Part 6 (1/2)
What would everyone think? She was a fool.
”Douse yer light an' crawl back!” She recognized the rough half contemptuous voice of Hod Blake. And the next instant she thought of the roar of guns, the acrid smell of burned powder, and the thin red streaks of flame that had pierced the night like swift arrows of blood. They would kill him. ”He's the best man among them all,” she sobbed, and closing her eyes, held the candle at arms length before her, and walked slowly toward the black opening at the end of the plank screen.
There was a cras.h.i.+ng report. Alice opened her eyes--in darkness. ”Tex!”
she cried, frantically, ”Tex, strike a light!”
CHAPTER VI
AT THE RED FRONT
When Ike Stork had disappeared through the door of the Red Front dragging the unconscious form of the bartender with him, the Texan poured himself a drink, set a quart bottle before him upon the bar, rummaged in a drawer and produced a box of cartridges which he placed conveniently to hand, reloaded his guns, and took another drink.
A report sounded in the street and a bullet crashed through the window and buried itself in a beer keg. The Texan laughed: ”Fog 'er up, ol'
hand, an' here's yer change!” Reaching over the top of a keg, he sent a bullet through the window. The shot drew a volley from the street, and the big mirror behind the bar became a jangle of cras.h.i.+ng gla.s.s.
”Barras'll have to get him a new lookin' gla.s.s,” he opined, as he shook the slivers from his hat brim. ”The war's on--an' she's a beaut! If ol'
Santa Anna was here, him an' I could lick the world! This red licker sure is gettin' to my head--stayed off of it too long--but I'm makin' up for lost time. Whoopee!”
”Oh, I'm a Texas cowboy, Far away from home, If I ever get back to Texas I never more will roam.”
”Hey, in there!” The song ceased abruptly, and, gun in hand the Texan answered.
”There ain't no hay in here! What do you think this is, a cow's hotel?
The livery barn's next door!”
”They ain't no outlaw goin' to run Timber City while I'm marshal!”
”Put 'er here, pardner!” answered the Texan. ”You run Timber City an'
I'll run the Red Front! Come on in an' buy a drink, so I can get my change!”
”You're arrested fer disturbin' the peace!”
”Come an' get me, then. But come a-shootin'!”
”You can't git away with it. I got twenty men here, an' everyone packin'
a gun!”
”You've got me, then,” mocked the Texan. ”I've only got two guns. Run 'em in in a bunch. I can only take care of a dozen, an' the rest can get me before I can reload.”
”Yer kickin' up an awful stink fer a dollar an' four bits.”
”'Tain't the money, it's the principle of the thing. An' besides, I aimed to pull a h.e.l.l-winder of a jamboree--an' I'm doin' it.”
”You ain't helpin' yer case none by raisin' a rookus like this. Come out an' give yerself up. All there is agin you is a fine an' a little damages.”
”How much?”