LITMIR.BIZ

      14. DELILAH

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      Haines muttered at Kate's ear: "This is the man. Now keep up your courage."

      "He doesn't like this," went on Haines in the same muffled voice, "but when he understands just why you're here I think he'll be as glad as any of us."

      Silent beckoned to him and he went to the chief.

      "What about the girl?" asked the big fellow curtly.

      "Didn't Rhinehart tell you?"

      "Rhinehart's a fool and so are the rest of them. Have you gone loco too, Haines, to let a girl come here?"

      "Where's the harm?"

      "Why, damn it, she's marked every man here."

      "I let her in because she is trying to get hold of Whistling Dan."

      "Which no fool girl c'n take that feller off the trail. Nothin' but lead can do that."

      "I tell you," said Haines, "the boy's in love with her. I watched them at Morgan's place. She can twist him around her finger."

      A faint light broke the gloom of Silent's face.

      "Yaller hair an' blue eyes. They c'n do a lot. Maybe you're right. What's that?" His voice had gone suddenly husky.

      A russet moon pushed slowly up through the trees. Its uncertain light fell across the clearing. For the first time the thick pale smoke of the fire was visible, rising straight up until it cleared the tops of the willows, and then caught into swift, jagging lines as the soft wind struck it. A coyote wailed from the distant hills, and before his complaint was done another sound came through the hushing of the willows, a melancholy whistling, thin with distance.

      "We'll see if that's the man you want," suggested Haines.

      "I'll go along," said Shorty Rhinehart.

      "And me too," said a third. The whole group would have accompanied them, but the heavy voice of Jim Silent cut in: "You'll stay here, all of you except the girl and Lee."

      They turned back, muttering, and Kate followed Haines into the willows.

      "Well?" growled Bill Kilduff.

      "What I want to know—" broke in Terry Jordan.

      "Go to hell with your questions," said Silent, "but until you go there you'll do what I say, understand?"

      "Look here, Jim," said Hal Purvis, "are you a king an' we jest your slaves, maybe?"

      "You're goin' it a pile too hard," said Shorty Rhinehart.

      Every one of these speeches came sharply out while they glared at Jim Silent. Hands were beginning to fall to the hip and fingers were curving stiffly as if for the draw. Silent leaned his broad shoulders against the side of his roan and folded his arms. His eyes went round the circle slowly, lingering an instant on each face. Under that cold stare they grew uneasy. To Shorty Rhinehart it became necessary to push back his hat and scratch his forehead. Terry Jordan found a mysterious business with his bandana. Every one of them had occasion to raise his hand from the neighbourhood of his six- shooter. Silent smiled.

      "A fine, hard crew you are," he said sarcastically at last. "A great bunch of long riders, lettin' a slip of a yaller-haired girl make fools of you. You over there—you, Shorty Rhinehart, you'd cut the throat of a man that looked crosswise at the Cumberland girl, wouldn't you? An' you, Purvis, you're aching to get at me, ain't you? An' you're still thinkin' of them blue eyes, Jordan?"

      Before any one could speak he poured in another volley between wind and water: "One slip of a girl can make fools out of five long riders? No, you ain't long riders. All you c'n handle is hobby hosses!"

      "What do you want us to do?" growled swarthy Bill Kilduff.

      "Keep your face shut while I'm talkin', that's what I want you to do!"

      There was a devil of rage in his eyes. His folded arms tugged at each other, and if they got free there would be gun play. The four men shrank, and he was satisfied.

      "Now I'll tell you what we're goin' to do," he went on. "We're goin' out after Haines an' the girl. If they come up with this Whistlin' Dan we're goin' to surround him an' fill him full of lead, while they're talkin'."

      "Not for a million dollars!" burst in Hal Purvis.

      "Not in a thousan' years!" echoed Terry Jordan.

      Silent turned his watchful eyes from one to the other. They were ready to fight now, and he sensed it at once.

      "Why?" he asked calmly.

      "It ain't playin' square with the girl," announced Rhinehart.

      "Purvis," said Silent, for he knew that the opposition centred in the figure of the venomous little gun fighter; "if you seen a mad dog that was runnin' straight at you, would you be kep' from shootin' it because a pretty girl hollered out an' asked you not to?"

      Their eyes shifted rapidly from one to another, seeking a way out, and finding none.

      "An' is there any difference between this hero Whistlin' Dan an' a mad dog?"

      Still they were mute.

      "I tell you, boys, we got a better chance of dodgin' lightnin' an' puttin' a bloodhound off our trail than we have of gettin' rid of this Whistlin' Dan. An' when he catches up with us—well, all I'm askin' is that you remember what he done to them four dollars before they hit the dust?"

      "The chief's right," growled Kilduff, staring down at the ground. "It's Whistlin' Dan or us. The mountains ain't big enough to hold him an' us!"

      * * * * *

      Before Whistling Dan the great wolf glided among the trees. For a full hour they had wandered through the willows in this manner, and Dan had made up his mind to surrender the search when Bart, returning from one of his noiseless detours, sprang out before his master and whined softly. Dan turned, loosening his revolver in the holster, and followed Bart through the soft gloom of the tree shadows and the moonlight. His step was almost as silent as that of the slinking animal which went before. At last the wolf stopped and raised his head. Almost instantly Dan saw a man and a woman approaching through the willows. The moonlight dropped across her face. He recognized Kate, with Lee Haines walking a pace before her.

      "Stand where you are," he said.

      Haines leaped to one side, his revolver flashing in his hand. Dan stepped out before them while Black Bart slunk close beside him, snarling softly.

      He seemed totally regardless of the gun in Haines's hand. His manner was that of a conqueror who had the outlaw at his mercy.

      "You," he said, "walk over there to the side of the clearing."

      "Dan!" cried Kate, as she went to him with extended arms.

      He stopped her with a gesture, his eyes upon Haines, who had moved away.

      "Watch him, Bart," said Dan.

      The black wolf ran to Haines and crouched snarling at his feet. The outlaw restored his revolver to his holster and stood with his arms folded, his back turned. Dan looked to Kate. At the meeting of their eyes she shrank a little. She had expected a difficult task in persuading him, but not this hard aloofness.

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