PAYMENT ON ACCOUNT
Mackenzie raised his eyes slowly from his task of blending tobacco,
looked for a moment into Reid's determined face, remembering with a
falling heart that he had taken his own revolver off and hung it in
the wagon when he came in, to relieve himself of the weight.
"Hurry--hand it out!"
Reid lifted himself slightly, elbow still pressed close to his side,
raising his face a foot nearer Mackenzie's, his eyes drawn small, the
corners of his mouth twitching.
Mackenzie's hands were poised one above the other, as he had suspended
his milling operations. As quickly as the hand of a prestidigitator
flashes, Mackenzie swept the one that held the tobacco, dashing the
powdered mixture into Reid's eyes.
Reid fired as he sprang to his feet, gasping and choking, momentarily
blinded by the fiery tobacco. Mackenzie felt the bullet lift his hair
as it passed his temple, and before it was many rods on its way
through the canvas top of the wagon he had grappled with Reid and
wrenched his gun away.
Reid had no hands for a fight, even if it had been in him to attempt
it, being busy with his streaming eyes. He cursed Mackenzie as he
sputtered and swabbed.
"Damn it all, Mackenzie, can't you take a joke?" he said.
"No, I don't get you--you're too funny for me," Mackenzie returned.
"Here--wash your eyes."
Mackenzie offered the water pail, Reid groping for it like a blind
man, more tears streaming down his face than he had spent before in
all his life together. He got the rough of it out, cursing the while,
protesting it was only a joke. But Mackenzie had read human eyes and
human faces long enough to know a joke when he saw it in them, and he
had not seen even the shadow of a jest in the twitching mask of Reid's
unfeeling countenance as he leaned on his elbow holding his gun.
"You were right about it a little while ago," Mackenzie told Reid when
he looked up with red, reproachful eyes presently; "this range isn't
big enough for you and me." Mackenzie jerked his hand toward the
saddle and bridle which Reid had lately taken from his horse. "Get to
hell out of here!"
Reid went without protest, or word of any kind, wearing his belt and
empty scabbard. Mackenzie watched him saddle and ride over the ridge,
wondering if he would make a streak of it to Sullivan and tell him
what a poor hand his school-teaching herder was at taking a joke.
Curious to see whether this was Reid's intention, Mackenzie followed
him to the top of the hill. Reid's dust was all he could trace him by
when he got there, and that rose over toward Swan Carlson's ranch,
whence he had come not more than an hour ago.
Pretty thick business between that precious pair, Mackenzie thought,
and of a sort not likely to turn out of much profit to either them or
anybody else. Carlson was a plain human brute without any sense of
honor, or any obligation to the amenities of civilized society; Reid
was simply an unmoral sharper.
It didn't make any difference where Reid went, or what he planned; he
would have to stay away from that camp. That Mackenzie vowed, meaning
it to the last letter. Tim Sullivan would be informed of this latest
pleasantry at their first meeting, also, and hear a chapter from
Mackenzie's heart on the matter of Joan.
Joan! If that leper Reid ever came near Joan, or ever blew the
pollution of a word to her, he would nail him to the ground with a
bullet, no matter that he was in debt to him for his life.
Mackenzie found the rifle that Sullivan had provided Reid for his
defense under the bunk in the wagon, with ammunition enough to
withstand a siege. Reid evidently had not been using the gun in
practice very much, confining his rehearsals to the quick slinging of
his pistol, rather, as the cunning of his hand in the attempted
robbery that afternoon seemed to prove. Not wanting Reid to have any
weapon to his hand in case he came back, Mackenzie buckled on the
revolvers, hid the rifle near the wagon, and went back to guard the
sheep.
Mackenzie felt himself softening in his judgment of Reid as the day
drew toward evening. He feared he had been a little severe with him,
taking his gun away and sending him off, surly and vindictive. Perhaps
it was only a joke, as Reid had protested, although there had been no
glimmer of jest in his eyes when he had slung out his gun.
Still, the boy was hardly responsible, oppressed by his load of
dissatisfaction, harrassed and disturbed by that unbalancing ailment
they called the lonesomeness. If he had come at it right, Mackenzie
reflected, he could have had a hundred dollars or so, even though in
staking him to it he would have been helping a criminal to escape.
He began to hope Reid would come back and try to square it. If he
wanted the money to leave the country on then he could have it.
