Brick moved closer, knees bent, face venomous with hate.
Hanford shifted position warily, coming to the edge of the sidewalk across the street. Hal's gun covered him. It jumped with the crook of the finger. The heavy body of Hanford plunged forward into the street. The weapon dropped from his hand. He rolled over, lay still.
The door of the restaurant opened and men poured out.
Jolted by the sight of Hanford lying sprawled on the road and by the arrival of reinforcements for his enemy, Frawley turned and ran. Brick stayed to pump one last shot at Stevens before going, then backed into the Rest Easy and raced through it to the alley in the rear.
A moment before, the street had been empty except for the fighters and one stray brindle pup streaking down the road. Now a dozen people jostled one another as they crowded forward to look at the dead man.
'Are you — all right?' Dale asked Hal, her voice low and shaky. The girl's face and lips were colorless.
'Yes. They were waiting for me, hoping I would come out alone.'
Casey said,'I thought you were gone when I saw all three of them with their guns on you.'
Hal nodded thanks. 'They gave you a chance to get away, but you didn't take it. I think that saved me. You divided their attention when you began shooting.'
'Is one of them… dead?' Dale questioned.
'The one called Hanford,' answered Hal. 'They kept crowding closer.'
'You killed him in self-defense,' she replied. 'We all know that.'
Their eyes met and held for a long second. She knew what he was thinking, that Tom Wall, too, had slain a man because it had been forced upon him and she had thought of him as a killer, a man set apart by reason of what he had done. Later she might think of him the same way.
CHAPTER 14
In the Lobby of the Frontera
DALE CALLED up Sheriff Elbert by long distance and told him, not only what had just taken place at Big Bridge, but also gave him an account of the events that had led to the trouble. He had been a friend of her father and was himself a cattleman, so that he did not doubt the accuracy of her story. He said he would drive over at once. In the meantime her brother and Stevens could go on to Tucson, but he would expect the latter to return to his ranch as soon as he could.
Within five minutes of the time that the Black gang left town on the valley road headed for the hills, the men they had tried to rub out departed in the opposite direction. Hal and Frank traveled in an old roadster owned by Wall. The owner of the car went with them. It seemed to him prudent to leave Big Bridge for a time. He had not felt very safe there, even before his part in the trouble earlier in the day, since the man he had been forced to kill a year ago was a hanger-on of the Black outfit. The outlaws would regard what he had just done as surplusage, and if they found it difficult to get Stevens would very likely try to kill him as part payment on account.
Dale watched them go with some misgivings, though she did not see how their enemies could waylay them before reaching Tucson, since the valley road was the only direct route and they had set out apparently for their home terrain. She followed the Black car as far as the Seven Up and Down. Shortly after dinner the telephone rang. Hal was on the line. They had reached Tucson unmolested and Frank was safe in the hands of the army.
'And whose hands are you safe in?' Dale asked dryly.
'I'm at the Frontera,' he answered cheerfully. 'With Tom Wall. We've just finished a good dinner. Tomorrow we are going to fly back. That level pasture back of your house would make a good landing place — if you are hospitable enough to offer it.'
'Wouldn't it be safer not to wait, but to come tonight?' she asked.
'I don't think so. In a few minutes we are going up to our room. Probably none of the enemy are in Tucson yet, if they come at all. We'll take off fairly early in the morning.'
'I'll be looking for you,' she said quietly, and hung up.
As Hal came out of the booth, Wall warned him. 'Look across the lobby,' Tom said, a grin on his face. 'Over by the drugstore entrance. And see if you see what I do.'
Hal's glance picked up Frawley and Mullins. A moment later, Brick Fenwick came out of the drugstore and joined them. They had not yet seen the two men standing by the telephone booth, but Hal knew it would be impossible to cross either to the elevator or the stairway without being observed. They might as well get credit for facing the situation.
Stevens and Wall were half way across the lobby, moving directly toward the hill men, before Frawley caught sight of them.
'Look!' he cried.
The outlaws were taken by surprise. They had reached Tucson not ten minutes ago, and they had stopped in front of the Frontera to get a drink at the bar. They were looking for Stevens, but they had not wanted to meet him openly. Their idea was to find out where he was stopping and work out the best way to trap him.
'Welcome to Tucson,' Hal called to them. 'If you haven't eaten yet, we can recommend the chef here.'
Frawley called him a vile name angrily.
'I don't believe he likes you, Hal,' Wall said.
'I'm unfortunate,' Hal answered. 'The last three times we have met I have annoyed him. Afraid he's not of a forgiving nature.'
The shallow eyes between Brick Fenwick's narrowed lids were wary and savage. 'You lookin' for trouble again?' he asked, his pitch a low drawl. 'Right here in the hotel?'
'Nothing like that.' Hal's voice was cool and light, his manner casually insolent and at the same time scrupulously amiable. 'My suggestion is no hostilities till you can take me by surprise. You are not so good at open warfare. Or perhaps you are just unlucky.'
'You won't always have a bunch of women to hide behind,' Frawley broke in, hoarse rage in his throat.
'Quite right,' Hal agreed. 'I can't carry one around with me as a bodyguard. If you ever catch me alone, Frawley, you'll likely beat the tar out of me.'
The scar on Frawley's face stood out white against a purple background. He was furious, yet somehow helpless against the smiling derision of the cattleman.
'If you'll come outside—'
He broke off, to finish with a scabrous epithet.
'I stepped out with you once today,' Stevens reminded him. 'It's not fair to ask you to give so much time to my education. Some other day, maybe.'
Mullins was a heavyset short man with thick rounded shoulders. Hard muscles packed the framework of his body, but his mouth was loose and the chin weak. Character etches itself on the faces of men who live on the edge of civilization faced by danger. What Wall and Stevens read in his was that he had to be bolstered by stronger men before he became dangerous.
'I told you the boys would fix you for buttin' in,' he told Wall irritably.
'So you did,' Tom answered. 'I haven't heard them mention it yet.'
'I'll mention it now,' Frawley said, an unpleasant rasp to his voice. 'If you know what's good for you, pull yore freight away from this bird here and light out sudden.'
Wall shook his head. 'I always was an obstinate cuss and never did know what was good for me. Think I'll stick around.'
The two friends turned to go. Fenwick called them back.
'Wait a minute.' A redhot devil of malice glared out of the eyes looking at Stevens. 'Don't figure you've got away with the killing of Hanford. If the law won't fix you, there are those who will.'
Hal nodded. 'If they can,' he said quietly.
He walked across with Wall to the elevator, straight-backed and light-footed, in his poised grace an arrogance born of contempt for his foes. None the less he was glad when the elevator door closed behind them. A bullet in the back is an argument not easily answered.