of work the train crew would have to do proved
correct. Swinging up to the top of one of the big box cars he
stretched himself flat and waited for the switching to begin. In a
few minutes he was rolling past Gallup’s house.
Rising to his knees, the picture in his hand, he peered into the
lighted room. What he saw there drove his plans far from his mind.
In fact, so great was Johnny’s surprise that he had trouble in
retaining his balance upon the moving car.
Gallup’s visitor was old Thunder Bird! Yes—and the old chief was
bound and gagged! Gallup sat before him. Another second and the
scene was whisked from Johnny’s vision.
Johnny’s breath came in gasps as he rode down the tracks. Some
things were plain now. It was Thunder Bird himself whom Traynor had
gone to see! Could there be any doubt of it? Gallup saw an enemy in
the Indian. Why? What better reason would he want than that Thunder
Bird had known Traynor, and that the old chief knew that
he—Gallup—had known the man, too?
People had called Traynor a stranger, but here were three
men—Thunder Bird, Kent, and Gallup—whose actions proved that they
had known him. There might be others—Tobias Gale, for instance—he
was a mysterious sort of person. Indeed, no stranger’s bullet had
ended Traynor’s life.
Johnny fretted and fumed as the minutes passed while the car stood
still. It seemed that hours dragged by before the engine came back
to shunt the car down the tracks toward town. Finally it began to
move. The boy felt it take the switch just before it crossed the
main street of the town. By this he knew that the car was going on
to the siding which managed to squeeze past the side of the hotel.
Although not so close to Gallup’s house now, the boy could see into
the room by standing erect. The car came to a stop almost opposite
it. Johnny saw Thunder Bird tied in his chair, but Gallup was gone.
“Downstairs, no doubt,” mused Johnny, “lookin’ for me.”
For the ten minutes that the car stood on the siding Johnny stared
into the lighted room. He did not know just what to do. Rescuing men
from Gallup’s lair was hardly a thing to be pursued as a nightly
vocation—that is, if one were at all fond of living. But on the
other hand, Thunder Bird might hold the key to the entire situation.
Johnny felt that the old chief could explain many things if he could
be induced to talk.
Obviously the thing to do was to find Madeiras and then force a way
into Gallup’s house. Tony must be in town. Finding the Basque could
not be more than an hour’s work.
“Damn it,” Johnny muttered. “Wish I’d tipped him off to the truth.
Hain’t helped a bit to let him think he killed me. I sure need him
now. Charlie wouldn’t be no good at all. He’d want to stick a knife
into Gallup.”
The engine kicked a string of cars against the one upon which Johnny
stood. They hit so sharply that the boy’s legs almost went out from
under him. Crawling to the hand irons he swung his foot out to find
the top one. He was facing the hotel for the first time. Before him
was the room in which Traynor had been killed. Johnny drew back his
foot, his brain reeling as he began putting two and two together.
Once he stretched out his arm and touched the window sill.
“My God,” he moaned, “this is _it_! It couldn’t be anythin’ else. It
was this time of the night—the noise of the engine to kill the sound
of the shot, a stick to lift the man’s gun, a toss of the arm to
throw it back into the room after the killin’—it’s right as day!
Why, of course—Traynor’s hat was damp. It was rainin’ that night.
When whoever pulled it out to rip the band off, the rain got at it.
And the wool—I picked up a piece of fleece from the floor. Teixarra
was shippin’ wool that day. His cars stood right here. Mister,
you’ve got the answer!”
Johnny mopped his face with his hands.
“Bumped him off with his own gun, too,” he muttered. “Right clever,
that. Yes, sir, this was one of the most clever murders this State
can boast of. I got to talk to somebody or bust. I’m goin’ to find
Madeiras.”
The car was moving away as Johnny swung to the ground. Half running,
he burst into the Palace barroom. Scanlon dropped his cards as he
caught sight of him.
Vinnie shouted: “My God, you dead, Johnny?”
“Dead, hell!” Johnny roared. “Do I look like a dead one? Where’s
Madeiras?”
“He ain’t been here,” Scanlon answered.
“He was in town last night,” the boy exclaimed. “He ain’t far off
right now. If you see him tell him I’m lookin’ for him—to come on
the run!”
Turning on his heel, Johnny flung himself through the door, deaf to
the questions in Scanlon’s eyes.
Vinnie stared at his partner. The other men present likewise looked
at one another. What had happened? Where had Johnny been? Gallup had
seen his ghost, eh? The laugh was on Aaron.
“He’s rearin’ right up for a ghost, ain’t he?” Scanlon declared.
“Sumthin’ goin’ to happen right soon, now,” somebody stated. “I
ain’t never seen Johnny so hostile.”
“That’s too bad,” Scanlon muttered. “Trouble comin’—and Doc Ritter
forty miles away. They ain’t no advantages in this town!”