Hank Bradley, his face stinging from the bruises he had received, his
blood boiling with fury and humiliation, slunk deeper and deeper into
the wood. Now he would utter a despondent groan, again a long and
resonant string of threatening oaths. As he slowly spat the blood from
his gashed lips, he solemnly vowed that he would have the man's life who
had dared to interfere with him. To the end of his existence he would
see himself sprawling at the feet of the woman whom he had so long and
persistently sought--as long as he lived he would see the righteous
glare in his antagonist's eyes, the look of grateful relief which
lighted the face of the rescued. Plunging onward, he came to a
mountain-brook which, as clear as crystal, leaped and rippled, gurgled
and muttered down the rugged declivity. Here he paused, whining and
bemoaning his luck, and sat down and bathed his face. He was sober now,
all too sober, in fact, for his peace of mind. Above the tree-tops he
saw the roof and gables of his uncle's house, and, as he mopped his face
with his blood-clotted handkerchief, he trudged toward it.
Old Welborne himself was on the lawn inspecting his beehives, near the
front gate, when his nephew entered, and he turned toward him, staring
curiously.
"Why, what's the matter?" the old man asked. "You look like you've been
run over by a wagon, or kicked by an army mule. Great heavens, man!"
Welborne put out his hand as if to touch the purple and swollen spot
above Bradley's eye, but with a surly oath the young man drew back.
"Same mule, I reckon, that had hold of your windpipe in your office the
other day when you squealed like a stuck pig under the table."
"Huh!" Welborne grunted. "You was in the other room and didn't show
yourself when a man less 'n half my age and as strong as an ox
was--was--"
"T'wasn't my row, and this ain't _yours_," Hank growled. "I'll tell you
that now, and be done with it. I won't take up any fight of yours over
your close-fisted, hold-up deals, but I'll see mine through, and don't
you forget it."
"You'd better go in the house and put some medicine on your face," the
old man advised, "and sleep off that drunk! I smelt you before you
opened the gate. I knew when you was kicked out of Alf Henley's store
that day that you'd never let it rest till you had another row. You are
like your daddy was, always looking for trouble, and, somehow, always
finding plenty of it, and doing no particular harm to anybody else. He
was always going to kill somebody, but never got to it."
"Listen to me," Bradley snarled; "if I don't kill that dirty whelp in
twenty-four hours from now, I leave home for good and all."
"Say, look here," Welborne said, with a change of tone. "I'm not saying
this for Alf Henley's sake, for I hate him; he is the only man in this
county that ever tricked me out of my rights, and I'll get even with
'im, sooner or later, but I'm thinking now about you. You may be
foolhardy enough to try some slip-up game on him. I'm not afraid you'll
meet him like a man, for, if it had been in you, you'd have done it
before this, but you may think you can do your job in the dark, so
listen to me, Hank. You may think you can shoot him from behind, but I
tell you if you do you'll swing for it. I've got a longer head than you
have, because I've kept it clear, and hate of a man never will get my
neck in the loop. Don't you know--can't you see that if anything harmed
that fellow now, after this whipping he's given you, that suspicion
would be directed to you. He's popular--men on all sides like him--and a
jury would not leave their seats to convict you. You'd hang, I tell you,
hang till you are dead, dead, dead!"
"I'd rather hang, by God," Bradley growled, "than go through with what
I'm going through now. Don't talk to me. Go on with your flea-skinning,
and let me alone. I know what I'm about!"
"You don't, for you are too befuddled with liquor to know," retorted the
calm old man. "I can remind you of a thing that maybe you ought to
recall. There was a white man lynched for a certain offence two months
ago. It was done by a mob of eight or ten young devils on a drunken
rampage. The authorities was disposed to drop it, because it was
believed the man was guilty, but now it is leaking out that he was the
wrong party. His friends are working as quiet as moles under ground.
They are getting names and stacks of evidence. A man I've done a favor
for come and told me to warn you. I didn't think it was worth while, but
I do now, because if you fire on Alf Henley from the dark you'll be
arrested, and both charges will be saddled on you."
"I don't care a damn about that, either," Bradley spouted, and he turned
toward the house. "I'll do one thing at a time, and take the biggest
first."
"That's your determination, then?"
"You bet it is. I know my business, and I don't want you to put your
fingers in it."
"Well, go ahead with your rat-killing," the money-lender said. "I've
given you a piece of sound advice, and, if you don't take it, that isn't
my lookout."
Bradley strode heavily and with dragging feet along the gravelled walk
to the house. He lunged awkwardly across the veranda floor and went into
the wide hallway and ascended the walnut stairs to his room.
An hour later he came down. He had been drinking again from a supply of
liquor kept in his chamber. One of his hip-pockets bulged with a flask,
the other with a long revolver. No one was on the front veranda or on
the lawn. A dim light from a window at the right of the hall told him
that his uncle was in his room, perhaps absorbed over his accounts and
papers. Passing out at the gate, he took the narrow, private road
through his uncle's fields to Chester, the lights of which danced before
his unsteady vision. It was Saturday, and, as Henley often went to the
store on that night, Bradley concluded that he might be there now. When
he reached the square he found few persons on any of the divergent
streets. A few strangers and drummers sat smoking and chatting on the
low veranda of the little hotel, and in the darkness he passed them
without attracting attention. Reaching Henley's store, he glanced in at
the front. Cahews and Pomp were putting the tumbled dry-goods department
to rights, and sweeping, sprinkling, and dusting. A queer thrill of
triumph passed through the watcher as he descried the lamp on Henley's
desk and the unruffled face of the storekeeper in its circle of rays.