Holding him there in the sheep country would not work his reformation,
but would breed and store the virus of resentment, making him a truly
dangerous man to set free to prey upon society when his term was
done.
But Reid never would remain to finish his three years of penance
there. Joan had seen it, even before his malady had fastened upon him
so deeply. It might be a merciful deed to finance his going, and speed
him toward the land of his desire. But how he would live in Mexico
would be another matter. Perhaps he would work. At any event, he would
be free.
Mackenzie had ranged his flock a considerable distance from the wagon,
keeping to the hilltops above the sheep, according to the custom of
herders. He was sitting in a gully, his back against the bank, feeling
a weariness over him that he blamed mainly to the weight of the
revolvers and cartridge belt in his weakened state, when he saw Reid
coming back.
Reid broke over the hill beyond the sheep-wagon at a gallop, hatless,
riding low, and the sound of shots behind him beat the tune to which
he traveled. Mackenzie got to his feet, his weariness gone on the
surge of concern that thrilled him. Hector Hall had come to collect
his outstanding account at last.
And Reid was unarmed. Because of this he had been forced to flee before
his enemy like a coward, against his nature, to his humiliation,
Mackenzie knew. He should not have allowed Reid to leave camp without
his gun, he would not have done it if he had reflected a moment on
the risk of going unarmed when there was one abroad on the range who
sought his life. If Reid should fall, Mackenzie felt he would be an
accessory to the crime.
Two men were pursuing Reid. They drew up a moment on the hilltop, then
came down the long slope at reckless speed, not wasting any more
ammunition at that distance, which was not above two hundred yards,
but dividing to cut off Reid's retreat, draw in on him then, and make
an end of it at close range.
Reid halted at the wagon, where he made a hasty search for the rifle
without dismounting, hidden for a moment from his pursuers. He was too
far away to hear Mackenzie's shouted directions for finding the gun.
On again toward Mackenzie he came, halting a little way along to look
back at the men who were maneuvering to cut off any swerving or
retreat that he might attempt. Mackenzie beckoned him on, shouting,
waving his hat, running forward to his relief.
Mackenzie's thought was to give Reid his revolver, split the
ammunition with him, each of them take a man, and fight it out. But
Reid sat straight in the saddle, looking back at the two who came
pressing on, seeming to fear them less than he hated the humiliation
of seeking shelter under Mackenzie's protection. Mackenzie understood
his feeling in the matter, and respected Reid for it more than for
anything he ever had done.
While Mackenzie was yet a hundred yards from Reid he saw him swing
from the saddle and shelter himself behind his horse. Hall and his
companion were standing off warily, a good pistol shot from Reid,
distrustful of this sudden change in his tactics, apparently believing
he had come to the place he had selected to make his defensive stand.
A little while they stood waiting for him to fire, then separated, the
stranger circling to come behind Mackenzie, Hall moving a little
nearer to Reid, who kept his horse before him with the craft of an
Indian.
Hall stood a little while, as if waiting for Reid to fire, then rode
forward, throwing a stream of lead as he came. Reid's horse reared,
ran a few rods with head thrown wildly high, its master clinging to
the bit, dragging over shrub and stone. Suddenly it collapsed forward
on its knees, and stretched dead.
Reid flung himself to the ground behind the protection of its carcass,
Hall pausing in his assault to reload. The man who had ridden a wide
and cautious circuit to get behind Mackenzie now dismounted and began
firing across his saddle. Mackenzie turned, a pistol in each hand,
indecisive a moment whether to return the fellow's fire or rush
forward and join Reid behind the breastworks of his beast.
The stranger was nearer Mackenzie by many rods than Hall, but still so
far away that his shots went wide, whistling high over Mackenzie's
head, or kicking dirt among the shrubs at either hand. Hall was
charging down on Reid again, but with a wariness that held him off a
distance of comparative safety.
In the moment that he paused there, considering the best and quickest
move to make to lessen Reid's peril, the thought shot to Mackenzie
like a rending of confusing clouds that it was not so much Reid's
peril as his own. These men had come to kill him; their sighting Reid
on the way was only an incident. It was his fight, and not Reid's, for
Reid was safe behind his horse, lying along its body close to the
ground like a snake.
This understanding of the situation cleared the air tremendously.
