'Drag' Harlan by Charles Alden Seltzer (easy to read books for adults list .txt) š
And now, convinced that the men had cornered an animal of some kind, and that they feared it too greatly to face it openly, the rider laughed loudly and called to the men, his voice freighted with sarcasm.
"Scared?" he said. "Oh, don't be. If you'll back off a little an' give him room, he'll just naturally slope, an' give you a chance to get to your cayuses."
Both men wheeled almost at the same instant. The man at the base of the rock snarled--after the first gasp of astonishment, baring his teeth in hideous mirth and embarrassment; the other man, startled and caught off ba
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Read book online Ā«'Drag' Harlan by Charles Alden Seltzer (easy to read books for adults list .txt) šĀ». Author - Charles Alden Seltzer
āIt aināt my style, thatās all. Iād meet Harlan on the level, man to man, if he was lookinā for me. Itās likely he aināt at that. Iāve heard, bad as he is, that he plays square. Anā if I was runninā things Iād take a look at him before charginā him with killinā Lane Morgan, when the killinā had been done by the Chief, anā Dolver, anā Laskar.ā
It was Strom Rogersā voice. It bore conviction with it, even though there was passionate feeling behind it, mingled strangely with personal hatred and jealousy.
Dumbly, Barbara clutched the window-sill. One dry, agonized sob racked her; and then she sat on the floor, to stare vacantly at the dingy walls of the room.
Once more she heard Rogersā voice; this time there was a note of savage glee in it:
āThereās Harlan now, just slippinā off his cayuse in front of Gageās place. āDrag,ā eh? Well, there donāt seem to be nothinā impedinā his actions anywhere.ā
Prompted by the urge of a curiosity that she could not resist, Barbara reeled to her feet, and with her hands resting on the window-sill leaned out and looked up the street.
In front of the sheriffās office, not more than thirty or forty feet distant, she saw a tall, well-built man standing beside the hitching rail that fringed the board sidewalk. He had evidently just dismounted, and he was standing at the head of a big, coal-black horse. He was in the act of hitching the animal, and his back was toward her.
She watched breathlessly until he turned. And then she stared hard at him, noting the steady, cold, alert eyes; the firm lips; the bigness of him, the atmosphere of capableness that seemed to surround him; the low-swung guns at his hips, with no flaps on the holster-tops, and the bottoms of the holsters tied to his leather chaps with rawhide thongs.
Never had she seen a man like him. For some reason, as yet inexplicable to her, he brought into her troubled consciousness a feeling of cold calm, a refreshing influence that might be compared to the sweep of a cool and unexpected breeze in the middle of a hot day.
He dominated the group of men that instantly surrounded him; and the dominance was not of attire, for he was arrayed like the others. She saw Deveny standing near him, and the man Laskar behind Deveny and Sheriff Gage and several other men. And she saw Rogers and Lawson as they walked slowly toward him.
And then a realization of her loss, of the tragedy that had descended upon her, again assailed her; and a fury of intolerance against inaction seized her. She could not stay in this room and suffer the hideous uncertainty; she could not take Rogersā word that her father had been killed. There must be some mistake. Perhaps Rogers knew she was at the window, listening, and he had said that just to spite her. For she had discouraged Rogersā advances as she had discouraged Devenyās.
Breathing fast, she unlocked the door and went out into the hall.
The man whom Deveny had placed to guard her was still lounging on the stair platform, and he grinned when he saw her.
āCominā to try agāin?ā he grinned.
She smiledāa disarming smile that brought a fatuous gleam into the manās eyes, so that he permitted her to come close to him.
āDevenyās got damnā good judgment,ā he said as she halted near him. āHe knows a thoroughbred when he seesāHell!ā
The ejaculation came from his lips as Barbara leaped swiftly past him. He threw out a futile arm, and stood for an instant, shocked into inaction as Barbara ran down the stairs toward the street. Then the man leaped after her, cursing. She could hear him saying: āDamn your hide! Damn your hide!ā as he came after her, his spurs jangling on the steps.
Turning from Purgatory, after he had dismounted in front of the sheriffās office, Harlan faced three men who stood just outside of the building, watching him.
The slightly humorous smile that curved Harlanās lips might have betrayed his reason for dismounting in front of the sheriffās office, for he had seen Laskar standing with the two other men. But no man could have told that he looked at Laskar directly, except Laskar himself, who would have sworn that Harlan did not remove his gaze from him, once he had slipped from Purgatoryās back.
For Harlanās eyes told nothing. They seemed to be gazing at nothing, and at everything. For Gage, watching the man, was certain Harlan was looking directly at him as he grinned, and Deveny, like Laskar, was sure Harlanās gaze was upon him. And all of them, noting one anotherās embarrassment, stood silent, marveling.
And now Deveny discovered that Harlan was watching the three of them togetherāa trick which is accomplished by fixing the gaze upon some object straight in front of one; in this case it was Devenyās collarāand then including other objects on each side of the center object.
Steady nerves and an inflexible will are required to keep the gaze unwavering, and a complete absence of self-consciousness. Thus Deveny knew he was standing in the presence of a man whose poise and self-control were marvelous; and he knew, too, that Harlan would be aware of the slightest move made by either of the three; more, he could detect any sign of concerted action.
And concerted action was what Deveny and Laskar and the sheriff had planned. And they had purposely dragged Laskar outside, expecting Harlan would do just as he had done, and as his eyes warned he intended to do.
