-- was Brent-- best friend!--he roared.--was Bissett-- friend.----hey say Bissett was a Vulture,--whispered a voice. Gorman lifted his tawny head and glared about the room as a lion might glare.
--ho says he was a Vulture? Why don't these slanderers accuse a living man? It-- always a dead man they accuse! Well, what if he was? He was my friend! Maybe that makes me a Vulture!-- No one laughed or spoke as his flaming gaze swept the room, but each man, as those blazing eyes rested on him in turn, felt the chill breath of Death blowing upon him.
--issett a Vulture!--he said, wild enough with drink and fury to commit any folly, as well as any atrocity. He did not heed the eyes fixed on him, some in fear, a few in intense interest.--ho knows who the Vultures are? Who knows who, or what anybody really is? Who really knows anything about this man Corcoran, for instance? I could tell--
A light step on the threshold brought him about as Corcoran loomed in the door. Gorman froze, snarling, lips writhed back, a tawny-maned incarnation of hate and menace.
-- heard you was makin'ta talk about me down here, Gorman,--said Corcoran. His face was bleak and emotionless as that of a stone image, but his eyes burned with murderous purpose.
Gorman snarled wordlessly.
-- looked for you in the mob,--said Corcoran, tonelessly, his voice as soft and without emphasis as the even strokes of a feather. It seemed almost as if his voice were a thing apart from him; his lips murmuring while all the rest of his being was tense with concentration on the man before him.
--ou wasn't there. You sent your coyotes, but you didn't have the guts to come yourself, and--
The dart of Gorman't hand to his gun was like the blurring stroke of a snake-- head, but no eye could follow Corcoran't hand. His gun smashed before anyone knew he had reached for it. Like an echo came the roar of Gorman't shot. But the bullet ploughed splinteringly into the floor, from a hand that was already death-stricken and falling. Gorman pitched over and lay still, the swinging lamp glinting on his upturned spurs and the blue steel of the smoking gun which lay by his hand.
VIII
THE COMING OF THE VIGILANTES
Colonel Hopkins looked absently at the liquor in his glass, stirred restlessly, and said abruptly:--iddleton, I might as well come to the point. My friends and I have organized a vigilante committee, just as we should have done months ago. Now, wait a minute. Don't take this as a criticism of your methods. You--e done wonders in the last month, ever since you brought Steve Corcoran in here. Not a hold-up in the town, not a killing--that is, not a murder, and only a few shootings among the honest citizens.
--dded to that the ridding of the camp of such scoundrels as Jake Bissett and Buck Gorman. They were both undoubtedly members of the Vultures. I wish Corcoran hadn't killed Gorman just when he did, though. The man was drunk, and about to make some reckless disclosures about the gang. At least that-- what a friend of mine thinks, who was in the Golden Eagle that night. But anyway it couldn't be helped.
--o, we--e not criticizing you at all. But obviously you can't stop the murders and robberies that are going on up and down the Gulch, all the time. And you can't stop the outlaws from holding up the stage regularly.
--o that-- where we come in. We have sifted the camp, carefully, over a period of months, until we have fifty men we can trust absolutely. It-- taken a long time, because we--e had to be sure of our men. We didn't want to take in a man who might be a spy for the Vultures. But at last we know where we stand. We--e not sure just who is a Vulture, but we know who isn't, in as far as our organization is concerned.
--e can work together, John. We have no intention of interfering within your jurisdiction, or trying to take the law out of your hands. We demand a free hand outside the camp; inside the limits of Wahpeton we are willing to act under your orders, or at least according to your advice. Of course we will work in absolute secrecy until we have proof enough to strike.----ou must remember, Colonel,--reminded Middleton,--hat all along I--e admitted the impossibility of my breaking up the Vultures with the limited means at my disposal. I--e never opposed a vigilante committee. All I--e demanded was that when it was formed, it should be composed of honest men, and be free of any element which might seek to twist its purpose into the wrong channels.----hat-- true. I didn't expect any opposition from you, and I can assure you that we--l always work hand-in-hand with you and your deputies.--He hesitated, as if over something unpleasant, and then said:--ohn, are you sure of all your deputies?-- Middleton't head jerked up and he shot a startled glance at the Colonel, as if the latter had surprised him by putting into words a thought that had already occurred to him.
--hy do you ask?--he parried.
--ell,--Hopkins was embarrassed.--don't know--maybe I-- prejudiced--but--well, damn it, to put it bluntly, I--e sometimes wondered about Bill McNab!-- Middleton filled the glasses again before he answered.
--olonel, I never accuse a man without iron-clad evidence. I-- not always satisfied with McNab-- actions, but it may merely be the man't nature. He-- a surly brute. But he has his virtues. I--l tell you frankly, the reason I haven't discharged him is that I-- not sure of him. That probably sounds ambiguous.----ot at all. I appreciate your position. You have as much as said you suspect him of double-dealing, and are keeping him on your force so you can watch him. Your wits are not dull, John. Frankly--and this will probably surprise you--until a month ago some of the men were beginning to whisper some queer things about you--queer suspicions, that is. But your bringing Corcoran in showed us that you were on the level. You-- have never brought him in if you-- been taking pay from the Vultures!-- Middleton halted with his glass at his lips.
--reat heavens!--he ejaculated.--id they suspect me of that?----ust a fool idea some of the men had,--Hopkins assured him.--f course I never gave it a thought. The men who thought it are ashamed now. The killing of Bissett, of Gorman, of the men in the Blackfoot Chief, show that Corcoran't on the level. And of course, he's merely taking his orders from you. All those men were Vultures, of course. It-- a pity Tom Deal got away before we could question him.--He rose to go.
--cNab was guarding Deal,--said Middleton, and his tone implied more than his words said.
Hopkins shot him a startled glance.
--y heaven, so he was! But he was really wounded--I saw the bullet hole in his arm, where Deal shot him in making his getaway.----hat-- true.--Middleton rose and reached for his hat.----l walk along with you. I want to find Corcoran and tell him what you--e just told me.----t-- been a week since he killed Gorman,--mused Hopkins.----e been expecting Gorman't Vulture friends to try to get him, any time.----o have I!--answered Middleton, with a grimness which his companion missed.
IX
THE VULTURES SWOOP
Down the gulch lights blazed; the windows of cabins were yellow squares in the night, and beyond them the velvet sky reflected the lurid heart of the camp. The intermittent breeze brought faint strains of music and the other noises of hilarity. But up the gulch, where a clump of trees straggled near an unlighted cabin, the darkness of the moonless night was a mask that the faint stars did not illuminate.
Figures moved in the deep shadows of the trees, voices whispered, their furtive tones mingling with the rustling of the wind through the leaves.