Where he had seen in confusion, with a sense of mingling and turning
but a moment before, Mackenzie now beheld things with the sharpness of
self-interest, calculating his situation with a comprehensive
appraisement of every yard that lay between him and his enemies. He
was steady as a tree, light with a feeling of relief, of justification
for his acts. It was as if putting off the thought that he was going
into this fight for Earl Reid had taken bonds from his arms, leaving
him free to breathe joyously and strike with the keenness of a man who
has a wild glory in facing tremendous odds.
All in a moment this clearing of brain and limb came to him, setting
him up as if he had passed under an icy torrent and come out refreshed
and clear-eyed into the sun. He bent low behind a shrub and rushed
down the hillside toward the man who stood reloading his pistol, his
hat-crown showing above the saddle.
Reid was all right back there for a little while, he knew; Hall would
hold off a bit, not knowing what he might meet by rushing in with
precipitation. This one first, then Hall. It was not Reid's fight; it
was his fight, Reid but an incident in it, as a sheep might run
between the combatants and throw its simple life in peril.
The fellow behind the horse, too sure of his safety, too contemptuous
of this shepherd schoolmaster whose notorious simplicity had gone
abroad in the sheeplands exciting the rough risibilities of men, was
careless of whether his target stood still or ran; he did not lift his
eyes from the reloading of his gun to see. And in those few precious
moments Mackenzie rushed down on him like a wind from the mountain,
opening fire with not more than twenty yards between.
Mackenzie's first shot knocked leather from the saddle-horn. The horse
squatted, trembling, snorted its alarm, trampled in panic, lifting a
cloud of dust. And into this rising dust Mackenzie sent his lead, not
seeing where it struck, quickly emptying one revolver, quickly
shifting weapons from hand to hand, no pause in his hot assault.
The stranger cursed his frightened horse, both hands busy with the
beast to stay it from plunging away and leaving him exposed to
something he had not counted on meeting. Mackenzie pushed on, firing
at every step. The horse partly turned, head toward him, partly baring
the scoundrel who was that moment flinging his leg over the saddle to
seek a coward's safety. It was a black mare that he rode, a white star
in its forehead, and now as it faced about Mackenzie, not thirty feet
away, threw a bullet for the white spot between the creature's eyes.
It reared, and fell, coming down while its rider's leg still lay
across the saddle, his other foot held in the stirrup.
A moment Mackenzie stood, the smoking pistol in his hand, leaning
forward like a man who listened into the wind, his broad hat-brim
blown back, the smoke of his firing around him. The horse lay still,
its rider struggling with one leg pinned under it, the other across
the saddle, the spur of that foot tearing the dead creature's flesh in
desperate effort to stir in it the life that no cruelty could awaken.
Leaning so, the wind in his face, the smoke blowing away behind him,
Mackenzie loaded his revolvers. Then he ran to the trapped invader of
his peace and took away his guns, leaving him imploring mercy and
assistance, the dead horse across his leg.
Mackenzie was aware of shooting behind him all this time, but only as
one is conscious of something detached and immaterial to the thing he
has in hand. Whether Hector Hall was riding down on him in defense of
his friend, or whether he was trying to drive Reid from the shelter of
his fallen horse, Mackenzie did not know, but from that moment Hall
was his business, no matter where he stood.
Putting out of the fight the man who lay pressed beneath his horse had
been a necessary preliminary, a colorless detail, a smoothing away of
a small annoyance in the road of that hour's great work. For the end
was justified beforehand between him and Hall. It was not a matter of
vengeance, but of justice. This man had once attempted to take away
his life by the most diabolical cruelty that human depravity could
devise.
This passed through Mackenzie's thoughts like the heat of a fire that
one runs by as he swung round to face Hall. Apparently unconcerned by
what had befallen his friend, Hall was circling Reid's dead horse,
holding tenaciously to his intention of clearing the ground before him
as he advanced. Reid snaked himself on his elbows ahead of his enemy's
encircling movement, keeping under cover with admirable coolness and
craft.
Mackenzie ran forward, throwing up his hand in command to Hall,
challenging him as plainly as words to turn his efforts from a
defenseless man to one who stood ready to give him battle. Hall drew
off a little from Reid's concealment, distrustful of him even though
he must have known him to be unarmed, not caring to put a man behind
his back. Still drawing off in that way, he stopped firing to slip
more cartridges into his automatic pistol, watching Mackenzie's rapid
advance, throwing a quick eye now and then toward the place where Reid
lay out of his sight.
