"What makes you think I won"t?" Gray became aware as he spoke that his elderly neighbor had raised to the intruder a countenance stamped with a peculiar expression of incredulity, almost of anger, at the interruption, and that the two remaining counter customers had turned startled faces over their shoulders, while the proprietor, his arms full of dishes, had paused beside the swinging door to the kitchen.
That which occurred next came unexpectedly. The stranger whipped out from under his coat a revolver, at the same time voicing a profane answer to the challenge. The proprietor uttered a bleat of terror; he dropped his dishes and dived out of the room; the men on the stools scrambled down and plunged after him.
As Calvin Gray rose to his feet it was with a flash of mingled anger and impatience. This quarrel was so utterly senseless, it served so little purpose.
"My friend," he cried, sharply, "if you don"t put up that gun, one of us will go to a hospital."
In spite of the intruder"s haste in drawing his weapon, he appeared now to lack the will promptly to use it--his laggard spirit required a further scourge, so it seemed; something more to goad it into final fury. It was a phenomenon by no means uncommon, for it is not easy to shoot down an unarmed victim.
By way of rousing his savagery, the fellow uttered a bellow, then, like a warrior smiting his shield with his spear before the charge, he swung his heavy weapon, smashing at one blow that silver-plated merry-go-round with its cl.u.s.ter of bottles.
A shower of toothpicks, fragments of gla.s.s, a spatter of oil and vinegar covered the old man in the end chair, and he rose with a cry that drew a swift glance from the desperado.
Gray was upon the point of launching himself over the table when he witnessed a peculiar transformation in his a.s.sailant. The man"s expression altered with almost comic suddenness, he lowered his weapon and took a backward step. Gray, too, had cause for astonishment, for the elderly man was moving slowly toward the disturber, his overcoat, meanwhile, hanging loosely from his left shoulder, like a mantle. His gray face had grown white, malignant, threatening; he advanced with a queer, sidling gait, edging forward behind the shelter of his garment as if behind a barricade. But what challenged Gray"s instant attention was the certainty of purpose, the cold, confident menace behind the old fellow"s demeanor. There was something appalling about him; he had suddenly become huge and dominant.
That he had been recognized was plain, for the armed man cried, agitatedly: "Look out, Tom! I don"t want any truck with _you_."
The deliberate advance continued; in a harsh voice Tom answered: "I don"t allow anybody to interfere with me when I"m eating!" For every step he shuffled forward the man before him fell back a corresponding distance.
Again the newcomer rasped out his warning, and Gray, too, added his voice, saying: "Leave him to me, old man. This is my quarrel." As he spoke he moved around the end of the table, but the mantled figure halted him with an imperious jerk of the head. Without in the slightest diverting his steady gaze, Tom snapped:
"Hands off, stranger! I won"t have you b.u.t.tin" in, either. I don"t allow anybody to interfere with me when I"m eating."
Gray was checked less by the exasperation, by the authority in the speaker"s tone, than by the fact that the entire complexion of the affair had changed. The ruffian, who had entered so confidently, was no longer the aggressor; a mere look, a word, a gesture from this aged, unknown person had put him upon the defensive. More extraordinary still was the fact that his power of initiative was for the moment completely paralyzed, and that he was tortured by a deplorable indecision. He was furious, that was plain, nevertheless his anger had been halted in mid-flight, as it were; desperation battled with an inexplicable dread.
He raised his hands now, but more in a gesture of surrender than of threat.
"Don"t come any closer," he cried, hoa.r.s.ely. "Don"t do it, I tell you!
_Don"t--do it!_"" There was no longer any thickness to his tongue; he spoke as one quite sober.
When for the third time that malevolent voice repeated, "I don"t allow anybody to interfere with me when I"m eating," the solitary onlooker felt an absurd desire to laugh. During intensely dramatic moments nervous laughter is near the surface, and there was something rigidly dramatic about the methodical, sidling advance of that man half crouched behind his overcoat. Tom, as he had been called, gave Gray the impression of Death itself marching slowly forward to drape that black shroud upon his cowering victim.
Brief as had been the whole episode, already pa.s.sers-by had halted, staring faces were glued to the front windows of the cafe. Well they might stare at those two tense figures, one advancing, the other retreating, as if to the measures of some slow dance.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "DON"T COME ANY CLOSER. DON"T DO IT, I TELL YOU!"]
But the tempo changed abruptly. The desperado"s back brought up against the swinging kitchen door; it gave to his weight and decision was born of that instant. With a cry he flung himself backward, the spring door snapped to and swallowed him up with the speed of a camera shutter; then followed the sound of his heavy rushing footsteps.
