Classic Audiobook Collection - Six Feet Four by Jackson Gregory ~ Full Audiobook [adventure]

Starting point is 00:00:00 six feet four by jackson gregory chapter one the storm all day long from an hour before the pale dawn until now after the thick dark the storm had raged through the mountains before midday it had grown dark in the canyons in the driving blast of the wind many a tall pine had snapped broken at last after long valiant years of victorious buffeting with the seasons, while countless tossing branches had been riven away from the parent bowls and hurled far out in all directions. Through the narrow canyons the wet wind went shrieking fearsomely, driving the slant rain like countless thin spears of glistening steel. At the wan daybreak, the sound filling the air was one of many voiced but subdued tumult, like the far-away growling of fierce hungry imprisoned beasts as the sodden hours dragged by the noises everywhere increased steadily so that before noon the whole of the wilderness seemed to be shouting

Starting point is 00:01:17 narrow creek beds were filled with gushing muddy water the trees on the mountain sides shook and snapped and creaked and hissed to the hissing of the racing wind at intervals the thunder echoing ominously added its boom to the general uproar not for a score of years and upward had such a storm visited the mountains in the vicinity of the old road-house in big pine flat night as though it had leaped upon the back of the storm and had writhen hitherward on the wings of the wind all impatience to defy the laws of daylight was in truth mistress of the mountains a full hour or more before the invisible sun's allotted time of setting in the storm smitten lonely building at the foot of the rocky slope shivering as though with the cold rocking crazily as though in startled fear at each gust the roaring log fire in the open fireplace made an uncertain twilight and innumerable ghostlike shadows the wind whistling down the chimney making that eerie sound known locally as the voice of william henry came and went fitfully poke drury the cheerful one-legged keeper of the road house swung back and forth up and down on his one crutch whistling blithely with his guest of the chimney and lighting the last of his coal oil lamps and candles she's a lulu bird all right acknowledged pope drury he swung across his long general room to the fireplace balanced on his crutch while he shifted and kicked at a fallen burning log with his one boot and then hooked his elbows on his mantle

Starting point is 00:03:16 his very black smiling eyes took cheerful stock of his guests whom the storm had brought him they were many more than had ever at one time honored the big pine road house and still others were coming if hap smith ain't forgot how to sling a four-horse team through the dark huh continued the landlord as he placed still another candle at the south window in architectural design pope drury's road house was as simple an affair as pope drury himself there was but one story the whole front of the house facing the country road was devoted to the general room here was a bar occupying the far end then there were two or three rude pine tables oilcloth covered the chairs were plentiful and all of the chairs were plentiful and all of the chairs were plentiful and all of the the rawhide bottom species, austere-looking, but comfortable enough. And at the other end of the barn-like chamber was the long dining table. Beyond it, a door leading to the kitchen at the back of the house. Next to the kitchen, the family bedroom, where Pope Drury and his dreary-looking spouse slept. Adjoining this was the one spare bedroom, with a couple of broken-legic.

Starting point is 00:04:45 cots and a washstand without any bowl or pitcher. If one wish to lave his hands and face or comb his hair, let him step out on the back porch under the shoulder of the mountain and utilize the roadhouse toilet facilities there. They were a tin basin, a water pipe leading from a spring, and a broken comb, stuck after the fashion of the country in the long hairs of the oxen, his tail nailed to the porch post you gents is sure right welcome the one-legged proprietor went on having paused a moment to listen to the wind howling through the narrow pass and battling at his door and windows i got plenty to eat and mourn plenty to drink same as usual but when it comes to sleep and well you got to make floors and chairs and tables do you see this here little shower has filled me all up the lou yates place up the river got itself pretty well washed out lou's young wife and old mother-in-law and pokes's voice dropped modified got scared clean to pieces not being used to our ways out here he added brightly anyway they've got the spare bedroom in my room and ma's ma's

Starting point is 00:06:14 Well, Ma's got a real bad cold, and she's camped there for the night. But, shucks, boys, what's the odds? When there's fire in the fireplace and grub in the grub box, and as fine a line of liquor as you can find any place I know of, and a deck or two of cards, and the bones to rattle for them that's anxious to make or break quick. Half Smith ought to have been here before now, you wouldn't suppose he broke off and looked at those of the faces which had been turned his way his thought was plain to read at least for those who understood recent local conditions

Starting point is 00:06:59 hap smith had been driving the stage over the mountains for only something less than three weeks which is to say since the violent taking off of his predecessor bill varney before any one spoke the dozen men in the room and had ample time to consider this suggestion one or two of them glanced up at the clock swinging its pendulum over the chimney-piece then they went on with what they were doing glancing through old newspapers dealing at cards smoking or just sitting and staring at nothing in particular the last week has put lots of water in all the cricks offered old man adams from his place by the fire then with this cloud bust and downpour to-day it ain't really nice travelling that would be about all that's holdin half up and i'm telling you why did you ever hear a man tell of a stick-up party on a night like this no sir these here stick-up gents got more sense than that. They'd be sitting nice and snug and dry, like us fellas right now. As usual, Old Man Adams had stated a theory with emphasis, and utterly without any previous reflection, being a positive soul, but never a brilliant. And again, quite as usual, a theory stated was

Starting point is 00:08:34 naturally to be combated with more or less violence. Out of the innocent enough statement, there grew a long, devious argument, an argument which was at its height and evincing no signs of ever getting anywhere at all, when from the night without came the rattle of wheels, the jingle of harness chains, and Hap Smith's voice shouting out the tidings of his tardy arrival. front door was flung open, lamps and candles and log fire all danced in the sudden draft, and some of the flickering flames went out, and the first one of Hapsmith's belated passengers, a young girl, was fairly blown into the room. She, like the rest, was drenched,

Starting point is 00:09:26 and as she hastened across the floor to the welcome fire, trailed rainwater from her cape and dress. but her eyes were sparkling her cheeks rosy with the rude wooing of the outside night after her stamping noisily glad of the light and warmth and a prospect of food and drink came hapsmith's other passengers four booted men from the mines and the cattle country to the last man of them in the road-house they gave her the immediate and exclusive attention briefly suspended were all such operations as smoking drinking newspaper reading or card-playing they looked at her gravely speculatively and with frankly unhidden interest one man who had laid a wet coat aside donned it again swiftly and surreptitiously another in awkward fashion as she passed close to him half rose and then sank back in his his chair. Still others merely narrowed the gaze that was bent upon her steadily. She went straight to the fireplace, threw off her wraps, and extended her hands to the blaze. So for a moment she stood, her shoulders stirring to the shiver which ran down her whole body.

Starting point is 00:10:55 Then she turned her head a little, and for the first time took in all the rude appointments of the room. oh she gasped i-it's all right miss said poke drury swinging toward her his hand lifted as though to stop one in full flight you see just that end there is the bar-room he explained nodding at her reassuringly the middle of the room here is the-the parlor and down at that end where the long table is that's the dining-auburned that's the dining-a-the-parlour and down at that end where the long table is that's the dining-house room i ain't never got around to the partitions yet but i'm going to some day and beh-ah he had said it all and all things considered had done rather well with an impossible job the clearing of the throat and a glare to go with it were not for the startled girl but for that part of the room where the bar and card-table were being used oh said the girl again and then turning her back upon the bar and so allowing the firelight to add to the sparkle of her eyes and the flush on her cheeks of course one mustn't expect everything and please don't ask the gentleman to-to stop whatever they are doing on my account i'm quite warm now she smiled brightly at her host and shivered again may i go to my room in the days when poked drury's road-house stood lone and aloof from the world in big pine flat very little of the world from which such as poked drury had retreated had ever peered into these mountain-bound fastnesses

Starting point is 00:12:48 certainly less than few women of the type of this girl had ever come here in the memory of the men who now some boldly and some shyly regarded her drying her herself and seeking warmth in front of the blazing fire true at the time there were in the house three others of her sex but they were different may i go right to my room she repeated as the landlord stood gaping at her rather foolishly she imagined that he had not heard being a little deaf or that possibly the poor chap was a trifle slow-witted and again she smiled on him kindly and again he noted the shiver bespeking both chill and fatigue but to poke drury there had come an inspiration not much of one perhaps yet he quickly availed himself of it hanging in a dusty corner near the long dining-table was an old and long disused guest's book the official roadhouse register drurries wandering eye lighted upon it if you'll sign up miss he suggested i'll go have ma get your room ready and away he scurried on his crutch casting a last look over his shoulder at his ruder mail guests the girl went hastily as directed and sat down at the table her back to the room The book she lifted down from its hanging place, there was a stub of pencil tied to the string.

Starting point is 00:14:36 She took it stiffly into her fingers and wrote, Winifred Waverly. Her pencil in the space reserved for the signer's hometown, she hesitated. Only briefly, however. With a little shrug, she completed the legend, inscribing swiftly, Hills Corners. Then she sat still, feeling that many eyes were upon her, and waited the return of the roadhouse keeper. When finally he came back into the room, his slow hesitating gait and puckered face gave her a suspicion of the truth. I'm downright sorry, miss, he began lamely.

Starting point is 00:15:22 Ma's got something, bad cold or pneumonia, and she won't bud. there's only one more bedroom and lou's yate's wife has got one cot and lou's mother-in-law has got the other and they won't budge and he ended there abruptly i see said the girl wearily there isn't any place for me unless offered drury without enthusiasm and equally without expectation of his offer being of any great value. You'd care to crawl in with Ma. No, thank you, said Miss Waverly hastily. I can sit up somewhere. After all, it won't be long until morning, and we start on again. Or, if I might have a blanket to throw down in a corner. Again, Pope Drury left her abruptly.

Starting point is 00:16:23 She sat still at the table, without turning, again, conscious of many, eyes steadily on her. Presently from an adjoining room came Drury's voice, subdued to a low mutter. Then a woman's voice, snapping and querulous. And a moment later, the return of Drury, his haste savoring somewhat of flight from the connubial chamber, but certain spoils of victory with him. From his arm trailed a crazy quilt, which it was perfect. clear he had snatched from his wife's bed. He led the way to the kitchen, stuck a candle in a bottle on the table, spread the quilt on the floor in the corner,

Starting point is 00:17:10 made a veritable ceremony of fastening the back door and left her. The girl shivered and went slowly to her uninviting couch. Poked Drury, in his big general room again, stood staring with troubled face at the other men, men with common consent and to the last man of them they had already tiptoed to the register and were seeking to inform themselves as to the name and habitat of the prettiest girl who had ever found herself within the four walls of poke-droy's road-house nice name offered old man adams whose curiosity had kept stride with his years and who lacking all youthful hesitation had been first to get to the book kind of stylish sounding but hill's corners he shook his head i ain't been to the corners for a right smart spell but i didn't know such as her lived there they don't growled the heavy-set man who had snatched the register from old man adams's fingers and i been there recent only last week

Starting point is 00:18:26 the corners ain't so all fired big as a female like her is goin to be livin there an it not be knowed all over poke drury descended upon them jerked the book away and with a screwed-up face and many gestures toward the kitchen recalled to them that a flimsy partition though it may shut out the vision is hardly to be counted on to stop the passage of an unguarded voice step down this way gents he said tactfully where the bar is bein it's a right winterish sort of night i don't reckon a little drop of kindness would go bad huh name your poison gents it's on me in her corner just beyond the flimsy partition winnifred waverley of hill's corners or elsewhere drew the many-colored patchwork quilt about her and shivered again end of chapter one chapter two of six feet four by jackson gregory this libervox recording is in the public domain chapter two the devil's own knight hap smith the last to come in opened the front door which the wind snatched from his hands and slammed violently against the wall. In the sudden draft, the old newspapers on one of the oilcloth-covered tables went flying across the room while the rain drove in and blackened the floor.

Starting point is 00:20:12 Hap Smith got the door shut and for a moment stood with his back against it, his two mailbags, a lean and a fat, tied to the door shut. together and flung over his shoulder, while he smote his hands together and laughed. A night for the devil to go skylarkin in, he cried jovially. A night for murder and arson and robin graveyards. Listen to her, boys. Hear her roar. Polk Drury, I'm telling you. I'm glad your shack's right where it is instead of 17 miles further on, and where's the girl?

Starting point is 00:20:53 He had swept the room with his roving eye. Now, dropping his voice a little, he came on down the room and to the bar. Gone to bed? As one thoroughly at home here, he went for a moment

Starting point is 00:21:09 behind the bar, dropped the bags into a corner for safety, and threw off his heavy outer coat, frankly exposing the big revolving, the big revolver which dragged openly at his right hip. Bill Varney had always carried a rifle, and had been unable to avail himself of it in time. Hap Smith, in assuming the responsibilities of the United States mail,

Starting point is 00:21:35 had forthwith invested heavily of his cash on hand for a Colt 45, and wore it frankly in the open. His, by the way, was the only gun in sight, although there were perhaps a half a dozen in the room. She ain't exactly gone to bed, giggled the garrulous old man, Adams. Being as there ain't no bed for her to go to, Ma Drury is inhabiting one right now, while the other two is preempted by Lou Yates' wife and his mother-in-law.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Shuh, muttered Hapsmith, that ain't right. She's an awful nice girl, and she's clenched. clean tuckered out and cold and wet. She ought to have a bed to creep into. His eyes reproachfully trailed off to poke drury. The one-legged man made a grimace and shrugged. I can't drag loose folks out, can I? he demanded. And I'd like to see the Jasper as would try pry and ma loose from the covers right now.

Starting point is 00:22:45 It can't be did, Hap. hap sighed seeming to agree and sighing reached out a big hairy hand for the bottle she's an awful nice girl just the same he repeated with head nodding emphasis and then feeling no doubt that he had done his chivalrous duty he tossed off his liquor stretched his thick arms high over his head squared his shoulders comfortably in his blue flannel shirt and grew in wide good humor. "'This here camp-pouty of yours ain't a terrible bad place to be right now, "'Poke, old scout. Not a bad place at all.' "'You said twice she was nice,' put in old Adams, his bleary red-rimmed ferret eyes gimbleding at the stage-driver.

Starting point is 00:23:40 "'But you ain't said who she was. Now,' Hap Smith stared at him and chuckled. ain't that just like adams for you he wanted to know who is she he says and here i've been riding alongside her all day and never once does it pop into my head to ask whether she minds the name of daisy or sweet marie names winnifred waverley chirped up the old man but a name don't mean much not in this end of the world leastways but us boys find it kind of a kind of a man's name don't mean much not in this end of the world leastways but us boys find it kind of a man of interest in how she hangs out to dead man's alley that being kind of strange and po snorted hap smith disdainfully her hangout in that little town of hills corners seeing as she ain't ever been there haven't told me so on the stage less than two hours ago what's the sense of saying a fool thing like that she ain't the kind as dwells in the likes of that nest of pole cats and sidewinders p p p p is it jeered old man adams tremulously clap your peep's sight on that hap smith po at me will you and close up to the driver's eyes he thrust the roadhouse register with its newly pencilled inscription so close that hap smith dodged and was some time deciphering the brief legend beats me he grunted when he had done he tossed the book to a table as a matter of no moment and shrugged anyways she's a nice girl i don't care where she abides so to speak and me and these other boys

Starting point is 00:25:35 with a sweeping glance at the fore of his recent male passengers is hungrier and wolves how about it poke late hours but considering the kind of night the devil's dealin we're lucky to be here at all i could eat the hind leg off a ten-year-old steer just because a girl's got a red mouth and pretty eyes began old adam knowingly but smith snorted pah adam again and clapped him good-naturedly on the thin old shoulders after such a fashion as to double the old man up and send him coughing and catching at his breath back to his chair by the fire pope drury staring strangely at smith showed unmistakable signs of his embarrassment slowly under several pairs of interested eyes his face went a flaming red i don't know what's got into me to-night he muttered slapping a very high and shining forehead with a very soft flabby hand i clean forgot you boys hadn't had supper and now-and the grubs all in the kitchen and she's in there all curled up in a quilt and most likely asleep several mouths dropped as for hap smith he again smote his big hands together and laughed drinks on pope drury he announced cheerfully for having got so excited over a pretty girl he forgot we hadn't had supper bein that's what got in him. Drury hastily set forth bottles and glasses. More than that, being tactful, he started

Starting point is 00:27:30 Hap Smith talking. He asked of the roads, called attention to the fact that the stage was several hours late, hinted at danger from the same gentleman who had taken off Bill Varnie only recently, and so succeeded in attaining the desired result. Hap Smith a glass twisting slowly in his hand, declaimed long and loudly. But in the midst of his dissertation, the kitchen door opened, and the girl, her quilt about her shoulders like a shawl, came in. I heard, she said quietly, you are all hungry and the food is in there.

Starting point is 00:28:15 She came on to the fireplace and sat down. I am hungry too, and quix. cold. She looked upon the broad, genial face of Hap Smith, as upon the visage of an old friend. I am not going to be stupid, she announced, with a little air of taking the situation in hand. I would be if I stayed in there and caught cold. Tell them, and it was still Hap Smith whom she addressed, to go on with whatever they are doing. again she came in for a close general scrutiny, one of serious frank and matter-of-fact appraisal.

Starting point is 00:28:59 Conscious of it, as she could not help being, she, for a little, lifted her head and turned her eyes gravely to meet the eyes directed upon her. Hers were clear, untroubled, a deep gray and eminently pleasant to look into, especially now that she put into them a little friendly smile. But in another moment, and with a half-sigh of weariness, she settled into a chair at the fireside

Starting point is 00:29:28 and let her gaze wander back to the blazing fire. Again among themselves they conceded, what by glances and covert nods, that she was most decidedly worth a man's second look and another after that. pretty like a picture offered joe hamby in a guarded whisper to one of the recent arrivals who was standing with him at the bar or amended joe with a flash of inspiration like a flower one of them nice blue flowers on a long stem down by the creek nice to talk to too returned joe's companion something of the pride of ownership in his tone and look for during the day on the stage had he not once summoned the courage for a stammering remark to her and had she not replied pleasantly never travelled with a nicer lady

Starting point is 00:30:29 whereupon joe hamby regarded him enviously and old man adams with a sly look out of his senile old eyes jerked his thin old body across the floor dragging a chair after him and sat down to entertain the lady who it would seem from the twitching of her lips had been in reality wooed out of herself and highly amused when the interruption to the quiet hour came abruptly and without warning poke drury willingly aided by the hungrier of his guests had brought in the cold dishes a big roast of beef boiled potatoes quantities of bread and butter and the last of ma drury's dried apple pies the long dining-table had begun to take on a truly festive air the coffee was boiling in the coals of the fireplace then the front door the knob turned and released from without was blown wide open by the gusty wind and a tall man stood in the black rectangle of the doorway his appearance and attitude were significant making useless all conjecture a faded red bandana handkerchief was nodded about his face with rude slits for the eyes a broad black hat with flapping dripping brim was down over his forehead in his two hands the barrel thrust forward into the room was a sod-off shot-gun he did not speak it being plain that words were utterly superfluous and that he knew it nor was there an outcry in the room at first the girl had not seen her back being to the door nor had old man adams he had red-rimmed eyes being on the girl they turned together the old man's jaw dropped the girl's eyes widened rather

Starting point is 00:32:42 to a lively interest, it would seem, than to alarm. One had but to sit tight at times like this and obey orders. The intruder's eyes were everywhere. His chief concern, however, from the start, appeared to be Hap Smith. The stage driver's hand had gone to the butt of his revolver and now arrested there. The muzzle of the short-barreled shotgun made a short, quick arc and came to bear on Hapsmith. Slowly his fingers dropped from his belt.

Starting point is 00:33:20 Bert Stone, a quick-eyed little man from Barstow Springs, whipped out a revolver from its hidden place on his person and fired. But he had been over-hasty, and the man in the doorway had seen the gesture. The roar of the shotgun there in the house sounded like that of a cannon. The smoke lifted and spread and swirled in the draft.

Starting point is 00:33:46 Bert Stone went down with a scream of pain as a load of buckshot flung him about and half tore off his outer arm. Only the fact that Stone, in firing, had wisely thrown his body a little to the side, saved the head upon his body. The wind swept through the open door with fresh fury. Here a lamp went out.

Starting point is 00:34:13 There, the unsteady flame of a candle was extinguished. The smoke from the shotgun was mingled with much wood smoke whipped out of the fireplace. The man in the doorway, neither hesitating nor hurrying, eminently cool and confident, came into the room. the girl studied him curiously marking each trifling detail of his costume the shaggy black shaps like those of a cowboy off for a gay holiday the soft gray shirt and sylph handkerchief to match nodded loosely about a brown throat he was very tall and wore boots with tall heels his black hat had a crown which added to the impression of great height To the fascinated eyes of the girl, he appeared little less than a giant.

Starting point is 00:35:10 He stopped, and for a moment remained tensely, watchfully still. She felt his eyes on her. She could not see them in the shadow of his hat, but had an unpleasant sensation of a pair of sinister eyes narrowing in their keen regard of her. She shivered as though cold. moving again he made his way along the wall and to the bar he stepped behind it still with neither hesitation nor haste and found the two mail-bags with his feet and with his feet he pushed them out to the open along the wall toward the door hap smith snarled his face no longer one of broad good humor

Starting point is 00:35:59 the shotgun barrel bore upon him steadily warningly hap's rising hand dropped again then suddenly all was uproar and confusion those who had been chained to their chairs or places on the floor springing into action the man had backed to the door swept up the mail-bags and now suddenly leaped backward into the outside night hap smith and four or five other men had drawn their guns and were firing after him there were outcries above them surging the curses of the stage driver bert stone was moaning on the floor the girl wanted to go to him but for a little merely regarded him with wide eyes there was a spreading pool on the bare floor at his side looking in the uncertain light like spilled ink. A thud of bare feet, and Ma Drury came running into the room, her nightdress flying after her. "'Pa!' she cried wildly. "'You ain't killed, are you, pa?'

Starting point is 00:37:12 "'Bird is, most likely,' he answered, swinging across the room to the fallen man. Then it was that the girl by the fire sprang to her feet and ran to Bertstone's side. who was it what happened ma drury asked shrilly the men looked from one to another of their set-faced crowd getting only silence for her answer ma drury with characteristic irritation demanded again to be told full particulars and in the same breath ordered the door shut a tardy squeal and another like an echo came from the room which harbored lou yates's wife and mother-in-law perhaps they had just come out from under the covers for air and squealed and dived back again not being used to the customs obtaining in the vicinity of drury's road-house as poke himself had remarked hapsmith was the first one of the men who had dashed outside to return he carried a mail-bag in each hand muddy and wet having stumbled over them in the wild chase he dropped them to the floor and stared angrily at them the bulky mail-bag save for the damp and mud was untouched the lean bag however had been slid open hapsmith kicked it in a sudden access of rage

Starting point is 00:38:50 there was ten thousand dollars in there in greenbacks he said heavily they trusted it to me and bert stone to get across with it and now his face was puckered with rage and shame he went slowly to where bert stone lay his friend was white and unconscious perhaps already his tale was told hap smith looked from him to the girl who her face as white as bert's was trying to stanch the flow of blood i said it he muttered lugubriously the devil's own night end of chapter two chapter three of six feet four by jackson gregory this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter three buck thorn Martin, Man's Man. Those who had rushed into the outer darkness in the wake of the highwayman returned presently. Mere impulse and swift natural reaction from their former enforced inactivity, rather than any hope of success, had sent them hot foot on the pursuit.

Starting point is 00:40:15 The noisy, windy night, the absolute dark, obviated all possibility of coming up with them. Grumbling and theorizing, they returned to the room and closed the door behind them. Now that the tense moment of the actual robbery had passed, there was a general buzzing talk, voices lifted in surmise, a lively excitement replacing the cozy quiet of a few moments ago. Voices from the spare bedroom urged Ma Drury to bring an account of the adventure, and Polk's wife, having first escorted the wounded man to her own bed and donned a wrapper and shoes and stockings, gave to Lou Yates's womenfolk as circumstantial a description of the whole affair as though she herself had witnessed it.

Starting point is 00:41:09 After a while, a man here and there began to eat, taking a slab of bread and meat in one hand and a cup of black coffee in the other, walking back and forth and talking thickly. The girl at the fireplace sat stiff and still, staring at the flames. She had lost her appetite, had quite forgotten it, in fact. At first, from under the hand shading her eyes, she watched the men going for one drink after another, the strong drink of the frontier.

Starting point is 00:41:45 But, after a little, as though this had been a single, novel sight in the beginning, but soon lost interest for her, she let her look drooped to the fire. Fresh, dry fuel had been piled on the back log, and at last a grateful sense of warmth and sleepiness pervaded her being. She no longer felt hunger. She was too tired. Her eyelids had grown too heavy for her to harbor the thought of food. She settled forward in her chair, and not nodded. The talk of the men, though as they ate and drank, their voices were lifted, grew fainter and fainter in her ears, further and further away. Finally, they were blended in an indistinguishable murmur that meant nothing. In a doze, she caught herself wondering if the

Starting point is 00:42:40 wounded man in the next room would live. It was terribly still in there. She was in that mental and physical condition when the body tired and the brain betwixt dozing and waking, thought becomes a feverish process, the mind snatching vivid pictures from the day's experience, and weaving them into as illogical a pattern as that of the crazy quilt over her shoulders. All day long she had ridden in the swaying, lurching, jerking stage until now in her chair as she slipped a little forward, she experienced the sensations of the day. Many a time that day, as the racing horses obeying the experienced hand of the driver swept around a sharp turn in the road, she had looked down a sheer cliff that had made her flesh quiver so that it had been hard not to draw back and cry out.

Starting point is 00:43:42 She had seen the horses leaping forward, scamper like mad runaways, down a long slid. lope, dashing through the spray of a rising creek to take the uphill climb on the run. And tonight she had seen a masked man shoot down one of her day's companions and loot the United States mail. And in a register somewhere she had written down the name of Hill's Corners, the place men called Dead Man's Alley. She had never heard the name until today. Tomorrow she would ask the exact significance of it. At last she was sound asleep. She had found comfort by twisting sideways in her chair

Starting point is 00:44:30 and resting her shoulder against the warm rock masonry of the outer edge of the fireplace. She awoke with a start. What had recalled her to consciousness she did not know. Perhaps a new voice in her ears, perhaps poke Drury's tones become suddenly shrill. Or it may be that just a sudden sinking and falling away into utter silence of all voices, the growing still of hands upon dice cups, all eloquent of a new breathless atmosphere in the room,

Starting point is 00:45:05 had succeeded in impressing upon her sleep-drugged brain the fact of still another vital, electrically charged moment. She turned in her chair. Then she settled back, wondering. The door was open, the wind was sweeping in. Again old newspapers went flying wildly, as though in panicky fear. The men in the room were staring, even as she stared, in bewilderment. She heard old man Adams's tongue clicking in his toothless old mouth, she saw hap smith his expression one of pure amazement standing half crouching as though to spring his hands like claws at his sides and all of this because of the man who stood in the open doorway looking in the man who had shot bert stone who had looted a mail-bag had returned that was her instant thought and clearly enough it was the thought shared by all of poke droery's guests to be sure he carried no visible gun and his face was unhidden

Starting point is 00:46:22 but there was the hugeness of him bulking big in the doorway the spare sinewy height made the taller by his tall boot heels the wide black hat with the drooping brim from which raindrops trickled in a quick flashing chain the shaggy black shaps of a cowboy in holiday attire the soft gray shirt the gray neck handkerchief about a brown throat, even the end of a faded bandana trailing from a hip pocket. He stood stone still a moment, looking in at them with that queer expression in his eyes. Then he stepped forward swiftly and closed the door. He had glanced sharply at the girl by the fire. She had shaded her eyes with her hand, the shadow of which lay across her face. He turned again from her.

Starting point is 00:47:22 her to the men, his regard chiefly for Hap Smith. Well, he said lightly, being the first to break the silence, what's wrong? There are moments in which it seems as if time itself stood still. During the spellbound fragment of time, a girl, looking out from under a cupped hand, noted a man and marveled at him. By his sheer physical bigness, first, he fascinated her. He was like the night and the storm itself, big, powerful,

Starting point is 00:48:00 not the kind born to know and suffer restraint, but rather the type of man to dwell in such lands as stretched mile after unfenced mile out yonder beyond the mountains. As he moved, he gave forth a vital impression of immense animal power, power. Standing still, he was dynamic. A sculptor might have carved him in stone and named the result masculinity. The brief moment in which souls balanced and muscles were chained passed swiftly. Strangely enough, it was old man Adams who precipitated action. The old man was nervous. More than that, bred here, he was fearless.

Starting point is 00:48:47 Also, fortune had given him a place of vantage. His body was half-screened by that of Hap Smith and by a corner of the bar. His eager old hand snatched out Hapsmith's dragging revolver, leveled it, and steadied it across the bar, the muzzle seeking the young giant who had come a step forward. "'Hands up!' clacked the old man in tremulous triumph. I got you, Dad, burn you. And at the same instant, Hap Smith cried out wonderingly,

Starting point is 00:49:24 Buck Thornton, you! The big man stood very still, only his head turning quickly so that his eyes were upon the feverish eyes of old man Adams. Yes, he returned coolly, I'm Thornton, and, "'Got me, have you?' he added, just as coolly. Winifred Waverly stiffened in her chair.

