That night at his uncle's house Hank Bradley, still wearing traces of
his encounter with Henley, sat reading a newspaper and smoking in his
chamber at the head of the stairs. A half-empty whiskey-flask and a
glass of water were on a table at his elbow, and torn and soiled
playing-cards were scattered about the floor.
Presently his attention was drawn to the outside by a sharp whistle
which was evidently familiar, for he dropped the paper and went to a
window which looked out on the front lawn. At first he could see only
old Welborne at a potato-bed on the right, but as his sight became used
to the outer gloom he descried a man leaning on the fence near the gate.
The fellow wore the broad-brimmed felt hat of the mountaineers; his
pants were tucked into his high-top boots and he wore no coat, but a
gray flannel shirt with a leather belt and a flowing necktie.
"It's Rayburn Hill," Bradley ejaculated. "What the devil can he want? He
must have come thirty miles."
Descending the stairs, and looking furtively at his uncle, whose back
was turned to him, Bradley tiptoed across the veranda and gained the
grass sward, across which he walked noiselessly.
"Hello!" he said, in a gruff tone; "what are you doing over here?"
"Come to see you, Hank." The man, who was under thirty and tall and
strong of limb, thrust out his hand and shook that of his friend. "I
left my horse down at the square."
"What do you want to see me about, Ray?" Bradley's voice almost shook
with growing perturbation. "You told me last week that you never would
come this way again--that the more we all was scattered the safer it
would be."
"I'm on my way to the nighest railroad, Hank."
"You say you are?" Bradley leaned against the fence, and his face turned
white. "You don't think it's as--as bad as that?"
"Don't I? Huh, I only hope I'll catch that twelve-o'clock flyer! I
wouldn't be here now but I told you I'd never act without reporting to
you, and that's what I'm doing, Hank."
"But what's--what's happened to--to scare you up so?" Bradley stammered.
"Hank, that fellow's kin are on our track like a pack of thirsty
bloodhounds. I got onto it by accident. They have smelt blood, and they
are going to drink some. We got the wrong man; I know it damned well
now, and you and me was the ringleaders. You know the West, Hank. I want
you to show me the way. Git a move on you. You haven't a minute to
lose."
"I'll have to raise some money." Bradley looked toward the dim form of
old Welborne through the darkness. "Go back to town, Ray. I'll see my
uncle and pack and meet you at the train. I'm sure you are right. I've
seen bad signs myself. I'd have lit out before this, but there was a
skunk here that I wanted to settle a score with."
"I know, but you'll have to cut that out, Hank. This is no time for
revenge. Hurry up. I'm off. I've got to get a man to take my horse
home."
When his accomplice had gone away, Bradley crossed over to old
Welborne.
"You remember," he began, "that you advised me to leave here the other
day?"
Old Welborne stared at him steadily for a minute, and then shrugged his
decrepit shoulders. "I have been expecting to hear you say you'd settled
with the jackass that gave you that licking that day. I don't want to
see you get into more trouble, but that fellow ought to be pulled down
from his lordly perch. I never see him without feeling his hands on my
throat. He's the one man that has always stood in my way. And now, just
look at him! He's in big luck again, and can sneer in his high and
mighty way at all of us. That fool woman he was so crazy about as to
marry when she loved another man has come into a great big fortune, and
he walks about with a strut as it he was a king and we all was common
trash 'way beneath his notice. I saw him talking to Dixie Hart this
morning in the post-office. His face was shining, and his eyes twinkling
over the news of his wife's big haul. Me an' him have had it nip and
tuck here ever since he set up in business, and he has always thwarted
me. I've pinched and delved to save a few dollars, and his comes to him
in rolls and wads. Folks say he's going to sell out and live over there
in ease the rest of his life. I don't care how soon he leaves, but I'd
like to wipe that grin off his gloating face."
"I've got to go, uncle," Bradley said. "It's too hot for me here. But I
need some money, and I must have it to-night."
"Money? Good Lord! How much do you want?"
"Five hundred. I'm going back West. I know the country, and I'll settle
there. As for Alf Henley, I've got something up my sleeve for him. He's
chuckling now over his wife's big luck, but I'll knock that higher than
a kite; he'll never live on that plantation or spend any of that cash.
You listen close and you'll hear something drop with a big clatter
before many days."
"What are you talking about?" the money-lender asked, bending forward
and peering eagerly into the bloated face of his nephew.
"I know what I'm talking about," Bradley replied, still evasively, "and
that will be the first thing I attend to when I get where I can breathe
fresh air. Say, uncle, I've had a secret in my hold for several years.
It is about Dick Wrinkle. If I thought you could hold your old tongue--"
"Hold my tongue?" Welborne broke in. "Did you ever hear of me telling
anything?"
"Nothing that concerned you, and this does, to some extent, I'll admit,"
Bradley said. "Listen, uncle. How would you like to hear that Alf Henley
ain't that woman's lawful husband? Dick Wrinkle is alive."
"Good Lord!" The old man's eyes gleamed even in the starlight. "You
don't mean it? Surely, surely, you don't."
"Yes, he's alive. He was in Oklahoma when I last saw him. He was done
with everything back here--bored to death by his wife and her odd ways,
and wanted to shake it all off. He had done me a good many favors. He
was hurt in that big storm and reported dead, and got me to confirm it
back here. I did the job right. You are the first one I've told the
facts to. I get a letter from him now and then, and know where he is.
He's made enough money to own a bar in a little place near the Texas
line."
"Well, well, but what has that got to do with Henley?" Welborne wanted
to know.
"It's just got this to do with him," answered Bradley. "Dick Wrinkle can
simply wrap the woman round his finger. She would fall on his neck at
the drop of a hat. If Dick came back she'd have a fit of joy and kick
Henley clean out of the house. I know women, and Dick has told me lots
about his hold on this one."
"But would he come back?"
"Would he? Humph! He's so homesick he thins his ink with brine when he
writes to me. He's known all along that she'd take 'im back, but there
wasn't any special inducement till now. I have an idea that when he is
told--and told in the right way--of this big haul of hers he'll come
back to life with some tale or other to square it, and hurry home and
claim his rights."
"And you want to start to-night?"
"If you'll get me the money. I've overdrawn my account like thunder,
uncle, but I'll not bother you for a while. Get it for me. I've got to
go."
The old man looked at the ground hesitatingly, then he shrugged his thin
shoulders. "Well, go ahead and pack. I've got that much in the safe at
the office. I'll meet you down there. But I'm going to count on you
to--to put this thing through."
"I will if I possibly can," Bradley said. "I think he'll do as I tell
him. He's always listened to me. I know how to work him up. Don't keep
me waiting. I'll pack in twenty minutes."
"Good Lord," the old man chuckled, as he stood alone in the dark. "If
Dick Wrinkle comes back and claims his wife, Alf Henley will take a
tumble from the highest peak he ever stood on. Won't I laugh at him
then? Say, won't I?"