"What's yore idea?" he bellowed. "Comin' here a-disturbin' the peace an' knockin' respectable folks about. I've half a mind--"
"Yo're flatterin' yoreself, sheriff; I shouldn't say yu had that much," Severn retorted, and a snicker went round the room, which infuriated the officer still more. "O' course, I didn't know this fella was a friend o' yores."
"Friend nothin'--I never seen him afore," the sheriff disclaimed, "but I represent the law--"
"Ain't yu a mite late gettin' into the game, sheriff?" queriedSevern sarcastically. "When that fella had his gun jammed into my back yu gave a pretty good imitation of a gob of mud. Yu aw him jump me."
"I saw yu deliberately spill his drink an' tromp on his feet," the sheriff returned viciously. "An' if he'd beefed yu it would 'a' served yu right."
Severn smiled at the circle of spectators, which now included everyone in the room.
"Yu oughta get yore eyesight seen to, sheriff," he said. "It'll play yu a trick one o' these days." And then the mirth died out of his face. "I've seen quite a few sheriffs an' marshals, but yo're the worst specimen ever," he said acidly. "What's the matter with this town that it has to go into the desert an' fetch in a poison toad like yu to hang a star on?"
The officer's face grew pale, his cheeks puffed out, and his beady eyes snapped with rage until he actually suggested the reptile to which he had been likened.
"Yo're insultin' an' opposin' the law," he screamed.
In sheer desperation, Tyler's hand went to his gun, and, in a tone he tried hard to make convincing, he said :
"Put up yore hands, I'm arrestin' yu."
Severn, lolling easily against the bar, laughed in his face. "Why, yu pore skate, I could blow yu to bits before yu could get that cannon out," he jeered. "See here, sheriff, I'll make yu an offer. We'll get a deck o' cards--a new one--an' have one cut each. The man who cuts the high card has first shot at the other from two paces--even yu couldn't miss that far away. That'll give yu an even break. What about it?"
The sheriff's face palpably lost some of its colour as he heard this amazing suggestion. He had made his bluff and the other man had called it. He swept a furtive glance at the onlookers, but could see nothing but eager curiosity. If he asked for help to arrest the puncher, he would probably die swiftly--Severn's eyes had told him as much. On the other hand, the thing he would have called his soul shivered at the thought of staking his life on a cut of the cards. Fair as it undoubtedly was, the very cold-bloodedness of the proposition appalled him. And he knew he would lose--one look at the mocking, satirical face of the challenger, radiating confidence, settled the issue. A loophole occurred to him.
"Pretty cheap bluff," he croaked. "Yu know dam well I can't take yu up wearin' this," and he touched his badge of office.
"It ain't sewn to yore skin, is it?" queried the other, and then, "Well, I didn't think yu'd jump at it, sheriff; sorta guessed yu'd find a hole to crawl into, but just to show I warn't bluffin', the offer is open to any o' yore friends--or his."
He pointed to the senseless figure on the floor, but his eyeswere on Bartholomew. The Bar B owner shrugged his shoulders as he replied :
"That jasper's a stranger to me. I fight my own battles, my own way."
"So I've heard," Severn commented, and his sneering smile conveyed anything but a compliment. "Tell that fella when he comes round where he can find me," he said to the bar-tender, and unconcernedly turning his back, walked out of the room.
A little way out of town he waited, and presently Larry came loping up. The little man cut short his thanks.
"Nothin' to that," he said. "It was a plain frame-up. I was watchin' an' yu never touched the fella; he was there a-purpose, an' he was sent for when they see yu come in. I couldn't place him at once, but after yu handed out that wallop it came to me. His name's Shadwell, but he's generally known as `Shady', which shore described him to a dot. He's a gunman, an' fast. Whyfor did yu make that fool offer to cut the cards? S'pose the sheriff had took yu up?"
The foreman laughed. "I knew he wouldn't--he's yellow right through," he said. "It warn't meant for him. An' it ain't quite the same as an ordinary gun play where there's allus the chance o' bein' a split-second quicker'n the other fella. Cuttin' the cards for first shot is a cold gamble, live or die, an' it wants a hell of a lot o' nerve to sit into a game like that. Some o' the men in the saloon who knew I was talkin' at Bartholomew, are thinkin' he oughta called me, an' that's why I made the play. Yu thought I was just grand-standin'?"
"I thought yu was bein' the natural dam fool yu are an' takin' an unnecessary risk," came the blunt answer.
"It's the loss in prestige, Larry," Severn pointed out, his voice serious but his eyes twinkling. "Yu gotta consider the psychological aspect."
"Aw right, professor, I pass," that young man interjected hurriedly.
Chapter VIII
To Phil Masters at the Lazy M ranch, the days came and went with leaden feet, and with the passing of each one, hen hopes of again seeing her father grew fainter.
So far as the ranch was concerned, work went on as usual, and she realised with some bitterness that the absence of themaster was making no difference. Severn seemed to get on well with the men.
Passing the foreman's hut, she saw the door was open, and the curiosity of her sex demanded a peep within. The room was empty, but in one corner stood a Winchester rifle, at the sight of which she stopped as though a bullet from it had struck her. She was about to step inside to examine it when a low, throaty rumble halted her, and she saw Quirt regarding her with questioning eyes. While she was hesitating she heard a step behind her, and turned to face the foreman.
"Did yu want to see me?" he asked.
"Yes, but your dog appears to have other views," she replied.
He called the animal, which came with a bound and squatted beside him. Even in the short time since she had first seen the dog it had grown appreciably, and she commented on the fact.
"Good grub an' a lazy time will work wonders," he smiled. "If yu stroke his head he'll know yu are a friend, an' remember."
She looked at him sharply, and then did as he suggested. Quirt submitted to the caress, and again she was conscious of the feeling of revolt against the will power of its master; everybody and everything seemed to do as he desired. Even she--Abruptly she turned upon him.
"That is my father's gun," she said, pointing. "How does it come to be there?"
Severn hesitated, conscious that she was watching him narrowly, but his face betrayed no emotion, though he was inwardly cursing himself for not having put the weapon where it would not be so easily seen.
"I found it," he said, and, anticipating her next question, "It was the day before I took the herd to the XT. I was ridin' up that way when a fella cut down on me from cover an' I had to deal with him; the gun was beside the body."
"You killed him?"
"Shore. It was him or me."
"Who was it?" she asked, and he could read the horrified conjecture in her eyes.
"The Mexican--Tgnacio," he told her.
"Ignacio? And you suggest he killed my father?" she cried, incredulously. "Why didn't you tell me at the time?"
"It don't amount to anythin'--the Greaser may have found or stolen the gun," Severn pointed out. "I didn't want to worry yu."
The girl's face was pale and tense, her hands clenched until the knuckles showed white beneath the skin, and her big brown eyes were stormy. His excuse brought a disfiguring curl to her lips.