Starting point is 00:49:51 Already tonight she had heard gunshots and smelled powder and seen spurting red blood. A little surge of sick horror brought its tinge of vertigo and left her clear, thoughted and afraid. Hands up, I say,

Starting point is 00:50:08 repeated the old man sharply. I got you. You go to hell, returned Thornton. and his coolness had grown into curt insolence i never saw the man yet that i'm going to do that for he came on two more quick long strides thrust his face forward and cried in a voice that rang out commandingly above the crash of the wind drop that gun drop it old man adams had no intention of obeying he had played poker himself for some fifty-odied ears and knew what Bluff meant. But for just one brief instant, he was taken aback, fairly shocked into a fluttering indecision by the thunderous voice. Then, before he can recover himself,

Starting point is 00:51:02 the big man had flung a heavy wet coat into Adams's face. A gun had been fired wildly, the bullet ripping into the ceiling, and Buck Thornton had sprung forward and whipped the smoking weapon from an uncertain grasp. Winifred Waverly, without breathing and without stirring, saw Buck Thornton's strong white teeth and a wide, good-humored smile. I know you were just joking, but—he whirled and fired, never lifting the gun from his side. And a man across the room from him cried out and dropped his own gun and grasped his shoulder with a hand which slowly went red. now again she saw buck thornton's teeth but no longer in a smile he had seemed to condone the act of old adams as a bit of senility the look in his eyes was one of blazing rage as this other man drew back and back from him muttering

Starting point is 00:52:06 i'd have to kill you then said thornton coldly his rage the cold wrath that begets murder in men's souls But I shot just a shade too quick. Try it again, or any other man here draw, and by God I'll show you a dead man in ten seconds. He drew back and put the bar just behind him. Then, with a sudden gesture, he flung down the revolver which had come from hapsmith's holster, and more recently from old man Adam's fingers,

Starting point is 00:52:42 and his hand flashed to his armpit and, back into plain sight his own weapon in it i don't savvy your game sports he said with the same cool insolence but if you want me to play just go ahead and deal me a hand to the last man of them they looked at him and hesitated it was written in large bold script upon the faces of them that the girls thought was their thought and yet though there were upward a dozen of them and though poke drury's firelight flickered on several gun barrels and though there were men who were not cowards and who did not lack initiative to the last man of them they hesitated as his glance sped here and there it seemed to stab at them like a knife-blade he challenged them and stood quietly waiting for the first move and the girl by the fire knew almost from the first that no hostile move was forthcoming and she knew further that had a man there lifted his hand buck thornton's promise would have been kept and he'd show them a dead man in ten seconds suppose said thornton suddenly you explain pote drury this being your shack what's the play drury moistened his lips but it was hap smith who spoke up i've knowed you some time buck he said bluntly and i never knowed you to go wrong

Starting point is 00:54:24 but-well not an hour ago a man your buildin size and with a bandana across his face stuck this place up well said thornton coolly at first went on the stage driver heavily and a bit defiantly we thought it was him come back when you come in his eye met thornton's in a long unwavering look we ain't certain yet he ended briefly thornton pondered the matter his thumb softly caressing the hammer of his revolver so that's it is it he said finally "'That's it,' returned Hap Smith. "'And what have you decided to do in the matter?' Smith shrugged. "'We acted like a pack of kids,' he said, "'letting you get the drop on us like this.

Starting point is 00:55:27 "'Oh, you're twice as quick on the draw as the best two of us, "'and we know it. "'And we ain't dead, sure as we ain't made a mistake.' his candidly honest face was troubled he was not sure that thornton was the same man who so short a time ago had shot bert stone it did not seem reasonable to hap smith that a man having successfully made his play would return just to court trouble if you're on the square buck he said in a moment throw down your gun and let's see the lining of your pockets yes retorted thornton what else mr smith let us take a squint at that bandana trailing out in your back pocket said smith crisply if it ain't got deep holes cut in it now that was stupid thought winnifred nothing could be more stupid in fact if this man had committed the crime and had thus voluntarily returned to the road-house he was stupid he was stupid would be prepared. He would have emptied his pockets. He certainly would have had enough brains

Starting point is 00:56:44 to dispose of so tell-tale a bit of evidence as a handkerchief with slits let into it. "'Maybe,' said Thornton quietly, and she did not detect the contemptuous insolence under the slow words until he had nearly completed his meaning. "'You'd like to have me tell you where I'm riding from, and why?' and maybe you'd like to have me take off my shoes so you can look in them for your lost treasures now was his contempt unhidden he strode quickly across the room coming to the fireplace where the girl sat he took the handkerchief from his pocket keeping it rolled up in his hand stooping forward he dropped it into the fire well behind the back log then for the first time he saw her face plainly as she had come close to her she had slipped from her chair and stood now her face lifted looking at him his gaze was arrested as his eyes met hers he stood very still plainly showing the surprise which he made no slightest effort to disguise she flushed bit her lip went a fire

Starting point is 00:58:05 red he put up his hand and removed his hat i didn't expect he said still looking at her with that intent openly admiring acknowledgment of her beauty to see a girl like you here the thing which struck her was that still there were men in the room who were armed and distrustful of him and that he had forgotten them what she could not gauge was the full of the effect she had had upon him. He had marked a female for him at the fireside, shawled by a shapeless patchwork quilt. Out of it, magically it seemed to his startled fancies, there had stepped a superb creature with eyes on fire with her youth. A superlatively lovely creature, essentially feminine. From the flash of her eyes to the curl of her hair, she was all girl. And to Buck Thornton, man's man of the wide-open country beyond the mountains, who had set his eyes upon no woman for a half year, who had looked on no woman of her obvious class and type for two years,

Starting point is 00:59:22 who had seen the woman of one half her physical loveliness and tugging charm never, the effect was instant and tremendous. A little shiver went through him. His eyes caught fire. End of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 4. The Ford.

Starting point is 01:00:01 These little cottontail rabbits, he said to her slowly, without turning his eyes from hers to those of whom he spoke, haven't any more sense than you'd think to look at them. Once let them get a notion in their heads, Look here, he broke off sharply. You don't think the same way they do, do you? No, she said hurriedly. Hardly, because for the moment her poise had fled from her,

Starting point is 01:00:30 and she knew that he must note the high color in her cheeks. And the color had come not in response to his words, but in quick answer to his look. a young giant of a man he stood staring at her like some artless boy who at a bend in the road had stopped breathless to widen his eyes to the smile of a fairy fresh from fairyland and her no was the true reply to his question and burst spontaneously from her lips her first swift suspicion when she had seen the bulk of him framed against the bleak night had been quite natural. But now that she had marked the man's carriage and had seen his face and looked for one instant deep into his clear eyes, she set her conjecture aside as an absurdity. It was not so much that her reason had risen to demand why a successful highwayman should return

Starting point is 01:01:34 into danger and the likelihood of swift punishment. It was rather, and simply because, she felt that this bronzed young stranger seeming to her woman's instinct a sort of breezy incarnation of the outdoors partook of none of the characteristics of the footpad sneak thief or nocturnal gentlemen of the road an essential attribute of the boldest and most picturesque of that gentry was the quality of deceit and subterfuge and hypocrisy consecutive logical thought being after all a tedious process she had had no time to progress from step to step of deduction and inference he had asked his question with a startling abruptness and as abruptly she had given him her answer the rest might believe what they chose to believe she for her part held buck thornton whoever he might be guiltless of the earlier affair of the evening and moreover she could quite understand the impulse that sent an innocent man to toss a handkerchief into the fire and let them ponder on the act's significance the act may have been foolhardy and certainly had the youthful flavor of bravado. Nonetheless, in her eyes, the man achieved through it a sort of magnificence. He stood looking at her very gravely, and gravely she returned the look, and it was born in upon

Starting point is 01:03:14 the girl's inner consciousness that now, and for the first time in her life, she had come face to face with a man absolutely without guile or the need thereof. He was in in character as he was in physique, or she read him wrongly. He thought his thought straight out and made no pretense of hiding it for the simple and sufficient reason that there was in all the universe no slightest need of hiding it. As she looked straight back into his eyes, little flashes of impressions which had fastened upon her mind during the day, came back to her, things which he suggested. which were like him.

Starting point is 01:04:00 She was very tired, and further she was overwrought from the nervous excitement of the evening. Hence, her mental processes were the quicker and more prone to fly off at wild tangents. She had seen a tall, rugged cedar on a rocky ridge blown through by the tempest, standing out in clear relief against the sky. This man recalled the scene, the very very very... atmosphere. She had seen a wild swollen torrent hurtling on its way down the mountainside. The man had threatened to become like that, headlong with unbounded passion, fierce and destructive when a moment ago they opposed him. Again, she bit her lip. She was thinking of this

Starting point is 01:04:51 huge male creature in hyperboles. Yes, she was overwrought. it was not well to think thusly of any mere male creature and yet she but liked him the better and her fancies were smitten anew by what he did now having filled his eyes with her as a man a thirst may fill himself with water from a brook he turned abruptly away and left her he did not tarry to say thank you that she had been almost eager in asserting her belief in his innocence he did not go back to a feudal and perhaps quarrelsome discussion with hap smith and old man adams and the rest he simply dropped everything where it was shoved his big revolver out of sight under his left armpit and went to the long dining-table there his back to the room he helped himself generously to cold meat bread and lukewarm coffee and ate hungrily she sank back into her chair and let her eyes wander to his breadth of shoulder straightness of back and even to the curl of his hair that cast its dancing shadows upon the wall in front of him she had never had a man turn his back on her this way and yet now the accomplished deed struck her in no wise as boorish or rude

Starting point is 01:06:24 he had paid her the tribute of a deep admiration as clear and strong and unsullied as a racing mountain stream and springtime the few words which he deemed necessary had passed between them then he had withdrawn himself from her attention not rude the act savored somehow of the downright free bigness of unconvention it's silly jumping to conclusions anyway she informed herself why suspect him just because he wears the costume of the country has the usual red handkerchief in his possession and is tall there are half a dozen big red handkerchiefs in this room right now and this would seem to be the land of tall men only once again did he speak to her that night and then just to say in plain matter-of-fact style you'd better lie down there and get some sleep good-night and this remark had come only after fifteen minutes of busy preparation on his part and curiosity on hers he had gone out of the room into the night with no offered explanation and with many eyes following him men began to show rising signs of excitement and to regret audibly that they had not gathered him in but in a few minutes he was back his arms filled with loose hay from the barn he spread it out in a corner down by the long table the table itself he drew out of the way on the hay he smoothed out her quilt then after a brief word with poke drawerie he made another expedition into the night returning with a strip of weather-beaten patched canvas

Starting point is 01:08:25 this he hung by the corners from the nails he hammered into a beam of the low ceiling letting the thing drop partitionwise across the room it had been then that he said quietly you'd better lie down there and get some sleep good night good night she answered him and as it was with his eyes that again he told her frankly what he thought of her so was it with her eyes that she said of her so was it with her eyes that she answered her she thanked him. The night passed somehow. She lay down and slept, awoke, moved her body for more comfort, slept again. And through her sleep and dreams and wakeful moments,

Starting point is 01:09:10 she heard the quiet voices of the men who had no beds to go to. That monotonous sound and an occasional clink of glass and bottleneck or the rustling of shuffled cards. once she got up and looked through a hole in the canvas she had taken off her shoes and made no noise to draw attention to her spying it must have been chance therefore which prompted thornton to lift his head quickly and looked toward her the light was all on his side of the room she knew that he had not heard her and could not see her the tear in her flimsy wall was scarcely more than a pinhole he was playing cards furthermore he was winning there being a high stack of blue and red and white chips in front of him and a sprinkling of gold

Starting point is 01:10:10 but she saw no sign of the gambling fever in his eyes rather there was in them a look which made her draw back guiltily which sent her creeping back to her rude bed with suffused cheeks he was still thinking of her solely of her despite the spoils of chance at his hand all night the storm beat at the lone house in the mountain pass rattling at doors and window whistling down the chimney, shaking the building with its fierce gusts. The rain ceased only briefly when the cold congealed it into a flurry of beating hailstones. Thereafter came the rain again, scarcely less noisy. And in the morning, when she awoke with a start and smelled boiling coffee, the wind was still raging, the rain was falling heavily and steadily. in the dark and with the lamps burning on palely into the dim day she breakfasted together with several of the men she ate in the kitchen where a fire roared in an old stove and where a table was placed conveniently

Starting point is 01:11:27 ma drury was about sniffling with her cold but cooking and serving her guests sourly slamming down the enameled ware in front of them and challenging them with a look to find fault anywhere she reported that in some mysterious way for which god she thanked there were no dead men in her house this morning bert stone was alive and showed signs of continuing to live a thing to marvel at and the man whom buck thornton had winged beyond displaying a sore arm and disposition was for the present a mere negligible and disagreeable quantity hap smith came in from the barn while she was eating he was going to start right away there was no use however in her attempting to make the rest of the trip with him his other passengers would lie over here for a day or two she looked at him curiously why should she not go on it certainly was not pleasant to think of remaining in these cramped quarters indefinitely hap smith hastily eating hot cakes and ham answered briefly and to the point mountain streams were all up filling their narrow beds spilling over a rain like this downpour brought them up in a few hours it would stop raining presently and they'd go down as fast as they had risen just two miles from the road house was the biggest stream of all to negotiate being the upper waters of alder creek it was up to hap to make it because he represented a certain uncle samuel who is not to be stopped by hell or high water literally that

Starting point is 01:13:25 he'd tie his mail-bags in leave all extras at poke drurys drive his horses into the turbulent river high above the ford and make it somehow it was up to her to stay here he gobbled down his breakfast rolled a fat brown cigarette buttoned up his coat and went out to his stage before he could snap back his break she was at his side my business is as important to me as uncle samuels is to him she told him in a steady matter-of-fact voice what is more i have paid my fare and mean to go through with you he saw that she did mean it he expostulated but briefly he was behind time he knew that already they had sought to argue with her in the house he recognized the futility of further argument he had a wife of his own had hap smith he grunted his displeasure with the arrangement informed her curtly that it was up to her and that if they went under his mail-bags would require all of his attention shrugged his two shoulders at once and high up released his break and went clattering down the rocky road the girl cast a quick look behind her as they drew away from the road house she had not seen buck thornton this morning and wondered if he had been loitering about the barn or had turned back into the mountains or had ridden ahead alder creek was a mad rush and swirl of muddy water the swish and hiss of it smote their ears five minutes before they saw the brown writhing thing itself

Starting point is 01:15:22 the girl tensed on her seat her breathing was momentarily suspended her cheek went a little pale then conscious of a quick measuring look from the stage driver she said as quietly as she could it doesn't look inviting does it hapsmith grunted and gave his attention forthwith and solely to the dexterous handling of his tugging reins he knew the crossing had made it with one sort of a team and another many times in his life but he had never seen it so swollen and threatening and he had never heard its hissing sound up gathered into such a booming roar as now greeted them he stopped his team and looked from under drawn brows at the water you'd better get out he said shortly but i won't she retorted hardly and since we are going to make the crossing go ahead quick he winked both eyes at the rain driving into his face and sat still measuring his chances while he did so she looked up and down not a hundred paces from them upstream on the near bank the figure of a man loomed unnaturally large in the wet air he was mounted upon a tall rangy horse that might have been folled just for the purpose of carrying a man of his ilk a pale yellow sorrel whose two four feet had it not been for the mud would have shone whitely she wondered what he was doing there his attitude was that of one who was patiently waiting hold on good and tight said smith suddenly

Starting point is 01:17:19 I'm going to tackle it. She gripped the back of the seat firmly, braced her feet, set her teeth together, a little and quick fear, a great deal in determination. Smith swung his team upstream, 50 paces, then in a short arc out and away from the creek. Then, getting their heads again to the stream,

Starting point is 01:17:44 he called to them, one by one, each of the four in turn, saying crisply, You, babe, Charlie, that's the boy. Baldie, you, Tom, you Tom. Into it, into it, get up! With shaking heads that flung the raindrops from tossing manes, with gingerly lifted four feet, with a snort here and a crab-like sidling dance there,

Starting point is 01:18:14 they came down to the water's edge at a brisk trot. the off-lead charlie fought shy and snorted again the long whip in hapsmith's hand shot out uncurled flicked charlie's side and with a last defiant shake of the head the big bay drove his obedient neck into his collar and splashed mightily in the muddy current babe plunged forward at his side The two other horses followed as they were in the habit of following. The girl, fascinated, saw the water curl and eddy and whiten about their knees. She saw it surge onward and rise about the hubs of the slow-turning wheels. Higher it came and higher until the rushing sound of it filled her ears. The dark yellow flash of it filled her eyes,

Starting point is 01:19:11 and she sat breathless and rigid. a quick glance showed her the man thornton still above them on the bank of the stream she noted that he had drawn a little closer to the water's edge they were half-way across fairly in mid-stream and hapsmith utterly oblivious of his one passenger cursing mightily when the mishap came the mad stream rolling its rocks and boulders and jagged tree-tree trunks, had gouged holes in the bank here and there, and had digged similar holes in the uneven bed itself. Into such a hole the two horses on the lower side floundered, with no warning and with disastrous suddenness, then went down, until only their heads were above the current. They lost all solid ground under their threshing hoofs, and, as they rose a little, began to swim, flailing about desperately.

Starting point is 01:20:18 Hap Smith yelled at them, yanked at his reins, seeking to turn them straight downstream for a spell until the hole be passed. But already another horse was in and engulfed. The wagon careen was whipped about in the furious struggle. A wheel struck a submerged boulder, and Hap Smith leaped one way, while Winifred Waverly sprang the other, as the awkward stage tipped and went on its side.

Starting point is 01:20:52 She knew on the instant that one had no chance to swim here, no matter how strong the swimmer, for the current was stronger than the mere strength of a human being. She knew that if Hap Smith clung tight to his reins, he might be pulled ashore in due time, if all went well for him. she knew that winnifred waverley had never been in such desperate straits and finally she understood and the knowledge was infinitely sweet to her in her moment of need why the man yonder had been sitting his horse so idly in the rain and just why he had been waiting she did not see him as his horse striking out valiantly swimming and finding precarious foothold by turn borne down upon her she saw only the yellow dirty current when she saw anything at all she could not know when the first time he leaned far out and snatched at her and missed but at the moment a sucking maelstrom had caught her and whipped her out of his reach and flung her onward for a little piling the churning water above her head

Starting point is 01:22:12 she did not see when finally he succeeded in that which he had attempted but she felt his two arms about her and in her heart there was a sudden glow and though the water battled with the two of them strangely enough a feeling of safety perhaps it was only because he had planned on the possibility of just this and was ready for it that she came out of alder creek alive he had slipped the loop of his rope about the horn of his saddle making it secure with an additional half hitch when he was sure of her he flung himself from the saddle still keeping the rope in his hand as he took her into his arms then swimming as best he could seeking to keep her head and his above the water he left the rest to a certain rangy yellow sorrel saddle-horse and as hap smith and his struggling team made sure just below the ford buck thornton and winifred waverley were drawn to safety by buck thornton's horse just as there had been no spoken thanks last night for a kindness rendered so now on this larger occasion there was no gush of grateful words he released her slowly and their eyes met as he turned to help hap smith with the frightened horses and tangled in their harness the only words were his a couple of miles farther on you'll pass a ranch house you can get warm and dry your clothes there this is the last bad crossing and so lifting his hat he left her end of chapter four chapter five of six feet four by jackson gregory this libervox recording is in the public domain

Starting point is 01:24:23 chapter five the man from poison hole ranch dry town never looked less dry as buck thornton drew rain in front of the one brick building of which the ugly little village could boast the mud was above his yellow sorrel's fetlocks but the rain was over the sun was out glorious and warm above the level lands and in the air was a miraculous feeling as of spring it is the way of dry town in the matter of seasons to rival in abruptness its denizen's way in other matters the last great storm had come and gone, and seeds would be bursting on every hand and eagerly now. Because he loved a good horse, and this rangy sorrel above others, and because further he had been forced to ride the willing animal unusually hard all day yesterday, Thornton today had traveled slowly. So long ago, he had watched the stage out of sight, and now, when finally he drew up in front of the bank, he saw Hapsmith's lumbering vehicle standing down by the stable.

Starting point is 01:25:44 From it he let his eyes travel along the double row of ill-kept unpainted houses. Fifty yards away, a stranger would have marked only his great height, the lean, clean, powerful physique. But from nearby, one might have forgotten this matter of physical bigness for another, noting just the man's eyes alone. Very keen, piercing, quick eyes just now, watchful and suspicious of every corner and alley. They more than hinted at a stern vigilance that was more than half-positive expectancy.

Starting point is 01:26:24 Only for a moment he sat so. Then he swung down from the saddle and with spurs clanking noisily upon the board sidewalk went into the bank building. i want to see mr templeton he said abruptly to the clerkly-looking individual behind the new lattice work the words were very quietly spoken the voice rather soft and gentle for so big a man and yet the cashier turned quickly looking at him curiously who shall i say it is he demanded this man's town is getting citified mighty fast the tall man grunted i should have brought my cards well just tell him it's thornton thornton you got it buck thornton from the poison hole ranch he spoke lightly his voice hinting at a vast store of good nature his eyes however losing meanwhile no glint of their stern light as they looked at the man to whom he was talking and beyond him watched the door through which he had entered

Starting point is 01:27:39 the cashier regarded him with new interest you are early mr thornton he said rather more warmly than he had spoken before but mr templeton will be glad to see you he is in his private office walk right in thornton stooped his back to the wall and swiftly unbuckled his spurs carrying them in his left hand he passed along the latticework partition which shut off the cashier with his books and till and threw open the door at the end of the short hallway here was a sort of waiting-room to judge from the two or three chairs the square-topped table strewn with financial journals and illustrated magazines indiscriminately mixed he closed the door behind him standing again for a moment as he had stood out in the street his eyes keen and watchful as they took swift inventory of the room in its furnishings before him was a second door upon the frosted glass top of which were the stenciled words j w templeton president private he took a step toward the door and then stopped suddenly as though the very vehemence of the voice bursting out upon the other side of it had halted him i tell you miss waverley it was templeton's voice snappy and irritable this thing is madness pure and simple unadulterated madness it's as devoid of sense as a last year's nest of birds it's as full of danger as a

Starting point is 01:29:29 never mind exhausting your similes mr templeton came the answer the girl's voice young and fresh and yet with all firm and a little cool i didn't come to ask your advice you know and you have a given me what I did come for. If you... Thornton pushed the door open, sweeping off his hat as he came in, and said, bluntly, "'I don't know what you folks are talking about, but I judge it's important, and there's no sense in loose-endish talk when you don't know who's listening.' The square-built, square-faced man, tapping with big square finger-ends at the table in front of him whirled about suddenly his gesture and eyes alike showing his keen annoyance at the interruption then when he saw who it was he got to his feet saying crisply

Starting point is 01:30:28 i'm glad it's you this young woman has gutted into her head you will remember mr templeton that this is in strict confidence templeton's teeth shut with a click thornton turned from him and with his spurs in one hand his hat caught in the other stood looking down upon the owner of the voice that was at once so fresh and young so coolly determined and vaguely defiant and as he looked at her there was much speculation in his grave eyes odd that he should stumble upon her the first thing odd and natural the girl's back was to him for a moment she did not shift her position the least fraction of an inch but sat very still leaning forward in her chair facing the banker then after a little when it was evident that templeton was going to say nothing more she turned slowly to the newcomer her lashes sweeping upward swiftly as her eyes met his full and steady and the man from the poison-hole ranch his own eyes looking down into hers very gravely noted many things in the quick keen way characteristics of him he saw that her mouth red lips about very white teeth was smiling softly confidently and yet that the brown-flecked gray of her eyes was as unsmiling as gravely speculative as his own eyes were he saw that her skin was a golden brown from life in the open outdoors that she had upon the heels of her boots a pair of tiny sharp rowled spurs

Starting point is 01:32:23 that a riding quirk hung from her right wrist by its raw-hide thong that her cheeks were a little flushed as though from excitement but that she knew the trick of forbidding her eyes to tell what her excitement was he saw that her throat where her neckscarf fell loosely away from it was very round and white he saw that while her gray riding habit covered her body it hid none of her body's grace and strength and slender youthfulness while his eyes left hers to note these things her eyes had been as busy running from the man's close-cropped dark hair to his mud-spattered boot and there came into her look just a hint of admiration which the man did not see as she and her swift examination noted the breadth of shoulder the straight tallness of him the clean supple sinewy form which his loose attire of soft shirt unbuttoned vest grey with dust and shaggy shaps black and much worn in no way concealed i have come he was saying now to templeton speaking abruptly although his voice was as gentle and low-toned and pleasant as when he had spoken with the cashier three days ahead of time it won't take me a minute to get through and if you and the young lady will excuse me i'll say my little speech and drift giving you a free swing for your business besides my minna a fair-sized hurry.

Starting point is 01:34:10 Certainly, said Templeton immediately, while the girl, smiling now with eyes and lips together, unconcernedly, made no answer. Miss Waverly is planning to, well, I want to talk with her a little more. Well, Thornton, and only now he put out his hand

Starting point is 01:34:31 to be gripped quickly and warmly by the others. What is it? i'm glad to see you everything's all right yes i just dropped in to fix up that second payment shall i go out while you talk the girl had gotten to her feet swiftly if you are going to say anything important no you'd better stay thornton said and added jestingly i've got nothing confidential on my mind and since i'm just going to just going to be to hand Mr. Templeton some money, an almighty big pile of money for me to be carrying around, maybe we'd better have a witness to the transaction. The banker looked at him in surprise. You don't mean that you've got it with you now, that you've just ridden in from the range and have brought it with you in cash? For answer, the cattleman slipped a bronzed hand into his

Starting point is 01:35:35 shirt and brought out a small packet done up in a piece of buckskin and tied with a string. He tossed it to the shining tabletop, where it fell heavily. There she is, he said lightly. Gold and a few pieces of paper, the whole thing. Count it! Templeton sank back into his chair and stared at him. He put out his hand, lifted the packet, dropped it back upon his. on the table, stared again, and then burst out irritably.

Starting point is 01:36:11 Of all the reckless young fools in the county, you two are without equals. Buck Thornton, I thought you had some sense. You never can tell, came the quiet rejoinder from unsmiling lips. I saw a man once I thought had sense, and I found out afterwards he ran sheep. Now, if you'll see my bet, I'll travel. Templeton's desk shears were already busy. He jerked the packet open flat on the table. There were many twenty-dollar pieces, some fives and tens,

Starting point is 01:36:52 and a little bundle of bank notes. He counted swiftly. "'It's all right, five thousand dollars,' he said crisply. "'In full for second payment due, as you say, in three days i'll note it on these two agreements and i'll give you a receipt the tall man's deep chest rose and fell to a sigh as of relief at having done his errand he placed his spurs in his hat and his hat upon a chair and began to roll a cigarette the banker wrote quickly with sputtering pen in a book of receipt blanks tore out the leaf and passed it across the table there you are buck thornton of the poison hole he said with an increase of irritability in his curt tones and now you listen to me you're a fool or else you're so far out of the world over on your ranch that you don't know what's going on which is it i hear a good deal of what's happening returned thornton dryly

Starting point is 01:38:05 then i suppose you realize that a man who rides day and night through that country carrying five thousand dollars with him and when everybody in the country knows that according to contract he is about due to make a five five thousand dollar payment is acting like a fool with a suicidal mania for a moment thornton did not answer he seemed so engrossed in his cigarette building that one might almost suppose that he had not heard and then lifting his head suddenly his eyes keen and hard upon templetons he said casually i dropped in three days ahead of time didn't i and the wonder is snapped templeton that you haven't dropped clean out of the world if you do a fool thing like this buck thornton when your last payment is due you can do it but i won't go near your funeral thornton laughed easily tucked the receipt into his vest pocket and reached for his hat and spurs i'm obliged mr templeton he acknowledged he acknowledged he acknowledged lightly. But we've got to admit that I got across all right this time, and as you've heard, I suppose, right under Mr. Badman's nose,

Starting point is 01:39:31 since I was carrying that little wad last night when Hap Smith got cleaned at poke jewelry's. Well, I'll be going. Just give that rattlesnake Pollard the five thousand and an invitation for me to keep off my ranch, remembering that it doesn't happen to belong to him any more. He nodded and went to the door. There he turned and looked back at the girl.

Starting point is 01:40:01 She had risen swiftly, even coming a step toward him. I haven't thanked you. I... Templeton looked on curiously, an odd twitching at the corners of his large mouth. Thornton threw up a sudden hand. no he said hastily you haven't spoiled things by thanking me and we'll see each other again he concluded in his quietly matter-of-fact way and his nod for both of them he went out end of chapter five chapter six of six feet four by jackson gregory this libervox recording is in the public domain chapter six winnifred judges a man there was a puzzled frown in her eyes a faint flush tinging her cheeks as withdrawing her regard from thornton's departure she looked to templeton and asked quickly

Starting point is 01:41:12 why did he call henry pollard a rattlesnake a faint smile for a moment threatened to drive the sternness away from templeton's lips but it was gone in a quick tightening of the mouth and he answered briefly he didn't know that you knew pollard i don't know him she reminded him coolly you will remember that i haven't seen him since i was six years old i hardly know what he looks like but you haven't answered me. Why did your imprudent giant call him a rattlesnake? They have had business dealings together, he told her vaguely. Maybe they have disagreed about something. Men out there are a little given to hard words, I think. She sat silent, leaning forward, tapping at her boot with her quirk.

Starting point is 01:42:09 Then, quickly, just as the banker was open, his lips to speak of the other matter, she demanded, Why did you call him a fool for bringing the money here? It had to be brought, didn't it? Yes, that's just it. It had to be brought, and there is not a man in all of the cattle country here who does not know all about the terms of the contract Thornton and Pollard made.

Starting point is 01:42:36 Ten thousand down, five thousand in three days from now, the other 5,000 in six months. Why, right now, I wouldn't attempt to carry $5,000 in cash over that wilderness trail if there were ten times the amount to come to me at the end of it. It's as mad as this thing you want to do. He did it? Yes, shortly. He did it.

Starting point is 01:43:06 He gathered up the loose money, pushed a button set in the table, and upon the prompt appearance of the cashier said crisply, "'Five,000 to apply on the Pollard Thornton Agreement. Put it in the big safe immediately.' "'He looks as though he could take care of himself,' the girl said thoughtfully when the money had gone. Templeton whirled about upon her, his eyes blazing. "'Take care of himself,' he scoffed.

Starting point is 01:43:39 "'What chance has a chance has a while upon her, his eyes blazing.' "'Teple-take care of himself,' he scoffed. a man to take care of himself when another man puts a rifle ball through his back. What chance had Bill Varney of the twin dry digging stage only three weeks ago? Varney is dead and the money he was carrying is gone. That's the chance he had. What chance has any man had for the last six months if he carried five hundred dollars on him and anyone knew about it? They chased off for the last six months. They chased off. a dozen steers from Kemple's place not three days ago. You yourself know what happened at Drury's

Starting point is 01:44:16 roadhouse last night, and now Buck Thornton rides through the same country with $5,000 on him. He did it, she repeated again very softly, her eyes musing. And one of these days he's going to find out how simple a matter it is for a gang like the gang operating in broad daylight in this country now to separate a fool and his money. The Lord knows how a simple trick-like coming in three days ahead of time fooled them. It won't do it again. He is the type of man to succeed, she went on, still musingly. Templeton shrugged.

Starting point is 01:45:01 We have our own business on our hands, he said abruptly, looking at his watch. The stage leaves in half an hour. Are you going to be reasonable? Then she stood up and smiled at him, very brightly. The stage is going its way, Mr. Templeton. I am going mine. Templeton flung down his pen with an access of irritation which brought a flicker of amusement into the bright gray eyes.

