Part 18 (1/2)

He put three strides between him and the back wall before be ventured beyond it. The corral lay a trifle more than 100 feet away now. Joe saw a horse rear and paw the air and heard Clark speak a sharp oath in the moment he stood watching. Then, recklessly, he ran in toward the corral.

Now he could make out a few details in the blackness. He saw Clark plainly, jerking loose the reins of the animal that had reared. He called-”No use, Clark!”-coming in on the side of the empty corral opposite that where Clark stood.

His voice made Clark Dunne turn quickly about. Clark couldn't see Joe yet. He leaned down, stepped in between the second and third poles, and was in the corral.

”Across here, Clark!” Joe called tauntingly, as he went into a crouch.

Clark's .38 exploded twice. A bullet sounded thwunk! into one of the pine poles a foot over Joe's head.

Lifting his Colt, Joe targeted the flame stab of Clark's gun there, his own gun only chest-high. He saw Clark pushed backward a step and come erect once more. He saw Clark's hand lift, and drove another shot at the man.

Clark folded at the waist, slowly, as a man would in favoring an aching stomach. His gun exploded once as he fell, wheeling sideward, but the orange wash of powder flame was pointing toward the ground.

Joe walked across to the corral, straddled the poles, and then stood looking down at the man he had once called his friend. Clark's face was upturned. He was smiling, his expression serene except for the sightless, staring eyes.

Joe said-”So long.”-softly, and tossed his gun away.

He didn't know the others were coming toward him until Ruth Merrill came in beside him. Putting her arm on his, she said: ”Joe, we can forget all this and make a new start. Can't we?”

She drew back at the look Joe gave her. It was cold, furious, not intended for her, but showing the aftereffects of what had just happened. She took her hand away and anger destroyed a measure of her prettiness.

”I don't have to do this, you know,” she breathed.

”I know,” he answered, hardly aware that she had spoken and not understanding her words. He turned from her then, wanting nothing so much as to be alone.

The others, witnessing the scene, let him walk on away. Blaze had hung back just beyond the wide portal with Jean and Fred Vanover. As Joe approached, he told them: ”He's takin' it hard. Did you see the way he shook her off? Stay out of his way when he's like this.”

Vanover and Jean stepped back into the shadows. As Joe came up, he saw Blaze and some of his sanity returned. He saw the Vanovers beyond Blaze and called: ”That you, Jean?”

”Yes, Joe,” she answered. ”What is it?”

He hadn't known until now what it was. But now that he did know, he walked over to her. Oblivious of Vanover, he took her by the arms and looked down into her face. A torrents of doubts a.s.sailed him, but he spoke anyway, the core of him yielding a knowledge of something he hadn't been aware of until he had left Ruth near the corral.

”Jean, I'm on my way out. I'm bein' fool enough to ask you to come with me. I'm no good and you wouldn't be gettin' much. But I've got to know.”

Gladness was in Jean Vanover's face. Her eyes shone with tears she tried to hold back. She said in a barely audible whisper-”I'd go anywhere with you, Joe.”-and didn't wait for him to kiss her.

Peace for Mesa Grande.

It was the same room of three nights ago, the lamplight blue with tobacco smoke, the street below filled with men as on that other night. And it was Yace Bonnyman, as before, who did most of the talking. Only this time Yace wasn't arguing. He was doing the thing he liked best, bl.u.s.tering, driving home to these others the force of his will. And this time there was no question of right and wrong.

”Then it's settled,” he said. ”Acme stays open. You run it, Vanover. You're goin' to make Workman and Staples low-interest loans so they can get on their feet again. But your outfit's through when it comes to cattle. Either let go of Diamond or we'll run you out. We'll burn the layout to the ground if we have to. Your gun hands are in jail now. We can do these things I say, and you won't stop us.”

”That won't be necessary,” Fred Vanover replied. ”Diamond's changing hands. Were only handling the mortgage on it.”

For the first time since the meeting had started, Yace's look went cloudy with anger. ”No tricks,” he flared. ”Come out in the open with the details. We'll let the sale go through on only one condition . . . that the owner is agreeable to us. Who is he?”