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nameless stirring, a faint rustling through the grass and leaves. It was a
sound not unlike the rushing of a fast train, sometimes heard in big timber,
but something fainter, as though from wind singing in the strings of a far-off
violin. A whispering wind, a singing wind.
"Hear it?" he asked gently. "When you hear that sound it means you're home."
On the day of Kilkenny's arrival in the valley, Dee Havalik returned to
Horsehead.
He was in a savage mood. Kilkenny's sudden charge from darkness had caught
him flat-footed. Despite their pursuit they had found nothing, and only
precipitate flight saved them from death under the torrent of water. Returning
to confess failure did not sit well with the gunman, nor did he like to think
of Kilkenny outsmarting him. Yet rain had washed out all tracks, and the
canyons were a maze.
The street of Horsehead was deserted. Nobody was in the Westwater dining
room, and the stove was cold. Havalik walked out on the street with his two
remaining men. No horses lined the hitch rails. The Emporium was closed and
the shutters were up. Crossing to the Pinenut, Havalik shoved through the
swinging doors. A bartender read a week-old newspaper and the saloon was
empty. "Where's everybody?"
"Hidin' out. A few holed up across the creek."
"Who's over there?"
The bartender shrugged. "Maybe Macy can tell you. He's in his office."
The KR, he found, had been taken. Several KR hands had been killed, but it
was believed that Kilkenny had somehow saved Cain Brockman.
The news gave Havalik no pleasure. Already there was an uncertainty among the
Forty riders. The strange night attacks were having their effect, and a few of
them were wondering if Jared Tetlow had not overreached himself. Yet Tetlow
believed the situation in hand.
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Within an hour after Havalik's arrival in Horsehead, Jared rode into town
sided by his two sons, Ben being with the big herd on the trail. They went at
once to theDiamondPalace where they joined Havalik. A few minutes later four
of the 4T riders appeared on the edge of town and rode along back streets and
into the patch of woods that concealed a narrow bridge. Two more drifted into
the Pinenut Saloon. Within an hour there were twenty-five men disposed about
the town, filtering in so gradually that all remained unaware of any concerted
movement.
All but Harry Lott. Big, unkempt and surly, he prowled continually, and he
saw things. Lott had nothing against Tetlow, but Horsehead was, he fancied,
his town. His authority was being scorned.
Kill Havalik, he reasoned, and the backbone of Tetlow's power would be
broken. He was seated at a table in the Pinenut Saloon when he reached this
decision. He shoved the bottle away from him and began to think.
The scattered groups of 4T riders broke up and vanished and the town lay
still. Harry Lott went up to his bed and turned in, resting before what was
sure to come.
Dawn broke bright and lovely, but a few clouds hung over the mountains. The
first riders in the street were Jared and Andy Tetlow and they rode straight
down the street and across the bridge, drawing up beforeBlaine 's.
Blaine, accompanied by Leal Macy, appeared on the porch.
"I want to see that Riordan girl," Tetlow said abruptly. "I want to make her
an offer."
"She's not here, and I'm sure she will consider no suggestion of selling."
"I'll have her word for that!"
Cain Brockman limped into the doorway. He was wearing two guns. "She won't be
forced into no sale, Tetlow!"
The older man's lips tightened with impatience. "No occasion for trouble.
I'll buy her place."
"Like you didCarson 's and Carpenter's?" Macy asked.
"What happened to them was their own fault."
"You're like a lot of others, Tetlow. You believe anything that is good for
you is good for the country. You're guided entirely by selfish motives."
Macy stepped to the edge of the porch. "Now let me tell you something. If you
haven't moved your cattle off the KR range within twenty-four hours, and if
you haven't made restitution to Mrs. Carpenter for damage to her property, I
intend to telegraph the Territorial Governor as well as the United States
Marshal."
Andy Tetlow pushed his horse forward. "Dad, we're wastin' time. Let's burn
the place around their ears."
Jared Tetlow swung his horse and the two men rode back up the street and
across the bridge. Phin sat his horse near the bridge, and as they passed he
rode into the trees and started back.
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Four riders waited in the trees back of the livery stable, and with these
around him, Phin circled to the back door of Savory's. Dismounting, they
trooped in through the back door and took stations near the front windows.
Savory's was west of and corner across the street from Dolan's and Doc
Blame's.
Six Tetlow riders moved down the main street toward the bridge, and took
station in the trees nearby. Dolan and Blaine were now covered from every
approach.
Harry Lott came down the stairs of the Westwater Hotel and stopped in the
lobby. He had seen Dee Havalik standing on the boardwalk in front of
theDiamondPalace . Lott eased his guns in their holsters and stepped out,
closing the door behind him. He was cold sober and ready to make his play. He
saw himself as no hero. He was the town marshal and trouble was breaking in
his bailiwick and he was going to stop it.
He walked into the street and faced about. He was a hundred yards from
Havalik when he started toward him, and he had covered thirty yards before
Andy Tetlow saw him. At some word from Andy, Havalik turned. His face seemed
to grow tighter and grayer. "Lott," he said, "and he wants me."
Facing Lott he walked ten paces toward him. "Lookin' for something, Harry?"
"Call in your boys, Dee! There'll be no fighting today. I'm the law!"
"You were the law." Havalik shifted his position to put a big plate glass
window behind him. The morning sun shone into that window. "Now you're a dead
man."
As he spoke he stepped off the walk, still keeping the window behind him. As
he stepped down, he drew.
Harry Lott was fast and game, but he knew with immediate awareness that he
was going to die. As his hands grasped the gun butts, the guns of Dee Havalik
were coming into line.
Lott squinted against the glare. He heard the concussion of Havalik's guns
and something struck him a blow in the midsection. There was no pain. His draw
completed, his gun lifted and blasted sound. The window behind Havalik
crashed, but the gunman took a step nearer and fired again. His third shot
crossed Lett's second. Lott felt himself struck again and his eyes blurred.
Desperately, he knew he had missed. Havalik's figure seemed to waver before
him, and Lott braced himself, trying to steady his aim.
Phin Tetlow leaped his horse from behind the barber shop, gun up, ready to
chop down with a shot. Lott faced squarely around and shot Phin twice in the
stomach, then swung back and took his last shot at Havalik and missed again.
Still standing, he used the border shift to exchange guns and peered through
the blurring haze toward Havalik. "You killed the wrong man!" Havalik yelled.
"You crazy?"
"Couldn't see you, saw him." The voice seemed to issue from a great distance.
"One rat's as good as another."
Havalik shot again and Lott tottered forward, his gun blasting into the
earth. He hit the street on his face, rolled over and tried to get to his
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feet, shooting as fast as he could trigger his shots. All went wild. One broke
a window in theDiamondPalace , one buried in the wall within inches of Jared
Tetlow, and then Harry Lott sprawled in the street, his buck teeth biting the
dust of Horsehead, his guns empty. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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