Starting point is 01:45:32 But the banker's grim mouth did not relax. There was anger, in the gesture with which he slammed a blotter down on the big yellow envelope on which his wet pen had fallen. After his carefully precise fashion, he was reaching for a fresh, clean envelope when the girl took the slightly soiled one from him. Thank you, she said, rising and smiling down at him. But this will do just as well. And now, if you'll wish me good luck.

Starting point is 01:46:08 She went out, followed by a look of much grave speculation. Meanwhile, Buck Thornton, leading his horse after him, crossed the dusty street to the last-chance saloon. At the watering trough he watered his horse, and then, slackening the cinch a little, he went inside. In the front part of the long, dreary room was the bar presided over by a gentleman in overalls, shirt-sleeves, and very black hair plastered close to his low forehead at the rear was the lunch counter where two chinamen were serving soup and stew and coffee to half a dozen men

Starting point is 01:46:52 thornton with one of his quick sharp glances which missed nothing in the room went to the bar hello blackie he said quietly the bartender who in a leisure moment had been bending in deep absorption over an illustrated pink sheet spread in the bar looked up quickly for a short second a little gleam as of surprise shown in his shoe-button eyes then he put out his hand shoving the pink sheet aside hello buck he cried genially where'd you blow in from poison hole briefly he spun a silver dollar on the bar and ignored the hand blacky reached for bottle and glass and putting them before the cowboy bestowed upon him a shrewd searching look what's the news out your way buck nothing he tossed off his whisky took up his change and went on to the lunch counter several men looked up at him one or two nodded it was evident that the new owner of the poison hole was something of a stranger here he called an order to the chinaman at the stove told him that he'd be back in ten minutes and was in a hurry and went out to his horse the bartender watched him go but said nothing within less than ten minutes thornton had left his sorrel at the stable seeing personally the animal had its grain and had come back to the saloon

Starting point is 01:48:39 blackie idle with his gazette unnoticed in front of him saw him come in this time in town for a little high life buck he queried listlessly no business he passed on down toward the lunch counter and then swinging about suddenly came back bank business he added quietly i just paid my second installment of five thousand dollars cash for a moment he stood staring very steadily into the bartender's eyes a great deal of significance in his look blacky returned his stare steadily you're lucky buck he offered colorlessly meaning to get the poison hole yes it's the best cow range i ever saw meaning to pack five thousand around in your tail pocket and get away with it, with this stick-up gang work in the country? Thornton shrugged his shoulders. There isn't any gang, he said,

Starting point is 01:49:53 speaking as a man who knew. It's one man with a confederate here and there maybe to keep him here. Every job that has been pulled off yet was a one-man job. Blackie polished his bar and shook his head. Jed McIntosh got cleaned out night before last, he retorted.

Starting point is 01:50:17 He'd made a clean-up right in here playing stud. They got his wad before he'd got to the end of the street. That was more than a one-man job. Did Jed see more than one? demanded Thornton sharply. No, Jed didn't see nothing, I guess. But we all seen the trail their horses made going through Jed's hay-field. there was three horses anyway with no answer to this thornton turned away washed at the faucet near the back door and settled his tall form upon one of the high stools at the counter he ate hungrily with no remark to the men upon right and left of him but he heard their scraps of talk noting that the one topic of conversation here in dry town was the

Starting point is 01:51:12 work of the stick-up party manifesting itself in such episodes as the robbery and murder of bill varney stage-driver the theft of kemble's cattle the cleanin of jed mcintosh and finally the affair of last night at pope drury's he listened with what seemed frank and only mild interest it's a funny thing to me one little dried-up old man with a little dried-up old man with the fierce mustaches and very gentle eyes was saying what we get a sheriff for this sort of gunplay's been running high for nigh on six months now and cole dalton ain't boarded anybody in his little old jail any worse in hobos and drunks for so long it makes a fellow wonder what a jail and a sheriff is for give him time pop laughed a young rancher at his side you know all that's the matter with cole dalton as he's got his election on the republican ticket and you ain't never saw a man yet as wasn't a democrat as you'd admit was any count give him time cole knows what he's doin and when he does git his rope on mr bad man he ain't goin to need no jail cole'll give him a first-class funeral and save the county a board bill pop grunted sniffed and got to his feet to go to the door and watch the stage pull out as the rumble and creek of the great lumbering vehicle and the quick thud of the hoofs of the four running horses several men left the lunch counter and followed him buck thornton finishing his own meal swiftly went with the others Hap Smith took on fresh mail bags in front of the post office, slammed back his break,

Starting point is 01:53:14 and with his long whip cracking like pistol shots over his leader's heads, drove on until he had passed the last chance. And then he came to a halt again, his coach rocking and rolling on its great springs in front of the bank. "'Hi there!' he yelled mightily. get a move on, will you? I'm half a day late now. Mr. Templeton himself appeared on the instant at the door,

Starting point is 01:53:44 a small strong box in his hands. He tossed it up into the ready hands of the bull-necked, round-shouldered guard who sat at Hapsmith's side with a rifle between his knees. The two passengers craned their necks with much interest. The guard bestowed the box under the seat, the driver loosened his reins, threw off his brake, and the stage rocked and rumbled down the street, spattering mud on either hand, racing away upon the last

Starting point is 01:54:18 leg of its two hundred and fifty-mile trip to the last town upon the far border of the great state. "'And Templeton called me a fool,' mused the tall cattleman, a look of vast contempt in his stern eyes. He stood a little behind the other men, looking over their heads. For only a fleeting second had his glance rested upon the stage at the bank. Then he looked swiftly at the man in front of him. It was Blackie, the bartender. When Blackie turned abruptly, Thornton looked squarely into the black eyes, seeing there an unusually beady brightness, something of the hint of a quick frown upon the thin, slick line of the eyebrows.

Starting point is 01:55:08 Driver and guard will both be needing their shooting irons before they see the border, Blackie, Thornton said quietly, and then, with a short, insolent laugh, he returned for the hat he had left hanging upon a nail. Blackie, making no answer, followed, going behind his bar. A little dusky red had crept up into his shallow face. His eyes burned hard into Thornton's, as the man from the poison hole came by him. "'When you're going to get back to the range, Buck?' he asked sharply. "'I'm going to start as soon as I can roll a smoke and saddle a horse,'

Starting point is 01:55:53 Thornton answered him, a little smile in his eyes. and then as an afterthought. I follow the stage road for about ten miles before I turn off on the trail. Wish I could stick with them clean through. What for? demanded Blackie in the same sharp tone. Oh, just to see the fun, Thornton told him lightly. So long, Blackie. You seem to be mighty sure something's going to be

Starting point is 01:56:26 pulled off this trip. Thornton hung upon his heel, turning slowly. I am, Blackie, he said carelessly, and then, say, did you notice the two passengers in the stage? No, he put a great deal of emphasis

Starting point is 01:56:48 into the denial. Who was it? I thought you might have noticed. One of them was that crooked-eyed jasper I saw you stake into free drinks the last time I was in town. He stared straight into the smaller man's eyes, saw the color deepen in his cheeks, shrugged his big shoulders, and went to the door. Several of the men who had come back into the room looked after him curiously.

Starting point is 01:57:19 Then, as though for explanation, into Blackie's narrowed eyes. The bartender's hand dropped swiftly out of sight under his bar. Thornton's back was turned square upon him, and yet, as though he had seen the gesture, and it had been full of significance to him, he whirled with a movement even quicker than blackies had been, and standing loosely, his hands at his side, looked coolly into the bright black eyes.

Starting point is 01:57:52 For a moment, no man, moved. Then Blackie, with a little sigh, which sounded loudly in the quiet room, brought his hand back into sight, letting his fingers tap upon the bar. Thornton smiled, turned again, and stepped quickly out of the door. As long as they don't get any closer to the poison hole, it's none of my funeral, he muttered to himself. But if they do, I know one little man who could do a little man who could do a little man. a powerful lot of squealing with the proper inducement. Not turning once he passed swiftly down the street toward the stable, his meditative eyes upon the rocking stage sweeping on to the southeast, already drawing close to the first of the wooded foothills.

Starting point is 01:58:44 He waited ten minutes, watching his horse eating, and then saddled and rode out toward the hills. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory This Libravox recording is in the public domain Chapter 7 An Invitation to Supper It was hardly noon

Starting point is 01:59:19 Here the country road Cutting straight through the rolling fields Was broad, wet and black Glistening under the sun Out yonder in front of him, the stage, driven rapidly by Hap Smith, that he might make up a little of the lost time, topped a gentle rise, stood out briefly against the skyline, shot down into the bed of dry creek, and was lost to him. A little puzzled frown crept into Thornton's eyes. A man would almost say old pop was right, he told himself. This state is getting too settled up for this kind of game

Starting point is 02:00:01 To be pulled off so all fired regularly Cole Dalton must be blind in his off eye Oh hell it is none of my business Anyway not yet He pulled his horse out into the trail paralleling the muddy road Jerked his hat down lower over his forehead Slumped forward a little in the saddle and gave himself over to the sleepy 30-mile ride to Hart's camp.

Starting point is 02:00:31 He rode slowly now, allowing Hap Smith's speeding horses to draw swiftly away ahead of him. He saw the stage once more climbing a distant ridge, then it was lost to him in the steepening hills. A little more than an hour later, he turned off to the left, leaving the country road, and entering the mountain. mouth of the canyon through which his trail led. He would not see the road again, although after a while, he would parallel it with some dozen miles of rolling land between him and it. Behind him lay the wide stretch of plain in which dry town was set. About him were the small

Starting point is 02:01:16 shut-in valleys where the little fellows had their holdings, and small herds of longhorns and saddle-ponies. before him were the mountains with Kimball's place upon their far slope and his own home range lying still farther to the east. There were many streams to Ford in the country through which he was now riding, all muddy-watered, laced with white frothing edgings, but none to rise higher than his horse's belly. Here there was a tiny valley, hardly more than a cup in the hills, but valuable for its rich feed and for the big spring set in the middle of it.

Starting point is 02:02:00 He dismounted, slipped the Spanish bit from his horse's mouth, and waited for the animal to drink. It was a still, sleepy afternoon. The storm had left no trace in the deep blue of the sky. The hills were rapidly drying under the hot sun. Man and horse seemed sleepy, slow, moving figures to fit into a glowing landscape harmoniously. The horse drank slowly, shook its head in half-tolerant protest at the flies singing before its eyes,

Starting point is 02:02:36 and played with the water with twitching lips, as though with no will to take up the trail again, it sought to deceive its master into thinking that it was still drinking. The man yawned, and his drowsy eyes came away from the wood-topped hills, before him to the moist earth under foot for the moment they did not seem the eyes of the buck thornton who had ridden to the bank in dry town a little before noon but were gentle and dreamily meditative with all of the earlier sharp alertness gone and then suddenly there came into them a quick change a keen brightness as he jerked his head forward and stared down at the ground at his feet now what is she doing out this way he asked himself aloud and where is she going though the soil was cut and beaten with the sharp hoofs of the many cattle that had drunk here earlier in the day it was not so rough that it had hit the thing which the quick eyes of the cattleman found and understood there close to the water's edge and almost under his own horse's body were the tracks a shod horse had left not very long ago the spring water was still trickling into one of them there too a little to the side was the imprint of the foot of the rider who had gotten down to drink from the same stream the

Starting point is 02:04:13 mark of a tiny high-heeled boot. It might be some other girl, he told himself by way of answer to his own question. And it might be a mex with a proud blue-blooded foot, but... And he leaned further forward studying the footprint. It's a mighty good bet. I could tell what she looks like from the shape of her head to the color of her eyes. Now, what do you suppose you? she's tackling. Something that Mr. Templeton says is plumb foolish and full of danger?

Starting point is 02:04:50 He slipped the bit back into his horse's mouth and swung up into the saddle. She didn't come out the way I came, he reflected, as for a moment he sat still, looking down at the medley of tracks. I'd have seen her horse's tracks. She must have made a big curve somewhere. I wonder what for. Then slowly the gravity left his eyes, and a slow smile came into them. He surprised his horse with a touch of the spurs. Get into it, you long-legged wooden horse you, he chuckled. We've got something to ride for now.

Starting point is 02:05:34 We're going to see Miss Grey Eyes again. There's something besides stick-up men worth a man's thinking about, little horse. he reigned back into the trail rode through the little valley climbed the ridge beyond and so pushed on deeper and ever deeper into the long sweep of flat country upon the other side often his eyes ran far ahead seeking swiftly for the slender figure he constantly expected to see riding eastward before him often they dropped to the trail under foot to see that her horse tracks had not turned to right or left should she leave this main horseman's highway for some one of the countless cross trails the afternoon wore on the miles dropped away behind him and he came to the end of the flat country and again was in low rolling hills her horses tracks were there always before him and yet he had had no sight of any rider that day since leaving the county road road. Again, much gravity came back into his eyes. "'Where's she going?' he asked himself again.

Starting point is 02:06:52 "'It looks like she was headed for Hart's camp, too. And then, onto Hill's corners? All alone? It's funny. Twenty miles he had come from dry town. He was again riding slowly, remembering that his horse had carried the great weight of him many long miles yesterday. and today. Now the hills grew steep and shot up high and rugged against the sky. The trail was harder, steeper, narrower, where it wound along the edges of the many ravines. Again and again the ground was so flinty that it held no sign to show whether shod horse had passed over it or not. But he told himself that there was scant likelihood of her having to be able to, turned out here.

Starting point is 02:07:46 There was but the one trail now. And then, suddenly, when he came down into another little valley through which a small drying stream wandered, he came upon the tracks he had been so long following, and he noted, with a little lift to the eyebrows, that here were the fresh hoofmarks of two horses leading on toward the camp.

Starting point is 02:08:12 Somebody else has cut in front. from the side he pondered lordy but this cattle country is sure getting shot all to pieces with folks who d'you suppose this new pilgrim is once or twice he drew rain studying the signs of the trail the tracks he had picked up at the stream with the print of the tiny boot were the small marks of a pony this second horse for which he was seeking to account was certainly a larger animal leaving bigger tracks deeper sunk there was little difficulty in distinguishing one from the other and then there was as little trouble in reading that the larger horse had followed the pony for again and again the big deep track lay over the other now and then blotting it out a man with a long solitary ride ahead of him has much time for conjecture idle and otherwise here lay the hint of a story who was the second rider what was his business whence had he come and whither was he riding and did his following the girl mean anything thornton came at last in the late afternoon to the last stream he would ford before reaching hart's camp another half mile the passing over a slight rise and he would be in sight of the end of his day's ride he crossed the stream and then looking for the tracks he had been following

Starting point is 02:09:54 he saw that again the pony was pushing on ahead of him that the horseman had turned aside he jerked his horse back seeking for the lost tracks and presently he found them turning to the south and leading off into the mountains with thoughtful eyes he returned to his trail he rode over the little ridge and so came into sight of the three log cabins under the oaks of hart's place beyond was the barn he would go there find her horse at the manger then he would go up to the cabin in which the hearts lived and there find her twenty minutes later his face and hands washed at the well his short-cropped hair brushed back with the palm of his hand he went to the main cabin the door was shut but the smoke from the rough stone chimney spoke eloquently of supper being cooked within but he was not thinking a great deal of the supper he had found the pony in the barn had even seen a quirt which he remembered remembered knew that he had not been mistaken in the matter of ownership of the trim boots that had left their marks at the spring and realized that he was rather gladder of the circumstance than the mere facts of the case would seem to warrant and then with brows lifted and mouth puckered into a silent whistle he read the words on a bit of paper tacked to the cabin door we've gone over to dave wendels the old woman is took sick back in the morning most likely make yourself to home w heart he paused a moment frowning his hat in his hand

Starting point is 02:11:49 it seemed to be in his thoughts to go back to his horse while he hesitated the door was flung open and a pair of troubled gray eyes looked out at him searchingly a pair of red lips tremulously trying to be firm smiled at him and a very low voice faltered albeit with a brave attempt to be steady won't you come in mr thornton and-and make yourself at home too i've done it i suppose it's all right and then when still he hesitated and his embarrassment began to grow and hers seemed to melt away. She added brightly and quite coolly. Supper is ready and waiting, and I'm simply starved, aren't you? Thornton laughed. Come to think of it, he admitted. I believe I am. End of Chapter 7. Chapter 8 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory.

Starting point is 02:13:05 This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 8. In Hart's Cabin. There was a rough board table, oil cloth covered, in front of the fireplace. There were coffee, bread, and butter, crisp slices of bacon, a dish of steaming tinned corn. There were two plates with knife and fork at the side, two cups, two chairs drawn up to the table. "'You see,' she said gaily and lightly enough, you have kept me waiting he glanced swiftly at her as she stood by the fireplace and away for though twilight in the wooded country had crept out upon them he could see the look in her eyes the set of the red-lipped mouth and he knew downright fear when he saw it though it be fear bravely masked let's eat he answered having many things in his mind but no other single thing to say to her just yet she flashed him a quick look and sat down thornton dragged back the other chair flung his hat to the bunk in the corner of the room and disposed his long legs uncomfortably under the small table

Starting point is 02:14:27 inwardly he was devoutly cursing dave wendell for allowing anybody at his place to choose this particular time to get sick and the hearts for going to the assistance of a ten mile distant neighbor he watched the girl's quick fingers busy with the blackened coffee pot realized at one in the same time that she had no ring upon a particular finger and that it was idiotic for him to so much as look for never allowed his glance to wander higher than her hands and attacked his bread and butter as though its immediate consumption were the most important thing in all the world and she when she felt that he was not watching her when his silence was almost a tangible thing looked at him with quick furtiveness the something in her expression which had spoken of terror began to give place to the look of amusement which twitched at her lips and flickered up in the soft gray of her eyes. And since still he gave no sign of breaking the silence which had fallen over them, she said at last, "'Didn't you know all the time who I was?'

Starting point is 02:15:42 Then he looked up at her, inquiringly, and when he saw that she was smiling, a little of his sudden restraint fled from him, and his eyes smiled back gently a little and reassuringly into hers. All the time, he asked, meaning when? Back there, on the trail, she told him. Well, he admitted slowly. I guess I was pretty sure.

Starting point is 02:16:14 Of course, I couldn't be dead certain. It might have been anybody's tracks. That is, he corrected with a quick broadening of the smile. Anybody with a foot the right size to fit in a boot like that like what she asked in turn like the one that made the tracks by the creek where you came into the main trail where you stopped to drink you saw that if i hadn't seen this how was i to guess that it was you ahead of me he demanded and when she frowned a little and did not answer for a moment he gave his attention to the black coffee which she had poured for him. You sure know how to make coffee right, he complimented her with a vast show of sincerity.

Starting point is 02:17:08 This is the best I ever tasted. I'm glad you like it, she retorted, as the frown fled before a hint of laughter. I found it already made in the pot and just warmed it over. Oh, said Thornton. and then with much gravity of tone but with twinkling eyes come to think of it it isn't the taste of it that a man notices it's the being just hot enough i never had any coffee better warmed up than this thank you she stirred the sugar in her own cup of muddy-looking beverage and without glancing up at him this time went on you mean that you didn't know who i was when you saw me at the bank in drytown of course not back there on the trail i didn't see you he told her now she flashed another quick upward glance at him as though seeking for a reason lying back of his words i saw you she said steadily twice

Starting point is 02:18:24 first from the top of a hill half a dozen miles back when you got down to look at your horse's foot did he pick up a stone his eyes opened in surprise i didn't get off to look at my horse's foot and he didn't pick up anything the second time she continued was just when you had come to the last stream i thought that you were going to turn off into the canyon i saw that your horse was limping he shook his head she must have seen that other fellow whose tracks thornton had for so long seen following the tracks of her pony what made you think you recognized me he asked i didn't think i knew then how did you know the surprise showing in her frankly lifted bruce the surprise showing in her frankly lifted brows was very plain now. You were hardly 500 yards away, she retorted. And, with a quick sweeping survey of him, you are not a man to be readily mistaken even at that distance, you know.

Starting point is 02:19:41 Meaning the inches of me, the up and down six feet four of me? He shook his head. I'm the only man in this neck of the woods built on the bean pole style, Well, meaning, she returned steadily, your size and form, meaning the unusually wide hat you wear, meaning your blue shirt and gray neck handkerchief. Gray handkerchiefs aren't so common, are they? Meaning your tall, sorrel horse that limped, and your bridle with a red tassel swinging from the head stall. Now, a little sharply, a little angrivol, a little angrivol, He thought.

Starting point is 02:20:25 You are not going to tell me that I was mistaken, are you? She saw that his surprise, growing into sheer amazement as she ran on, was a wonderfully simulated thing, if it were not real. You made a mistake, he said coolly. I saw in the trail that there was another man following you. If I had known his get-up was so close to mine, I'd have done a little fast riding. to take a peep at him. He turned off at the last creek as you thought.

Starting point is 02:21:01 You saw him? she asked quickly. I saw his tracks, and, he added with deep thoughtfulness as he stared past her into the smoldering fire in the fireplace. I'd sure like to know who he is. Again as she watched him, an expression of uneasiness crept into a little. her eyes. Then as he turned back to her, she looked down quickly. "'Is it far to the Wendell Place?' she asked abruptly. "'Where the sick woman is?' "'Ten miles, off to the north.' "'Not on our trail?' anxiously.

Starting point is 02:21:47 "'You're going on further?' "'Yes, too,' she hesitated, and then concluded. hurriedly. Two Hill's Corners! He sat silent for a moment, his strong brown fingers playing with his knife and fork, and his eyes were merely stern when he spoke quietly. So, you're going to Dead Man's Alley, are you? I said that I was going to Hill's Corners. And folks who knows that quiet little city, he informed her,

Starting point is 02:22:24 have got into the habit of calling it by the name of its principal street i wonder if you've ever been there no why i wonder if you know anything about the place what i've heard what mr templeton tried to tell me well he said thoughtfully i don't know that i blame him for trying to turn you into another trail he must be have told you, and he was watching her very keenly, that the stage runs there from Drytown? Yes, but I chose to ride on horseback. Is there anything strange in that? Oh, no, he said briefly. Just a nice little ride. I have ridden long trails before. Again for a little while she watched him with intent, eager eyes. eyes. He was silent, frowning into his own cup of coffee. Dead man's alley, he volunteered abruptly, is the worst little bad town I ever saw.

Starting point is 02:23:38 And I've camped in two or three that a man wouldn't call just exactly healthy on the dark of the moon. I guess Mr. Templeton must have told you, but unless it's happened in the last month, there isn't a man in that town who has his wife or daughters there if i were you and he lifted his cup to his lips as a sign that he had said his say i'd rope my cow pony and hit the home trail for dry town thank you she said as quietly as he had spoken but really mr templeton gave me enough advice to last me a year i think i have made it my mind to go on to two dead man's alley as you call it well he grinned back at her as though the discussion had been of no moment and now was quite satisfactorily ended i ought to be glad oughtn't i since my trail runs that way and since the poison hole ranch is only twenty miles out from the corners maybe you'll let me ride over and see you of course i'll be glad to have you that is and her smile came back a very teasing smile too if you'll care to call at the house where i'm going to stop i'm going to stay with my uncle a chances are that i don't know em i don't know half a dozen folks in the town what's his name his name she told him demurely is henry pollard i think you know him

Starting point is 02:25:19 he flushed a little as she had hoped that he would he remembered he knew that he had spoken this morning at the bank of henry pollard from whom he was buying his outfit knew that he must have called him called him as he always did when he spoke of him rattlesnake pollard and henry pollard was her uncle i didn't know he said slowly and a little lamely that he was your uncle but he added cheerfully his assurance coming back to him you can't help that you know i don't blame you for it yes i'll ride over from the ranch it's good of you to let me they finished the meal in a rather thoughtful silence thornton made a cigarette and went to the door to look for the up-climbing moon the girl carried her chair to the fireplace and sat down her hands in her lap her eyes staring into the coals the man was asking himself stubbornly why this girl this type of girl dainty frank eyed clean-hearted as he felt instinctively that she was was making this trip to that dirty town which straddled the state border line like an evil venomous toad and sneered in its ugly defiant fashion at the peace officers of two states he was trying to see what the reason could be that carried her through this little traveled country to the house of such a man as not only buck thornton but every one in this end of the cattle country knew Henry Pollard to be, trying above all to seek the reason for her making the trip on

Starting point is 02:27:11 horseback alone over a wild trail, when the stage for Hill's corners had left Dry Town so little after her, and must reach its journey's end well ahead of her. And she, over and over, was asking herself why this man, whom she was so certain she had seen twice that day upon the trail behind her, denied that he had been the man who got down to look at his horse's foot, who later had ridden a limping mount aside into the canyon, for she felt very sure that she had not been mistaken, and, therefore, that he was lying to her. She frowned and glanced over her shoulder. She was a little afraid of a man who could look at her out of clear eyes, as he had looked, and lie to her as she was so confident he had lied. She knew nothing of him,

Starting point is 02:28:09 save that this morning he had come to her assistance at a moment of great peril, and that he was suspected by some of a certain robbery and assault. Are you very tired? She started. he had turned at last and came back to where she sat no i am not tired why do you ask there'll be a moon soon we can let the horses rest a bit i have ridden mine pretty hard the last few days and then after moon up we can ride on there's another shack where a man and his wife live just a little off the trail and about seven miles further on it'll be better than trying to make wendell's place end of chapter eight chapter nine of six feet four by jackson gregory this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter nine the double theft after that there were no more uncomfortable silences in the hart cabin thornton found a lamp lighted it and placed it on the table and with the act he seemed to take upon himself the part of host playing it with a quiet courtesy and gentleness fitting well with the unconscious grace of his lithe body and with the kindliness softening his dark eyes

Starting point is 02:29:48 he told her of his ranch of the cowboys working for him of the cattle they were running of little incidents of everyday life on the range seeking to make her forget that in reality they were strangers very unconventionally placed. And he did not once ask her a direct question about herself or concerning her business. That she was quick to notice. For an hour they chatted pleasantly. Now, when Thornton got to his feet again, and went to the door to see what promise the night gave of being cloudless, and to note the moon already pushing up above the jagged skyline

Starting point is 02:30:32 where the trees stood upon the hilltops, she watched him with an interest that was not tinged with the vague suspicion of an hour ago. She saw that as he stood lounging in the doorway, his hands upon his hips, one shoulder against the rude door jam, he had to stoop his head a little and knew that he was a taller, bigger man than she had realized until now.

Starting point is 02:31:01 If I were as big as you are, she laughed at him, I'd be in constant fear of bumping my head in the dark. He laughed with her, told her that he was getting used to it, and came back for his hat. If you'll be getting ready, he told her, I'll go out and bring in the horses, if you're rested up? She assured him that she was,

Starting point is 02:31:29 noted again how he stooped for the doorway, and watched him move swiftly away through the shadows cast by the trees about the cabin. She put on our hat, buckled on the spurs she had dropped on the table, and was ready. Then, before he could have gone halfway to the barn, she heard swift steps coming back.

Starting point is 02:31:53 he had forgotten something but what she looked about her expecting to see his tobacco sack or some such article a block of matches maybe which he had left behind but there was nothing she lifted the lamp in her hand so that the weak rays searched out the four corners of the cabin then she turned again toward the door out yonder through the clear night came on the tall figure with the long free stride of the man of the outdoors in a patch of bright moonlight his head was down as though his mood were one of thoughtfulness and the shadow of his wide hat hid his face and eyes from her in the black shade under the live oak before hart's door he lifted his head quickly here he came for an instant to a dead halt half turning it struck her abruptly that he was tense that the atmosphere was suddenly charged with uneasiness that he was listening as a man listens who more than half expects trouble what is it she called she could not make out more than the vague outline of his figure now as he stood still his body seeming to merge to the great trunk of the tree. He did not answer.

Starting point is 02:33:24 Again, head down, and hurriedly he came on, on through the thinning fringe of shadow and into the full bright moonlight. A sudden formless fear, which in no way could she explain, was upon her. His actions were so strange. They hinted at furtiveness.

Starting point is 02:33:46 He had been so outright and hard, hearty and wholesome a moment ago and now struck her as anything but the big free and easy man who had supped with her she drew back a little her under lip caught between her teeth as was her habit when undue stress was laid upon her nerves her breath coming a trifle irregularly after all she was just a girl and he was a man big strong and perhaps brutal of whom she knew virtually nothing and they were very far from any other human beings he came straight on to the open door as the lamplight fell upon him her formless fear of a moment ago was swept up and engulfed in an access of terror which made her sick and dizzy all of the time until now even when appearances hinted at an inexplicable duplicity she had felt safe with him trusting to what her natural instinct read of him in his eyes and carriage and voice and now she clutched at the mantle with one hand while in the other the lamp swayed precariously the reason for her agitation was plain enough had it been his sole purpose to strike terror into her heart he could hardly have selected a more efficient method across the face hiding it entirely leaving only the eyes to glint through two rude slits at her

Starting point is 02:35:28 was a wide bandana handkerchief the big black hat was drawn low now the handkerchief bound about the brow fell to a point well below the base of his throat easy there he said in a voice which upon her ears was only a tense evil whisper easy you know what i want look out for that lamp making it dark in here even settling the shack on fire isn't going to help much easy girlie you you she panted and found no word to go on he came in and strode across the room taking the lamp from her and setting it on the mantel she had come near dropping it when his hand brushed hers again she drew back from him hastily, her eyes running to the door. But he forestalled her, closed the door, and stood in her way, towering above her, his air charged with menace. "'You pretty thing?' he muttered, his tone frankly sincere, though his voice was still hardly more than a harsh whisper. "'If I just had time to play with you, I'd

Starting point is 02:36:57 i said you'd know what i want and don't get funny with a little toy pistol you'd be sure to have in your dress it won't do you any good you know that don't you she did know her hand had already gone into her bosom where the little toy pistol lay against that which she had vainly thought it could guard a thick envelope the man came quite close to her so close that that she had vainly thought it could guard a thick envelope the man came quite close to her so close that she felt his breath stir her hair so close that his slightly uplifted hand could come down upon her before she could stir an inch you can tell henry pollard for me he jeered from the secure anticipation of his present triumph that the unknown stranger names him seven kinds of fool to think he could get across this way and sneak that little wad by me and by the by it's getting late and if you don't mind i'll take what's coming to me and move on then she found her tongue the fires blazed up in her eyes and a hot flush came into her pale cheeks big brute and cur and coward she flung at him woman fighter all of that he laughed insolently and then some and you gray-eyed pink beauty by god girl you'd make an armful for a man soon to be queen of dead man's alley eh i'll see you there i'll come and pay my respects oh but i will coward that i am but now

Starting point is 02:38:51 There, take it, take it! Oh! She shuddered away from him. Her face went white again. She grew cold with the fear upon her. Just then she cared infinitely little for the sheaf of banknotes in the yellow envelope which the banker had given to her.