Fearing that some passer-by might notice him in front, Bradley climbed
over the fence at the side of the house and crouched down in the yard,
hidden by the shadow of the wall. The village was very still. The
clanging of a near-by church-bell calling the choir to practise for the
Sunday service jarred harshly on Bradley's tense nerves. Pomp was
singing, keeping time with strokes of his broom, and Cahews was
whistling an accompaniment. Bradley waited till the bell had ceased its
clangor, and then, with a step that was almost steady, he glided along
the weather-boarding through the junk-filled yard till he had reached
the open window close to Henley's desk. Henley was still there. He
seemed to be counting money, for he had a bag of coin near him and the
iron safe near by was open. Bradley could see the pigeon-holes and
little drawers with their brass mountings gleaming in the light. He drew
his revolver and cocked it noiselessly and aimed it experimentally at
his intended victim. No better mark could be desired, but the right
moment must be chosen. Bradley looked about him, his befuddled brain
noting this or that obstacle to immediate flight. He must think; he must
make no mistake, for, as his uncle had said, the risk was grave. The
sudden report of a revolver would cause that cottage door to fly open;
Seth Woods at work in his cage-like shop across the street would run
directly over to see what had happened. The loungers at the hotel would
appear, Cahews and Pomp, and, and--Bradley recalled Welborne's reference
to the lynched man, and shuddered. Yes, drunk as he was, he could see
that, easy as the deed was of execution, escape would be most difficult.
He told himself, as he thrust the weapon back into his pocket, that the
centre of the town was no place for work like this, and that later
Henley would have to pass along a lonely road in darkness to get home.
Yes, that was the best plan, he decided, and, creeping back through the
yard, he regained the fence, and, watching his opportunity, he climbed
over into the street and made his way unobserved out into the country
road.
Soon he had reached the point he had in mind. It was, by odd fatality,
the spot where he had received his castigation only a few hours before.
The moon was behind a cloud, and yet the visible stars furnished
sufficient light for him to see his way, dulled as his vision was by the
spirits he had consumed. Now his plan was complete. He would lie in wait
right where the unshaded roadway entered the wood. Henley's form would
be clearly limned against the unobstructed horizon. Bradley would fire
once, twice, as many times as would be necessary to do the work
absolutely. He believed that he would be calm enough, practicable as it
would be at that distance from any residence, to step forward and
examine the body to be sure that no mistake had been made. Bradley
chuckled as he sat down on the heather, and felt a satisfied, even
triumphant, glow steal over him. Taking out his flask, he drained its
contents, and then threw it into the wood. It whistled ominously as it
cut its way through the air and fell with a crash against a bowlder. He
drew out his watch and struck a match to see the dial. It was ten
o'clock. His victim could not be long now, for Henley never remained
late at the store.
"Ah, what was that? Surely it was a man's whistle, and Henley's whistle
was a well-known and merry characteristic of himself. To-night it
rippled forth more joyously than usual, and this in itself added to the
flames in the crouching man's breast. Henley could whistle that way
because he had triumphed so conspicuously in the recent encounter. But
stopping a man's whistle was a small matter when it was done with a
six-shooter by a good marksman, Bradley chuckled, and that wouldn't
bother him many seconds. Now he could distinctly hear the storekeeper's
step; he would soon be in view there where the fireflies were flashing,
and then--but what was that? Something seemed to be lowered from the
branches of a tree directly across the road as by a rope, and to hang
against the dark background, turning in a gruesome fashion, as if
wind-blown, first one way and then another. It was a human body. The
feet were tied by a bridle-rein, the hands bound behind by the
suspenders the corpse had worn. Bradley had seen the thing in fancy many
times before, but never in such grim actuality as now. He strained his
sight to make sure. There was no doubt. The thing was actually
there--there, there, great God!--there!
"Gentlemen, friends, neighbors"--he remembered the very words that had
escaped the lips now grinning at him--"you are hangin' the wrong man.
I'm innocent. In the name of God, spare me. I'm the father of six
children that depend on me for a living. Give me a chance to prove what
I say--oh, God!--oh, God, oh, God, have mercy!"
The hand holding the revolver relaxed. With a subdued cry of terror,
Bradley was on his feet, glaring at the accusing sight. He saw Henley
enter the wood and move on unsuspectingly toward the horrible spectre
which swung across his path. Indeed, Henley passed through it as through
a vapor, still whistling. With a cry still in his throat, Bradley dashed
into the wood and fled the spot.
Henley heard the sound of pattering feet and paused for a moment,
looking about him wonderingly. It wasn't an animal suddenly frightened
from its lair, for the weird, guttural cry was human. At the side of the
road stood a huge oak, on the trunk of which there was a grayish,
barkless strip about the width and length of a medium-sized man, and
hanging from a bough above was an uprooted grape-vine. These natural
objects would have attracted Henley's attention had he known how they
had been masquerading in his behalf. As it was, however, he resumed his
whistling, and, barely reminded by the spot of the recent encounter, he
cheerfully pursued his way. He was very tired, and looked forward with
eagerness to the moment when he could get into bed.