THE FIGHT
Mackenzie got up, keeping the table between them. He looked at the
door, calculating whether he could make a spring for the ax before
Carlson could grapple him. Carlson read in the glance an intention to
retreat, made a quick stride to the door, closed it sharply, locked
it, put the key in his pocket. He stood a moment looking Mackenzie
over, as if surprised by the length he unfolded when on his feet, but
with no change of anger or resentment in his stony face.
"You didn't need to lock the door, Carlson; I wasn't going to run
away--I didn't wait here to see you for that."
Mackenzie stood in careless, lounging pose, hand on the back of his
chair, pipe between his fingers, a rather humorous look in his eyes as
he measured Carlson up and down.
"Come out here in the middle and fight me if you ain't afraid!" Swan
challenged, derision in his voice.
"I'll fight you, all right, after I tell you what I waited here to
say. You're a coward, Swan Carlson, you're a sheepman with a sheep's
heart. I turned your woman loose, and you're going to let her stay
loose. Let that sink into your head."
Carlson was standing a few feet in front of Mackenzie, leaning
forward, his shoulders swelling and falling as if he flexed his
muscles for a spring. His arms he held swinging in front of him full
length, like a runner waiting for the start, in a posture at once
unpromising and uncouth. Behind him his wife shuddered against the
wall.
"Swan, Swan! O-o-oh, Swan, Swan!" she said, crying it softly as if she
chided him for a great hurt.
Swan turned partly toward her, striking backward with his open hand.
His great knuckles struck her across the eyes, a cruel, heavy blow
that would have felled a man. She staggered back a pace, then sank
limply forward on her knees, her hands outreaching on the floor, her
hair falling wildly, her posture that of a suppliant at a barbarian
conqueror's feet.
Mackenzie snatched the heavy platter from the table and brought
Carlson a smashing blow across the head. Carlson stood weaving on his
legs a moment as the fragments of the dish clattered around him,
swaying like a tree that waits the last blow of the ax to determine
which way it will fall. Mackenzie threw the fragment that remained in
his hand into Carlson's face, laying open a long gash in his cheek. As
the hot blood gushed down over his jaw Carlson steadied himself on his
swaying legs and laughed.
Mrs. Carlson lifted her face out of the shadows of the floor at the
sound. Mackenzie glanced at her, the red mark of Swan's harsh blow
across her brows, as he flew at Swan like a desert whirlwind, landing
heavily on his great neck before he could lift a guard. The blow
staggered Carlson over upon his wife, and together they collapsed
against the wall, where Carlson stood a breath, his hand thrown out to
save him from a fall. Then he shook his haughty, handsome, barbarian
head, and laughed again, a loud laugh, deep and strong.
There was no note of merriment in that sound, no inflection of
satisfaction or joy. It came out of his wide-extended jaws with a
roar, no facial softening with it, no blending of the features in the
transformation of a smile. Mrs. Carlson struggled to her knees at the
sound of it, lifting her moaning cry again at the sight of his gushing
blood. Swan charged his adversary with bent head, the floor trembling
under his heavy feet, his great hands lifted to seize and crush.
Mackenzie backed away, upsetting the table between them, barring for a
moment Swan's mad onrush. In the anger-blind movements of the man he
could read his intention, which was not to strike foot to foot, knee
to knee, but to grapple and smother, as he had smothered the
sheepherders in the snow. Across the overturned table Mackenzie landed
another blow, sprang around the barrier out of the pocket of corner
into which Carlson was bent on forcing him, hoping by nimble foot work
to play on the flockmaster for a knockout.
Swan threw a chair as Mackenzie circled out of his reach with nimble
feet, knocking down the stovepipe, dislodging a shower of tinware from
the shelves behind. Carlson had him by the shoulder now, but a deft
turn, a sharp blow, and Mackenzie was free, racing over the cluttered
floor in wild uproar, bending, side-stepping, in a strained and
terrific race. Carlson picked up the table, swung it overhead until it
struck the ceiling, threw it with all his mighty strength to crush the
man who had evaded him with such clever speed. A leg caught Mackenzie
a glancing blow on the head, dazing him momentarily, giving Carlson
the opening he desired.
In the next breath Mackenzie was down, Carlson's hand at his throat.
Mackenzie could see Swan's face as he bent over him, the lantern light
on it fairly. There was no light of exultation in it as his great hand
closed slowly upon Mackenzie's throat, no change from its stony
harshness save for the dark gash and the flood of blood that ran down
his jaw and neck.