Starting point is 02:39:14 She jerked the parcel out from her dress and tossed it to him, her fingers fumbling with the button of the thin garment under which her heart was beating wildly, and the little toy pistol she could have hurled from her too. Against this physical bigness, against this insolent bravado, and this swift sureness of eye and muscle,

Starting point is 02:39:39 she knew the small weapon would be a ridiculous and utterly insufficient plaything. He caught the envelope and thumbed it, tore off an end, and glanced swiftly at the contents, and then stowed it away inside his gray flannel shirt. Again his eyes came back to her. I'm in a hurry, he said swiftly, but there's always time for a girl like you. She had foreseen how it would be.

Starting point is 02:40:12 Now that she struggled to draw her tiny revolver and fire, he was upon her, his long arms about her, his muscular strength making her own as nothing. And though he was breathing more quickly, still he had his quiet, insolent laugh for still further insult. Though she sought to strike at him, he held her in utter helplessness. Slowly he lifted her face, a big hand under her chin. The lamp was close by. he blew down the chimney and save for the moonlight across the threshold it was dark in the cabin with his other hand he lifted his crude mask from the lower part of his face she sought again to strike to batter his lips but her heart sank as the relentless rigidity of his embrace baffled her attempt he brought his face closer to hers slowly close to her lips slowly

Starting point is 02:41:18 closer until at last she knew the outrage of a violent kiss from outside came a little sound not to be catalogued it might have been only a dead twig snapping under the talons of a night bird alighting in a big oak tree but suddenly the arms about her relaxed the man whirled and sprang back whipped open the door and silently was gone into the outer night. Moaning, swaying, dizzy and sick, she crouched in a far corner. Then she ran to the door and looked out. There was nothing moving to be seen anywhere. Just the white moonlight here,

Starting point is 02:42:06 the black patches of shadow there, the somber wall of the forest land a few yards away. Her nausea of dread, her uncertainty had passed. With never a glance behind her, she ran down toward the barn. She knew that she would be afraid to go into the black maw of the silent building for her horse, and yet she knew that she must, that she must mount and ride. She had never until now known the terror of being alone,

Starting point is 02:42:43 utterly alone in the night in the wilderness. Suddenly she stopped to stare incredulously. About a corner of the barn, coming out into the bright moonlight, leading his own horse and her own, was Buck Thornton. She was so certain that he had gone. For the instant, she could not move, but stood powerless to lift a hand, rooted to the side. spot she noted that his face was unhidden now his black hat pushed far back on his head while from his hip pocket trailed the end of a handkerchief which may and may not have had slits led in it for his eyes to peer through

Starting point is 02:43:32 you here yet she found herself stammering at him yes he answered heavily i have been a very yet i have been a very yet she found herself stammering at him yes he answered heavily i have been all this time looking for the horses the corral was broken they had gotten out into the pasture a likely tale she cried with a sudden heat of passionate fury at the man and his cold manner and his mad thought that she was fool enough to be beguiled from her knowledge of what he was and then a fresh fear made her draw back and widened her eyes she had not thought of madness but if the man were mad but he was not mad and she knew it his were the clear eyes of perfect sanity he was simply an unthinkable brute look she said as his horse moved nervously your horse does limp. His answer came quickly, and there was a queer note in his voice, harsh and ugly, which sent a shiver through her shaken nerves. A man did that while we were in the cabin, with a knife. The moon shone full in his face. She had never seen such a transformation,

Starting point is 02:45:01 such a semblance of quiet, cold rage. if the man were just acting. I've just got the hunch, he said bluntly, that I know who he is, too. And for the last time, Winifred Waverley, I am interfering in your business and advising you the best way I know how to turn back right here and right now

Starting point is 02:45:29 and forget that you've got an uncle named Pollard. End of chapter nine. Chapter 10 of 6 Feet 4 by Jackson Gregory This Librevox recording is in the public domain Chapter 10 In the Moonlight She stood there in a bright patch of moonlight Looking up into his face

Starting point is 02:46:02 Seeing every line of it in the rich flood of light from the full moon Wondering Dully if she had lost her sense of the real and the unreal It seemed to her so rank absurd, so utterly preposterous, that he should seek to pretend with her. For, now that she had seen the limping gait of his big sorrel, she was more than certain that this was the man whom she had seen following her in the afternoon. And as she noted again the sinewy bigness of him, the grab of gray shirt, open vest, and black shaps, she told herself angrily that he was a fool. Or, or, or that he thought her a fool, to pretend that he knew nothing of that thing which had just

Starting point is 02:46:50 happened in the lonely cabin. Even the gray neck handkerchief, now nodded loosely about the brown throat, was there to give him the lie. With shame and anger, her cheeks burned until they went as crimson as hot blood could make them. It was all so clear to her. She had refused to believe that he had robbed Habitat. smith's mail-bags why she bit her lip in sudden anger because he had fitted well in with the romantic girl's eye fool that she was

Starting point is 02:47:28 she should have put sterner interpretation upon the fact that thornton coming rudely into the banker's private office had admitted hearing part of her conversation with mr templeton now she had no doubt that he had heard everything have you ever been over this trail as far as the next ranch seven miles further on he asked at last his hard eyes coming away from the horse that stood with one foot lifted a little from the ground the quick twitching of the foot itself the writhing and twisting of the foreleg speaking of the pain from the deep cut no there was so much of hatred in the one short word which she flung at him so much of passionate contempt that he looked at her wonderingly what's the matter miss waverley he asked his voice a shade gentler you seem all different somehow are you more tired than you thought she laughed and the wonder grew in his eyes he had never heard a woman laugh like that had not dreamed that this girl's voice could grow so bitter no she told him coldly she jerked her pony's reins out of thornton's hand i am going to ride on and i suppose you will ride that poor wounded horse until it drops no he said that's why i asked if you knew the trails i didn't notice he limped out there where i put the saddle on it was dark under the trees you know was it she retorted sarcastically

Starting point is 02:49:20 drawing another quick searching look from him. There was no call for an answer, and he made none. He stepped to his horse's head, lifted the wincing forefoot very tenderly, and stooping close to it looked at it for a long time. The girl was behind the broad stooping back. Impulsively her hand crept into the bosom of her dress, her face going steadily white as her fingers curved and tightened about the grip of the small caliber revolver she carried there and then she jerked her hand out empty

Starting point is 02:50:00 she saw him straighten up heard again the long heavy sigh and marked how his face was convulsed with rage i don't know why a man did that he was only ten steps away and yet she had been a man turned her head a little sideways so that she might catch the low words she shivered his voice was cold and hard and deadly it was difficult for her to believe that in reality he had not forgotten her presence no i don't know why a man did that but i'm going to know yes i'm going to know if it takes fifty years where is my trail she called called sharply. I am going. You couldn't find it alone. I'm going with you. Her scorn of him leaped higher in her eyes. It was her thought that he was going to ride this poor tortured brute, for she knew that there was no other horse in the barn or about the camp. But he was quietly loosening his cinch, lifting down the heavy Mexican saddle, removing the bit from his horse mouth.

Starting point is 02:51:17 What are you going to do? She bit her lips after the question, but it had leaped out involuntarily. I'm going to leave him here for the present. The wound will heal up after a while. With the saddle thrown over his own shoulders, he ran a gentle hand over the soft nose of his horse, which was thrust affectionately against his side, and turned away. watched him, expecting him to go back to the barn to leave his saddle and bridle. But instead, he set his face toward the hills beyond the cabin, where she supposed the trail was.

Starting point is 02:52:01 I'll pick up another horse at the next ranch, he offered casually by way of explanation. And we had better hit the trail. It's getting late. Wordlessly, she followed, her eyes held, fascinated. by the great tall bulk of him swinging on in front of her carrying the heavy saddle with as little care to its weight as if he had been entirely unconscious of it as no doubt such a man could be she knew that already he had ridden sixty miles to-day and that it was seven miles farther to the ranch where he would get another horse and yet there he strode on swiftly as though he had rested all day and now we're going to walk the matter of a few yards she could not understand this man whom since she must she followed had he not told her there in the cabin when he had played at his man who had he not told her there in the cabin when he had played at his own hiding his identity from her that he knew she was armed and yet and cumbered with the saddle upon his shoulder his right hand carrying the bridle he turned his back square upon her with no glance to see if she were even now covering him with her revolver and had she not called him a coward thought him a coward was this a way a coward should act

Starting point is 02:53:29 again and again during those first minutes her hand crept to the bosom of her dress did he know it she wondered was he laughing at her knowing that she could not bring herself to the point of actually shooting but then she might cover him call to him that she would shoot if he made her and so force him to return the money he had stolen he would laugh at me she told herself each time her anger at him and at herself rising higher and higher he would know that i could not kill him not in cold blood this way so buck thornton strode on grim in the savage silence which gripped him on through the shadows and out into the moonlight beyond the trees and she followed in silence there were times when she hated him so that she thought that she could shoot shoot to kill his very going with her angered her was it not more play acting as insolent as anything he could do as insolent as his kissing her had been she grew red and went white over it it was as though he were laughing into her face making sport of her saying i am gentlemen you see i could stay here all night and you would have to stay with me but i am not taking advantage of you i am walking seven miles over a hard trail carrying a pack like a mule that you may sleep tonight under the same roof with another woman now she was tempted to wheel her horse to turn back to camp alone somewhere out there in the woods or to ride the thirty miles back to dry town

Starting point is 02:55:27 and now remembering the bank notes which had been taken from her remembering the insult in the cabin she held on after him resolved that she would not lose sight of this man that she would see him handed over to justice when she could taunt him saying i didn't shoot you you see because i am a woman and not a tough but i have given you into hands that are not woman's hands because i hate you so her horse carried her on at a swift walk but she did not have to draw rein to keep from passing thornon his long stride was so smooth, regular, swift, and tireless that it soon began to amaze her. They had passed through the little valley in which Hart's place stood, and entered a dark canyon leading into the steeper hills. The trail was uneven, and now and then very steep. Yet Thornton pushed on steadily with no slowing in the swift gate,

Starting point is 02:56:37 no sign to tell that he felt fatigue in muscles of bob. back or legs. He must be made of iron, she marveled. In an hour they had come to the top of a ridge, and Thornton stopped, tossing his saddle to the ground. He had not once spoken since they left the heart place. Now with quick fingers he made a cigarette. She stopped a dozen paces from him,

Starting point is 02:57:08 and though one would have said that she was not looking at him, him, saw the flare of his match, glimpsed the hard-set lines of his face, and knew that he would not speak until she had spoken. And the lines of her own face grew hard, and she turned away from him, feeling a quick spurt of anger that she had so much as looked at him when he had not turned his eyes upon her. He smoked his cigarette, swept up saddle and bridle, and moved on, striking over the wrist. and down upon the other side. It was perhaps ten minutes later when she saw,

Starting point is 02:57:49 far off to the left, the glimmer of a light, lost it through the trees, found it again and knew that it told of some habitation. They came abreast of a branch trail, leading toward the lighted window. The girl's eager eyes found it readily, and then noted that Thornton was passing on as though he had seen neither light nor trail.

Starting point is 02:58:15 She spoke hurriedly, saying, "'Isn't that the place where the light is?' "'No,' he told her, colorlessly and without turning. "'That's the Henry place. We're going on to Smith's.' "'Why don't we stop here? It's nearer, and I'm tired.' "'We can stop and rest,' he replied. then we had better go on it's not very much further now but why not here she cried insistently in sudden irritation that upon all matters this man dictated to her and dictated so assuredly one place is as good as another this one isn't miss waverley there's a tough lot here and there are no women among them so we'll have to make it to smiths do you want to rest awhile

Starting point is 02:59:15 no she cried sharply let's hurry and get it over with he inclined his head gravely and they went on and again her anger rose against the this man who seemed over and over to wish to remind her that he was a gentleman as though she had forgotten any little incident connected with him again they made their way through lights and shadows down into ragged cuts in the hills over knolls and ridges through a forest where raindrops were still dripping from the thick leaves and where she knew that without him she never could have found her way and not once more did they speak to each other until unexpectedly for her they came out of the wood and fairly upon a squat cabin with a light running out to meet them through the square of a window smith's place he informed her briefly already three dogs had run to meet them with much barking and simulated fierceness and a man and a woman had come to the door hello called the man who is it hello john it's thornton howdy mrs smith thornton tossed his saddle to the ground pushed down one of the dogs that had recognized him and was leaping up on him mrs smith this is miss waverley from dry town a friend of the templeton's she'll be grateful if you could take her in for the night man and wife came out shook hands with the girl the woman led her into the cabin and smith took her horse then the rancher saw thornton's saddle where's your horse he asked quickly

Starting point is 03:01:13 back at hearts lame in a very few words he told of a deep knife cut beneath the fetlock explained miss waverley's presence with him and ended by demanding who do you suppose did that trick for me john it's got me buffaloed smith shook his head thoughtfully by me buck he answered slowly most likely some jasper you've had trouble with and is too yellow to get even any other way i haven't seen any of your friends from hill's corner sticking around though have you no but miss waverley saw somebody on the trail the other side of hearts this afternoon miss took him for me until i told her a big man about my size riding a sorrel know who it was again smith shook his head can't call him to mind buck it might be houston for size but he hasn't got a sorrel in his string and then he's took on too much fat lately to be mistook for you go on inside you'll want to eat i guess i'll put up the lady's horse and be with you in two shakes thanks john but i had supper back at hearts can you let me have a horse in the morning i'll send him back by one of the boys sure take the big roan and you don't have to send him back either i'm riding that way myself to-morrow and i'll drop by and get em which way are you riding to the bar x i got word last week three or four of my steers was over there i want to see about em before

Starting point is 03:03:10 Or, he added dryly, they get any closer to dead man's. Thornton's nod indicated that he understood, and then, suddenly, he said, If you're going that way, you can see Miss Waverley through, can't you? She's going to the corners. Smith whistled softly. Now what the devil is the like of her going to that town for, he demanded. I don't know.

Starting point is 03:03:40 the answer, but she's going there." And as partial explanation, he added, "'She's Henry Pollard's niece.' For a moment Smith pondered the information in silence. Then his only reference to it was a short-spoken, "'Well, she don't look it. Anyway, that's her lookout, and I'll see her within half a dozen miles of the border.

Starting point is 03:04:08 You'll turn off this side of the poised. and hole, huh? I'll turn off right here, and right now. I've got a curiosity, John. And his voice was harder than Winiford Waverly had ever heard it. To know a thing or two about the way my horse went lame. I'm going to sling my saddle on your roan and take a little ride back to hearts.

Starting point is 03:04:34 Maybe I can pick up that other Jasper's Trail in the canyon back there. The two men went down to the stable, and while the rancher watered and fed the pony, Thornton roped the big roan in the fenced-in pasture. Ten minutes after he had come to the Smith Place, he had saddled and ridden back along the trail toward hearts. The two women in the cabin looked up as Smith came in. "'Where's Mr. Thornton?' his wife asked. he's gone back smith told her he drew out his chair sat down and filled his pipe before mrs smith's surprise could find words the girl had started to her feet crying quickly gone back where to hearts a man knifed his horse back there he stopped lighted his pipe and then said slowly with much deep thoughtfulness.

Starting point is 03:05:39 If I was that man, I'd ride some tonight. I'd keep right on riding, until I'd put about seven thousand miles between me and Buck Thornton. And then, well, then I guess I'd just naturally dig a hole and crawl in it so deep nothing but my gun stuck out. What did he say? she asked breathlessly. That's just it, miss. he didn't say much end of chapter ten chapter eleven of six feet four by jackson gregory this librovoc's recording is in the public domain chapter eleven the bedloe boys

Starting point is 03:06:33 all thoughts of denouncing buck thornton before these people fled before the girl had followed the rancher's wife into the cabin they spoke of him only in tones warm with friendship and with something more than mere friendship an admiration that was tinged with respect they had known him since first he had come into this country and although that had been only a little more than a year ago they had grown to know him as men and women in these far-out places come to know each other swiftly intimately he was a favorite topic of conversation as they talked of him naturally readily and mrs smith fluently she recounted not guessing how eagerly the girl was listening to every word many an episode which in the aggregate had given him the reputation he bore throughout these wild miles of cattle land the reputation of a man who was hard hard as a rock on the outside as she put it hard inside too when they drove him to it but naturally as soft-hearted as a baby she wished she had a boy like him why when she and john hit hard luck last year what with the cattle getting diseased first and her and john getting laid up next flat of their backs with the grip that man was an angel in breeches and spurs if they're ever was an angel in anything. He'd nursed them and cooked for them, and lifted her out of her bed

Starting point is 03:08:17 while he made it up himself, just as smooth and nice as you could have done, miss. And he rode clean into town for a doctor and brought him out and a lot of store stuff that was nice for sick folks to eat. And he'd paid the doctor, too, and laughed, and said he'd come some day and borrow the money back when he got busted playing poker and then all of a sudden when you'd thought he was soft that way cleaned through she went on her eyes blazing now at the memory of it them bedloe boys came over looking for trouble and buck sure gave it to them tell me about it the girl said quickly who are the bedloe boys what did they do the bedloe boys mrs smith ran on eager in the recounting belong over to the corners or the corners belongs to them i don't know which you'd say never heard of them boys well most folks has there used to be lots like the bedloe boys when i was a girl miss but thank gracious they're getting thinned out powerful fast first and last and last and all the time they're rowdies and gunfighters and bad men. There's more of their kind in

Starting point is 03:09:44 hills' corners, but these are the worst of the outfit. They keep close to the corners, seeing it's right on the state line, where they can dodge from one state to another when it comes handy, which is right often. There's three of them, Charlie and Ed, and the youngest one everybody calls the kid. That's three, and I guess there's a good many more would be glad of the chance to shoot Buck up. I guess the bedlows heard that time that John was sick. Anyway, they come over, all three of them, hunting trouble. Buck was out in the barn, feeding the horses, and they didn't know he was on the ranch. The kid, he's the youngest of the mess, and the worst and the handsomest. with them little yellow curls in his dare-devil blue eyes come on ahead riding his horse right up to the door yelling like a drunk engine and cussing so it made a woman wonder how any woman could ever have a son like him

Starting point is 03:10:51 he tried to ride his horse right in the door and when it got scared of me and john lying in bed and reared up the kid hid it over the head with the gun in his hand and saw him slipped out in the saddle, laughing at it, stagger. But he come on in, and Charlie come in too. Ed Beddlow was out in the far corral, getting ready to throw the gate open and turn out the cows and stampede him off in the ranch. What for? she looked her bony shoulders. Oh, nothing.

Starting point is 03:11:28 They'd just had trouble with my John about six months before and was taken a good chance to smash up things in general about the ranch. They swore they was going to burn the cabin in the barn, and scatter the stock and do anything else they could put their hands to. And while they was in here, cussing and abusing my John, who couldn't even get up and grab his shotgun in the corner, and insulted me all they could lay their dirty tongues to, there's a step at the door right behind.

Starting point is 03:12:02 him light as a cat and here's buck come in from the barn i wish you'd seen that man's eyes then you'd know what i mean when i say he gets hard hard and bitter sometimes and his voice it was so low and soft you might have thought he was putting a baby to sleep with it there was two of them boys big and ugly mean and they both had guns on in sight there was just one of buck thornton and i didn't know yet he ever toted a gun he uses his hands mostly i reckon buck does he didn't say much he just got them two hands of his on charlie bedloe's neck and i thought he was gonna break it sure and charley got flung clean out in the yard before the kid had finished going for his gun you wouldn't believe a man could be that quick quick it was nothing to his next play i tell you the kid's hand was on the way to his gun and buck didn't have a gun on him you'd have said and then he did have a gun and john and me didn't even see where he got it and he didn't seem to be in a hurry and he'd shot before the kid could mourn pull his gun up he killed him he could have killed him just as easy as a man rolls a cigarette there wasn't six feet between em only men like buck thornton don't kill men unless they got to i guess but he shot the kid in the arm taking them chances as cool as an icicle and when the kid dropped his gun and then grabbed at it with his other hand buck shot him in the left arm the same way

Starting point is 03:14:02 and then using his hands he threw him out and i don't believe charlie bedloe more'n got on his hands and knees outside and then somehow buck has a gun in each hand and has stepped outside too and i reckon the bedloe boy saw the same thing in his eyes me an john saw there when he come back in anyway they got on their horses and we ain't seen hide nor hair of em since miss waverley sat very still leaning forward a little her eyes big and bright upon the eyes of this other woman the man despite her calmer judgment appealed to her imagination you'd think mrs smith went on that that man would be tired enough for one day wouldn't you riding all day walking seven mile toting that big saddle on his back and now he goes and starts out to ride the lord knows how far what do you suppose a man like him is made on smith answered her out of the corner of his mouth from which a slow curl of smoke was mounting sand mostly no the girl could not say to these people that which she had to say of buck thornton she switched the conversation abruptly asking them to tell her of hills corners she knew something of the place already mr templeton had told her a great deal when insistently urging her not to do the thing she had determined to do and she had thought that he exaggerated mere in order to turn her aside from her purpose.

Starting point is 03:15:52 She had even heard far-fetching rumors of the border town in Crystal City, where her own home had been for the five years since the deaths of her parents. These rumors, too, she had supposed inflated as rumors will be, when they are bad and have traveled far. Now it was a little anxiously that she asked for further information, and not altogether because she sought some new topic. She's Henry Pollard's niece, Mary, Smith said rather hurriedly. The girl glanced at him sharply.

Starting point is 03:16:31 There was something in his tone which told her that he was warning his wife, cautioning her to speak guardedly of Pollard, or not at all. When an hour later she went to bed, she lay long sleepless, wondering, nervously dreading the morrow. For these people who should know gave Hill's corners the same name that Mr. Templeton had given it, the same name it bore as far as Crystal City and beyond. It was one of those far-removed towns which are the last stand of the lawless, the ultimate breastwork before the final ditch,

Starting point is 03:17:11 into which in his hour the gunfighter has finally gone down desperate characters men wanted in two states and perhaps in many more flocked here where they found the one chance to live out their riotous lives riotously here they could straddle the line and when wanted upon one side slip to the other and hereabouts for very many months miles in all directions, the big cattlemen, the small ranchers, the little fellows, all slept with their eyes open and their gunlocks oiled. But, she tried to tell herself, Henry Pollard had sent for her. He was her own mother's brother. He would not have had her come out here if it were not safe. He had written clearly enough, had told her, in his letter, that he could not leave the corners, that he must have the money, that there were hold-up men in the country who would not hesitate to rob the stage

Starting point is 03:18:21 if they learned that he had five thousand dollars in it, that she could bring the bills which Templeton would have ready for her, and that there would be no suspicion, no danger for her. And she would believe her, uncle, would believe that these people had had trouble with the bedloughs, and perhaps others in the town, and that they warped the truth in the telling. For was any more faith to be put in the words of the Smiths than in that of Buck Thornton himself? And did she not know him for what he was, a man who was not above assaulting a defenseless girl,

Starting point is 03:19:02 not above robbery? Weiried out, she went to sleep, her last waking thoughts trailing off through the night. after a man who could laugh like a boy, whose eyes could grow very gentle, or very, very hard and inexorable. In the morning, John Smith's first words to her drove again a hot, angry flush into her face, for he told her that Thornton, before he would ride away last night, had made sure that Smith would accompany her, showing her the way and taking care of. her. She bit her lip and turned away. She was grateful that soon breakfast was eaten, the horses saddled, and once more she was riding out toward the southeast. Smith rode at her

Starting point is 03:19:56 elbow. All morning they rode slowly over rough trails in the mountains, where a horse found scant foothold, where they wound down into deep, close-walled canyons, where the sunlight was dim at noon, where the pine stood tall and straight in thick ranks, untouched by an axe. They came out into little valleys, passed a half-dozen ranch houses, saw many herds of cattle and horses, crossed Indian gully, topped another steep ridge, and at last. looked down upon the poison-hole ranch. The ranch lay off to the east as they looked down upon it, a great sweep of rolling hills sprinkled with big oaks

Starting point is 03:20:47 looking like shrubs from their vantage point, cut in two by the big little river, along the banks of which, and out in the meadowlands, many herds of cattle ranged free. Rising in his stirrup, smith pointed out to her the spot near the center of the big range where buck thornton's range house was a dozen miles away over the rolling country and then he swung about and pointed to the south saying shortly yonder's the country you're looking for we stride due south here along the edge of the poison hole ranch when we get to that next string of lulls you can see the hills of Three states, all at once and the same time.

Starting point is 03:21:37 And you can see the town you're headed for. It sets on top a sort of hill. Down yonder, and he swung his long arm off to the southwest, is the Bar X outfit. That's as far as I'm going. But if you want company, one of the boys will surely be glad to ride on with you. The corners is only about a dozen miles from their... on. End of Chapter 11. Chapter 12 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory.

Starting point is 03:22:19 This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 12. Rattlesnake Pollard. It was barely noon, the air clear, the sky cloudless, when Winifred Waverly rode into hills' corners. She had shaken her head at the suggestion of further escort. here in the open country and in the full sunlight she was grateful for the opportunity of being alone at the foot of a gentle eminence she entered the narrow winding street of the town a crooked little town physically both in the matter of this meandering alley-like thoroughfare and in the matter of the hastily-built unprepossessing houses a crooked town in its innermost character it was easy to believe on either hand as she rode forward were low squat ugly shacks jammed tight together or with narrow passageways between their unlovely walls these spaces more often than not cluttered and further disfigured by piles of rusty tins old clothing and shoes and other discarded refuse

Starting point is 03:23:40 as she rode farther she saw now and then the more pretentious buildings some with the false fronts which deceived nobody the houses appearing shoddy and aged and sinister one here and there deserted and given over to ruin disintegration and spiders spinning unmolested in dark corners the next peculiar impression created upon her was that some evil charm was over the place that in the sweet sunlight it lay drugged that in those rows of slatternly shacks where the sunlight did not enter men either hid in dark secrecy or lay in some unnatural stupor the whole settlement seemed preternaturally quiet the fancy came to her that the town had died long ago and that she merely looked on its ghost she had shrunk before now at the thought of men coming to the doors to stare after her and perhaps even to call coarsely after her now it seemed the dreariest thing in all the world to ride down this dirty muddy street and see no man or woman or child not so much as a saddle horse at a hitching pole. She came abreast of the most pretentious building of Hill's corners. Its swing doors were closed, but from within she heard a low, monotonous hum of languid voices.

Starting point is 03:25:19 Upon the crazy false front, a thing to draw the wondering eye of a stranger, was a gigantic and remarkably poorly painted picture of a bear holding a glass in one deformed. paw, a bottle in the other, while the drunken letters of the superfluous sign spelled, The Brown Bear Saloon. Almost directly across the street from the brown bear was a rival edifice, which, though slightly smaller, was no less squat and ugly, and which bore its own highly ambitious sign, a monster hand clutching a monster whiskey glass, with the illuminating words beneath, the here's how saloon.

Starting point is 03:26:07 That the two works of art were from the same brain and hand, there was no doubting. In the inscriptions, the Ns and S's were all made backwards, presenting an interesting and entirely suitable air of maudlin drunkenness. The girl hurried by. There were other saloons, so many, so close to get. that used as she was to frontier towns she wondered at it she saw other buildings whose signs informed her they were store and post-office drug store blacksmith shop and restaurant and now the first visible token of life a thin spiral of smoke from dick's oyster house she passed it pushing her horse to a gallop she had seen the two or three men upon the high stools at the counter taking their coffee and bacon.

Starting point is 03:27:07 They had swung about quickly, like one man, at the cook's grin and quiet word. One of them even called out something as she passed. Another laughed. As she rode down the tortuous street, fairly racing now, the blood whipped into her face, she caught a glimpse of a man standing by his horse, preparing to stop. swing up into the saddle. His eyes followed her with a look in them, easy to read, and unpleasant, something too ardently admiring to be trusted. She had seen the man's face. He was a big man, broad and straight and powerful, built like a Vulcan. He was branded unmistakably as a rowdy. His very carriage, a sort of conscious swathing, a sort of conscious swath.

Starting point is 03:28:02 the bold impudence of his face told that the laughing face stood out before her eyes as she rode on evil and reckless and handsome with very bright blue eyes and hair curling in little yellow rings about the forehead from which the hat was pushed back it was her first glimpse of the youngest of the bedloe boys the worst of them the kid she knew that she would find her uncle's house at the end of the street mr templeton had told her that and had described it so that she could have no problem in knowing it and as she rode on making the curve of the long crooked lane which had come to be known as dead man's alley she found time to wonder that such a town could be so silent and deserted with the sun so high in the sky for she had not learned that here men did in their way what men do in larger cities that they turned the day topsy-turvy that the street seethed with surging life through late afternoon and night and the dark hours of the morning that the saloon stood brightly lighted then that their doors were filled with men coming and going that games ran high voices rose high while life as these men knew it ran higher still at last she came to henry pollard's house it stood back from the street in a little yard notable for the extreme air of untidiness the rank weeds gave it and for its atmosphere of semi-desertion among its few stunted twisted unpruned pear-trees

Starting point is 03:29:57 the fence about it had once been green but that was long long ago the doors were closed the shades close drawn over the windows the house still and gloom infested even in the sunlight stronger and higher within her welled her misgivings for the first time she admitted to herself that she was sorry that she had tried to do this thing which mr templeton had told her was madness she hesitated sitting her horse at the gate with half a mind to whirl and ride back when she had come and then with an inward rebuke to her own timidity she dismounted and hurried along the wee bordered walk and knocked at the door there came a quick answer a man's voice heavy and curt crying who is it are you mr pollard she called back her voice a little eager more than a little anxious yes there was a note as of excitement in the voice is that you winifred yes uncle i-i she faltered hesitated and broke off pitifully she had heard the eagerness in pollard's voice guessed at what it was that he was thinking, knew that now she would have to tell him that she had failed in the errand which he had entrusted to her, that she had let a man rob her of the $5,000 of which he

Starting point is 03:31:38 stood so urgently in need. Oh, why had she attempted to do it? Why had she not listened to Mr. Templeton? And now, what would her uncle say? Just a minute, Winifred. I'm a little unlawful. I'm a little unlawful. under the weather and him in bed, now." She heard no footsteps, yet there was the noise of a wooden bar being drawn away from the door. Come in, you'll pardon me, being in bed, my dear, and fasten the door after you, will you please? She stepped across the threshold and into the darkened house, her heart beating quickly. As she slipped the bar back into its place,

Starting point is 03:32:26 she saw that there was fastened to the end of it, a cord which passed through a pulley over the door, and then ran down the hallway, disappearing through another door at the left. So, following the cord, she went on slowly. The outside of the house had given her a certain impression. Now, in a flash, that impression was superseded, by a new one here was the home of a man of means the heavy rich furniture spoke of that the painting there in the living-room into which she glanced the tastefully papered walls the thick carpet muffling her footfalls

Starting point is 03:33:11 if only the curtains were thrown back if only the sun were looking in upon it all and now the man henry pollard whom she had not seen since she was a very little girl and then only during his short visit at her father's house struck her as being in some way not entirely unlike this habitation of his a gentleman gone to seed was that it his manner was courteous courtly even his speech soft his eyes gentle as they rested upon her gentle and yet eager there was something fine about his face about the eyes and high forehead and yet alongside it there was something else which drove a little pain into the girl's eyes the mouth was hard there were deep set lines about it and about the eyes there was a hint of cruelty which not even his smile hid entirely and though she strove to smile bravely as she strove to smile bravely as she strove to smile bravely as she had she came forward to kiss him she knew that she was disappointed and a little uneasy she knew that henry pollard must be about fifty she saw that he looked to be sixty he had pulled himself up against his pillows and had drawn on a dressing-gown to cover his shoulders he was well groomed he had a shave yesterday he did not look sick but he had a-dress-and he had a shave yesterday but he did not look sick but he did look old like a man who had aged prematurely and suddenly and he did look worried and tired as though he had not slept well last night

Starting point is 03:35:04 i am alone just now he smiled mrs riddell is keeping house for me but i heard her go out a little while ago for something for breakfast i suppose you're looking well winifred i knew you would be pretty now sit down no word yet of her errand no querious to its success she was grateful to him for that she wanted a moment time in which to feel that she knew him a little bit before she could tell him but she saw in his eyes that he was curbing his eagerness and that she would have to tell him in a moment i am sorry that you are sick uncle Henry, she said hastily, taking the chair near his bed. It isn't anything serious, is it? No, no. His answer was as hasty as her question had been. Just rheumatism, Winifred.

