CHAPTER XXII
A DEAD MAN WALKS
Harlan had paid strict attention to Lane Morgan's words at Sentinel Rock,and he remembered that Morgan had told him that his son, whom he hadcalled "Bill," had left the Rancho Seco on some mission for the governor.Evidently it had not occurred to Morgan that his son's mission had takenhim only to the valley in which reigned those outlaws Morgan had reviled.
But it was plain to Harlan that "Billy" was here--he had said so himself,and he had given proof that he had been watchful and alert to Barbara'sinterests. And now was explained young Morgan's interest in himself. Thethought that during all the days he had spent at the Rancho Seco, hismovements had been watched by the man who had just killed Haydon, broughta glow of ironic humor to Harlan's eyes.
During a long interval, through which Billy Morgan stood over Haydon,watching him with a cold savagery, Harlan kept at a respectable distance,also watching.
He saw that for Haydon the incident had been fatal. The man's body didnot move after it slipped to the ground beside the ranchhouse wall. YetMorgan watched until he was certain; then he slowly wheeled and looked atHarlan.
"That settles him--damn him!" he said, with a breathlessness that told ofthe intense strain he had been laboring under.
Still Harlan did not speak; and his guns were in their holsters whenMorgan walked close to him, grinning wanly.
"I had to do it. There's no use tryin' to depend on the law in thiscountry. You've seen that, yourself."
"I've noticed it," grinned Harlan. "You're feelin' bad over it. Iwouldn't. If it had been my dad he killed I couldn't have done anydifferent. I reckon any man with blood in him would feel that way about acoyote like that killin' his father. If men don't feel that way, why dothey drag murderers to courts--where they have courts--an' ask the law tokill them. That's just shovin' the responsibility onto some other guy.
"I've handed several guys their pass-out checks, an' I ain't regrettin'one of them. There wasn't one of them that didn't have it comin' to him.They was lookin' for it, mostly, an' had to have it. I've heard of guysthat had killed a man feelin' squeamish over it--with ghosts visitin'them at night; an' sufferin' a lot of mental torture. I reckon any manwould feel that way if he'd killed an inoffensive man--or a good man, orone that hadn't been tryin' to murder him." He grinned again. "Why, I'mpreachin'!"
And now into his gaze as he looked at Morgan, came cold reproach.
"You wasn't figurin' to let Barbara play it a lone hand?" he said.
"Hell's fire--no!" denied Morgan, his eyes blazing. "I've been watchin'the Rancho Seco--as I told Haydon. I saw Barbara set out for Lamo. Therewas no one followin' her, an' so I thought she'd be all right. That mixupat Lamo slipped me. But I seen you an' Barbara come back, an' I heard theboys talkin' about what happened at Lamo. I'd heard of you, too; an' whenI seen you come back with Barbara I watched you. An' I seen you wassquare, so I trusted you a heap.
"An' I had a talk with Sheriff Gage about you, an' he told me my dad hadsent to Pardo for you, through Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo. Gagesaid you was out to clean up Deveny an' Haydon, an' so I knowed I coulddepend on you."
"Barbara don't know you're hangin' around here--she ain't known it?"
"Shucks, I reckon not," grinned Morgan. "I didn't come here for sixmonths after I left the Rancho Seco--until I growed a beard. Barbara'sbeen within a dozen feet of me, an' never knowed me. I've been thinkin'of telling her, but I seen Haydon was sweet on her, an' I didn't daretell her. Women ain't reliable. She'd have showed it some way, an' thenthere'd have been hell to pay."
"An' I've been pridin' myself on takin' care of Barbara," said Harlan. "Ifeel a heap embarrassed an' useless--just like I'd been fooled."
"You've done a thing I couldn't do," confessed Morgan; "you've bustedHaydon's gang wide open. If you hadn't showed up there'd have beennothin' done. There's some of the boys that ain't outlaws--boys that arewith me, havin' sneaked into the gang to help me out. But we wan't makin'no headway to speak of."
Harlan looked at Haydon. "That guy was educated," he said. "What was hisgame? I've felt all along that there was somethin' big back of him--thathe wasn't here just to steal cattle an' rob folks, an' such."
"You ain't heard," smiled Morgan. "Of course you wouldn't--unless Gagehad gassed to you.
"There's a gang of big men in Frisco, an' in the East, figurin' to run arailroad through the basin. A year or so ago there was secret talk of itin the capital. It leaked out that the railroad guys was intendin' to runtheir road through the basin. They was goin' to build a town right wherethe Rancho Seco lays; an' they was plannin' to irrigate a lot of the landaround there. The governor says it was to be big--an' likely it'll bebig, when they get around to it.
"But them things go slow, an' a gang of cheap crooks got wise to it. Theysent Haydon down here, to scare the folks in the basin into sellin' outfor a song. They've scared one man out--a Pole from the west end. But theothers have stuck. Looks like they was figurin' on grabbin' the RanchoSeco without payin' _anything_ for it--Haydon intendin', I reckon, to putdad an' me out of the way an' marry Barbara. Then he could have cut theranch up into town lots an' made a mint of coin."
"An' Deveny?"
"Deveny's a wolf. Haydon brought him here from Arizona--where he'dterrorized a whole county, runnin' it regardless. He figured to cash in,I reckon, but he's been grabbin' up everything he could lay his hands on,on the way."
"You'll be tellin' Barbara, now?" suggested Harlan.
"You're shoutin'!" said Morgan, his eyes glowing. "I'm hittin' the breezeto the Rancho Seco for fair." He looked at Haydon, and his eyes took on anew expression. "I was almost forgettin' what the governor sent me herefor," he added. "The governor was wantin' to know who is behind Haydonan' Deveny, an' I'm rummagin' around in Haydon's office to find out.Goin'?" he invited.
Both looked down at Haydon as they passed him, and an instant later theywere entering a door of the ranchhouse.
They had hardly disappeared when Haydon's head moved slightly.
His eyes were open; he glanced at the door of the ranchhouse throughwhich Harlan and Morgan had entered. Then he raised his head, draggedhimself to an elbow--upon which he rested momentarily, his face betrayingthe bitter malignance and triumph that had seized him.
He had realized that Morgan had meant to kill him, even before Morgan hadrevealed his identity, and his backward movement, which had brought himagainst the wall of the ranchhouse had been made with design. He had feltthat even if he should succeed in beating Morgan, Harlan would have takenup the quarrel, for he knew that Harlan also had designs on his life. Andwith a cupidity aroused over the desperate predicament in which he foundhimself, he had decided to take a forlorn chance.
Morgan's bullet had struck him, but by a convulsive side movement at theinstant Morgan's gun roared Haydon had escaped a fatal wound, and thebullet had entered his left side above the heart, paralyzing one of thebig muscles of the shoulder.
His left arm was limp and useless, and dragged in the dust as he squirmedaround and gained his feet. There was no window in the wall of theranchhouse on that side; and he backed away, staggering a little, for hehad lost much blood. He kept the blank wall before him as he backed awayfrom the house; and when he reached his horse he was a long time gettinginto the saddle. But he accomplished it at last; and sent the horseslowly up the slope and into the timber out of which Harlan had riddenwith the black-bearded man on the day of his first visit to the Star.
Back where the trail converged with the main trail that ran directly upthe valley, Haydon, reeling in the saddle, sent his horse at a fasterpace, heading it toward the Cache where he was certain he would findDeveny. And as he rode the triumph in his eyes grew. For he had heardevery word of the conversation between Harlan and Morgan, and he hoped toget to the Cache before the two men discovered the trick he had playedupon them--before they could escape.