Part 46 (1/2)
”So you're liable to marry young Hardman?” he asked deliberately.
The question, the name, gave her pause, as if they had startled her memory.
”Sure I am.”
”But, Louise, how can you marry Hardman when he already has a wife?”
asked Pan.
She grasped that import only slowly, by degrees.
”You lie, you gun-slinging cowboy!” she cried.
”No, Louise. He told me so himself.”
”He did! ... When?” she whispered, very low.
”Today. He was at the stage office. He meant to leave today. He was all togged up, frock coat, high hat.... Oh, G.o.d--Louise, I know, I _know_, because it--was--my--sweetheart--he married.”
Pan ended gaspingly. What agony to speak that aloud--to make his own soul hear that aloud!
”_Your_ sweetheart? ... Little Lucy--of your boyhood--you told me about?”
Pan was confronted now by something terrible. He had sought to make this girl betray herself, if she had anything to betray. But this Medusa face! Those awful eyes!
”Yes, Lucy, I told you,” he said, reaching for her. ”He forced her to marry him. They had Lucy's father in jail. d.i.c.k got him out. Oh, it was all a scheme to work on the poor girl. She thought it was to save her father.... Why, d.i.c.k paid her father. I made him tell me... yes, d.i.c.k Hardman in his frock coat and high hat! But when I drove him out to get his gun, he forgot that high hat.”
”Ah! His high hat!”
”Yes, it's out in the street now. The wind blew it over where I killed Matthews. Funny! ... And Louise, I'm going to kill d.i.c.k Hardman, too.”
”Like h.e.l.l you are!” she hissed, and leaped swiftly to s.n.a.t.c.h something from under the pillow.
Pan started back, thinking that she meant to attack him. How tigerishly she bounded! Her white arm swept aside red curtains. They hid a shallow closet. It seemed her white shape flashed in and out. A hard choking gasp! Could that have come from her? Pan did not see her drawn lips move. Something hard dropped to the floor with metallic sound.
The hall door opened with a single sweep. Blinky stood framed there, wild eyed. And the next instant d.i.c.k Hardman staggered from that closet. He had both hands pressed to his abdomen. Blood poured out in a stream. Pan heard strange watery sounds. Hardman reeled out into the hall, groaning. He slipped along the wall. Pan leaped, to see him slide down into a widening pool of blood.
It was a paralyzing moment. But Pan recovered first. The girl swayed with naked arms outstretched against the wall. On her white wrist showed a crimson blot. Pan looked no more. s.n.a.t.c.hing a blanket off the bed he threw it round her, wrapped it tight, and lifted her in his arms.
”Blink, go ahead,” he whispered, as he went into the hall. ”Hurry!
Shoot out the lights! Go through the dance hall!”
The cowboy seemed galvanized into action. He leaped over Hardman's body, huddled and lax, and down the hall, pulling his guns.
Pan edged round the body on the floor. He saw a ghastly face--protruding eyes. And on the instant, like lightning, came the thought that Lucy was free. Almost immediately thundering shots filled the saloon. Cras.h.!.+ Cras.h.!.+ Cras.h.!.+ The lights faded, darkened, went out. Yells and sc.r.a.ping chairs and overturned tables, breaking gla.s.s, pounding boots merged in a pandemonium of sound.
Pan hurried through the dance hall, where the windows gave dim light, found the doorway, gained the side entrance to the street. Blinky waited there, smoking guns in his hands.
”Heah--this--way,” he directed in a panting whisper, as he sheathed the guns, and took the lead. Pan followed in the shadow of the houses.