"Sure. We all know Uncle Joe--d.a.m.n his soul!"
"But the kid beat Uncle Joe fair and square from an even break--and beat him bad. Made his draw, held it so"s Joe could partway catch up with him, and then drilled him clean!"
Pollard scratched his chin.
"I"d believe that if I seen it," he declared.
"Pal, it wasn"t Terry that done the talking; it was Gainor. He"s seen a good deal of gunplay, and said that Terry"s was the coolest he ever watched."
"All right for that part of it," said Joe Pollard. "Suppose he"s fast-- but can I use him? I like him well enough; I"ll give him a good deal; but is he going to mean charity all the time he hangs out with me?"
"Maybe; maybe not," chuckled Denver again. "Use him the way he can be used, and he"ll be the best bargain you ever turned. Black Jack started you in business; Black Jack the Second will make you rich if you handle him right--and ruin you if you make a slip."
"How come? He talks this "honesty" talk pretty strong."
"Gimme a chance to talk," said Denver contemptuously. "Takes a gent that"s used to reading the secrets of a safe to read the secrets of a gent"s head. And I"ve read the secret of young Black Jack Hollis. He"s a pile of dry powder, Joe. Throw in the spark and he"ll explode so d.a.m.ned loud they"ll hear him go off all over the country."
"How?"
"First, you got to keep him here."
"How?"
Joe Pollard sat back with the air of one who will be convinced through no mental effort of his own. But Denver was equal to the demand.
"I"m going to show you. He thinks he owes you three hundred."
"That"s foolish. I cheated the kid out of it. I"ll give it back to him and all the rest I won."
Denver paused and studied the other as one amazed by such stupidity.
"Pal, did you ever try, in the old days, to _give_ anything to the old Black Jack?"
"H"m. Well, he sure hated charity. But this ain"t charity."
"It ain"t in your eyes. It is in Terry"s. If you insist, he"ll get sore.
No, Joe. Let him think he owes you that money. Let him start in working it off for you--honest work. You ain"t got any ranch work. Well, set him to cutting down trees, or anything. That"ll help to hold him. If he makes some gambling play--and he"s got the born gambler in him--you got one last thing that"ll be apt to keep him here."
"What"s that?"
"Kate."
Pollard stirred in his chair.
"How d"you mean that?" he asked gruffly.
"I mean what I said," retorted Denver. "I watched young Black Jack looking at her. He had his heart in his eyes, the kid did. He likes her, in spite of the frosty mitt she handed him. Oh, he"s falling for her, pal--and he"ll keep on falling. Just slip the word to Kate to kid him along. Will you? And after we got him glued to the place here, we"ll figure out the way to turn Terry into a copy of his dad. We"ll figure out how to shoot the spark into the powder, and then stand clear for the explosion."
Denver came silently and swiftly out of the chair, his pudgy hand spread on the table and his eyes gleaming close to the face of Pollard.
"Joe," he said softly, "if that kid goes wrong, he"ll be as much as his father ever was--and maybe more. He"ll rake in the money like it was dirt. How do I know? Because I"ve talked to him. I"ve watched him and trailed him. He"s trying hard to go straight. He"s failed twice; the third time he"ll bust and throw in with us. And if he does, he"ll clean up the coin--and we"ll get our share. Why ain"t you made more money yourself, Joe? You got as many men as Black Jack ever had. It"s because you ain"t got the fire in you. Neither have I. We"re nothing but tools ready for another man to use the way Black Jack used us. Nurse this kid along a little while, and he"ll show us how to pry open the places where the real coin is cached away. And he"ll lead us in and out with no danger to us and all the real risk on his own head. That"s his way--that was his dad"s way before him."
Pollard nodded slowly. "Maybe you"re right."
"I know I am. He"s a gold mine, this kid is. But we got to buy him with something more than gold. And I know what that something is. I"m going to show him that the good, lawabiding citizens have made up their minds that he"s no good; that they"re all ag"in" him; and when he finds that out, he"ll go wild. They ain"t no doubt of it. He"ll show his teeth! And when he shows his teeth, he"ll taste blood--they ain"t no doubt of it."
"Going to make him--kill?" asked Pollard very softly.
"Why not? He"ll do it sooner or later anyway. It"s in his blood."
"I suppose it is."
"I got an idea. There"s a young gent in town named Larrimer, ain"t there?"
"Sure. A rough kid, too. It was him that killed Kennedy last spring."
"And he"s proud of his reputation?"
"Sure. He"d go a hundred miles to have a fight with a gent with a good name for gunplay."
"Then hark to me sing, Joe! Send Terry into town to get something for you. I"ll drop in ahead of him and find Larrimer, and tell Larrimer that Black Jack"s son is around--the man that dropped Sheriff Minter. Then I"ll bring "em together and give "em a running start."
"And risk Terry getting his head blown off?"
"If he can"t beat Larrimer, he"s no use to us; if he kills Larrimer, it"s good riddance. The kid is going to get b.u.mped off sometime, anyway. He"s bad--all the way through."
Pollard looked with a sort of wonder on his companion.
"You"re a nice, kind sort of a gent, ain"t you, Denver?"
"I"m a moneymaker," a.s.serted Denver coldly. "And, just now, Terry Hollis is my gold mine. Watch me work him!"
CHAPTER 27
It was some time before Terry could sleep, though it was now very late.
When he put out the light and slipped into the bed, the darkness brought a bright flood of memories of the day before him. It seemed to him that half a lifetime had been crowded into the brief hours since he was fired on the ranch that morning. Behind everything stirred the ugly face of Denver as a sort of controlling nemesis. It seemed to him that the chunky little man had been pulling the wires all the time while he, Terry Hollis, danced in response. Not a flattering thought.
Nervously, Terry got out of bed and went to the window. The night was cool, cut crisp rather than chilling. His eye went over the velvet blackness of the mountain slope above him to the ragged line of the crest--then a dizzy plunge to the brightness of the stars beyond. The very sense of distance was soothing; it washed the gloom and the troubles away from him. He breathed deep of the fragrance of the pines and then went back to his bed.
He had hardly taken his place in it when the sleep began to well up over his brain--waves of shadows running out of corners of his mind. And then suddenly he was wide awake, alert.
Someone had opened the door. There had been no sound; merely a change in the air currents of the room, but there was also the sense of another presence so clearly that Terry almost imagined he could hear the breathing.
He was beginning to shrug the thought away and smile at his own nervousness, when he heard that unmistakable sound of a foot pressing the floor. And then he remembered that he had left his gun belt far from the bed. In a burning moment that lesson was printed in his mind, and would never be forgotten. Slowly as possible and without sound, he drew up his feet little by little, spread his arms gently on either side of him, and made himself tense for the effort. Whoever it was that entered, they might be taken by surprise. He dared not lift his head to look; and he was on the verge of leaping up and at the approaching noise, when a whisper came to him softly: "Black Jack!"
The soft voice, the name itself, thrilled him. He sat erect in the bed and made out, dimly, the form of Kate Pollard in the blackness. She would have been quite invisible, save that the square of the window was almost exactly behind her. He made out the faint whiteness of the hand which held her dressing robe at the breast.