Starting point is 03:36:10 I'm subject to it here of late. Then she saw that he had sat stiffly, that his shoulder, the left shoulder, was carried awkwardly and was evidently bandaged i'm sorry she said again and then determined to tell him before he should ask uncle i oh it was so hard to say with him looking at her with those keen bright eyes of his you should have got some one else to help you i have failed i have lost your money for you she dropped her face into her hands trembling striving to keep her tears back feeling now as she had not felt before as if she had been altogether to blame for all that had happened as though it had been her carelessness that had cost her uncle his five thousand dollars and when at last he did not speak and she looked up again she saw that his eyes had not changed that there was no surprise in them that if he felt anything whatever he hid it don't cry about it my dear he said gently he even smiled a little tell me about it

Starting point is 03:37:33 you were robbed of it before you had more than got out of light of dry town how do you know she cried i don't know my dear but i do know that the stage came on through with no attempt at a hold-up and i guessed that our little ruse didn't fool anybody when i got the empty strong box from the bank i knew pretty well what to look for but she told him flushed with her hope we'll get it back for i know who robbed me i can swear to him pollard's hand lying upon the bedspread had shut tight she noticed that and no other sign of emotion and i know he said harshly yes i'll get it back now tell me how it happened it was a man named buck thornton she saw the quick change of light in his eyes and in the instant knew that if buck thornton hated henry pollard he was hated no less in return further she saw that back of the hatred there was a sort of silent laughter as though the thing she had said had pleased this man as no other thing could have pleased him that in some way which she could not understand this information had moved him as he had not been moved by news of his heavy loss and she wondered you are ready to swear to that he asked sharply his eyes searching and steady and eager upon hers you will swear that it was thornton who robbed you

Starting point is 03:39:26 yes she cried hotly as she remembered the insult of a kiss and in the memory forgot the robbery itself i'll get him now he muttered both ways going and coming tell me all about it winnifred she began speaking swiftly telling him of her meeting with thornton at the bank of her suspicion that he had overheard her talk with the banker then of her second meeting with the man after she had seen him on the trail behind her the encounter at the heart cabin a sudden banging of the kitchen door and he had stopped her abruptly putting his hand warning warningly upon her arm later it can wait that is mrs redell she will show you to your room and it will be better my dear if you say nothing to her or to any one else just yet she got to her feet and went to the door turning there to smile back at her uncle she saw that his pillows had slipped a little and that under them lay a heavy revolver and she saw that she saw that his pillows had slipped a little and that under them lay a heavy revolver and she saw her surprised upon the man's face a look which was gone so quickly that she wondered her she had seen right in the darkened room a look so filled with malicious triumph instead of being profoundly disturbed by the tidings of her adventure the man appeared positively to gloat now more than ever did she regret that she had come to the town of dead man's alley end of chapter twelve chapter thirteen of six feet four by jackson gregory this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter thirteen the ranch on big little river buck thornton had returned to the poison hole ranch

Starting point is 03:41:40 but first he had ridden from the smith place down the trail to hearts where he made swift careful search for some signs to tell him who was the man who had lamed his horse maliciously and seemingly with no purpose to be gained further he had sought for tracks to tell him from where this man had come where he had gone when he had found nothing he went he hardly knew why to the cabin pushed the door open and entered and instead of learning anything definitely now he was merely the more perplexed by the fireplace lay a chair overturned there had been some sort of hurried movement here perhaps a struggle the table had been pushed to one side one leg catching in the rag rug and rumbling it he struck a match lighted the lamp and sought for some explanation when had this struggle if struggle there had been occurred it must have been after he and miss waverley had set out on the trail to smiths he told himself positively then there had been two people here in the meantime for it takes two people to make a tussle and they had gone who could it be was he after all to find a clue to the man who had maimed his horse looking about him curiously it chanced that he found something that drove a puzzled frown into his eyes it had caught in the frayed edge of the rug and to have been so caught and so left meant that it had been done during the struggle he had already pictured he took it up into his hand trying to understand for it was the rowel of a spur a tiny sharp shining rowel that had come loose from a spur he remembered very well

Starting point is 03:43:43 and he remembered too that winniford waverley had had her spurs on when she came out to him at the barn it happened while i was out after the horses he sat down the shining spiked wheel lying in the palm of his hand, his brows drawn heavily. While I was out there, it happened. Some Jasper came in here. There was some sort of a tussle, and she didn't say a damned word about it. Yes, he was certain now that something had happened during the brief time between his going out for the horses

Starting point is 03:44:23 and the girls coming to him at the barn. Something that had changed her, that had killed her friendliness toward him, that had made her cold and cruelly different. The same man who slipped his knife across my horse's foot came in here and saw her while I was out for the horses, he said slowly. The same man, it must have been. And she could tell me who it was, and she didn't. Why? After they had struggled here, too. Why? He could see no reason in it at all, no reason for her silence, no reason for a man's malicious cruelty to a horse.

Starting point is 03:45:11 Nor were these of the only things which he could not understand. Groping for the truth, he began carefully to run over the things which had seemed strange to him, and which now struck him as being connected in some plan darkly hidden. The girl was Henry Pollard's niece. He began with that fact. She was on her way to Pollards, and on an errand which the banker Templeton had called mad and dangerous. Some man had followed her,

Starting point is 03:45:45 a man whom she had twice seen on the trail, and whose outfit resembled Thornton's, resembled it too closely to be the result of chance. The same headstall with the red red... tassel, the same gray neck handkerchief, a sorrel horse. By God, whispered the cowboy, a sudden light in his eyes. He lamed my horse so it would limp the same as his. So she'd be sure she had seen me on the trail behind her.

Starting point is 03:46:20 And when she came out and saw my horse limping, she knew I had lied to her. But why? why what lay back of all this in the end he put out the light slipped the spur rowel into his vest pocket and went out to his horse then when an hour's search brought him no nearer to the hidden truth for which he was groping he gave up trying to pick up this other man's trail in the rocky soil about hart's place and turned back toward the southeast and his own ranch i'm going to have a talk with you miss gray eyes he said softly i've got to give you back your spur and i'm going to ask you some questions he rode late into the night stopped for a few hours under the stars with saddle-blanket for bed and in the dawn pushed on again for the few days which followed he had in the stress of range work little time for thought of the riddle which had been set for him to solve, and when he had time after the day's work, he was tired and ready for sleep.

Starting point is 03:47:40 He was working shorthanded now, for the very simple and not uncommon reason, that he was spending no dollar which he did not have to spend. The payments he had already made to Pollard had been heavy for him, and there was yet another five thousand dollars to do that. to be forthcoming in six months. The contract was clear upon the point, and he knew that if he failed to meet his obligation, Henry Pollard would be vastly pleased,

Starting point is 03:48:12 being in a position to keep the 15,000 which had been paid to him and to get his range back to boot. Perhaps because Henry Pollard had never lived upon the ranch during the 20 years he had owned it, improvements were few and poor. poor. There was the barn, too small now, which must come down in another year. There was the old corral, which was little used, since Thornton had had the newer, bigger one built. Then for ranch house, there was a single-room cabin, its walls of heavy logs from the hills at the head of the

Starting point is 03:48:52 little big river, its door of great thick planks rough and nail-studded, its roots, its roots, of shakes a hundred yards from it at the foot of the knoll upon which the ranch house stood was a similar cabin a dozen feet longer serving as the men's bunk house big little river wound about the foot of the knoll separating thornton's cabin from the bunk house three or four feet deep here and spanned by a crude footbridge in its windings it made a sort of horseshoe of about the knoll, so that looking out from the door of the cattlemen's cabin, one saw the sluggish water to east, west, and north. Upon the third morning after his return to the range, Thornton rose early, scowled sleepily at the little alarm clock whose strident clamor had startled him out of his sleep at four o'clock, kicked off his pajamas, and, with towel and hand, started down to the river for his morning plunge. Subconsciously, he noted a scrap of white paper lying upon the hewn log, which served as

Starting point is 03:50:09 doorstep, but he paid no heed to it. He had his dip, diving from the big rock from which most mornings of the year he dived into the deepest part of the stream and in a little came back through the brightening daylight rosy and tingling and with the last webs of sleep washed out of his brain again he noted the paper this time he stopped and caught it up for now he saw that it was folded carefully placed where he must see it pinned down with a sharp pointed horseshoe nail now who's sending me letters this way he demanded of himself and he flushed a little and called himself a fool because he knew that he half expected to find that it was a note from a certain girl with unforgettably gray eyes but before he had read the few words as soon in fact as his eyes had fallen upon the uneven laboriously constructed letters of the lead-penciled scrawl he knew that this did not come from her hand the signature puzzled him it consisted of two letters initials evidently a very large j not capitalized followed by a very small capital c Now, who's J.C., he muttered? I can call to mind no J.C. who would be writing me letters.

Starting point is 03:51:48 As he read the note, a look of astonishment came into his eyes. It ran, Dear Buck, I am sure up against hard luck. Don't know anybody but you can give me a hand. Remember that time down in El Paso I was your first. friend come to old shack by poison hole to-night and don't tell nobody and bring some grub buck remember el paso j c p s i was your friend buck thornton remembered he went slowly about his dressing turning again and again to look at the note he had placed upon his little pine table that had been five years ago. He was riding between Juarez and El Paso, having just sold a herd of steers

Starting point is 03:52:44 from the range he had owned in Texas then. He had been detained in the Mexican town until after dark, and before its lights had ceased winking behind him, he had known that, though his precaution of taking a check instead of gold, had saved his money, to him it had not saved him from coming very close to death. There were still three scars, two in the shoulder, one in the right side, to show where the bullets had bitten deep into him, from behind.

Starting point is 03:53:20 He had been searched swiftly, roughly, his clothing torn by the hurried fingers of the man who had shot him. It had been close to midnight when his consciousness came back to him. A little man, hard for him, featured, but gentle-fingered, was working over him. It was Jimmy Clayton, and Clayton had found the crumpled check in the darkness,

Starting point is 03:53:45 had gotten the wounded man on his own horse, had taken him to El Paso, and finally had saved his life, nursing him, working over him day and night for the two weeks in which his life was in danger. Since then, Thornton had seen little of Clayton. He had known even at the time of the shooting that the man was as hard a character as his close set little eyes and weasel face bespoken. He had come to know him as an insatiate gambler,

Starting point is 03:54:19 the pitiful sort of gambler, who was too much of a drunkard to be more than his opponent's dupe at cards. He had found him to be a brawler, and very much of a ruffian. But though he did not close his... eyes to these things they did not matter to him for gratitude and a sense of loyalty were two of the strong silver threads that went to make up the mesh of buck thornton's nature and it was enough to him that little jimmy clayton had played the part of friend in a town where friends were scarce and at a time when but for a friend he would have died it was not alone the fact of clayton's turning up here and now that surprised the cattle man it was the fact of his turning up anywhere for he had thought that clayton weak-natured and so very often the other man's tool was serving time in the texas penitentiary for three years ago rumour had brought to him word of a sheriff's clean-up

Starting point is 03:55:27 and the names of three men who had been working a crude confidence game bold rather than shrewd and jimmy clayton's name was one of the three he had heard only after the men had been convicted and sentenced for five years apiece and had at the time regretted that he could not have known sooner so that in some way he might have returned the favor he had never forgotten at last having dressed he shoved the letter into his pocket and went down to the bunk-house for breakfast to the cook and to the three men already at the table he had little to say so full were his thoughts of jimmy clayton he was wondering what hard luck the little fellow had run up against why he was hiding out at a place like poison-hole shack how he had gotten a letter to the range cap and if he had brought it himself why had he not made himself known last night he gave his few succinct orders for the day made his hurried meal and went to the corral for his horse and all that day he rode hard out into the broken country where the eastern end of the range ran up and back into the gorges of the mountains shifting herd collecting stragglers bringing them down into the meadowlands where the feed was abundant now that he had sold the cattle he had had ranging there in order that he might raise the money to make up the five thousand dollars for henry pollard as he rode he spoke seldom to the horse running under him or to the boys with whom he worked his thoughts flying now to another horse lamed from a knife cut now to a girl who spur

Starting point is 03:57:25 spur rowl he carried in his vest pocket now to a man whose appealing letter he carried in another pocket and he was glad when the day was done and the boys raced away through the dusk to their supper not infrequently did he ride on after he had told the others to knock off working himself harder than he could ask them to work riding late to look at the water-holes or find a new pasture in some of the other the little mountain valleys, or to bring in a fresh string of saddle horses for the morrow's riding. So now, as darkness gathered, he watched the boys scamper away to their food and smoke and bunks, and rode on slowly toward the north. He chose this time the thickening darkness before moonrise, for he had caught the insistent plea for secrecy running through the lines of letter. And so, though he was not a little impatient and curious, he let his tired horse choose its own loitering gate, willing that the knight draw down blacker about him.

Starting point is 03:58:39 He crossed the big flat, rich grassy land watered by the big little river, and struck off into the hills that closed in about it, following the river trail. It was very still, with no sound save the swish of the water against the willows drooping downward from its banks no light save the dim glimmer of the early stars for two miles he followed the stream then left it for a short cut over the ridge to pick it up again upon the farther side now he was in a tiny valley with the mountains close to the spot which gave its name to the range big little river writhed in from the east twisted out to the south and in the shut-in valley it made and left behind it to all but cover the entire floor of the valley a lakelet of very clear water not over a quarter of a mile from edge to edge but very deep upon the far side a little back and close under the overhanging cliffs there was a great jagged mouth yawning whole of a type not uncommon in this part of the western country, from which heavy noxious gases drifted sometimes when the wind caught them up, gases which, for the most

Starting point is 04:00:09 part, thickened and made deadly the dark interior. There were skeletons to be seen dimly by daylight down there, ten feet below the surface of the uneven ground, the vaguely phosphorus bones of jack-rabbits that had fallen into this natural trap of coyotes even of a young cow that had been overpowered before it could struggle upward along the steep sides and the odor clinging to the mouth of the hole was indescribably foul and sickening not a pretty place and yet some man many years ago had built him a habitation here that was half dug-out half log leaned to. The door of the place faced poison hole and was not 200 yards from it. The hovel had been in disuse

Starting point is 04:01:05 long before Buck Thornton came to the range, save as a shelter to some of the wild things of the mountains. From the southern shore of the lake, Thornton stared across the little body of water, trying to make out a light to tell him that Clayton was expecting him. but there was no fire and the stars reflecting themselves in the natural mirror failed to show him so much as the outline of the lean-to in the shadows of the cliffs he turned down into the trail which ran about the shore passed around the western end of the lake and riding slowly his eyes ever watchful about him as was the man's habit he came at last to the desert

Starting point is 04:01:54 shack. End of Chapter 13. Chapter 14 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 14. In the name of friendship. Twenty yards from the door he drew rain, sitting still, frowning into the darkness.

Starting point is 04:02:28 Not for the first time was he realizing that the note might not be from Clayton at all. that some other man could have known of his debt of gratitude to the little fellow who had befriended him five years ago that the name might have been used to draw him here alone and very far from any ears to hear any eyes to see what might happen he could name a half-dozen men who were not above this sort of thing men who had some of them sworn to get him there were the bedloe boys the three of the three of the three of the men who had some of them sworn to get him there were the bedloe boys the three of them there were two other men who do not come into this story there was henry pollard and it would be almighty like pollard to put up a job like this he told himself grimly he could afford to pay a man a good little pile to get me out of the game and keep the money i've paid him and get back his range besides and i reckon the kid would be one of a dozen who would take on the job dirt cheap he reigned his horse a little deeper into the shadows then he slipped swiftly from the saddle one end of his thirty feet rope in his hand the other end about the horse's neck and with a quick flick of the quirt sent the animal trotting ahead to swing about and stop when the rope drew taut he half expected his ruse to draw fire from somewhere in the darkness

Starting point is 04:04:02 instead there came a low voice sharp and querulous through the open door that you buck yes that you clayton yes are you alone yes then thornton came on swiftly coiling his rope as he walked for he had recognized the voice what's the matter jimmy he was at the door now peering in but making nothing of the blot of shadows come in clayton answered and shut the door buck i'll make a light when the door shut he stepped in dropping his rope and moving slowly again his back against the wall for after all he would not be sure of everything until there was a light until he saw that he was alone with clayton a match sputtered making vague shadows as it was held in a cupped hand it travelled downward to the earthen floor found the stub of a candle and then the greater light poor as it was drove out the shadows and thornton saw that it was jimmy clayton that the man was alone and that evidently his note had put it mildly when he said that he had struck hard luck the man small slight and nervous-looking lay upon a bed of boughs covered with an old saddle-blanket his eyes bright as though with fever or fear the skin of his face were it seen through the black stubble of beard looked yellow with sickness the cheek-bone stood out sharply little pools of shadow emphasizing the hollowness of his sunken cheeks

Starting point is 04:05:59 above the waist he was stripped to his undershirt a rude bandage under the shirt was stained the reddish-brown of dried blood a quick pity drove the distrust out of the eyes of the man who saw and who remembered you poor little devil he said softly he reached out his hand quickly downright hungrily for jimmie's clayton took the hand eagerly and held it a moment in his tense hot fingers as his eyes sought and studied thornton's then he sank back with a little satisfied sigh lying flat his hands under his head i'm sure gone to seed huh buck he demanded it's tough jimmy tell me about it the broken line of discolored teeth showed suddenly under the lifted lip it ain't much to tell buck clayton answered slowly as the snarl left the pinched features but it's somethin for a man to think about when he lays in a hole like this like a sick cat but buck and he spoke sharply didn't you bring no grub with you yes jimmy wait a minute thornton stepped outside not forgetting to close the door quickly after him jerked the little package from his saddle-strings where it had posed all day as his own lunch and brought it back into the dugout i didn't know just what you wanted but here's some bread and a hunk of cold meat and here's some coffee we'll get it to boiling in a minute and-and a drink buck eagerly you brung a flask didn't you yes jimmy thornton assured him with a quiet smile he whipped the flask from his pocket and removing the cork held it out

Starting point is 04:08:09 i remember you used to say a meal without a drink wasn't any use to you clayton put out a swift hand for the flask shot it to his lips and the gurgle of the running liquor spoke of a long drought now the grub buck he sat up a little healthier color in his cheeks let the coffee go it'll come in handy to-morrow thornton made a cigarette and leaning back against the door watched this outcast who bore the brand of the hunted on his brow whose eyes were feverish with the hunger that was ravenous poor little old jimmy he muttered under his breath clayton picked up over the contents of the little package with hasty fingers pushing the bread aside eating noisily of the meat when at last he had finished he rolled up the remainder of the lunch in the greasy paper thrust it under the corner of his blanket and put out his hands for the tobacco and papers i ain't even had a smoke for three days buck honest o god i ain't now jimmy thornton suggested when both men was smoking and clayton again lay on his back resting better tell me about it can't i move you over to my cabin no buck you can't and i'll tell you he broke off suddenly his eyes burning with an anxious intensity upon thornton's then with a new note in his voice a half whimper he blurted out honest to god i'll blow my brains out before i let em get me again

Starting point is 04:10:04 but you wouldn't give me away buck would you you remember how i stuck by you down in el paso won't you buck you wouldn't give a damn for-for a reward if they was to offer one would you buck cause you know i'd shoot myself if they got me and you don't forget how i stuck to you do you buck no jimmy came the assurance very softly i don't give a damn for the reward and I don't forget. Pull yourself together, Jimmy. Then here it is, and I'll give you my words, help me God, that every little bit of it is like I'm telling you. I ain't stringing you, Buck, and I am putting myself in your hands, like one friend with another. That's right, ain't it? That's right, Jimmy. Go ahead. They had me in the pen, then. You knowed that, Buck. Run me in, by God, because I happened to be having a drink with a man named Stenton and a man named Cosgrove and a dirty mex, as was all crooked and was wanted for something they pulled off back down there. I don't know rightly what it was. Damn if I do, Buck, but they wanted somebody, and they got the deadwood on them jasper's. And me, being seen with them, they put me across, too.

Starting point is 04:11:38 Put me across three years ago, Buck, and it was hell. Just hell, that's all. Hell for a man like me, Buck, as is used to sleeping outdoors, and the fresh air blowing over the big ranges, and horses and things, and... Well, I stood it for three years, Buck. years man think of that you don't know what it means and then when i couldn't stand it no longer and his voice dropped suddenly and the look of the hunted ran back into his eyes i broke jail and i got this he touched his fingers gingerly to the bandage side wincing even with a gesture two bullets he muttered colt forty-five's and i've been like this nine days or ten i ain't sure and nights buck the night's god thornton his lips tightening a little watched the man and for a moment said nothing and then suddenly his voice commanding the truth don't hold back anything jimmy he said it'll be all over the country in a week anyway

Starting point is 04:13:01 how'd you make your getaway did you have to kill anybody he had his answer in the silence which for ten seconds clayton's twitching lips hesitated to break when spoken answer came it was broken down into a whisper i-i wasn't gonna hurt anybody buck honest to god i wasn't and then-then i got hold his gun and i seen he was goin to fight for it, and I had to shoot. I didn't go to kill him, Buck. And he shot me first with the other gun. You ought to see them

Starting point is 04:13:43 holes in my side. And he stopped abruptly, and then, a little defiant sweeping up into his eyes, rushing into his voice, he ended sulkily. The son of a blank, had it coming to him.

Starting point is 04:13:59 for a long time buck thornton sunk into a deep thoughtful silence said nothing jimmy's account of an adventure of this kind was sure to be garbled considering it in an attempt to get to the truth at the bottom of it was an occupation comparable to that of staring down into muddy water in search of a hidden white pebble he knew jimmy clayton he knew him as perhaps clayton did not know himself. The man had been sent to State's prison, not because of the company he kept, but because, in Jimmy's own words, he had it coming. He had known long ago that Jimmy Clayton would end this way, or worse. Now Clayton was giving his own version of the killing of the guard, and this version would probably be a lie. But through all of these considerations which Thornton saw so clearly, there was something else, something seen as clearly, looming high and distinct above them.

Starting point is 04:15:09 Jimmy had played the part of friend, when but for a friend Thornton would have died. That counted with Buck Thornton, and now Clayton had sent for him, had entrusted into his hands all hope of safety, and he was not this man's judge. while the cowboy sat silent and thoughtful jimmy clayton was watching him watching him with anxiety brilliant in his eyes his tongue moistening constantly moistening the lips which went dry and parched and cracked thornton knew without lifting his eyes from the pool of shadow quivering at the base of the candle stub you ain't goin back on me buck

Starting point is 04:15:58 the wounded man had drawn himself up on his elbow i'll leave it to you buck if i didn't stick by you when you was in trouble remember buck when i found you out on the trail between warrez and el paso and you don't care a damn about the reward buck you said so didn't you jimmy said thornton slowly lifting his eyes from the floor to meet both the pleading and the terror in Clayton's. I'm going to do what I can for you, but I don't quite know what is to be done. They're going to be on your tail mighty soon, if they're not on it now. Can you ride?

Starting point is 04:16:45 I can't ride much, Buck. And yet Clayton's voice rang with its first note of hope, for if Thornton knew him, then no less did Clayton know Thornton. and Buck had said that he was going to help him. I rode them two hundred miles getting here, me all shot to hell that away, and I rode into your camp last night to leave the letter,

Starting point is 04:17:13 and I guess if it had been half a mile further, I wouldn't never have made it back. Why didn't you come in at my cabin? I'd have fixed you up there. I come awful near it, Buck, I wanted to, but I didn't know. There might have been some of the other boys bunkin there, and I wasn't taking chances.

Starting point is 04:17:38 I see. Now, let's see what we're going to do. He stood whipping at his boots with his quirt, trying to see away. This lonely place might be a safe refuge for a few days, but range business sometimes carried his men this far. and soon or late someone would stumble upon clayton's hiding-place clayton's voice eager again and confident broke into his thoughts i got to find somebody as'll give me a lift ain't i a man can't go on playing a lone hand like i'm a-doin an get away with it long now i got to be laid up here four or five days anyway until i can ride again you can't go on playing a lone hand like i'm a-doin'n you can't go on to be laid up here four or five days anyway until i can ride again you can can keep your punchers away from here that long, can't you?

Starting point is 04:18:34 Yes, I can give them plenty to do on the other end. That's good, and you can ride out again at night, you know, Buck, and smuggle me some more grub, can't you? Yes, but... Wait a minute. I know a man in hills' corners as it'll give me a hand. I'd done him favors before now, same way. as I done for you, Buck, and he knows the ropes up here. You can get word to him, can't you?

Starting point is 04:19:06 And then I'll drift, and he'll look out for me, and you'll be square with what I've done for you, Buck. Will you do it? Yes, Jimmy, I'll do it. I'll ride in and see your man at the corners. Who is it, Jimmy? And you won't tell nobody but him, will you, Buck? No, I won't tell anyone else. Who is it? It's a man as may be crooked with some, said Clayton slowly. But he's awful square with a pal. It's a man name of Bedloe. They call him the kid. End of chapter 14.

Starting point is 04:19:59 Chapter 15 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. chapter fifteen the kid so the next day buck thornton rode away to the south and to hills corners he had planned to have his errand over early to have seen the kid and to have turned back toward the ranch before noon for he knew the town's habit of late sleeping and he wanted to be gone from it before it was awake and pouring into its long street and into its many swinging doors and to be gone from it before it was awake and pouring into its long street and into its many swinging doors the stream of men whom he had no wish to see now. Perfectly well he knew how easily he could find trouble there, and it seemed to him that he had enough on his hands already without seeking to add to it.

Starting point is 04:20:54 But the press of range business kept him later than he had thought it would, and then the one horse in the range he would ride today had to be found out in the hills and roped. Thor, he told him. himself grimly, If I'm going to stick my nose in that man's town, I'm going to have a horse between my knees that knows how to do something more than creep.

Starting point is 04:21:20 And when it comes to horses, there's only one real horse I ever saw. I got you, Comet, you old son of a gun. And his rope flew out, and its wide noose landed with much precision, drawing tight about the neck of a great, lean-barreled, defiant-eyed four-year-old that in the midst of its headlong flight stopped with feet bunched together before the rope had grown tot the animal standing now like a horse cut from a block of gray granite chiselled by the hands of a great sculptor who at the same time was a great lover of equine perfection

Starting point is 04:22:02 swung about upon its captor its eyes blazing just a little quiver of the clean-cut nostrils showing the red satin of the skin lining them the mane was like a tumbled silken skein the ears dainty and small and keen pointed the chest splendidly deep and strong the forelegs small so slender that to a man who did not know a horse they would have seemed fragile but only because they were all bone and sinew like steel and muscle hardened and stripped clean of the last milligram of fat as exquisite as the perfect ankle of a high-bred woman part greyhound meant part steam engine and part devil thornton muttered with vast approval shining in his eyes and all horse a man could ride you right through hell little horse and come out the other side and never smell your hair burn he drew saddle and bridle from the animal he had been riding and turned it loose. Then coiling his rope as he went, he came up to Comet's high-lifted head. With much evident distaste, but with what looked like too much pride to struggle in an encounter in which he knew that he was to be overcome, the big gray accepted the hard

Starting point is 04:23:33 Spanish bit. He allowed, too, the saddle to be thrown on him, only a quick little quivering of the tense flanks and a twitching of the skin upon his back, showing that he felt and resented. And then with his master's weight upon him, his master's softened voice in his ear, a hard hand very gently stroking the hot shoulder, Comet shook his head, a great sigh expanded the deep lungs, and he was the perfect saddle-horse, with too much sense to rebel further at the knowledge that after all he is a horse, and the man who bestrides him is a man. And Buck Thornton, because he knew this animal and loved him, slackened the reins a little, since the tensing of the powerful muscles slipping like pliant steel through satin sheaths,

Starting point is 04:24:32 turned the proud head toward the south, and felt the rush of air whipping back his hat brim, stinging his face as they shot out across the rolling hills. When Comet had had his run, racing through the other herds that flung up their heads to look at him, and the first half-mile had sped away behind, Thornton coaxed him down into a gentle gallop, swearing at him with much soft and deep affection. Easy, little horse, he soothed.