Hall waited in that sharp pose of watchful indecision a moment, then
spurred his horse with sudden bound toward Reid. He leaped the carcass
of Reid's animal at a gallop, firing at the man who huddled close
against its protection as he passed over. Mackenzie could not see Reid
from where he stood, but he felt that his peril was very great, his
chances almost hopeless in the face of Hall's determination to have
revenge on his brother's slayer in defiance of what might come to
himself when the thing was done.
Mackenzie ran a little nearer, and opened fire. Heedless of him, Hall
swung his horse back at a gallop, firing at Reid as he advanced. Reid
came rolling round the carcass of his horse to place himself in the
protection of the other side, so nimble in his movements that
Mackenzie drew a breath of marveling relief. If Reid was touched at
all by Hall's vicious rain of lead, it could be only slightly.
Hall's headlong charge carried him several rods beyond Reid, the horse
springing high over the barrier. Again Reid escaped, again he came
rolling back to shelter, his body as close to the ground as a worm's.
When Hall pulled up his sliding, stiff-legged horse and turned in the
cloud of dust to ride once more upon his defenseless enemy, it was to
face Mackenzie, who had run up and posted himself directly in his
way.
Reid's dead horse lay not more than twenty feet behind Mackenzie.
Hector Hall leaned glowering at him through the dust perhaps twice
that distance ahead. A moment Hall leaned in that way, then came
spurring on, holding his fire as if his purpose were to ride Mackenzie
down in contempt.
Mackenzie fired, steady against the onrushing charge as a rock in the
desert wind. He was thrilled by a calm satisfaction in meeting this
man who had contemned and despised him, whose cold eyes spoke insults,
whose sneering lips were polluted with the blasphemies of his filthy
heart.
When Hall returned the fire he was so close that the flame of his
weapon struck hot against Mackenzie's face. Mackenzie leaped aside to
avoid the horse, untouched save by the spurting flame, emptying his
pistol into Hall's body as he passed. A little way on Hall wheeled the
horse and came riding back, but the blindness of death was in his
face, his rapid shots fell wild among the shrubs at Mackenzie's side.
On past Mackenzie the horse galloped, Hall weaving in the saddle, the
reins hanging free, his hands trailing at his sides. Mackenzie put his
pistol in the scabbard with slow and deliberate hand, feeling that the
battle was done, watching Hall as he rode blindly on.
A little way, and the horse, whether through some wild caprice of its
own, or some touch of its dying rider, circled back, galloping down
the long slope toward the man who had come to help Hall adjust his
differences with these contemptible sheepmen. Hall's hat fell off as
his head sank forward; he bent, grappling his horse's mane. So for a
little way he rode, then slipped from the saddle, one foot entangled
in the stirrup.
The horse stopped suddenly, as if a weighted rein had been dropped.
Mackenzie ran down the hill to disengage Hall's foot. But his merciful
haste was useless; Hall was beyond the torture of dragging at a
stirrup.
Mackenzie released the foot with a sad gentleness, composed the dusty
body, drew the reins over the horse's head and left it standing beside
its dead master. Hall's companion in the raid was still struggling
under his fallen horse, and from the vigor of his attempts to free
himself Mackenzie gathered that he was not much hurt.
A moment's work set the scoundrel on his feet, where he limped on a
whole bone, whole enough to ride on many a rascally foray again.
Mackenzie said nothing to him, only indicated by a movement of the
hand what he was to do. Limping painfully, the fellow went to Hall's
horse, lifted his friend's body across the empty saddle, mounted
behind it with a struggle, and rode in humiliation from the field,
glad enough to be allowed to go.
Reid was standing beside his dead horse, watching the fellow ride
away. So for a little he stood, as if he debated some movement against
the man who had sought his life with such hot cruelty but a few
minutes past, not turning to see whether Mackenzie came or went.
Presently he took his coat from the saddle, slung it over his
shoulder, looked after the retreating man again, as if debating
whether to follow.
Mackenzie came up, Reid's pistol in his hand. This he offered, apology
in his manner, but no words on his lips. Reid took it, silent and
unmoved, shoved it into his scabbard, walked away.
From the manner of his going, Mackenzie knew he was not hurt. It was a
comfortable thought for Mackenzie that his interference had at least
saved Reid a wound. Doubtless he had saved him more. In that last
charge, Hector Hall would have had his life.
A part of his tremendous obligation to Reid was paid, and Reid
understood it so. But the knowledge of it seemed to gall him, so
deeply, indeed, that it appeared he rather would have died than have
Mackenzie succeed in his defense.
