"You"ll hang for this!" said the gambler, unsteadily, at which Gale"s face blazed.
"Ha!" exclaimed the trader, exultingly; "you can feel it in your guts already, eh?"
With an effort Stark began to a.s.semble his wits as the trader continued:
"You saddled your dirty work on me, Ben Stark, and I"ve carried it for fifteen years; but to-night I put you out the way you put her out. An eye for an eye!"
"I didn"t kill her," said the man.
"Don"t lie. This isn"t a grand jury. We"re all alone."
"I didn"t kill her."
"So? The yellow is showing up at last. I knew you were a coward, but I didn"t think you"d be afraid to own it to yourself. That thing must have lived with you."
"Look here," said Stark, curiously, "do you really think I killed Merridy?"
"I know it. A man who would strike a woman would kill her--if he had the nerve."
Stark had now mastered himself, and smiled.
"My hate worked better than I thought. Well, well, that made it hard for you, didn"t it?" he chuckled. "I supposed, of course, you knew--"
"Knew?" Gale"s face showed emotion for the first time. "Knew what--?"
His hands were quivering slightly.
"She killed herself."
"So help you G.o.d?"
"So help me G.o.d!"
There was a long pause.
"Why?"
"Say, it"s kind of funny our standing here talking about that thing, isn"t it? Well, if you want to know, I came home early that night--I guess you hadn"t been gone two hours--and the surprise did it, more than anything else, I suppose--she hadn"t prepared a story. I got suspicious, named you at random, and hit the nail on the head. She broke down, thought I knew more than I did, and--and then there was h.e.l.l to pay."
"Go on."
"I suppose I talked bad and made threats--I was crazy over you--till she must have thought I meant to kill her, but I didn"t. No. I never was quite that bad. Anyhow, she did it herself."
Gale"s face was like chalk, and his voice sounded thin and dry as he said:
"You beat her, that"s why she did it."
Stark made no answer.
"The papers said the room showed a struggle."
When the other still kept silent, Gale insisted:
"Didn"t you?"
At this Stark flamed up defiantly.
"Well, I guess I had cause enough. No woman except her was ever untrue to me--wife or sweetheart."
"You didn"t really think--?"
"Think h.e.l.l! I thought so then, and I think so now. She denied it, but--"
"And you knew her so well, too. I guess you"ve had some bad nights yourself, Bennett, with that always on your mind--"
"I swore I"d have you--"
"--and so you put her blood on my head, and made me an outlaw." After an instant: "Why did you tell me this, anyhow?"
"It"s our last talk, and I wanted you to know how well my hate worked."
"Well, I guess that"s all," said Gale. So far they had watched each other with unwavering, unblinking eyes, straining at the leash and taut in every nerve. Now, however, the trader"s fingers tightened on the knife-handle, and his knuckles whitened with the grip, at which Stark"s right hand swept to his waist, and simultaneously Gale lunged across the table. His blade nickered in the light, and a gun spoke, once--twice--again and again. A cry arose outside the cabin, then some heavy thing crashed in through the door, bringing light with it, for with his first leap Gale had carried the lamp and the table with him, and the two had clenched in the dark.
Burrell had waited an instant too long, for the men"s voices had held so steady, their words had been so vital, that the finish found him unprepared, but, thrusting the lantern into Poleon"s hand, he had backed off a pace and hurled himself at the door. He had learned the knack of bunching his weight in football days, and the barrier burst and splintered before him. He fell to his knees inside, and an instant later found himself wrestling for his life between two raging beasts.
The Lieutenant knew Doret must have entered too, though he could not see him, for the lantern shed a sickly gloom over the chaos. He was locked desperately with John Gale, who flung him about and handled him like a child, fighting like an old gray wolf, h.o.a.ry with years and terrible in his rage. Burrell had never been so battered and harried and torn; only for the lantern"s light Gale would doubtless have sheathed his weapon in his new a.s.sailant, but the more fiercely the trader struggled, the more tenaciously the soldier clung. As it was, Gale carried the Lieutenant with him and struck over his head at Stark.
Poleon had leaped into the room at Burrell"s heels, to receive the impact of a heavy body hurled backward into his arms as if by some irresistible force. He seized it and tore it away from the thing that pressed after and bore down upon it with the ferocity of a wild beast.
He saw Gale reach over the Lieutenant"s head and swing his arm, saw the knife-blade bury itself in what he held, then saw it rip away, and felt a hot stream spurt into his face. So closely was the Canadian entangled with Stark that he fancied for an instant the weapon had wounded both of them for the trader had aimed at his enemy"s neck where it joined the shoulder, but, hampered by the soldier, his blow went astray about four inches. Doret glimpsed Burrell rising from his knees, his arms about the trader"s waist, and the next instant the combatants were dragged apart.
The Lieutenant wrenched the dripping blade from Gale"s hand; it no longer gleamed, but was warm and slippery in his fingers. Poleon held Stark"s gun, which was empty and smoking.
The fight had not lasted a minute, and yet what terrible havoc had been wrought! The gambler was drenched with his own blood, which gushed from him, black in the yellow flicker, and so plentifully that the Frenchman was befouled with it, while Gale, too, was horribly stained, but whether from his own or his enemy"s veins it was hard to tell. The trader paid no heed to himself nor to the intruders, allowing Burrell to push him back against the wall, the breath wheezing in and out of his lungs, his eyes fastened on Stark.
"I got you, Bennett!" he cried, hoa.r.s.ely. "Your magic is no good." His teeth showed through his grizzled muzzle like the fangs of some wild animal.
Bennett, or Stark, as the others knew him, lunged about with his captor, trying to get at his enemy, and crying curses on them all, but he was like a child in Poleon"s arms. Gradually he weakened, and suddenly resistance died out of him.
"Come away from here," the Lieutenant ordered Gale.
But the old man did not hear, and gathered himself as if to resume the battle with his bare hands, whereupon the soldier, finding himself shaking like a frightened child, and growing physically weak at what he saw, doubted his ability to prevent the encounter, and repeated his command.
"Come away!" he shouted, but the words sounded foolishly flat and inane.
Then Stark spoke intelligibly for the first time.
"Arrest him! You"ve got to believe what I told you now, Burrell." He poured forth a stream of unspeakable profanity, smitten by the bitter knowledge of his first and only defeat. "You"ll hang, g.a.y.l.o.r.d! I"ll see your neck stretched, d.a.m.n your heart!" To Poleon he panted, excitedly: "I followed him for fifteen years, Doret. He killed my wife."
"Dat"s d.a.m.n lie!" said the Frenchman.
"No, it isn"t. He"s under indictment for it back in California. He shot her down in cold blood, then ran off with my kid. That"s her he calls Necia. She"s mine. Ain"t I right, Lieutenant?"