Starting point is 04:25:06 Easy! We're going to dead man. we'll go in slow and watching where we put our feet all rested and quick on the trigger and ready to come out if we want to like winning a race and comet snorting his dislike of any conservation of strength and energy nevertheless obeyed so it was a little after three o'clock when they entered the crooked narrow street which gives a bad town a bad name the town had shaken off the lethargy of its morning sleep there were many men in the street some riding back and forth disdaining to walk the distance of a hundred yards from a saloon that they had just left to the saloon to which they were going some sitting their horses in the shade lounging in the saddle as a man may lounge in an arm-chair some idled on foot at the swinging doors while many others made a buzz of deep-throated voices at the bars and over the gaming tables as buck thornton riding slowly his hat back upon his head his eyes ranging to right and left came into the street where winnifred waverley had entered it last week more than one man lifted his eyebrows unseeing him and wondered what business had brought him here

Starting point is 04:26:37 for the memory of his meeting with the bedloe was still green the scars which the kid wore on his right wrist and his left arm were still fresh and this town was the bedloe's town in more ways than one he nodded to a few men spoke to fewer for here he was more a stranger than he was in dry town riding straight to the brown bear saloon he swung down he left his horse trained to stand by the hour for him at the edge of the board sidewalk the bridle reins caught around the horn of the saddle moved at an even pace through the men at the door and went in side a dozen men stood at the long bar big men and little dark men and light of this nationality and that but alike in the one essential thing that they were of the type by which the far-out places are wrested from the wilderness of god and made part of the wildness of man hard men of tongue of hand of nature hard drinkers hard fighters gunmen to the last man of them who live with a gun always by a gun often enough who are dropping fast before the onrush of the civilization for which they themselves have made the way but who will daily walk over their graves until the glimmer of steel rails runs into the last of the far places until there be no longer wide unfenced miles where cattle run free and and rugged mountain sides into which men dipped to bring out red and yellow gold.

Starting point is 04:28:31 Thornton's eyes ran down the line of them swiftly. There was no man in there whom he knew. He stepped a little to one side, the door at his left, the bare front wall at his back. He stood loosely, carelessly to judge from the little slump of the shoulders, the burning cigarette and the fingers of his left hand the thumb of the right hand caught in his belt the bar was at his left the bare floor running away in front of him sawdust covered the string of gaming tables stretched along the wall at his right as by instinct his eyes lighted upon the man whom he sought for a round top table where three men cut and dealt at a stud then a ferro lay out with its quick-eyed dealer its quick-eyed lookout upon its stool its half-dozen men playing and looking on then the wheel then a second table with six men busy at draw there at this table with his broad back to him sat the kid and as usual to complete the youthful swagger of him he wore

Starting point is 04:29:51 his two guns in plain sight still the cattle man made no move still his eyes ran back and forth seeking showing nothing of what they sought or of what they had found already he marked every man in the place saw that there were only two of them besides the kid whom he had ever seen before one the bartender one a man with whom he had had no dealings noted that neither charlie nor ed bedloe were in the house he saw too that the bartender had leaned a little over his bar saying something swiftly to the man whom he was serving that the man was serving that the man turned curiously to look toward the door, while at the same time the man across the table from the kid had given warning, and the kid's hands had come away from his cards, dropping down into his lap. Then Thornton came on, walking slowly, passing about the first poker table, then by the farrow table, the roulette wheel, and finally to the table where the kid sat. bedloe had not moved again he had not turned his cards lay unheeded before him the other men were silent with a jackpot waiting for their attention

Starting point is 04:31:22 when he turns thornton was telling himself it's going to be in the direction of his gun and he's going to come up shooting there were many men there who sensed the thing he did not a man in the saloon whose eyes were not keen and expectant as they ran back and forth between the two thornton who had shot bedloe before now bedloe who had sworn to get him a chair leg scraped and many men started as if it had been the first pistol shot it was only the man across the table from bedloe moving back a little ready to leap to his feet to his feet to right or left. Somebody laughed. At the sound, though, Bedloe's big, thick body remained steady like a rock, his fingers twitched perceptibly. Bedloe? And Thornton's voice was cool and low-toned, with no tremor in it, no fear, no threat, no hint of any kind of expression. I want to talk with you. He was not five short paces behind the brawler's back. The kid turned a little in his chair, slowly, very slowly, like a machine.

Starting point is 04:32:48 His eyes came to rest full upon Thornton's, and Thornton, looking back steadily into the hard eyes, steely and blue and fearless, low-lidded and watchful, knew that the man had fully expected to see straight, into the barrel of a revolver. For a moment, it was as though this place had come under such a spell as that in the tale of the sleeping beauty, with every man touched by a swift enchantment

Starting point is 04:33:19 that had stilled his blood and turned his body to stone. Thornton saw that Bedloe's hands were tense with tendons standing out sharply under the brown skin, the fingers rigid, curved inward a little, and not three inches from the grips of his guns and bedloe saw that thornton carried a burning cigarette in his left hand that his right with thumb caught in the band of his shafts was careless only in the seeming and that it too was alert and tense and he remembered the lightning quickness of that right hand what do you want no bluster no threat no fear no hint of expression in the voice which was as steady as thornton's with something in it akin to the steely steadiness of the hard eyes they spoke slowly with little pauses little silences between the man whose chair had scraped looked uncomfortable the muscles of his throat contracted his hands shut tight upon his cards

Starting point is 04:34:31 cracking the backs. Then he pushed back his chair again, swiftly, and got to his feet. His deep breathing was audible when he stood to one side, where, if there was to be shooting, he would no longer be in line. No one noticed him. I want a quiet talk, was Thornton's reply. I'm not here to start anything, Bedloe. Will you give me a chance to talk? with you?" Bedloe pondered the words, without distrust, without credence, merely searching for what lay back of them, and finally he answered with a brief question,

Starting point is 04:35:14 Where? Anywhere, in yonder! And Thornton's nod indicated the little room partitioned off from the larger for a private poker room, while his eyes clung to Bedloe's. or outside anywhere again the kid pondered i'm playing poker he said presently very quietly and i ain't playing for fun there's one hell of a lot of a money changing hands this deal and with the first flash of defiance and much significance to words and looks alike my luck's running high to-day i'll wait until you play your hand returned thornton without hesitation i'll step right over here as he spoke he moved walking slowly with cautious feet feeling for an obstacle over which he might stumble and so for just one vital fraction of a second give the kid the chance to draw first his eyes upon the eyes which followed him

Starting point is 04:36:27 he stepped so about the table to the other side so that bedloe once more sitting straight in his chair faced him over the jackpot the big blue-eyed man didn't speak it was his move and he knew it knew that all men there were looking at him he studied thornton's eyes as he had never studied a man before taking his time cool clear-headed He could get his gun in a flash. He could throw himself to one side as he jammed it across the table, shooting. He could do it before most men there could even guess that he was going to do it. He knew that very well. And he knew, too, that although he was quick and sure on the draw, here was a man who was just that wee, deadly fraction of a second quicker.

Starting point is 04:37:24 as though he would find a flicker in the steady eyes of the other man to tell him what he wanted to know he moved his hand his left of very very little so little that save at a time like this no man would have seen there came no change in thornton's eyes the kid lifted the hand laying it with still fingers upon the table before him still nothing in thornton's eyes to tell him that he had seen or had not seen one second more the kid sat motionless pondered then he had decided the right hand came up and lay beside the left on the table a man at the bar set down his glass and the faint noise against the hard wood sounded unnaturally loud another man ordered a man ordered a bar to the bar sat down his glass and the faint noise against the hard wood sounded unnaturally loud another man ordered a drink and the low voice breaking the silence sounded like a shout men who had stood in tense cramped positions moved games that had stopped went on the strain of a few moments was gone though still no one lost sight for more than an instant of thornton and the kid bedloe dropped his eyes to his cards merely turning the corners as they lay flat on the table the man who had gotten hastily out of his chair came back the game went on as the others were going silently and swiftly the jackpot was opened boosted and grew fat

Starting point is 04:39:11 bedloe played a cool hand and the impression until near the showdown was that he was not to be reckoned with then a little impudently as was his way he shoved his pile to the centre of the table see that or drop out he said curtly the nervous man dropped out two men saw it they both lost to the kid's full hand he swept up the golden silver and slipped it into his pocket his hand going very close to his gun during the process but never hesitating then he got to his feet let's go outside he said turning toward thornton he led the way swinging about so that the broad of his back was to the man who followed him and the man whom he had sworn to kill walking so a few paces between them they passed by the bar through the clutter of men about the door and out upon the narrow sidewalk still the kid did not stop he strode on not so much as looking to see if he were followed until he came to the middle of the narrow street then he came to a quick halt and turned now said the kid spit it out if you want to finish what we begun at smith's start in i'm ready i told you thornton answered him-the i told you thornton answered him that i am not looking for trouble when i am i know where i can find it he dropped his voice yet lower so that by no possibility could any one of the men upon the sidewalk hear him and ended

Starting point is 04:41:08 jimmy clayton sent me and asked the kid coolly who the hell is jimmy clayton he's a poor little devil who is in need of a friend if he's got any, Thorne returned. And he said you're the only friend he had here. Maybe I am and maybe I ain't. The sharpness of suspicion was still high in Bedloe's eyes. What about him? You knew he was in the pen? I ain't answering questions. Go ahead.

Starting point is 04:41:48 He broke jail. a few days ago. He killed his guard and got himself pretty badly shot up. I guess they're on his trail now, and he's going to swing for it if they ever get him. Where is he? asked Bed low sharply, with no lessening of the suspicion and ready watchfulness. In the old dugout at the poison hole. How's it happen you know so much about it? jimmy was a friend to me once when i needed a friend he got this far he held out to ride to my cabin night before last and left a note i took him out some grub last night it's all i can do for him i haven't any way to hide him out and he's in too bad shape to ride well where do i come in thornton shrugged his shoulders

Starting point is 04:42:48 that's your business yours and jimmies he said that you were a pal of his and he added bluntly with a keen curious look into the kid's steel-blue eyes that you never went back on a pal behind him in the street thornton heard the clatter of horses hoofs coming on rapidly he paid no attention until they were close to him so close that from the corner of his eye he caught the flutter of a woman's skirt then he knew who it was before she passed on one was pollard looking white and sick the other rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed was winnifred waverley a quick smile drove the sternness from his eyes and he swept off his hat to her ignoring the presence of pollard but into her expression as she returned his look for the moment in which she was flashing by there came no vague hint of recognition he turned back to bedloe a little flush of anger in his cheeks the two men were very near only battle just then for the kid smiled how do i know you're telling me the truth they had gone back to jimmy clayton bedloe speaking suspiciously again how do i know you ain't putting up a game on me it's a nice lonely place where that dugout is the flush died out of the cowboy's tan skin as swiftly as it had run into it i guess you can't tell he retorted unless you go and find out and you know if i wanted a game to get it

Starting point is 04:44:45 you, I could have got you in there. And I could have got you that time at Smith's. And, with an impudence to match bedlows, I could get you now. The kid passed over the remark, his brows knitted thoughtfully. Well, he said in a moment, you've shot your wad now, ain't you? I guess there ain't no call for me and you to talk all day? that's all what'll i tell jimmy you can tell him he ain't made no mistake you may be lying and you may be tippin me the straight but he is a pal o mine an a damn decent little pal and i'll take a chance you'll get him if he's there i'll get him when you'd like the time a day to the minute i reckon he laughed softly just the first show i get which'll be in three or four days if you want a horse for him after a while a good horse i'll give him one that's the best i can do and i guess

Starting point is 04:46:04 That's all, Bedloe. Thornton stepped back toward his horse. Bedloe turned abruptly and strode through the crowd of men on the sidewalk, and back to the saloon and his game, no doubt. Thornton swung up into the saddle, and riding swiftly, passed down the street and back toward the range. As he went, he felt little satisfaction in an errand done, little relief to have it over, for he was thinking of the look in a girl's eyes, and again a flush ran up into his cheeks, the bright flush of anger.

Starting point is 04:46:50 End of Chapter 15. Chapter 16 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 16. A Guarded Conference With flaming eyes, Winifred Waverley whirled upon her uncle. "'Why do you suffer it?' she cried hotly. "'The man knows that I was not deceived by his idiotic mask. He knows that I have told you, and still you let him go free where he pleases, swagger about with brawlers like that horrible kid bed low, and dribble your money over the bars for drink and over.

Starting point is 04:47:42 the poker tables. Why do you suffer it?" A fleeting smile of deep satisfaction brightened Pollard's eyes. They had ridden home in silence, and now, with the door barely closed behind them, she had turned upon him with her indignant question. "'I am waiting,' began Pollard. "'Wating for what?' she demanded, until he can have had time to squander what is rightfully yours, until there be no chance of getting it back or bringing such a man to justice? You little fire-eater, he laughed at her. Come with me in here.

Starting point is 04:48:26 He turned and led the way into the room just off the hall and at the front of the house, where he had his office. When the door was closed behind him, he dropped into a chair, his face a little white and drawn from the exertion. of his ride, the first he had had since the girl had come. I want to talk with you, and I don't want anybody, Mrs. Riddell in particular, to overhear. She's too fond of talking. Winifred stood across the room from him, her quirt in her hand switching restlessly at the

Starting point is 04:49:04 carpet, her eyes showing a little sympathy for his illness, but more anger at Buck Thornton. You ask why I don't bring that man to reckoning, and I tell you that I am waiting. Then you ask for what? He leaned a little forward, and she saw again in his eyes the look she had surprised there on that first day she had come to Hill's corners, a look of hate and of a sinister satisfaction. Waiting for the time when I am sure there will be no loophole for him to crawl through. you are ready to go into a court-room and swear that he robbed you that is a great deal and it will go a long way toward convicting him but it isn't enough it's only your word against his don't you see he will swear that he did not rob you won't he we can prove that you left dry town with the five thousand dollars we might even prove that you didn't bring it on to me

Starting point is 04:50:12 but we couldn't prove beyond the last shadow of doubt that you didn't lose it or that somebody else didn't rob you of it but she asked frowning in her perplexity what good will it do to wait your evidence he went on slowly as though working the thing out for himself is enough to convince eleven jurors out of twelve now we must make sure of the twelfth how will we do it one way is to find the lost bank-notes in thornton's possession the other way is to get other evidence to add to yours cumulative evidence all of which will point one way to one conclusion to one conclusion she repeated after him prompting him so eager was she for him to go on to the fact that buck thornton is the man who for six months now has been committing the series of crimes running the gamut from the murder of a stage driver to the theft of cattle from kemble's place that is the thing i am waiting for she frowned a mental picture of the cowboy rose quickly and vividly before her she saw the clear steadfast eyes the free upright carriage the flash of a smile that was like a boy's she had come to be firm in her belief that he was the man who had robbed her had forced the insult of his kiss upon her but it was hard with that picture of him before her to think him a murderer too but then as though to sweep away her last shred of doubt the vision widened and into it came another man she saw buck thornton as she had seen him only a few minutes ago in seeming friend

Starting point is 04:52:15 conversation with the youngest bedloe whose eyes soiled the woman they rested upon whose name had traveled even to her home in crystal city and beyond as a roisterer a brawler a man of unsavory deeds done boldly and shamelessly i am a little sick of it all she said wearily i want to go back home uncle he had looked for that and had his answer ready i know winnifred and i don't blame you but i want you to stay a little longer won't you your evidence is going to be the strongest card in our deck will you stay and give it how long not long now i expect dalton here to-day who is dalton cole dalton the sheriff he is as anxious as i am him to get his hands on thornton the whole country has been growing hotter in its criticism of him every day for the last six months blaming him for not rounding up the man who has committed one depredation on top of another and gotten away with it and you are sure she hesitated a little in spite of herself repeating you are sure that buck thornton is that man yes i guessed it a long time ago i know it now that he has robbed you you will wait a few days won't you yes i'll wait but oh she cried out with sudden vehemence swinging about when half-way to the door i hate this sort of thing get it over with quick uncle henry she left him then and went upstairs to her own room

Starting point is 04:54:11 she left him then and went upstairs to her own room where for a little she tried to concentrate her wandering thoughts upon a book but in the end she flung the volume aside impatiently and went to her window staring down into the neglected tangle of the front yard and the glimpse of the street through the straggling branches of the pear trees she tried to see only that men like kid bedloe and buck thornton were not to be thought of as men but rather as some rare species of clear-eyed unscrupulous conscienceless animals that they were not human that it would not be humane but foolish to regard them with any kind of sympathy that the law should set its iron heel upon them as a man might set his heel upon a snake's flat venomous head and she felt a hard contempt of self she hated herself when again and again there rose before her mind's eye the form and face of the man who surely was the worst of the lot and yet who looked like a gentleman and knew how to carry himself like a gentleman who knew what courtesy to a woman was when he wanted to know who had in a few hours made upon her an impression which he had in a few hours made upon her an impression which he had had had in a few hours made upon her an impression which she realized, shamefacedly, would stay with her always. She had been in her room for an hour, driven by her loneliness,

Starting point is 04:55:49 had run downstairs to chat a few minutes with Mrs. Riddell in the kitchen, and, unusually restless, had gone back upstairs. As she came again to her window, she saw two men leave their horses at the front gate and turned toward the house along the walk under the door. the pear trees both were men whose very stature would have drawn one's thoughts away from even pleasant preoccupation and winnifred waverley's thoughts were sick of the channel in which they had been running one the one who came on slightly in front of his companion was very broad and heavy and thick thick of arm of thigh of neck he was not short standing close to six feet and yet his bigness of girth made him seem of low squat stature as she looked down upon him she did not see his face under the wide soft hat but guessed it to be heavy heavy like the rest of him square-jod and massive she noted curiously that his tread was light that his whole being spoke of energy and swift initiative

Starting point is 04:57:07 that the alertness of his carriage was an incongruity in a man so heavily built from the great monster shoulders of him to the bulging calves the face of the other man she saw his hat was far back upon his head and as he come on his dark features fascinated her he was tall as tall or nearly as tall as the kid or buckthorn she thought slender full of the grace of perfect physical manhood there was a dash to him that to the girl was not without its charm it spoke from the finely chiselled lips curved to a still contemptuous smile from the eyes long lashed well set far apart from the swinging careless stride a handsome devil as handsome in his own way as the kid in his as defiant and insolence in his smiling eyes as cool an assurance and a vague added charm which was not so readily classified the two men came to the door she heard pollard greet them calling them by name and thus learned that one was cole dalton the sheriff one broderick then there came up to her the hum of voices from her uncle's library the heavy rasping voice which she was certain belonged to the thicker-set man the light careless pleasant tones of the taller man she found herself listening not for the words which were certain belonged to the thicker-set man she found herself listening not for the words which were lost in the indistinct hum but to the qualities of tone idly speculating as to which man was the sheriff which broderick

Starting point is 04:59:05 she wondered if now they were going to arrest buck thornton and if broderick were a deputy and again she hated herself with a quick spurt of contemptuous indignation that she allowed a feeling of sympathy for the tall cattleman to slip into her heart. For a long time, the low-toned conversation in the room below her continued. At first it was her uncle who did the greater part of the talking, his utterances at once emphatic and yet guarded. She had the uneasy feeling that the tones were hushed, less because of Mrs. Riddell, whom she could hear clattering with her pots and pears.

Starting point is 04:59:50 hands in the kitchen, then because of herself. A little hurt, half angry that he should think of her as a possible eavesdropper, she took up her book again, turning the pages impatiently, in search of the place which she had a great deal of trouble in finding, since she had understood so little of what she had read that day. And even then, one half of her mind was on the men below, as she wondered why they should not want her to know what it was they said evidently pollard had finished what he had to say she supposed that he had been telling them of his loss and her robbery then the heavy rasping voice cole dalton's she was right in guessing it to be as guarded as pollard's had been broke in and for several minutes it was the only sound that came to her save to twice when a low laugh from Broderick interrupted. She frowned at that.

Starting point is 05:00:57 To her, it seemed that in this stern discussion, which had for theme, crime, and retribution, there was no place for a man's laughter. Even then, her dislike for Ben Broderick had begun. Then Cole Dalton had finished, and Broderick was talking. It was as though each man in turn were making his report to the others as before not a word came to the ears which she strove futilely to make inattentive a certain quality in the speaker's voice drew fresh speculation from her he spoke quietly with no single interruption from the others and with a positiveness that was like a command as though he whom she had thought possibly a deputy

Starting point is 05:01:49 were coolly telling both pollard and cole dalton what they should do when they should do it and how the voice was arrogant cool and confident again the sheriff's voice floated up to her raised a little rasping out what sounded like a protest and broderick's answer was another short laugh full of contempt and followed by a few emphatic crisp words which she did not catch that ended the consultation she knew it from the silence which followed the curt finality of broderick's retort and from the scraping of chair legs followed by the sound of the men pacing back and forth and speaking in new unguarded tones now their conversation came to her for the first time you'll be going out to-night dalton pollard asked no the first thing in the morning and you broderick i'll trot along to-night henry but not the cool voice carelessly until i've had something to eat i know you're going to ask me to stay to supper what do you want to stay for ben demanded pollard with something of irritation in the question haven't you got enough on your hands broderick's ready laugh easy vaguely insolent rose clearly to winnifred's ears you're such a hospitable cuss he retorted don't be a hog on top of it henry i want to see that pretty niece of yours the girl's cheeks went red at the light tone she waited to hear her uncle's short rejoinder and she heard nothing beyond the sheriff's rasping chuckle

Starting point is 05:03:54 when mrs redell called from the foot of the stairs that supper was ready winnifred had fully made up her mind that she would not go down she heard the three men chatting lightly and decided that she would get something to eat after they had finished and gone but as though her uncle had caught her thought he too came to the foot of the stairs calling to her winnifred he was saying supper's ready sheriff dalton is here and mr broderick a friend of mine i want you to tell them what you have told me she hesitated a moment biting her lip then she answered all right uncle henry i'll be right down she went to her washstand arranged her hair swiftly saw that the flush had gone out of her cheek cheeks, that her eyes were cool and told nothing, and went down to join the three men who had already taken their places at the dinner-table. As she came through the door, her head up, her lips a little hard, Broderick was the first to see her, and was upon his feet in a flash, as graceful as a cavalier, as debonair in his big boots and soft white silk shirt, as though he had been a courtly gentleman dressed for the ball his eyes frankly filled with the appreciation of her dainty beauty pollard remembering rose too and last of all cole dalton his shrewd eyes intense and keen upon her winnifred's gaze passed by broderick as though she had not seen him and travelled to her uncle while she waited for the introductions

Starting point is 05:05:50 dalton who was first to be presented put out a big hard square hand capturing and releasing winifred suddenly as though it were part of the day's work to be done and over with he had stepped forward and now stepped back to his chair his keen watchful eyes never leaving her face then broderick took the hand which she did not like to refuse to her uncle's friend and guest and yet which she disliked giving him saw the little flush which his gaze drove into her cheeks and with a hint of laughter in his eyes bowed over it gallantly murmuring his happiness in knowing her and it was broderick who stepped quickly to her chair drawing it out for her to be seated she found herself wondering where this man had learned to do these little things which are no part of the training of the far-out cattlemen. During the first half of the meal, there was no reference to the happening at Hart's camp. Broderick, with a mood contegiously carefree and sparkling, did the greater part of the talking, and though he elicited from the girl rare words beyond a brief yes or no, he seemed content. And he interested her. He talked well, with little slurs of grammar,

Starting point is 05:07:20 that seemed rather due to the man's carelessness of nature than to ignorance, his vocabulary not without picturesque force. It seemed natural that he should do the talking, that he should address himself largely to her, and that Pollard and Cole Dalton should listen and watch him. Within ten minutes she gleaned that Broderick was a minor, that he had a claim of some sort in the mountain's back of Hill's quoth. to the eastward, that a couple of years ago he had made his pile in the Yukon country,

Starting point is 05:07:57 and that he had lost it in unwise speculation, that he knew more than the names of the streets of the chief cities of both coasts, that he had strong hopes of making a strike where he was and of selling out at a good figure to a mining concern with which he was already corresponding. And yet this light miscellany of information was so brightly sprinkled into the flow of talk upon a score of other matters that it did not seem that the man was ever talking of himself. Finally, Pollard, catching a sharp look from Sheriff Dalton, got up and stepped into the kitchen, where Mrs. Redell was. The woman went out into the yard, and Pollard came back. before he had taken his chair again dalton said abruptly turning upon the girl pollard mentioned you're seeing the stick-up man at hart's cabin tell us about it she told him swiftly eager to have it over with conscious that the eyes of all three of the men watched her with a very intense interest from her account she omitted only that which concerned her personally

Starting point is 05:09:17 and alone, and of which she had not even spoken to her uncle. "'You're sure it was Thornton?' demanded the sheriff when she had finished. "'Dead sure?' "'Yes,' she answered, resolutely, defiant of her own self that hesitated to fix on an absent man the crime of which she believed him guilty. Dalton sat still, save for the drumming of his thick fingers upon the tablecloth. Presently his big stocky body turned slowly in his chair

Starting point is 05:09:54 as he looked from Broderick to Pollard, the hint of a smile merely making his eyes the harder. So, he said, his wide shoulders rising to his deep breath, it looks like all we got to do is just go out and put our rope on mr badman it looks like it cole laughed broderick gently only when you get ready to pull off your little roping party i wish you'd let me know he don't look like he's the kind to lie down and let you hog tie him does he miss waverley they say he's half texan and the other half panther you want to be quick on the throw cole remember the way he got the kid last winter the only wonder growled dalton is that the kid hasn't taken him off our hands and got him long ago but put in winnifred hastily they're friends now uncle henry and i saw them talking together this afternoon she saw the start that her words gave the sheriff and turning toward broderick glimpsed a look steely and hard and glittering with suspicion that had driven the smile from his eyes if bedloe began dalton sharply his great fist clenched

Starting point is 05:11:24 but he stopped short he saw and understood the warning glance broderick shot at him winnifred saw too but did not understand let's go into the other room the miner said carelessly and see what henry's cigars are made out of they rose and went back to pollard's office and ben broderick who had suggested cigars was the only one of the three men who rolled his own cigarette rolled it slowly and with deep thoughtfulness end of chapter sixteen chapter seventeen of six feet four by by Jackson Gregory. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 17. Suspicion. After all, it seemed that for some reason the time was not yet right for Cole Dalton to put his rope on Mr. Badman. For the days ran on smoothly for Buck Thornton. The weeks grew out of them, and he rode, unmolested, unsuspicious of any threatened interference,

Starting point is 05:12:45 about his own business. He had gone a second time to the dugout at Poison Hole, carrying provisions enough to last Jimmy Clayton several days. Clayton seemed assured that Bedloe would look out for him now and insisted that there was danger of some of the range hands learning of Thornton's trip here. So, for a week, he did not ride near the man's hiding place, and when one day he did visit the dugout again there was nothing to show that clayton had been there and no hint of how or where he had gone

Starting point is 05:13:23 thornton felt a deep sense of relief believing that the episode so far as he was concerned was closed another week and he was close to forgetting jimmy clayton altogether the demands of their routine of range work kept him busy every day, early and late, and as though that were not enough to tax his endurance, there came a fresh call upon him. The stage had not been robbed that day he had seen it leaving dry town, and he had begun to persuade himself that the epidemic of crime from one end of the country to the other was at an end, that the highwayman had left the country while he could. But now came news of fresh outlawry, news that ran from tongue to tongue of the angered cattlemen and miners who demanded more and more loudly that Cole Dalton get busy. Rumor flew back and forth, indignant, voluble, accusatory. It stacked crime upon crime. It mowed the names of many men,

Starting point is 05:14:37 whom the county would be glad to entertain in its empty jail. The name is, the name of the three bedloe boys of black dam of long phil granger of certain newcomers to hill corners who naturally were to be looked upon with suspicion it listed the depredations committed during four weeks with the result that was startling it told of the theft of a herd of steers from kemble's place the shooting of bert stone and the looting of hap smith's mailbags. The robbery of Seth Powers, who left the poker table at Gold Run at two o'clock one morning with $700 in his overalls, and was found at eight o'clock beaten into unconsciousness, and with his pockets turned wrong side out. The stage robbery in which Bill Varney of twin dry diggings had been killed. The robbery of Jed McIntosh in Dry Town. a hundred and fifty miles lay between the most widely removed of the places where these things had happened but no two of them had occurred within a time too short for a man to ride from one to the other

Starting point is 05:15:57 and now came the list of the bold crimes committed since the day four weeks ago when buck thornton had ridden into dry town with the five thousand dollars kemble to the westward of the poison hole told of again losing cattle seven big steers run off in a single night nothing left of them but their tracks and the tracks of a horse which disappeared in the rocky mountain soil joe lee of the figure seven bar to the north of the poison hole reported the loss of nine cows and two horses all picked stock old man king of the bar x grew almost speechless with trembling wrath at the loss of at least a score of cattle and ben broderick the mining man who was working his claim to the eastward of the poison hole admitted quix admitted quietly that a man a big man wearing a bandana handkerchief as a mask had slipped into his camp one night covered him with a heavy caliber colt and had taken away with him a six hundred dollar can of dust as yet no single loss had been noted by the poison hole outfit but thornton believed that he saw the reason now there were few nights that found him at the range cabin or his cowboys in the bunk-house. His cattle had been brought down from the mountains,

Starting point is 05:17:33 herded into the open meadow lands, and the night riders kept what watch they could upon the big herds. Many a night he lay in his blankets close to the border of his range upon the south, knowing that here and there upon other borders, watching over his cattle, guarding the mouths of canyons down which a rustler might choose his way, his men lay. He began to wish that his property might be attacked, feeling secure in his alertness, thinking that an over-bold bad man might come suddenly to the end of his depredations here. And yet no attack came, not so much as a wandering yearling was lost to him.

Starting point is 05:18:20 men of the stamp and calibre of these ranches who were hearing of a neighbor's losses only as a sort of prelude to their own were not patient men at the best nor did such lives as they led permit of lax hands and natures without initiative it was in no way a surprise to thornton upon riding to the bar x to learn that the cattlemen were now rising swiftly and actively to a defence of their own property many of them lifted frank and angry voices in condemnation of their county sheriff many of them more generously admitted that dalton was up against a hard proposition and was doing all that any one man could do but they were unanimous in saying that what cole dalton couldn't do they would do this morning thornton found old man king saddling his horse in the barack's corrals and snapping out orders to his foreman and the two cowboys who sat their horses watching him with speculative eyes his recent loss had driven him to a towering rage and his voice shook with anger in it. Twenty head they've took from me, he spat out angrily. Twenty head in one night, and they think they can get away with it and go on doing just what they damn please. He jerked his cinch tight, climbed into his saddle, and as his young horse whirled about, Thornton saw that he had a rifle

Starting point is 05:20:04 under his leg. Them cows, he went on wrathfully. merely ducking his head at the newcomer, will average a hundred dollars a head. Two thousand bucks gone like a fog when the sun's up. What in hell do you fellas think I'm paying you for? It ain't going to happen one more time, growled Bart Elliott, the foreman whose wrath under the direct eyes of the old man was no less than kings. I just wish they'd try it on again.