Reid stopped where Hector Hall's hat had fallen. He turned it with his
foot, looking down at it, and presently picked it up. He made as if
he would put it on, but did not, and passed on carrying it in his
hand.
Mackenzie wondered what his plans might be, and whether he ought to go
after him and try to put their differences out of the way. Reid did
not stop at the wagon. He continued on to the top of the hill, defiant
of the man who rode away with Hall's body, his pistol again on his
thigh. There he stood looking this way and that a little while, as a
man looks who is undecided of his road. Then he passed on. When
Mackenzie reached the spot where Reid had stood, he was no longer in
sight.
Mackenzie thought Reid might be going deliberately to seek the battle
from which he had been obliged so lately to flee unarmed. Mackenzie
waited on the eminence, listening for the sounds of fight, ready to
hasten to Reid's assistance if he should stand in need of it again. So
the last hour of the afternoon passed. Mackenzie turned back to his
flock at length, believing Reid had gone on his way to the freedom he
had weighed against his inheritance only a few hours before.
It was just as well then as another day, Mackenzie reflected, as he
turned the sheep from their grazing. Not that he had meant to drive
Reid out of the country when he told him to go, but it was just as
well. Soon or late it would have to come to a show-down between them,
and one would have been compelled to leave.
But how would Sullivan view this abrupt ending of the half-million-dollar
penance, and the loss of three years' unpaid labor? Not kindly,
certainly. It probably would result in the collapse of all Mackenzie's
own calculations as well, and the blighting of his sheep-wealth dreams.
And that day he had slain a man in defense of Earl Reid's life, as
Reid had killed in defense of his.
From the first hour he set his feet on the trail to the sheep country
this culmination of his adventures had been shaping. Little by little
it had been building, the aggression pressed upon him, his attitude
all along one of defense. Perhaps when trouble is heading for a man,
as this was inevitably directed, the best thing to do is rush to meet
it with a club in the hand.
That was the way it looked to John Mackenzie that evening. Trouble
will put things over on a man who is bent to compromise, every time.
Undoubtedly it looked that way. But he had killed a man. It was a
heavy thing to carry on his soul.
This depressing shadow thickened over him as the sun drew down to
the hills, and he went working his flock slowly to the night's
bedding-ground. The complaint of the lambs, weary from following and
frisking the day through, was sadder to him than it ever had fallen
on his ears before. It seemed a lament for the pollution of his hands
in human blood, moving a regret in his heart that was harder to bear
than fear.
Mackenzie sat above the resting sheep as the shadows drew toward him
between the hills, a glow as of a distant city where the sun went down
an hour past. The rifle was beside him, his pistol in his belt, for
regret of past violence would not make the next hour secure. If
trouble should lift its head in his path again, he vowed he would kill
it before it could dart and strike.
No, it was not a joke that Reid had pulled on him that afternoon. Reid
had meant to rob him, urged on to the deed by his preying discontent
and racking desire to be away. Reid was on his way out of the country
now, and if they caught him and took him before the judge who had
sentenced him to this unique penance, he would have the plea that
Mackenzie drove him out, and that he fled to save his life.
That might be sufficient for the judge; certainly it would be enough
for Tim Sullivan. Sullivan would bring him back, and Mackenzie would
be sent to pick up the trail of his fortunes in another place, with
years of waiting between him and Joan, perhaps.
So Mackenzie sat with his moody thoughts, depressed, downhearted,
regretting bitterly the necessity that had risen for taking away a
fellow-creature's life. It bore on him heavily now that the heat of
his blood had subsided; it stood before him an awful accusation. He
had killed a man! But a man who had forfeited his right to live, a man
who had attempted to take his life in the past, who had come again
that day to hunt him like a coyote on the hills. The law would
exculpate him; men would speak loudly of his justification. But it
would stand against him in his own conscience all his days. Simple for
thinking of it that way, he knew; simple as they held him to be in the
sheep country, even down to old Dad Frazer, simplest among men.
He had no desire in his mouth for supper, although he set about
preparing it, wanting it over before dark. No need of a blaze or a
glow of a coal to guide anybody that might be prowling around to drop
a bullet into him. That surly rascal who bore Hector Hall's body away
might come back to do it, but the man who stood first in his thoughts
and caution was Earl Reid, out there somewhere in the closing night
with a gun on him and an itch in his hand to use it.