"h.e.l.l!" exclaimed the old man. "I had his b.u.t.tons counted!" With the words he let fall his overcoat, and there, beneath it, Gray beheld what he had more than half suspected, what indeed was ample cause for the quarrelsome stranger"s apprehension. Held close to the owner"s body was what in the inelegant jargon of the West is known as a "dog leg." The weapon, a frontier Colt"s of heavy caliber, was full c.o.c.ked under the old man"s thumb; the hand holding it was as steady as the blazing eyes above.
With a smile Gray said, "Allow me to congratulate you, sir, upon a most impressive demonstration of the power of mind over matter."
"A little killin" helps those scoun"rels," breathed the white-haired warrior. "Surgin" around, wreakin" vengeance on vinegar bottles! And me with a bad indigestion!"
"I don"t often permit others to do my fighting. But you wouldn"t let--"
"I don"t allow anybody--" doggedly began the former speaker, but the street door burst open, a noisy crowd poured into the room, a volley of excited questions was raised. Amid the confusion Gray heard his own name shouted, and found himself set upon by two agitated friends, Mallow and Stoner. They had been combing Newtown for him, so they declared, and were near by when attracted by the excitement on the sidewalk. What was the trouble? Was Gray hurt?
He a.s.sured them that he was not, and explained in a few words the origin of the encounter. But other concerns, it seemed, occupied the minds of the pair, and before he had finished Mallow was dragging him towards the door, crying, breathlessly: "Gee, Governor! You gave us a run. We"ve been coming since noon."
"It was only by the grace of G.o.d," Stoner declared, "that we heard you were out here and why you"d come. We managed to get a phone call through to Jackson, but it was--"
"Jackson? I"ve been looking for him all the afternoon."
"Sure! Mallow swore he was all right, but Mac and I don"t know him, and we figured he might turn a trick. Anyhow, Mallow and I jumped the Lizzie and looped it. Boy! I tramped on her some, until we hit bottom the other side of Burk. Mallow went clean through the top. I guess I smashed the whole rear end, but we couldn"t wait to see. They"ll have her stripped naked, tires, cushions, and all, before we get back.
Motor, too, probably. We"ve been hitting it afoot, on wagons and pipe trucks--managed to get a service car finally, but it fell open like a book. Just one of those dam" unlucky trips."
"Jackson didn"t get to you, did he?" Mallow inquired, anxiously.
"Get to me? No. Nor I to him." Gray spoke impatiently. "What is this all about?"
"Simply this, Governor: Jackson"s well is a "set-up"! For Nelson! We nearly dropped dead when we found out that Parker kid had laid _you_ against it. Why didn"t you _tell us_--?"
"What are you saying? I don"t--"
"The well"s phony. Dry as a pretzel."
"In what way? I saw the oil--"
"Never mind. Lay off!"
"I think I"m ent.i.tled to an explanation."
"Well, then, it"s salted!"
"Impossible! I saw it pumping."
"I"ll say you did." Mallow chuckled. "Live oil, too; right out of old Mamma Earth. Cheap lease at seventy-five thousand, eh? It"s like this: the pipe line of the Atlantic runs across Jackson"s lease, and one dark and stormy night he tapped it. It wasn"t a hard thing to do; just took a little care and some digging. Now he runs the oil in, pumps it out and sells it back to them. He"s a regular subsidiary of the great and only Atlantic Petroleum Company. It can"t last long, of course, but--oh, what a well to hand Nelson! What a laugh it would have been!"
"Outrageous!" Gray exclaimed. "I can"t believe you are in earnest."
"It _is_ shocking, isn"t it? Such dishonesty is incredible. And what an unhappy surprise for the company when they finally locate the leak!"
Gray clamped a heavy hand upon the speaker"s shoulder; harshly he inquired, "Do you mean to say that Miss Parker deliberately--"
"She don"t know anything about it."
"You said she "laid me" against it."
"No, no! I merely tipped her to it because she"s one of Nelson"s brokers."
"She"s his sweetie," Stoner added. "He"s going to marry her, so Mallow thought he"d surely fall for it, coming from her."
"You--you"re not fit to mention that girl"s name, either of you."
Gray"s tone was one of quivering anger. "If you involve her in your crooked dealings, even indirectly, I"ll--G.o.d! What a dirty trick." He flung Mallow aside in disgust. "You ought to be shot."
"Why, Governor! We wouldn"t hurt that kid. She"s aces."
"I told you my fight with Nelson was to be fair and square."