Starting point is 05:20:40 ain't goin to happen again ain't it retorted king that's got to satisfy me huh just so long as they take a couple thousand dollars out in my pockets and then don't come back for all i got it's all right huh now you boys can just naturally take the glue out of your ears and listen a minute i'm goin to know who took them cows and where they went and i'm goin to have em back every little cow brood of em get me elliot and you jim and hodge if you fellers are lookin for jobs where ye ain't got nothin to do you better look somewhere else now listen some more he told them that they would find two more rifles and a shotgun at the range house to this information he added that they could pack up some grub and hit the trail along with him for he was going to bring his cattle back if he had to ride through three states to get them and back through hell to drive them home the men rode away to the range house talking among themselves and king swung about upon thornton hello buck he said shortly hello king anything i can do not for me said king dryly how about yourself lost any cows off on the poison hole not a one the rustlers seem to be giving me a wide berth i've had my men out every night though maybe they've got wise King looked at him sharply, and Thornton was vaguely aware in that swift glance of something which made but little impression on him at the time,

Starting point is 05:22:38 something which he forgot even as he saw it, imagining he had misread, but something to be remembered in the days that followed. It was a cool, steely look of suspicion. Maybe, King grunted, it's happening all around you. i wasn't sayin much so long as it didn't come too close to the bar x and now i ain't goin to say much thornton finished his errand with old man king and saw him with his men ride away into the little hills of the range then he was turning back toward the poison hole when young king riding around the corner of the barn called to him hello bud thornton said casually what's the word bud king rode up to him before he answered then sitting loosely in the saddle his eyes meditative upon one free swinging boot he answered there's a dance over to the schoolhouse to-night for one thing coming buck thornton shook his head no hadn't heard of it and i guess i'll be busy enough without prancing out to dances and then a little curiosity in his even tones how does it happen you're not out hunting rustlers with the old man young king lifted his head and again thornton

Starting point is 05:24:14 saw in a man's eyes, a thing which was so vague that it went almost unnoted, a look of veiled suspicion. "'The old man hunts his way, and I hunt mine,' Bud King said briefly. "'And besides, I haven't been to a shindig for six months.' A little flush ran up into his face under Thornton's level glance, and Buck laughed softly. who's the girl bud he challenged ah go chase yourself bud flung back at him but with a reddening grin to thornton came a swift inspiration wonder if miss waverley will be over from the corners he asked dunno bud replied innocently so innocently that thornton laughed again thornton rode back to the poison hole and as he went his thoughts ran now to the mission upon which old man king had set forth now upon the wisdom of shaving putting on his best suit and new hat and going to a dance

Starting point is 05:25:31 it isn't so much i want to see her again he told himself as i want to give back her spur rowel end of chapter seventeen chapter eighteen of six feet by Jackson Gregory. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 18. The Dance at Deer Creek Schoolhouse. Deer Creek Schoolhouse stood in a tiny emerald valley, half a dozen miles from hills corners, some 15 miles from Thornton's cabin,

Starting point is 05:26:17 its handful of barefooted pupils coming from the family scattered through the valley. It was a one-roomed building, with two low doors and six square windows, and yet it offered ample enough floor space and bench accommodations for the valley dances. Its one room being 24 feet long and 12 feet wide, certainly over large for a single school marm and her small flock,

Starting point is 05:26:45 having been constructed with an eye to just such social gatherings as the one tonight. The teacher's desk had been taken out doors by willing hands. The pupils benches stood along the walls for the women folk during the intermissions. Upon the slightly raised platform at one end of the room were the chairs for the musicians, fiddlers, and guitarist, and upon the floor was much-shaved candle. For light there were the four coal-oil lamps with their foolish reflectors against the walls, and a full moon, shining in through door and windows.

Starting point is 05:27:28 Thornton came late, late, that is, for a country dance. It was after nine o'clock when riding Comet, he saw the schoolhouse lamps winking at him through the oaks and heard the merry music of fiddle and guitar in the frolic of a heel-and-toe polka. Already he made out here and there

Starting point is 05:27:51 the saddle horses which had brought so many stag, so many miles to the dance, and which stood tied to tree and shrub. Also, there were the usual spring wagons that had brought their family loads of father, mother, son, daughter, hired man, and the baby. While the inevitable cart was in evidence, speaking unmistakably of mooning couples, whose budding interest in each other did not permit of the drive in the family carry-all. Thornton noted the vehicles, as he passed them, and turned to look at the saddle horses, saying to himself,

Starting point is 05:28:32 So-and-so is here from Pine Ridge, so-and-so from the corners. For hereabouts, a man knew another man's horse and saddle, or wagon, as well as he knew the man himself. So, when Thornton saw the buckboard near the door, with its two cream-colored mares, There was at once pleasure and speculation in his eyes, and he told himself, "'Somebody is here from Pollards!' He loosened Comet-Sinch, flung the tie-rope over the low limb of the big oak near Pollard's team, and leaving his horse in the shadows went on to the open door. Already the polka had come to its giddy end.

Starting point is 05:29:19 men and women boys and girls old folks with white hair and young folks in knee-breeches and short skirts laughing and talking criss-crossed the floor this way and that seeking seats the girls and women sinking affectionately or plumping in matter-of-fact style down into their places with languishing upward looks if they be young and in tune with the moon outside with red-faced jollity and much frankness of chatter if they were married and perhaps had a husband and children likewise disporting themselves made long rows about the walls of the school-house looking for the world like orderly flocks of bright plumaged birds in their bravery of many hewed calicoes and ginghams a gay display of bold reds and shy blues of mellow yellows and soft pinks with the fluttering of fans everywhere like little restless wings the men had left their partners as custom demanded and had gone to the doors energetically mopping their brows with hanker as various in color as the women's dresses, red and yellow silk, blue and purple, and the eternal gaudy bandana. Thornton paused at the door, losing himself among the men who had come out to stand there smoking, or to wander a little away in the darkness, where earlier in the evening

Starting point is 05:30:56 each had hidden his personal flask under his particular bush. there would be a good deal of drinking to-night but then that too was custom and there was no more danger here of drunkenness than in those more pretentious balls in town where men and women partake together of heady punch thornton passed words of greeting with many of these men ranchers for the most part whom he knew well there was bud king his tie of vivid scarlet his store clothes, a bluebird blue, the wide silk handkerchief mopping his flushed face a rich yellow. There was Hank James from the Deer Creek outfit, speeding away with long strides to his own bottle

Starting point is 05:31:46 under his own bush, where he might conceal the tremor of the new happiness he had but come from and drink to the big-eyed girl in the pink dress with the cascades of baby ribbon. There was rough Ettinger, with his new overalls turned back the regulation six inches from the bottom, in a cowboy cuff that permitted of the vision of six inches of gray trouser leg below. There was Chase Harper of Trespinous in the smallest boots man ever wore, with the highest heels, their newness, a thing of which, in their pride, they shrieked manfully as he walked.

Starting point is 05:32:28 and there was ben broderick the miner quietly dressed in black broadcloth looking almost the man of the city to him thornton merely nodded briefly knowing the man but little liking him less but broderick put out his hand saying cordially hallo bark goin to shake a leg a little i might they were just outside the door and the door and the door and the door the cowboy's eyes running on past the miner sought up and down the lines of chatting women for the girl who had tempted him to his first dance in many months he had seen pollard's team but he had not seen pollard or his niece broderick watched him smiling a little have a drink buck he asked seeming not to have noticed the other's curtness of word and manner i've got something prime outside not thirsty right now broderick thornton returned coolly then he heard a man's voice from the shadows at his back and without turning knew that henry pollard was out there just behind him at the same instant his busy eyes found the girl he sought winnifred waverley's days in hills corners had had little enough of the joy of life of them for her she had felt that she breathed an atmosphere charged with forces which she could not understand upon her spirit had rested a weight of uncertainty and uneasiness and suspicion the men she saw had had hard sinister faces and seemed cast for dark merciless things even her uncle appeared a strange sort of stranger to her and she shrank from following her natural train of surmise and suspicion when now and then she surprised a certain look upon his face or when she saw him with the type of man with whom he mixed

Starting point is 05:34:42 to night it was as though after a long period of gloomy overcast skies a storm had passed and the sun had broken through about her were light and music the merry faces of children and girls with everywhere joyous full-throated light-hearted laughter and the spirit of her ran out to meet the simple joy of the dance glad just to be glad again thornton knew that he had found her before she turned her face toward him he recognized the trim little figure although now the riding habit was discarded for a pretty gown of white which he guessed her own quick fingers had fashioned for the dance he recognized the white neck with the brown tendrils of hair rebelling from the ribbon band about her head and then when she turned a little he stared at her head and then when she turned a little he stared at her at her from his vantage in the outside darkness, wondering if she had grown prettier than ever in the few weeks since he had seen her, or if it were the dress and the way she wore her hair with a white flower in it, or if he had been half blind that other time. There was a warm, tender flush upon her cheeks, telling of her happiness. Her eyes shone,

Starting point is 05:36:07 soft in their brightness, and her lips were red with the leaping blood of youth. She had turned to speak with Mrs. Sturgis, the stoutest, jolliest, and altogether most motherly woman in the valley, and Mrs. Sturgis, watching her eyes and lips and paying no attention to her words,

Starting point is 05:36:30 put out her plump hands suddenly, crying heartily, "'You pretty little mouse!' if i had just one wish i'd wish i was a man and i'd just grab you up in my arms and i wouldn't stop goin until i set you down in front of a preacher come here and let mother mary kiss you there's a woman with brains for you buck chuckled broderick thornton though he agreed very heartily just then did so in silence it's winnifred waverley went on brodrick carelessly she's henry pollard's niece you know a little beauty don't you think thornton nodded again he had agreed but he did not care to discuss her with ben broderick the miner laughed lightly and added for thornton's further information as keen a dancer as she is a looker and a flirt from the drop of her the hat had the last dance with her which reminds me i'd better hurryin down my booze and get back i'm gonna rope her for the next dance too broderick went his way for his bottle thornton did not speak did not turn did not move that a man might see but the fingers of the hand at his side twitched suddenly and for a moment were tense

Starting point is 05:38:04 pollard can't help being mostly rattlesnake he muttered angrily but he ought to be man enough to keep his own blood kin away from ben broderick's kind lord lordy but as sure enough hell folks can't help having uncles like ben pollard poor little girl and then thoughtfully his eyes filled with speculation as they rested upon winniford waverley mother mary sturgis was absolutely right now the fiddler was tuning with long-drawn bow and the patting of the guitarist's foot told that he was ready thornton tossing his hat to the teacher's desk just outside the door entered the building and strode straight to the girl other men were hurrying across the floor eager to be first to ask this or that demand early waiting maiden for the dance but thornton was well in the lead he nodded and smiled and spoke to many of the women whom he knew but he did not stop until he came to winnford waverley and mrs there he was stopped by the older woman who had not read his intentions and who thinking that he was going by took his arm in her two plump hands why buck thornton you rascal you she cried heartily where you been all year i ain't seen you since i can remember and where you think you're goin stampeding along like a runaway horse howdy mother mary he returned as they shook hands i was headed right here to see you and miss waverley howdy miss waverley

Starting point is 05:40:00 the eyes which the girl turned upon him were wide with surprise she had had no thought that he would come here to-night surely he must know that her uncle the man whom he had robbed was here and broderick too another man whom he had robbed and how many others and yet he had come he seemed careless and without uneasiness he dared to speak with her quite as if that which had happened at hart's cabin had never occurred outside of his own imaginings he even had the assurance to put out his hand to her as though she would touch him take your partners for a waltz cried chase harper of the trespinos he of the small boots coming in through the door wiping his mouth and resuming his duties as caller of the dances shake a leg boys the hurried progress of men in search of partners became a race boots clumped noisily against the floor the cowboys swooped down upon the line of women folks often enough there was no spoken invitation to the waltz as a strong arm ran about a lithe waist the fiddle scraped the guitar thrummed into the tune and with the first note they were dancing end of chapter eighteen chapter nineteen of six feet four by jackson gregory this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter nineteen six feet four winnifred waverley looked steadily into buck thornton's eyes suddenly determined that she would see in them the guile which must be there surely a man could not do the things which this man so brazenly did and not show something of it

Starting point is 05:42:14 and she saw a glance as steady as her own eyes as clear and filled with very frank admiration in spite of her her color rose and her eyes wavered a little then she noticed that mrs sturgis's keen eyes were upon her and swiftly drove the expression from her own eyes and returned thornton's greeting indifferently some day her uncle would accuse this man but she did not care to give her personal affair over to the tongue of gossip nor did she care to have her name linked in any way with buckthorns may i have this dance miss waverley he had put out his arm as though her affirmative were a foregone conclusion she stared at him wondering where were the limits to this man's audacity then before she could reply mrs sturgis had answered for her for mrs sturgis was a born matchmaker buck was like a son to her motherly heart winnifred waverley was the sweetest little thing she had ever seen and they had in them the making of such a couple as mrs sturgis couldn't find every day of the week go long with you buck thornton she cried making of a couple making of such a couple as mrs sturgis couldn't find every day of the week go along with you buck thornton she cried making a monumental failure of the frown with which she tried to draw her placid brows here i thought all the time you was going to ask me then she jerked him by the arm dragging him nearer playfully pushed the girl toward him and before she well knew what had happened winnifred found herself in thornton's arms whirling with him to the merry-fiddled music

Starting point is 05:44:05 putting out her little slipper by the side of his big boot to the step of the rye waltz and mrs sturgis drawing her twinkling eyes away from them and turning upon ben broderick who had arrived just too late with as much malice in her smile as she knew how to put into it remarked meaningly a little slow mr broderick you got to keep awake when there's a man like buck around and she seemed very much pleased with the look in broderick's eyes a look of blended surprise and irritation thornton and her uncle are not just exactly friends he retorted cool If they was, she flung back at him, I'd think a heap sight more of old Ben Pollard. Mrs. Sturgis's maneuver had so completely taken the girl by surprise that as she floated away in the cowboy's arms, she was for a little undecided what to do. She did not want to dance with Thornton. It had been upon the tip of her tongue to make the old excuse and tell him that she was engaged for this waltz.

Starting point is 05:45:22 In that way, the whole episode would have passed unnoticed. But now, if they stopped, if she had him take her to her seat and leave her, everybody would see, everybody would talk. Gossip would remember that when she had first come to Hill's corners, John Smith had ridden with her as far as the bar X, and that Smith had told there how Buck Thorne had ridden as far as his part, place with her and then gossip would go on into endless speculation as to what had happened upon the trail which now made her refuse to dance with him

Starting point is 05:45:59 that was why she hesitated undecided at first then thornton began to speak and she wanted to know what he was going to say besides she admitted to herself begrudgingly that she had never known a man dance as this man danced and the magic of the waltz was on her. I had to return something you left at Hart's camp, were his first words. That's the reason I rode over tonight. What is it? she asked, quickly. Now suddenly there rose up into her heart, a swift hope that, after all,

Starting point is 05:46:41 he was not entirely without principle, that he had grown ashamed of having taken from a girl the money with which she had been entrusted, and that he was bringing it back to her if he were man enough to do this the blood ran up higher in her cheeks at the thought she could almost forgive him for that other thing he had done so they moved on in the dance her hand resting lightly in his his fingers closing about it with no hint of a pressure to tell her that again he would take what small advantage he could his eyes looking gravely down into the eyes which flashed up at him with her question didn't you lose anything that night he countered in the cabin after i went for the horses well she countered the quick hope leaping higher within her you did she wondered why his eyes were so grave so stern now why they had ceased to say flattering things of her, and merely hinted of a mind at work on a puzzle.

Starting point is 05:47:54 How could she know that while she was thinking of a yellow cloth-lined envelope, he was thinking of a horse lamed with a knife, and hoping to learn from her something of the man who had wounded the animal? Well, she asked again, hardly above a whisper. Did he dare even talk of it here, among all these men and women, she glanced about her anxiously to see if pollard were in the room you were going to give it back to me her wonderment was hardly more than thornton's why should she show this eager excitement because of a lost spur rowl i wrote over to give it to you he answered swinging her clear of an eddy in the swirl of dancers and to the edge of the crowd first though i want you to tell me something a man came into the cabin about three minutes before you came out to the barn didn't he

Starting point is 05:48:58 she had lowered her eyes aware that people were noticing them her looking up so earnestly him looking down into her face so gravely but now in spite of her she looked up at him again why do you ask that she demanded with a flash of anger that he should continue this useless pretense do you think i am a fool no i am asking because i want to know it's a safe gamble that the man you had to tussle with is the man who lamed my horse is it she asked with cool sarcasm and it's just as safe a gamble that he's a gamble that he's a man that he's a man who lamed my horse is it she asked with cool sarcasm and it's just as safe a gamble that he isn't coward and a brute i don't know about his being a coward and i don't care about his being a brute he told her steadily but i do want to know what he looks like again she called herself a little fool and bit her lip in the surge of her vexation she had been glad and over-eager just now to restore her faith to this big brute of a man at a mere word from him she had been ready to condone a crime and forgive an insult she felt her face grow hot he had kissed her rudely and she had been willing to find excuses she had even felt an odd sort of thrill tingling through her and now this eternal play-acting of his this insane pretense "'Mr. Thornton, this is getting us nowhere,' she reminded him coldly.

Starting point is 05:50:47 "'If you care to be told, I can assure you that I know perfectly well who the man was who came into the cabin that night, and I think that it would be for the best if you returned my property. I'm going to return it. Now, will you answer my question? Will you tell me who that man was?' why do you pretend in this stupid way she demanded hotly why don't you tell me who he was he returned frowning a little for a moment she did not answer then her voice very low she said speaking slowly i don't tell you mr thornton because you know as well as i do she saw nothing but blank amazement in his eyes if i knew i wouldn't be asking you he informed her again she looked up at him their eyes meeting steadily searchingly you say that you don't know who it was she challenged and the eyes into which she looked were as clear of guile as a mountain lake when he answered no i don't know i don't know

Starting point is 05:52:07 then through lips which were moulded to a passionate scorn no less of self than of him in a fierce whisper she paid him in the coin of her contempt with the one word liar she saw the anger leap up into his eyes and the red run into his bronze skin she felt the arm about her contract tensely until for one dizzy second she thought that he was would crush her. And then they were swinging on through the dance to the merry beat of the music, and above the music she heard his soft laugh. He did not look at her, nor did she again lift her eyes to his. But both of them saw Broderick where he stood near the door, his hands shoved down into his pockets, his tall, gaunt form leaning against the wall. His eyes had been following them, and there was in them an expression hard to read it might have been anger or distrust or suspicion and both thornton and winifred as they turned in the dance caught a quick glimpse of the face of another man it was henry pollard he had evidently just come in and as evidently had not seen thornton and his niece dancing together until this moment

Starting point is 05:53:36 and the look in his eyes springing up naked and startled was a thing easy to read for it was the look of fear winnifred waverley tried to tell herself that it was fear for her at seeing her in thornton's arms but she knew that it was not nor was it fear for himself not mere physical fear of thorn already she knew of her uncle that the man was no coward it was not that kind of fear it was a fear that was apprehension dread lest something might happen what dread that something he did not want her to know might become known to her in her her talk with Buck Thornton. It was as though a voice had shouted it in her ear. Where so many things were muddled in inexplicability, this one matter seemed suddenly perfectly clear to her. He had not wanted her to talk with Buck Thornton. Why? Thornton, with no further word to her, had bowed to her, his eyes hard and stern, and taking a paper, wrapped packet from his vest pocket had given it to her, and had walked swiftly to the door

Starting point is 05:55:00 near which Broderick stood. In spite of her, her eyes had gone down the room after the tall figure, and then something happened which could have meant nothing to anyone else in the house, but which brought leaping up into the girl's heart both fear and gladness, and at last, understanding. Broderick, smiling, had said some light word to Thornton, laying his hand upon the cowboy's shoulder. For a moment, just the fraction of a second,

Starting point is 05:55:36 the two men stood side by side in the open doorway. Until they stood so, close together, a man would have said that they were of the same height. Now, Winifred marked that there was a full, two-inch difference and that thornton was the taller together they stepped out through the doorway the door was low buck stooped his head a little broderick passed out without stooping it seemed only last night that she had made her supper in the heart camp with buck thornton she remembered so distinctly each little event she could see him now as he had sat making a cigarette could see him going to the door to look at the up-climbing moon she had marked then the tall wiry body that must stoop a little to stand in the low doorway she had jested about his height the six feet four of him as he called it she could see again the man who had come in masked the man whose clothes were like the clothes of buck thornton even to the gray neck handkerchief she could remember that this man had stood in the same doorway that his eyes

Starting point is 05:56:57 had gleamed at her through the slits in the handkerchief that he had held his head thrown back that he had not stooped it wasn't buck thornton she whispered to herself her hands going white in their tense grip upon the parcel they held a man did lame his horse a man who wanted me to think all the time that it was buck thornton and that man-that with swift certainty, is Ben Broderick, Uncle Henry's friend. And Uncle knows! End of Chapter 19. Chapter 20 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory. This Libravox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 05:57:56 Chapter 20 Pollard talks business. The promise of the night flat and stale in his mouth, thornton turned his back upon the merriment in the little schoolhouse and strode away to his horse awaiting him under the oak he tightened the cinch with a savage jerk coiled his tie-rope and flung himself into the saddle did he not already have enough on his hands without running after a girl with gray eyes and a blazing temper had he not already enough to think about what with his guarding his range interests from a possible visit from the marauder who was driving wrath into the hearts of the cattlemen and terror into the hearts of the isolated families what with scraping every dollar here and there that he might be on time with his final payment to henry pollard must he further puzzle over the insolent whims of a captious girl which was all very well and yet as he turned comet's head toward the poison-hole ranch the blood was still hot on his brow his thoughts were still busy with winnifred waverley and the enigma she was to him while his mind still touched with the opiate of the loveliness of her was filled with the picture she made in the moment of her flaming accusation

Starting point is 05:59:24 i have been calling her miss gray eyes he mused angrily that name doesn't suit her little blue blazes would be better it was henry pollard's voice and for a moment thornton had no thought of heeding it but the voice called again and he drew an impatient rain waiting well came his answer shortly what do you want i want to talk business with you or i wouldn't stop you pollard returned coolly he came close to comet's head and in the same cool impersonal voice, continued, "'When time comes for your last payment, are you going to be able to make it?' "'Until time does come,' Thornton snapped at him. "'It's my business what I'm going to do.'

Starting point is 06:00:23 "'Certainly it's your business. But since you've put fifteen thousand into it already, I guess you won't slip up on the last five thousand. Now it's nearly five months until that payment falls do, isn't it? Well, talk fast, Pollard. I want to make you a proposition. I need money, and I don't mind saying that I need it bad.

Starting point is 06:00:52 I've got a chance for something good, something big in a mining speculation, and I'm short of cash. If I could raise the money within 30 days, Thornton laughed. Nothing doing good. Pollard, he cut in. When your money's due, you can come talk to me, not before. I said I had a proposition, didn't I? Went on, Pollard, evenly.

Starting point is 06:01:21 I can see where I can make by it, and I'm willing for you to profit at the same time. Spit it out. Where do I get off? You owe me five thousand yet. Five thousand with interest. interest six per cent forget the interest i don't want it and i'll carve five hundred dollars off the five thousand too if you'll raise it within thirty days that is my proposition what do you say to it for a little buck thornton was silent thinking swiftly for the life of him he could not but look for some trickery in any proposition which might come from rattle snake paw and when pollard coolly offered to give away eight hundred dollars five hundred of it principal three hundred interest thornton had an uneasy sense that there was something crooked in the deal

Starting point is 06:02:22 but at the same time he knew that a year ago pollard had been short of funds and for this reason had been driven to sell the poison hole hence it might be that now pollard was telling the truth when he was, said that he needed money. You mean, he said presently, speaking slowly, trying to see Pollard's face in the shadows, that if I come across with $4,500 in 30 days, you will give me the deed to the poison hole? That's what I mean, agreed Pollard, bluntly. It's a proposition you can take or leave a loan. Only you have got to take it right now if you want it. What do you say?

Starting point is 06:03:13 I've got out of the habit of carrying 4,500 around in my vest pocket. You've got an equity of 15,000 in a range that is worth a whole lot more than you are paying for it, young man. The bank in Drytown would advance you the money and never bat an eye. Again Thornton asked himself swiftly, if there were some trap here Pollard was setting for him to blunder into. But he could see none, and he could understand that matters might stand so that the smaller sum, now, would be worth more to him

Starting point is 06:03:52 than the larger amount in five months. This is the fifteenth, replied the cowboy. On the twenty-fifth, I'll have the money ready at the dry-town bank. I don't want it in the bank, plank, Pollard told him shortly. I want it in my fist. It's just about time for the stage to get held up again, and I'm taking no chance on this bet.

Starting point is 06:04:19 You bring the money to me, or the bet's off. And I take the chance of getting held up, grunted Thornton. You take all the chances there are. You stand to make $800, And you can take it or leave it. If you take it, you can have the papers made out in town, deed and receipt and all, and I'll sign them. You can bring them to me at the corners, or, with a little sneer creeping into his cool voice, if you don't like the corners, anywhere you say. And you can have half a dozen witnesses, if you like.

Starting point is 06:05:03 Why don't you ride with me, you? into dry town. Because I don't want to. Because if you agree to put this thing over, I'm going to be mighty busy getting my deal in shape here and on the other side of the line. All right, I'll take the chance, Thornton said crisply. His voice as cool as Pollards had been.

Starting point is 06:05:28 I'll raise the money, and I'll get the papers made out. I'll bring them to you at Hill's Corners on the morning. of the 25th. He reigned comet about, turning again toward the range, and gave him his head. Pollard watched him a moment, then, swinging about upon his heel, went back toward the schoolhouse. Chase Harper's voice from within rose above the fiddle and guitar, calling for the quadrille. Broderick came forward to meet Pollard. "'Well?' he asked quickly. "'You made him your proposition?'

Starting point is 06:06:08 "'Yes.' "'What did he say?' Broderick's voice and eyes alike were eager. "'He swallowed it whole,' laughed Pollard. Broderick laughed with him, and then suddenly the laughter going out of his voice, his hand shutting down tight upon Pollard's arm and drawing him away further from the door,

Starting point is 06:06:35 deeper into the shadows, his words were almost a whisper. He said, He danced with Winifred. You saw that? Yes, damn him. That's what he came for. But I don't think that they said anything.

Starting point is 06:06:53 Shut up, man! Don't you suppose I know what you mean? I don't know what they said. It's up to you to find out. He gave her something, a little parcel done up in paper. I don't know what. That's up to you, too. And what's more?

Starting point is 06:07:14 And his voice grew harsh with the menace in it. It's up to you that they don't see each other again. I don't think that any harm was done tonight. He went away red mad. when i stopped him at the door for a minute he hardly knew i was there they didn't say a word to each other the last half of their dance she said something to him and her eyes were on fire when she said it like his when he went out that put an end to their talk they didn't even say good-night i've got a notion to send her away muttered pollard sullenly it was a fool idea to drag a woman into this send her away now cried brodrick sharply you're the fool pollard she's the best bit of evidence we've got keep her here but for god's sake man keep her close and let's jam this thing through to a quick finish you're right i suppose broderick pollard ran his hand his hand across

Starting point is 06:08:27 a wet forehead. We've got to put the whole thing across in a hurry. Ten days, and we'll wind it up. What's Cole Dalton doing? He's getting mighty hot under the collar, said Broderick, grimly. He's got to get somebody in his little old jail

Starting point is 06:08:48 damn soon, or he'll have a bunch of wild men in his hair, and he knows it. Now we can get our crop planted. and things will be right for him to gather in in eleven days let's go inside pollard turned toward the front door i want to see winifred i want to see how she looks before she gets through thinking about thornton and winnifred waverley who after her stunned hesitation when she had seen thornton and broderick standing side by side in the doorway and who had hurried out through the back door-door and who had hurried out through the back door hoping to find Thornton before he had gone, got to her feet in the black shadow where she had crouched by the schoolhouse wall. Her face dead white, her eyes wide and staring, her heart pounding wildly. End of Chapter 20.

Starting point is 06:09:54 Chapter 21 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 21. the girl and the game she did not fully understand she could not grasp everything yet she was filled with doubts and suspicions and a growing terror what had her uncle said to thornton what had the cowboy swallowed whole what was the whole scheme which connected the two men which involved thornton and the sheriff which seemed clear in one moment only to be a tangle in the next one thing only was perfectly clear now to the girl and seeing it she gathered up her skirts in her two hands and ran ran back along the wall keeping in the shadows drawing close about her the dark cloak she had thrown about her white dress she must get into the house before they came in she must let her face show nothing she must have time to think before she spoke with them so she came to the back door paused a brief moment commanding her nerves to be steady then slipped in letting the cloak fall from her shoulders

Starting point is 06:11:18 she saw bud king standing with his back to the wall watching the dancers and going swiftly to him putting her hand lightly upon his arm she summoned a smile into her eyes as she cried breathlessly will you dance this with me young king looked at her in quick surprise startled at the nearness of the girl for whom his eyes had been seeking and a little flush ran up into his cheeks a sparkle of gladness into his eyes sure he grinned happily i've been looking for you miss waverley he ran his arm about her she bent her head a little so that he could not see the whiteness of her face and they caught the beat of the music she lost the step purposely that she might have a little more time before they passed down the room toward pollard and broderick hesitated taking her time to catch it laughed at his apology for the moment mistake, noted that her own laugh sounded free and natural, caught the step, and swirled away into the crowd, daring now to look up laughingly into Bud's face, unmindful of the havoc she was working in his soul. The two-step was lively, the room was warm, and the color rose high in her cheeks. But still she was careful to turn her head a little, as they whirled by the front door.

Starting point is 06:12:51 but when for the second time the dance carried them to the end of the room where pollard and broderick were she was so sure of herself that she sent a quick laughing glance at her uncle and a little of the tightness about her heart was gone as she saw the look of relief in his eyes king reckless with the wine of her demanded the next waltz claiming that this had been only half a dance and she gave it to him laughingly, the more pleased that she saw Broderick coming toward her, and that this was the second time to-night that he had been a little too late, and that she saw a frown in his eyes as they followed her and King out upon the floor. But she knew that if she play her part as she must play it, until she could have time for the definite shaping of plans, she must dance again with Broderick. When he came for her, she nodded carelessly, let him take her into his arms, and even looking up at him, forced a smile. For surely, if these men could do what they were doing

Starting point is 06:14:02 and give no hint of it, she could play her part with clear eyes and a steady heart. She knew now that ben broderick was a highwayman that he had forced upon her the insult of his kiss already she suspected him of being the man who had murdered bill varney who had committed crime upon crime but she knew too and with as clear a knowledge that she must give no slightest sign of what her thoughts were and as a result mrs sturgis watching her vowed to herself that that win waverley was a little devil of a flirt it seemed an endlessly long time until midnight the lunches which had come in baskets and boxes were spread out upon the benches coffee was made outside and brought in in steaming blackened coffee pots to be poured into tin cups and the supper was a noisy successful affair the girl so wanted to slip away to get back into her own room at pollard's house where she might drop all pretence and think think think but she knew that she must seem to enjoy the dance she must not let her uncle guess that the night had grown bitter in her mouth as it had in buck thorntons the benches were cleared and pushed back against the walls the musicians were added again when Pollard came to her.

