Now Kars" tone gave his friend and supporter infinite satisfaction.
Bill even felt he had miscalculated the primal instincts which governed this man. He knew he was exercising a powerful restraint. And it pleased as well as astonished him.
"Why, say, you folks, I"m glad to have found you right away," Kars said, with perfect cordiality. "We just pulled in on the trail, and came right along up while Charley fixes things. We weren"t sure of getting Murray this time of year."
Murray was completely master of himself. He was smiling his usual greeting while John Kars shook hands with Jessie. Nor was his smile any the less that his rival"s words were for Jessie rather than for him. He watched the new look born in the girl"s eyes at sight of Kars without a sign of emotion. And though it roused in him a fury of jealousy his response only seemed to gain in cordiality. He laughed.
"You"re kind of lucky, too," he said. "I only got in from Leaping Horse two days back, and I"m pulling out north right away."
It was Bill who answered him. Jessie had picked up her oilskin, and Kars was a.s.sisting her into it.
"You only got in two days back?" Bill"s brows were raised questioningly. "You didn"t drive as hard in the trail as folks guess."
His shrewd eyes were twinkling as he watched the shadow of annoyance pa.s.s swiftly across the trader"s face. But Murray excused himself, and his excuse seemed to afford Dr. Bill a certain amus.e.m.e.nt.
"The trail was fierce," he said, with a shrug. "The devil himself couldn"t have got a hustle on."
"No. We came the same trail."
Kars seemed oblivious to what was pa.s.sing between the two men. He seemed to have no concern for any one but Jessie.
"You going right down home now?" he asked.
His eyes were smiling gently into the girl"s upturned face, for all that his mind was full of the tragic news he had yet to convey.
He was so big as he stood there fastening the coat about her neck. His rugged face was a picture of strength as he searched out the fastening of the collar and secured it. His fur-lined pea-jacket, stained and worn, his loose, travel-stained trousers tucked into his heavy knee boots. These things aggravated his great bulk, and made him a very giant of the world it was his whim to roam.
The girl"s moment of fear had entirely pa.s.sed. There could be no shadow for her where he was. Nor had the rapid beatings of her heart anything to do with the scene through which she had just pa.s.sed. It was the touch of his great hands that stirred her with a thrill exquisite beyond words.
"Why, yes," she answered readily. "I"ve got school at the Mission. I came up to get Murray"s plans he needed to fix. He"s going north, as he said, and guessed I ought to help mother right here while he"s away.
You see, we haven"t got Alec now."
"No."
The smile pa.s.sed out of Kars" eyes. The girl"s final words shocked him momentarily out of his self-command. There was one other at least who held his breath for what was to follow that curt negative. But Bill Brudenell need have had no fear.
"But you"ll be through after a while," Kars went on with a swift return to his usual manner. "I"ll be along down to pay my respects to your mother. Meanwhile Bill and I need a yarn with Murray here. We"re stopping a while."
While he was speaking he accompanied the girl to the door and watched her till she had pa.s.sed the angle of the building in the direction of the gates of the stockade. Then he turned back to the trader, who was once more seated at his desk.
His whole manner had undergone a complete change. There was no smile in his eyes now. There was a stern setting of his strong jaws. He glanced swiftly at Bill, who had moved to the window. Then his eyes came back to the mechanical smile on Murray"s face.
"Alec"s out," he said. "He was shot up in the dance hall at the Elysian Fields. It happened the night of the day you pulled out. He ran foul of a "gunman" who"d been set on his trail. He did the "gunman" up. But he was done up, too. It"s one of the things made us come along up to you right away."
John Kars made his announcement without an unnecessary word, without seeking for a moment to lessen any effect which the news might have on this man. He felt there was no need for any nicety.
The effect of his announcement was hardly such as he might have expected. There was a sort of amazed incredulity in Murray"s dark eyes and his words came haltingly.
"Shot up? But--but--you"re fooling. You--you must be. G.o.d!
You--must be!"
Kars shrugged.
"I tell you Alec is dead. Shot up." There was a hard ring in his voice that robbed his words of any doubt.
"G.o.d!" Then came a low, almost muttered expression of pity. "The poor darn women-folk."
The last vestige of Murray"s mechanical smile had gone. An expression of deep horror had deadened the curious light in his eyes. He sat nerveless in his chair, and his bulk seemed to have become flabby with loss of vitality. Bill was watching the scene from the window.
"Yes. It"s going to be terrible--for them."
Kars spoke with a force which helped disguise his real emotions. By a great effort Murray pulled himself together.
"It"s--it"s Shaunbaum," he said. Then he went on as though to himself: "It"s over--that woman. And I warned him. Gee, I warned him for all I knew! Josh Wiseman was right. Oh, the crazy kid!"
Kars, looking on, remembered that this man had lied when he had said that he had urged Alec to quit his follies. He remembered that he had given Alec money, his money, to help him the further to wallow in the muck of Leaping Horse. He remembered these things as he gazed upon an outward display of grief, and listened to words of regrets which otherwise must have carried complete conviction.
He saw no necessity to add anything. And in a moment Murray had started into an att.i.tude of fierce resentment, and crashed his fleshy fist down upon the pages of the ledger before him.
"I warned him," he cried fiercely, his burning eyes fixed on the emotionless face of his rival. "G.o.d! I warned him. I had it from Josh Wiseman the "gunmen" were around. Shaunbaum"s "gunmen." Say, Kars," he went on, reaching out with his clenched fist for emphasis, "that boy was in my hotel to tell me he was quitting the city on a big play for a great stake. And I tell you it was like a weight lifted right off my shoulders. I saw him getting shut of Shaunbaum and that woman. I told him I was glad, and I told him Josh Wiseman"s yarn. I told him they reckoned Shaunbaum meant doing him up some way. An" he laffed. Just laffed, and--guessed he was glad. And now--they"ve got him. It"s broke me all up. But the women. Jessie! His mother! Say, it"s going to break their hearts all to pieces."
Kars stirred in his chair.
"We figgered that way," he said coldly. "That"s why we came around to you first. I"m going to tell the women-folk. And when I"ve told "em I guess you"ll need to stop around a while. That"s if you reckon this place is to---- Say, they"ll need time--plenty. It"s up to you to help them by keeping your hand on the tiller of things right here."
Murray leaned back in his chair. His forcefulness had died out under Kars" cold counsel.
"Yes, it"s up to me," he said with a sort of desperate regret.
Presently he looked up. A light of apprehension had grown in his dark eyes.
"You said _you"d_ tell them?" he demanded eagerly. "Say, I couldn"t do it. I haven"t the grit."
"I"m going to tell them."
There was no relaxing of manner in Kars.
A deep relief replaced Murray"s genuine dread. And presently his fleshy chin sank upon his broad bosom in an att.i.tude of profound dejection. His eyes were hidden. His emotion seemed too deep for further words. Bill, watching, beheld every sign. Nothing escaped him.
For some moments the silence remained. Then, at last, it was Murray who broke it. He raised his eyes to the cold regard of the man he had so cordially come to hate.
"Shaunbaum isn"t going to get away with it?" he questioned. "The p"lice? They"ve got a cinch on him?"
"Shaunbaum won"t get away with it."
"They"ve--arrested him?"
Kars shook his head.