āIām after you, Laskar,ā he said softly.
Laskar stiffened. He made no move, keeping his hands at his sides, where they had been all the time that had elapsed since Harlan had dismounted.
Laskarās eyes moved quickly, with an inquiring flash in them, toward Deveny and the sheriff. It was time for Deveny and the sheriff to precipitate the action they had agreed upon.
But the sheriff did not move. Nor did Deveny change his position. A queer, cold chill had come over Devenyāa vague dread, a dragging reluctanceāan indecision that startled him and made of his thoughts an odd jumble of half-formed impulses that seemed to die before they could become definite.
He had faced gun-fighters before, and had felt no fear of them. But something kept drumming into his ears at this instant with irritating insistence that this was not an ordinary man; that standing before him, within three paces, his eyes swimming in an unfixed vacuity which indicated preparation for violent action, was HarlanāāDragā Harlan, the Pardo two-gun man; Harlan, who had never been beaten in a gunfight.
Could heāDevenyābeat him? Could he, now, with āDragā Harlan watching the three of them, could he draw with any hope of success, with the hope of beating the otherās lightning hand on the downward flash to life or death?
Deveny paled; he was afraid to take the chance. His eyes wavered from Harlanās; he cast a furtive glance at the sheriff.
Harlan caught the glance, smiled mirthlessly and spoke shortly to Laskar:
āI told you to keep hittinā the breeze till there wasnāt any more breeze,ā he said. āI ought to have bored you out there by the red rock. I gave you your chance. Flash your gun!ā
āHarlan!ā
This was Gage. His voice sounded as though it had been forced out: it was hoarse and hollow.
Harlan did not move, nor did his eyes waver. There was feeling in them now: intense, savage, cold. And his voice snapped.
āYouāre the sheriff, eh? You want to gas, I reckon. Do it quick before this coyote goes for his gun.ā
The sheriff cleared his throat. āYouāre under arrest, Harlan, for killinā Lane Morgan out there in the desert yesterday.ā
Harlanās eyes narrowed, his lips wreathed into a feline smile. But he did not change his position.
āWhoās the witness against me?ā
āLaskar.ā
āHas he testified?ā
āHeās goinā to.ā
Harlan backed away a little. His grin was tiger-like, a yellow flame seemed to leap in his eyes. Laskar, realizing at last that he could hope for no assistance from Gage or Deveny, grew rigid with desperation.
Death was in front of him; he knew it. Death or a deathless fame. The fates had willed one or the other, and he chose to take the gamblerās chance, the chance he and Dolver and the Chief had refused Lane Morgan.
Deathless fame, the respect and the admiration of every man in the section was his if he beat āDragā Harlan to the draw. Forever afterward, if he beat Harlan, he would be pointed at as the man who had met the Pardo gunman on even terms and had downed him.
He stepped out a little, away from the front of the building, edging off from Deveny and Gage so that Harlan would have to watch in two directions.
Lawson and Rogers, having advanced to a position within a dozen paces of the group in front of the sheriffās office, now backed away, silent, watchful. Other men who had been standing near were on the move instantly. Some dove into convenient doorways, others withdrew to a little distance down the street. But all intently watched as Laskar showed by his actions that he intended to accept his chance.
Deveny, too, watched intently. He kept his gaze fixed upon Harlan, not even glancing toward Laskar. For Devenyās fear had gone, now that the dread presence had centered its attention elsewhere, and he was determined to discover the secret of Harlanās hesitating ādraw,ā the curious movement that had given the man his sobriquet, āDrag.ā The discovery of that secret might mean much to him in the future; it might even mean life to him if Harlan decided to remain in the section.
Harlan had made no hostile movement as yet. He still stood where he had stood all along, except for the slight backward step he had taken before Laskar began to move. But he watched Laskar as the latter edged away from the other men, and when he saw Laskarās eyes widen with the thought that precedes action, with the gleam that reflects the command the brain transmutes to the muscles, his right hand flashed downward toward the hip.
With a grunt, for Harlan had almost anticipated his thoughts, Laskarās right hand swept toward the butt of his pistol.
But Harlanās hand had come to a poise, just above the stock of his weaponāa pause so infinitesimal that it was merely a suggestion of a pause.
It was enough, however, to throw Laskar off his mental balance, and as he drew his weapon he glanced at Harlanās holster.
A dozen men who watched swore afterward that Laskar drew his gun first; that it was in his hand when Harlanās bullet struck him. But Deveny knew better; he knew that Laskar was dead on his feet before the muzzle of his weapon had cleared the holster, and that the shot he had fired had been the result of involuntary muscular action; that he had pulled the trigger after Harlanās bullet struck him, and while his gun had been loosening in his hand.
For Deveny had seen the bullet from Laskarās gun throw up sand at Harlanās feet after Harlanās weapon had sent its death to meet Laskar. And Deveny had discovered the secret of Harlanās ādraw.ā The pause was a trick, of course, to disconcert an adversary. But the lightning flash of Harlanās hand to his gun-butt was no trick. It was sheer rapidity, his hand moving so fast that the eye could not follow.
And Deveny could get no pleasure from his discovery. Harlan had waited until Laskarās fingers were wrapped around the stock of his pistol before he had drawn his own, and therefore in the minds of those who had witnessed the shooting, Harlan had been
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