Mackenzie writhed and struggled, groping on the floor for something to
strike Carlson with and break his garroting grip. The blood was
singing in his ears, the breath was cut from his lungs; his eyes
flashed a thousand scintillating sparks and grew dark. His hand struck
something in the debris on the floor, the handle of a table knife it
seemed, and with the contact a desperate accession of life heaved in
him like a final wave. He struck, and struck at Swan Carlson's arm,
and struck again at his wrist as he felt the tightening band of his
fingers relax, heard him curse and growl. A quick turn and he was
free, with a glimpse as he rolled over at Swan Carlson pulling a table
fork out of his hairy wrist.
Mackenzie felt blood in his mouth; his ears were muffled as if he were
under water, but he came to his feet with a leg of the broken table in
his hand. Swan threw the fork at him as he rose from his knees; it
struck the lantern, breaking the globe, cutting off more than half the
dim light in which the undetermined battle had begun.
Over against the door Mrs. Carlson stood with the ax in her hands,
holding it uplifted, partly drawn back, as if she had checked it in an
intended blow. Swan tore a broad plank from the table top, split it
over his knee to make it better fit his hand, and came on to the
attack, bending in his slouching, bearish attitude of defiant
strength. Mackenzie gave way before him, watching his moment to strike
the decisive blow.
This maneuver brought Mackenzie near the door, where the wild-eyed
woman stood, an ally and a reserve, ready to help him in the moment of
his extremity. He believed she had been on the point of striking Swan
the moment his fingers closed in their convulsive pang of death over
the handle of the fork.
Swan followed, warily now, conscious of this man's unexpected strength
and agility, and of his resources in a moment of desperation, making
feints with his board as a batter does before the ball is thrown.
Mackenzie passed Mrs. Carlson, backing away from Swan, sparring for
time to recover his wind and faculties after his swift excursion to
the borderland of death. He parried a swift blow, giving one in return
that caught Swan on the elbow and knocked the plank out of his hand.
Mackenzie sprang forward to follow up his advantage with a decisive
stroke, when, to his amazement, Mrs. Carlson threw herself between
them, the ax uplifted in her husband's defense.
"No, no!" she screamed; "he is my man!"
Swan Carlson laughed again, and patted her shoulder, stooping to
recover his board. But he flung it down again, taking the ax in its
place, pushing his woman, not without some tenderness in his hand,
back into the corner, throwing himself in front of her, his wild
laugh ringing in the murky room, stifling from the smoke of lantern
and stove.
Mackenzie felt his hope break like a rope of straw at this unexpected
turn of the woman. With those two mad creatures--for mad he believed
the isolation and cruelty suffered by the one, the trouble and terror
of the law by the other, had driven them--leagued against him it
seemed that he must put down all hope of ever looking again upon the
day.
If there was any chance for him at all, it lay in darkness. With this
thought Mackenzie made a quick dash past Carlson, smashing the lantern
with a blow.
There was one window in the room, a small, single-sash opening near
the stove. Even this was not apparent for a little while following the
plunge into the dark; Mackenzie stood still, waiting for his eyes to
adjust themselves to the gloom. No sound but Carlson's breathing came
from the other side of the kitchen. The square of window appeared
dimly now, a little to Mackenzie's left. He moved cautiously away from
it, yet not without noise for all his care. Swan let drive with his
board at the sound of movement. His aim was good; it struck
Mackenzie's shoulder, but fortunately with its flat surface, doing no
hurt.
Mackenzie threw himself down heavily, getting cautiously to his feet
again instantly, hoping to draw Carlson over in the belief that he had
put him out of the fight. But Carlson was not so rash. He struck a
match, holding it up, peering under it, blinking in the sudden light.
Mackenzie was not more than eight feet away. He closed the distance in
a bound, swung the heavy oak table leg, and stretched Carlson on the
floor. Mrs. Carlson began wailing and moaning, bending over her fallen
tyrant, as Mackenzie could gather from her voice.
"You've killed him," she said; "you've killed my man!"
"No, but I will kill him if you don't open the door!"
Mackenzie stood by Carlson as he spoke, feeling his body with his
foot. He bent over Carlson, exploring for his heart, fearing that he
had killed him, indeed. His first efforts to locate a pulse were not
assuring, but a feeble throbbing at last announced that the great
ruffian's admirable machinery was stunned, not broken.
"Open the door; he'll be all right in a little while," Mackenzie
said.
Mrs. Carlson was moaning in a sorrow as genuine as if the fallen man
had been the kindest husband that fate could have sent her, and not
the heartless beast that he was. She found the key and threw the door
open, letting in a cool, sweet breath of the night. Under it Carlson
would soon revive, Mackenzie believed. He had no desire to linger and
witness the restoration.
Mackenzie had a bruised and heavy feeling about him as he shouldered
his pack and hurried from that inhospitable door. He knew that Swan
Carlson was not dead, and would not die from that blow. Why the
feeling persisted as he struck off up the creek through the dew-wet
grass he could not tell, but it was strong upon him that Swan Carlson
would come into his way again, to make trouble for him on a future
day.