“Grandad,” exclaimed Jud in a gasp.
The old man silenced him with a raised finger and
a sudden frown. He slipped to the door in turn
with a step so noiseless that even Jud wondered.
Years seemed to have fallen from the shoulders of his
grandfather. He opened the door quickly, and there
stood the deputy. His back, to be sure, was turned
to the door, but he hadn’t moved.
“Think I see your gang over yonder,” said
Pop. “They seem to be sort of waitin’
for you, Dozier.”
The other turned and twisted one glance up at the
old man.
“Thanks,” he said shortly and strode away.
Pop closed the door and sank into a chair. He
seemed suddenly to have aged again.
“Oh, grandad,” said Jud, “how’d
you guess he was there all the time?”
“I dunno,” said Pop. “Don’t
bother me.”
“But why’d you beg him to look into the
attic? Didn’t you know he’d see him
right off?”
“Because he goes by contraries, Jud. He
wouldn’t of started for the ladder at all, if
you hadn’t told him he’d probably break
his neck on it. Only when he seen I didn’t
care, he made up his mind he didn’t want to
see that attic.”
“And if he’d gone up?” whispered
Jud.
“Don’t ask me what would of happened,”
said Pop.
All his bony frame was shaken by a shiver.
“Is he such a fine fighter?” asked Jud.
“Fighter?” echoed Pop. “Oh,
lad, he’s the greatest hand with a gun that
ever shoved foot into stirrup. He—he
was like a bulldog on a trail—and all I
had for a rope to hold him was just a little spider
thread of thinking. Gimme some coffee, Jud.
I’ve done a day’s work.”
The bullets of the posse had neither torn a tendon
nor broken a bone. Striking at close range and
driven by highpower rifles, the slugs had whipped
cleanly through the flesh of Andrew Lanning, and the
flesh closed again, almost as swiftly as ice freezes
firm behind the wire that cuts it. In a very
few days he could sit up, and finally came down the
ladder with Pop beneath him and Jud steadying his shoulders
from above. That was a gala day in the house.
Indeed, they had lived well ever since the coming
of Andrew, for he had insisted that he bear the household
expense while he remained there, since they would not
allow him to depart.
“And I’ll let you pay for things, Andrew,”
Pop had said, “if you won’t say nothing
about it, ever, to Jud. He’s a proud kid,
is Jud, and he’d bust his heart if he thought
I was lettin’ you spend a cent here.”
