She straightened.
“Love? You?”
His face lengthened almost ludicrously.
“But why—Dan came for me—he
said you sent him—he—”
he broke down, stammering, utterly confused.
“This is why I sent him!” she answered,
and throwing open the door gestured to him to enter.
He followed her and saw the lean figure of old Joe
Cumberland lying on a blanket close to the wall.
“That’s why!” she whispered.
“How does he come here?”
“Ask the devil in his human form! Ask your
friend, Jim Silent!”
He walked into the outer room with his head low.
He found the others already returned. Their carefully
controlled grins spoke volumes.
“Where’s Silent?” he asked heavily.
“He’s gone,” said Jordan.
Hal Purvis took Haines to one side.
“Take a brace,” he urged.
“She hates me, Hal,” said the big fellow
sadly. “For God’s sake, was there
no other way of getting me out?”
“Not one! Pull yourself together, Lee.
There ain’t no one for you to hold a spite agin.
Would you rather be back in Elkhead dangling from
the end of a rope?”
“It seems to have been a sort of—joke,”
said Haines.
“Exactly. But at that sort of a joke nobody
laughs!”
“And Whistling Dan Barry?”
“He’s done for. We’re all agin
him, an’ now even the rangers will help us hunt
him down. Think it over careful, Haines.
You’re agin him because you want the girl.
I want that damned wolf of his, Black Bart. Kilduff
would rather get into the saddle of Satan than ride
to heaven. An’ Jim Silent won’t never
rest till he sees Dan lyin’ on the ground with
a bullet through his heart. Here’s four
of us. Each of us want something that belongs
to him, from his life to his dog. Haines, I’m
askin’ you man to man, was there any one ever
born who could get away from four men like us?”
WHISTLING DAN, DESPERADO
It was an urgent business which sent Silent galloping
over the hills before dawn. When the first light
came he was close to the place of Gus Morris.
He slowed his horse to a trot, but after a careful
reconnoitring, seeing no one stirring around the sheriff’s
house, he drew closer and commenced to whistle a range
song, broken here and there with a significant phrase
which sounded like a signal. Finally a cloth
was waved from a window, and Silent, content, turned
his back on the house, and rode away at a walk.
Within half an hour the pounding of a horse approached
from behind. The plump sheriff came to a halt
beside him, jouncing in the saddle with the suddenness
of the stop.
“What’s up?” he called eagerly.
“Whistlin’ Dan.”
“What’s new about him? I know they’re
talkin’ about that play he made agin Haines.
They’s some says he’s a faster man than
you, Jim!”
