the voice of Rusty rang out with startling distinctness:
'I don't care if he's the Devil hisself, he's a man, an' I'm backin' his play agin that squaw's pup on the platform.'
The saloon-keeper's cruel lips tightened at the insult and his voice was thick with passion when he replied: 'Yappin' curs never did bother me. Well, boys, yu've heard my side an' Strade's. What yu goin' to do about it?'
'Hang the bushwhackin' thief an' send his pardner along for company,' came from Leeson's direction. 'Where's the sense in all this chatter?'
Raven's lips twisted in a Satanic smile. 'We gotta be fair,' he purred. 'All in favour o' swingin' Sudden an' his accomplice hold up the left hand.'
The result was what he expected, fully three-quarters of those present hoisting their hands. No counting was necessary.
'Reckon that fixes it,' the half-breed said. 'Sudden, yu ain't as popular as I thought yu was.' He turned to the new officer and there was more than a touch of malice in his tone as he said: 'Marshal, do yore duty.'
The order fell upon Pardoe like a thunderbolt, and his puny soul shrivelled within him as he realized what it meant. He was to arrest and hang Sudden, and there he was, only a few yards away, his thumbs hooked in his belt in close proximity to the smooth butts of the guns he could use with such speed and accuracy. Despite the danger he was in, the gunman's narrowed eyes twinkled with mischievous mirth at the new marshal's predicament, and Pardoe inwardly cursed his own ambition. To fall down on his first job would be fatal to his prospects, but--he wanted to live. His appealing look at Raven proved abortive, for the half-breed was enjoying himself in his peculiar fashion--he had put a white man in an awkward position. Succour came from an unexpected quarter; it was Green who broke the silence :
'Before The Parson officiates at his own funeral, I've got' somethin' to say,' he began.
A murmur of impatience ran round the room; there were loud imprecations and jeers from men whose minds were already made up. The eyes of the condemned man were chilled steel, his jaw firmed, and his lounging figure became instinct with purpose. Although they saw no movement, a gun seemed to leap into his right hand; before its menacing muzzle the murmurs died down.
'Yu listened to Raven pretty patient, an' I'm aimin' to say my piece without interruption,' the wielder of the weapon said sardonically. 'What Strade told yu about me is true. I'm Sudden, but I ain't the man who's been operatin' round here. I came to search out that fella an'--I think I've found him.'
He paused for a moment, his gaze travelling over the faces before him. Most of them expressed an amused incredulity, but not one ventured to voice it. The keen, alert glance and levelled gun kept them silent and still. By concerted action they could overwhelm him, but it would mean death to many, and no man of them was prepared to die. for the half-breed. Raven knew this, and conscious too that the threatening gun never moved far from his own breast, he sat down.
'We'll hear yu,' he said.
Green's smile had no mirth in it. 'Eames an' Sands both say the hold-up's hoss had a white stocking on the near fore,' he began. 'How d'yu know Sudden's mount was marked like that?'
'I sent to Texas to find out,' Raven returned.
'Painstakin' fella,' commented the other. 'Sudden's hoss is outside now, an' if yu wash away the dye yu'll find the white stockin' on the off fore. Pete wouldn't 'a' made that mistake, an' it's shore odd that both yu an' the hold-up should 'a' got the wrong information.'
For an instant the half-breed looked disconcerted, and then he shrugged his shoulders. 'Had it from the same source, I s'pose,' he said. 'Yu suggestin' I robbed the stage?'
'Why not?' came the cool retort. 'Yu weren't in Lawless then, nor when Bordene was shot.'
'I was at the 88 with my foreman both times.'
'Huh! Kinda pity yu wiped out Jevons, ain't it?'
'I saw the boss there each o' them days,' Leeson called out.
Green flashed round on him. 'Shore o' that?' he asked, and when Leeson--who had not seen the black look Raven shot at him--replied that he was, Green went on, 'Raven told us a while back that yu were near the Old Mine when Bordene was killed; yu say yu were at the 88; yu ain't twins, are yu?'
A loud guffaw greeted the statement, and was not lessened by the man's stammering attempt to explain. The late marshal cut him short.
'A liar should have a long memory, Leeson,' he said curtly, and turned to the rest of the company. 'The mornin' he was murdered Bordene drew five thousand from the bank an' went to the Red Ace to pay the money to Raven. Not findin' him there he set out for the Box B, an' yu know what happened. Later on, Raven claims fifteen thousand from young Andy.'
'The note I held was for that amount,' the saloon-keeper interposed.
'It was an easy document to alter,' Green said. 'Andy didn't dispute it, but he couldn't pay till he'd sold his cattle. He don't get no chance to do this--his herd is stampeded, not far from the 88--an' a few days on I find four o' Raven's men shepherdin' about four hundred Box B steers towards the Border. They claim they's takin' 'em back to Andy, but the trail's as crooked as the story.'
'I had no knowledge o' that; I left the runnin' o' the ranch to my foreman,' Raven snapped.
'Who bein' conveniently dead can take all the blame yu put on him,' Green pointed out. 'Well, Andy still ain't got the coin, an' at Raven's suggestion he mortgages his ranch with the bank. Then he puts a herd through an' brings back the cash to clear hisself. He has to leave on the jump after Moraga, havin' handed the dinero to Potter.'
'Of which there was no record in the bank books,' the half-breed sneered.
'Mebbe not, after yu'd handled 'em,' Green said bluntly. 'When Andy comes back he finds his money gone an' his mortgage in the possession of Mister Raven.'
'Who paid for it,' that worthy added.
'Talkin' o' mortgages,' Green went on imperturbably, 'Raven holds one on the Double S which he didn't mention when the man who signed it, Anthony Sarel, was shot, an' he's threatenin' to turn Miss Tonia out unless-- she marries him.'
This revelation met with a mixed reception, coarse mirth from the rougher element and growls of resentment from the better class of the audience. Raven saw he must temporize.
'Bah, she got uppity; I had to put a scare into her,' he said carelessly.
'Yu were about to strike her when I happened along,' Green reminded. 'Miss Sarel ain't no squaw, Raven.'
The oblique reference to his origin, as always, infuriated the half-breed. 'Damn yu, what have my private affairs to do with it?' he screamed. 'Look here--'
But the object of his wrath was looking at Leeson, watching the fellow's stealthy attempt to draw his gun behind the back of another man. He waited until the weapon was out and then fired. Leeson's pistol bumped on the board floor, while its owner stared dazedly at his perforated wrist, the throbbing agony of which brought a stream of curses to his trembling lips. The gunman, blue smoke eddying round him, swept the room with a glance, and every man grew rigid under the menacing, cold eyes.
'Another trick like that an' yu take the long hop to hell, Raven,' he warned.
'I didn't tell the fool to fire. Yo're takin' a high hand, but yore neck ain't outa the noose yet. We're four to one, I reckon, an' if it comes to a showdown--'
'This town'll need a nice new graveyard.'
The saloon-keeper gave a gesture of impatience. 'Yu've told us a lot we knew afore,' he said. 'What's yore point?'
'Just this, Raven,' Green said meaningly. 'Yu an' this fella I'll call Sudden the Second both had the same wrong description o' my hoss, an' every crime he committed around here has been to yore benefit.'
'Then I oughta be mighty obliged to yu--Sudden,' the saloon-keeper sneered.
There was laughter at this, but it was by no means general and Raven began to realize that he was losing ground. He stood up.
'All these hints an' suspicions don't prove anythin',' he said. 'Yo're just ryin' to blind yore own trail. If Potter could on'y speak--'
'Potter won't ever speak again,' interrupted a new voice, that of the little doctor, who had just come in.