Starting point is 06:15:39 Don't you think, Winifred, we'd better be going? He asked quietly. It is late. We've got a good ride ahead of us, and I have a lot to do tomorrow. But she pleaded for one more dance, and then one more, and finally, with much seeming regretfulness,

Starting point is 06:15:59 allowed her uncle to slip on her cloak for her. I may be a hypocrite, she told herself a little sternly as she sat in the buckboard at her uncle's side but they are playing me for a little fool and-and if they knew that i guessed she shivered and pollard asked if she were cold it was a swift drive with few words spoken winnifred her chin sunk in her wraps seemed to be dozing much of the way and henry pollard had enough to think about to make the silence grateful the cream-colored mayors raced out across the level land of the valley with little thought of the light wagon and much thought of the home stable and hands and racing on they sped at last through the long alley-like street of hill's corners into the glaring light from the saloons by many shadows at the corners of houses their ears smitten by much noise of loud voices and the clack of booted feet upon the bored sidewalks when pollard jerked in his team at his own front gate the girl slipped quickly from the buckboard saying quietly i think i'll go right up to bed uncle henry i'm a little tired thank you for taking me and when he said good-night winnifred she called back her good-night

Starting point is 06:17:33 night to him and hurried under the old pear trees to the house in the hall she found her lamp burning where mrs redell had left it for her and taking it up she climbed the stairs to her room at last she was alone and could think her door was locked her light was out that no one might know she was awake and she was crouching at the open window staring out at the night out of a tangle of many doubts suspicions and live terrors there were at first two things which caught the highlights of her understanding standing clear of the shadows which obscured the others buck thornton was absolutely innocent of the thing she had imputed to him and unsuspecting of the evidence which was being piled up against him and her own uncle was the friend and the actual accomplice of the real criminal her thoughts hearkened back to the beginning of the story as she knew it reverting to that night when she had first seen buck thornton at pope drury's road house from that she passed in review all that she knew of him how he had come in while she was talking with the banker about the errand which was to carry her over a lonely trail to her uncle at first she had been quick to suspect that thornton had overheard a part of their conversation that he had known from the first that she was carrying the five thousand dollars now she realized with a little twinge of bitter self-accusation that she had been over-hasty in judging the man who had been kind to her.

Starting point is 06:19:19 She remembered how, on the trail from Drytown, she had seen a man following her, a man whose face, at the distance he maintained, was hidden from her by his flapping hat-brim, but whom she believed to be thorned. Upon what had she founded her belief? Upon the matter of his being of about the size and form of the cowboy, upon the fact that he wrote a sorrel horse, and that his clothes, even to the gray-neck

Starting point is 06:19:51 handkerchief, were the same. How easy, how simple a matter for another man to have a sorrel horse and to wear clothes like Thorntons? She remembered that the cowboy's surprise had seemed sincere and lively when she had told him she had seen him. She recalled his courtesy to her in the heart cabin, his willingness to walk seven miles carrying his heavy saddle that she might have a night's rest under a roof with another woman. Not to be forgotten was the wrath in his eye and voice when she had come upon him with his limping horse, and now, at last, she knew why his horse had been lained, and by whom. For that seemingly wanton cruelty had accomplished that which it was plan to do, making her certain, beyond a doubt, that Thornton had lied to her, that he had been

Starting point is 06:20:50 the man whom she had seen following her, hence that it was he who had robbed her and had kissed her into the bargain. Now in an altered mood, she cast in review all that John Smith and his wife had told her of him, and she knew that her first judgment there in the Storm-Smitten roadhouse, when she had deemed him clean and honest and manly, had been the right judgment, that he was a man and a gentleman, that he could be all that his eyes told of him, gentle unto tenderness, or as hard as tempered steel, but always a man. But there was so much which he did not grasp yet. She heard Henry Pollard returned from the stable where he had left the horse,

Starting point is 06:21:40 and enter the house, passing down the hallway to his room. Still she sat, never stirring, save for the little involuntary shiver, which ran over her from head to foot as her uncle came into the house. And still, she worked at the patchwork of her puzzle, putting it together piece by piece. Buck Thornton didn't do it, she whispered to herself, looking up at the stars flung across the sky,

Starting point is 06:22:09 above the ugly little town. Ben Broderick did do it. He robbed me of Uncle's money. And Uncle knows. I don't understand. But at last, she thought that she did understand. Thornton was buying the poison hole ranch from Pollard. Already he had paid $15,000 into the deal.

Starting point is 06:22:35 Now, what would happen if it were proven that Thornton had stolen? stolen back from Pollard's emissary, five thousand of that money. Thornton would go to jail, and for a long time, and then... But why was Pollard waiting? Why was Broderick waiting, urging the sheriff to wait? She saw it all in a flash, then. They would prove, they thought that they were sure of proof through her,

Starting point is 06:23:05 that Buck Thornton had robbed her of the $5,000. they would prove that buck thornton had killed bill varney that he had robbed hap smith at pope drury's roadhouse they would prove that buck thornton was the man the whole country wanted the man who had committed crime upon crime she knew that he was a new man here that he had lived on the poison-hole ranch for only a year and that the evidence of which her own word was to have been a part would be sufficient to prove to the countryside that buck thornton was the dare-devil marauder they sought and how undeniably strong would that evidence be if all crimes ceased abruptly upon the arrest of this one man it would not be the penitentiary for buck thornton she thought suddenly her face whiter than it had been when she had overheard pollard and broderick the ranch would come back into henry pollard's hands the men who have committed these crimes would be able to keep the thousands and thousands of dollars they have taken from stages and stolen cattle and buck thornton would go to the gallows it was unbelievable it was unthinkable it was impossible and yet and yet she whispered through her white lips it is the truth she sprang to her feet her hands clenched at her sides her eyes blazing buck thornton had been good to her and in return she had done much to give him over into their hands

Starting point is 06:24:52 she had insulted and reviled him she had sworn to the sheriff that he had robbed her now suddenly she felt that she could never sleep again if she did not atone to him she was already at the door her hat and gloves in her hand ready to run down stairs to saddle her horse to ride to thornton with word of warning when a new thought came to her they were waiting they were going to wait ten days that much she had overheard waiting for what for some new crime for the monster crime of all for the last play for the last and biggest stake she too would wait not ten days but until she might slip away without this danger of being seen of her errand being guessed in the meantime she would learn what she could she had not forgotten that henry pollard was her uncle the thought added its bitterness but she remembered too the look she had seen upon pollard's face when she had told him that thornton had robbed her she remembered the look of cruel satisfaction she had surprised there more than once and she knew that were he more than uncle closer than uncle she could not act otherwise than she must act now. Then suddenly, she sank down upon her bed, alone and lonely in the thick darkness, weary and vaguely afraid.

Starting point is 06:26:34 Buck Thornton, she whispered, I am afraid I need your help as much as you need mine now. End of Chapter 21. Chapter 22 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 22. The Yellow Envelope Again. Old Man King, red-eyed with wrath, had gone out after the cattle rustlers in his own direct fashion, seeking to follow the trail of running steers through the mountain passes, his eyes hard, his rifle ready, his mind eager to suspect any man to whom that trail might lead. But he found only confused tracks which ran toward the state border line and which vanished

Starting point is 06:27:35 even before his sharp eyes, leading nowhere. Young Bud King, his own anger, little less than his fathers, went forth on another trail, not after the running steers, but after a man, and he went to the town of Dead Man's Alley. Mentally, he had made his list of the men to whom one might look for the commission of the crime, which had driven the bar-X outfit to action. Being no man's fool, young king planned to go first to the source of the stream, as it were, and thence to travel downward, seeking to see who had muddied the waters. And his one chief bet was that the source was in hills' corners. the result of bud king's investigations so far as he was concerned was little different from that of his father's and negligible but his journey to the town of the bad name was of vast importance to others

Starting point is 06:28:39 winnifred waverley upon the morning after the dance came down late to her breakfast and found that pollard had waited for her although he was not in the habit of offering her this little courtesy she thought nothing of it at first having enough of other matters in her brain perplexing her but before the meal was over she knew why henry pollard had waited for her it was plain to her that he realized that some real importance might be attached to the matter of her having seen buck thornton last night of having danced and talked with him on the ride home he had not referred to the cattle man nor had she now in great seeming carelessness but with his eyes keen upon her he spoke lightly of the dance mentioned that he had seen thornton talking to one of the men at the schoolhouse door and wondered why he had gone so early she managed to look at him innocently and to say carelessly as he had spoken i had a dance with him he didn't say anything about leaving so soon she even achieved a little laugh which sounded quite natural ending he seemed rather put out that i did not receive him like that i did not receive him like that he even achieved a little laugh which sounded quite natural ending he seemed rather put out that i did not receive him like an old friend you did not accuse him of having robbed you not in so many words quietly but i was certainly not polite to him for a little i thought that he was going to return your money to me why pollard asked sharply and now she was sure of his readiness to suspect her of holding back something from him

Starting point is 06:30:33 he said she went on her interest seeming chiefly for her bacon and eggs that he was returning something to me i had left at the cabin at hart's place i couldn't think of anything but your money what was it a spur rowell it had been loose for several days and dropped out in the cabin he brought it back to me from this they passed on to speak of other incidents of the dance and of other people but the girl saw that her uncle's interest waned with the change of topic then her heart fluttering in spite of her but her voice steady enough when a first woman said lightly, I think I'll go for a little ride after breakfast. My horse needs the exercise, and, she added laughingly, so do I. Good idea, he returned, nodding his approval.

Starting point is 06:31:35 But then he asked which way she was riding, and finally volunteered to go with her, assuring her smilingly that he had nothing of importance to do, and, adding gravely, that he would feel safer if she were not out alone in this rough country. So he rode with her, and after an hour of swift galloping out toward the mountains, for the most part in silence, they came back to the town. Pollard left her at his own gate and rode back through the street to see a man. But he returned almost immediately, and for the rest of the day did not love.

Starting point is 06:32:15 leave the house. It was a long day for the girl, filled with restlessness and a sense of being spied upon, of being watched almost every moment by her uncle. And before the day was done, there had come with the other emotions a little thrill of positive personal fear. It was mid-afternoon. The silence here at this far end of the street hung heavy and oppressive. She had gone up and down stairs half a dozen aimless times, eager for something to do. The long hours had been hers for reflection, and after weighing the hundred little incidents of these last few weeks, now there was no faintest shadow of a doubt that Henry Pollard was at least guilty of criminal complicity in a scheme to send an innocent man to the penitentiary, if not to the gallows.

Starting point is 06:33:15 She was more than half persuaded that Pollard was, in some way, seeking to shield himself by using Thornton as a scapegoat. She had got to the point where she began to wonder if Henry Pollard and Ben Broderick shared, share and share alike, both in the profits of these crimes and in their actual commission. She came down for a book, having at last finished the one in her room, resigned to inactivity for another day, perhaps for two or three days, until her uncle's watch upon her movements was less keen and suspicious.

Starting point is 06:33:56 She reflected that if she read something, she might coax her thoughts away from considerations which he could not understand in their entirety and which terrified her when she thought that she did understand. In her quest she passed down the hall and to pull, Pollard's office at the front of the house. The room was by no means private. She had gone into it many times before. Sometimes it was used as a sitting room.

Starting point is 06:34:28 She had thought that her uncle was in it, but when she came to the open door, she saw that it was empty. She went to the long table at which Pollard wrote his few letters. Upon one end of it, at the far end from the pen and ink, were some books and old magazines piled carelessly yesterday she had seen here a fairly recent novel the title of which promised her an interesting story a glance showed her the book lying open where pollard had evidently been reading it and in the same careless glance she saw something else which sent the blood into her face and made her turn swiftly apprehensively toward the door there beside pollard's chair was his waste-paper basket filled to overflowing with crumpled papers and thrusting upward through the papers catching her eye because the papers were white and it was another color

Starting point is 06:35:32 was a long yellow envelope an envelope exactly like the one in which mr templeton had put the bank-notes she was to carry to her uncle obeying her swift impulse, she stepped to the basket and drew the envelope out. It was not only like the one she knew, yellow and cloth lined, but it was the same one. She knew that beyond a hint of doubt, for she remembered how, while sealing the thing for her, Mr. Templeton had laid it down on his table, upon his ink-wet pen, how he had carelessly blotted it, and here was the blot she came swiftly around the table her back was toward the open door and henry pollard was standing behind her watching her she did not see him she could not be sure that she had heard his soft step on the hall carpet but she knew that he was there she seemed to sense his presence with a subtle sixth sense end of chapter twenty two chapter twenty three of six feet four by jackson gregory this libervox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty three warning she felt her heart beating wildly

Starting point is 06:37:09 if at that second he had spoken to her she could not have found immediate voice in answer were it to save her life but further she knew that if he gave her one second longer she could control herself for the first time it came upon her in a flash that she had a personal interest in what these men did they sought to play her for their dupe their fool they counted upon making her a sort of innocent accomplice They dared to count upon her to help them. To make their own positions safe, they were dragging her into the dirty mess that they had made. Her anger steadied her. Her brain had gone hot with it. Now it went cool, cold.

Starting point is 06:38:00 She was holding the envelope in her hands when Pollard came to the door. Now she tossed it back to the basket carelessly and still kept her back to the door. She was humming a little song softly when she picked up the book she had come for and turned with it in her hand, as though to leave the room.

Starting point is 06:38:21 But in spite of her second of preparation, she started when she saw Henry Pollard's face. She had known that it could look hard and cruel, that it could grow dark and threatening, but she saw now a look in the hard eye, about the sinister mouth, which sent a spurt of terror up into her heart. Here was a man who could kill, would kill if he were driven to it. She read it in his eyes in that flash of a glance,

Starting point is 06:38:54 as she might have read it in big-printed letters. If he came to believe that there was actual danger to him from her knowledge, he would find a way to keep her silent. Well, Pollard said steadily. He came into the room and closed the door softly behind him. Now there was no tell-tale expression in his tone, and all expression had gone out of his eyes. Even then, though her heart beat quickly

Starting point is 06:39:26 and the color wavered in her cheeks, she managed to look at him steadily and to answer collectively, It looks like I'd been playing Paul Pry, and that you'd caught me, doesn't it? She even laughed softly and went on, I came down for a book, then I noticed this. She picked up the envelope again, holding it out toward him. You see, I recognized it. There are lots of yellow envelopes, he answered colorlessly, his eyes sharp point,

Starting point is 06:40:02 of light upon hers what about it i am not a lady detective she smiled back taking a sudden keen delight in the knowledge that she had taken the right tact and that she was puzzling pollard but it is quite obvious that you've got your money back why didn't you tell me there are lots of yellow envelopes he repeated speaking slowly and she knew that she knew that you've got your money back why didn't you tell me there are lots of yellow envelopes he repeated speaking slowly and she knew that his brain was as busy as her own. If the moment held danger for her, then it held danger no less for him. They are common enough. What makes you think that this one... Oh, but I know, she broke in lightly.

Starting point is 06:40:51 You see, I remembered Mr. Templeton getting this smudge of ink on it. He called my attention to it, the dear, precise old banker that he is, and wanted to give me a clean one. Did Mr. Thornton get frightened and bring your money back? For a moment he did not answer. She knew that he was measuring her with those shrewd eyes of his, looking for a false sign,

Starting point is 06:41:19 just the twitch of a muscle to tell him that she was playing a part, and she gave no sign. No, he said at last, thornton did not bring it back and even if you were a lady detective you might make a mistake now i haven't seen a cent of the money she lifted her eyebrows in a well-simulated surprise but the envelope now he spoke swiftly and she knew that he had made up his mind that she was hiding nothing that she knew nothing for there was a note of relief in his way words. I had his cabin searched last night while we all were at the dance. It was found there. There was no sign of the money. Again, she tossed away the envelope, as though it no longer had any interest for her. A man, she said contemptuously, who would not destroy a piece of evidence

Starting point is 06:42:24 like that is a fool. The matter was dropped there. One would have said it was forgotten by both of them. For the rest of the day, Winifred Waverly appeared to be much interested in her book. Pollard seemed busy in his office or upon the street, but the girl realized that the man was taking no chances and that there was going to be little chance of her riding the twenty miles to the poison hole without his knowing of it. She let the day go with no thought of making the tree.

Starting point is 06:42:59 trip, satisfying herself with the knowledge which she had gleaned from the conversation she had overheard at the schoolhouse, and with the comforting thought that she had ten days yet. Upon the second day following the dance, she saw Broderick and Pollard talking earnestly out under the pear trees. Broderick, at his boots whipping impatiently with his riding whip, did not come to the house, as was his custom, but going back to the gate, flung himself upon his horse and rode away. That same afternoon he came again, and this time Cole Dalton, the sheriff, was with him. They were met by Pollard at the front door, and for an hour the girl in her room could hear their low voices in the room below her. the third day came and went and she saw no one but pollard and mrs redell pollard was unusually silent and again and again she saw that his eyes were hard his mouth cruel

Starting point is 06:44:09 she began to forget that he was kin to her she began to see only that here was a man playing his game with high very high stakes that he was watchful that he was watchful and he was watchful and he was watchful and he was watchful and he was watchful and he was and determined, that he was not the sort to let anything, no matter what, stand between him and the thing he had made up his mind to do. She saw that he was growing nervous, and sensed that he was in that frame of mind when men act swiftly and unscrupulously. She took no step about the house that Pollard did not know of it. The fourth day came, and her own nerves were strained, to snapping. If she could only do something, she must do something, but what? If Broderick were the guilty man, and from a score of little things, she knew that he was, then Henry Pollard was was no less guilty. If Pollard were a part of the horrible scheme, how about Cole Dalton, the sheriff?

Starting point is 06:45:17 She began to think that she saw why the months had gone by and Dalton had made him. no arrests. If he was one of them, if the man paid by the county to defend the county against outlawry, were hand and glove with the outlaws, to whom then could she turn. But at last, upon the evening of the fourth day, when her spirit was ready for some desperate measure, unless fate came to help her, fate did help, and young Bud King called. he had spent the day in hills corners upon the quest of any information which might tell him who the man was who had run off his father's cattle having learned nothing and being a wise young man after his fashion he had determined not to go home entirely profitless and so came to see pollard's niece she saw him as he rode slowly down the street in a flash she guessed that he came to see her divine too that pollard would give her little opportunity of talking to young king or any other man alone she was at her window where she sat so often

Starting point is 06:46:36 before bud king's horse had been tied at the gate she had written a hasty note had thrust it into an envelope and had scrawled on the outside please carry this right away to buck thornton don't let any one see it is very important then she ran downstairs slipping the note into the bosom of her dress hastening to be at the door when the bar ex man knocked lest henry pollard turn him away saying that she was not at home as she opened the door and bud entered hat in hand and flushed a face pollard came to the door of his office winifred shaking hands warmly asked king in and remarking that her uncle was only reading invited him into the office pollard she knew had no reason to suspect what she had in mind and she would give him no reason before bud left she would find a way to give him the note the three sat down and bud never letting his wide hat out of his hands sat twirling it and shifting his boots and looking and talking for the most of the time at pollard he was a young man was bud girls had been few in his life and this calling upon a young woman in broad daylight was a daring if not quite a devilish thing winnifred found room here for smiling amusement pollard did not want to be bothered with king and showed it so plainly that had king not been so alive to the presence of the girl at whom he looked with the tail of his eyes

Starting point is 06:48:29 and so nearly oblivious of the presence of the man whom he sat facing, he must have noted it before he had been in the room five minutes. Bud did not care to talk with Pollard, whom he agreed perfectly with Buck Thornton in calling a rattlesnake, and yet he talked rather wildly to him of branding and fence-building and stray horses and hold-up men and the weather and last year's politics. and winnifred for a little watched both men with mirthful understanding but as the minute slipped by and pollard gave no sign of leaving the room as silences fell which were too awkward to go unnoticed and which the girl had to fill she began to be afraid that pollard's watchfulness was going to prove too much for her and that she would fail in the plan which had seemed so simple

Starting point is 06:49:29 but she must not fail four days of the ten had gone she must find some way to keep bud king here until something carried pollard out of the room if only for a moment and during that moment she must give the note to king she was sure that pollard did not could not suspect that she meant to say anything to king or that she counted on having him carry a message for her. But she knew, too, that Henry Pollard was taking no chances he did not have to take. He was a man to play close to the table. She had time to determine that she would succeed in this one vital point, time to hope, to fear, to lose hope a dozen times before her chance came. She heard a step on the walk under the pear trees. broderick step she thought swiftly despairingly usually pollard kept the front door locked she had not locked it after she had let bud king in pollard would know it was broderick and would merely call come in not even leaving the room for the one necessary moment broderick would come in bud king would go soon and she would have no chance of doing

Starting point is 06:50:59 the thing she had sworn to herself that she would do. Her one hope was that she had mistaken the step, and that it was not Brodrick. When the man outside came up the steps, she heard his spurs jingle on the porch and saw that Pollard, too, was listening intently. "'Come in!' cried Pollard. "'The door's open, Ben.'

Starting point is 06:51:25 "'Why, why hadn't she locked the door?' now there would be two men to watch her now it would be impossible but fresh hope leaped up into her heart though she could scarce believe her ears when broderick's voice in answer was like the snarl of a beast harsh with anger snapping out his words fiercely come out here i want to talk with you outside and for god's sake man hurry pollard too started bud king looked up with wondering eyes from his swinging hat pollard with the briefest sign of hesitation went out of the room and to the front door no sooner had he gone than the girl her face flushed her eyes brilliant with the excitement in them snapped the paper from the bosom of her dress and tiptoeing to king forced it into his big hand not a word did she speak not so much as a whisper but she laid her finger upon her lips glanced from him toward the door and tiptoed back to her seat and bud king understood in part while he could not understand in full and thrust the note into his pocket when a moment later king rose to go she went with him to the door she caught a glimpse of ben broderick's face though he hid it from her instantly whirling about upon his heel heel. She felt sick and dizzy with a sudden dread of she knew not what, for his face was

Starting point is 06:53:13 dead white and horribly drawn with the rage that blazed in his eyes and distorted his mouth, and she saw standing up in his soul that thing which one may not look upon and misread, that rage that drives a man to kill. And she saw too, that a white bandage was tied about his head under his hat brim, and that the bandage was red with blood. End of Chapter 23 Chapter 24 of 6 feet 4 by Jackson Gregory. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 06:54:02 Chapter 24. The gentleman from New Mexico. Thornton returned rather early that night to the ranch cabin. that he came in at all instead of remaining far out upon the range border as his men were doing was because to-morrow he planned on riding to dry town where he would raise the four thousand five hundred dollars for henry pollard and he wanted to make an early start he left his horse at the barn past the bunk-house and was crossing the little foot-bridge which spanned big little river going straight to his cabin upon the knoll when he saw that while the bunk-house was dark there shone a light from his cabin window wondering who his guest might prove to be he strode up the knoll the cabin door was open he could see his lamp burning upon the table and sitting upon his chair hands clasped behind head and cigar smoking lazily was a man he had never seen before he came on still wondering until his tall form passed through the doorway and stood over the smoker the man turned a little watching him as he drew near howdy stranger thornton said quietly mr thornton smiled the other you see i've been making myself at home he rose and put out a hand a small hard brown hand which the cowboy accepted carelessly and released marveling its grip was as strong as his own the muscles like rock

Starting point is 06:55:47 the man was of medium stature looking small beside the towering form of his host he was dressed quietly and well trousers still preserving the lines left by the tailor's iron his coat fitting closely about the compact muscular shoulders his soft shirt white and clean he was a sandy-haired man of forty perhaps clean-shaven square-jawed with very bright, very clear brown eyes. All this Thornton saw at one swift glance. He tossed his hat to the table, pulled another chair toward him, and sat down. Glad you made yourself at home, he said then. Find anything to eat?

Starting point is 06:56:38 The stranger nodded. I've been here three hours, and I was hungry, so I raided the bunkhouse. "'That's right,' he brought out his paper and tobacco, making his cigarettes slowly, his eyes alone asking the other his business. "'I want a little talk with you, Mr. Thornton, but maybe I'd better wait until you've eaten.' "'Had my supper an hour ago,' Thornton replied. "'Made camp with the boys before I came in.

Starting point is 06:57:12 "'Fire away, stranger.' "'All right. first thing, my name's Comstock. The keen eyes which had measured the cowboy as he came through the door were very bright upon him now. Thornton nodded. The name meant nothing to him. Don't get me? laughed Comstock. Well, well, it's a shock to vanity,

Starting point is 06:57:38 but, after all, one's fame is a poor crippled bird that doesn't fly far. He paused a moment. then added quietly as though this other information might help his bird to fly my stamping grounds new mexico thornton's look showed nothing beyond a faint curiosity one would have said that he was as little interested in this man's stamping ground as in his name one more try laughed comstock easily and i'll give up two hand billy comstock Aha, I get you now. For now, Buck Thornton started, and his eyes did show interest, and a sudden flash of surprise.

Starting point is 06:58:27 For fifteen years, two-hand Billy Comstock, United States Deputy Marshall, had been widely known throughout the great southwest, a man who asked no odds and gave no quarter, one whose name sent us chill a shiver through the hard hearts of the law, as a sight of the gallows would have done and this man small well-dressed quiet mannered as dapper as a tailor's dummy if you are billy comstock grunted thornton well i'm damn glad to know you sir

Starting point is 06:59:04 if i am grinned comstock and why should i lie to you i'm not saying that you're lying returned the cowboy cool but I'm getting in the habit these days of being suspicious, I guess. But if you are that Comstock and want to see me, I'd come mighty close to guessing what you want. But before I do any talking, I want to know. Sure, Comstock nodded, and then smiling again. Only, Mr. Thornton, I'm not in the habit of carrying around a trunk full of identifications. you don't need them billy comstock's name he had made himself and it had carried far there were few men in half a dozen states in this corner of the country who did not know why he was called two-hand billy

Starting point is 07:00:03 and how he had earned his right to the nickname his fame was that of a man who was absolutely fearless and who carried the law where other men could not or would not carry it to him had come the dangers the sharp fights against odds that had seemed overwhelming and always he had shot his way out with a gun in each hand and no waste lead i never saw the man who could beat me to my gun went on thornton quietly no boastfulness in his tone merely the plain statement of a fact if you are two-handed billy comstock you ought to do it the two men were sitting loosely in their chairs at opposite sides of the room the table with the lamp between them comstock's hands were again clasped behind his head thornton lifted his arms clasping his own hands behind his head comstock smiled suddenly brightly seeming to understand and to be as pleased as a child with a new game i'll count three said thornton we'll both go for our guns if i get the drop on you first with a smile which reflected the others i've a notion to shoot you up for an impostor if you get the drop on me first grinned comstock And don't shoot me up. I'll make you a present of the best gun you ever saw. Thornton counted slowly, with regular intervals between the words.

Starting point is 07:01:46 One! And neither man moved, both sitting in seeming carelessness, their hands behind their heads. Two? And only their eyes showed that every lax muscle in each body grew taut. Three! and then they moved the two men like two pieces of the same machine driven unerringly by the same motive power not the hands alone but the entire bodies every muscle leaping into action in a swiftness too great too accurate for it to have been fully appreciated had there been a third man to see thornton slipped sideways from his chair dropping to his knees upon the floor and his two hands flat flashed downward. The left hand sped to the opening at the left hip of his shaps, and to the

Starting point is 07:02:41 pocket beneath, the right hand into the loose band at his stomach, and the hands seemed not to have disappeared for a fraction of a second when they were flung out in front of him, and two heavy double-action revolvers looked squarely into Comstock's smiling face. Comstock had scarcely seemed to move. He still sat loosely in his chair, its front legs tilted back, supported by his heels. But his hands had gone their swift, unerring way to the pockets of his coat, and, into the barrels of the revolvers looked the blue steel barrels of two big automatics. And both men knew that, had this been no play but deadly earnest, there would not have been the tenth of a second between the pistol shots.

Starting point is 07:03:35 Pretty nearly an even break, laughed Comstock, dropping his guns back into his pockets. Thornton rose and stood frowning down into the uplifted eyes of his visitor. It doesn't take a bullet long to go ten feet, he said a little sternly. One man doesn't have to get his gun working half an hour before the other fellow. He came around the table and put out his hand.

Starting point is 07:04:03 shake he said you could have got me and i guess you're two-hand billy all right comstock's eyes were bright with frank admiration i don't know so well about getting you he answered i played you to slip out of the other side of your chair and with his frank laugh i wouldn't care for the job of going out for you mr thornton real name buck laughed the cowboy and now let's talk first name billy returned comstock and we'll talk in a minute first thing though here's some mail for you thornton's eyes went the way of comstocks and saw a piece of folded note-paper upon the table held in place by the lamp he took it up wondering and read the few words swears swiftly. As he read, the blood raced up into his face, and Comstock smiled. "'I must see you,' were the hastily written words. "'I have wronged you all along. I haven't time to write. I am afraid to put it on paper. But there is great danger to you. Come to-night. I will be under the pear-trees in the front yard at

Starting point is 07:05:27 twelve o'clock. Winifred Waverley thornton whirled about confronting comstock where'd this come from he demanded sharply special delivery smiled comstock a young fellow calling himself bud king from the bar x brought it when about an hour ago he said he couldn't wait and couldn't take time to look you up and i told him that i'd see that you got it thornton read the short note again frowning this girl only a few nights ago had called him a liar had angered him as thoroughly as she knew how had sent him from her vowing that he was a fool to have ever thought of her and that he'd die before he'd be fool to seek again to see the niece of henry pollard and now this note speaking of having wronged him telling him that she was afraid to write all that she wanted to tell him warning him of danger to him asking him to meet her in hills corners at her uncle's house at midnight he knew nothing of the danger to which she referred but he did know that for him there was danger in going into dead man's alley even in broad daylight there came to him a swift suspicion that this note had never been written by the girl whose signature it bore that it had been dictated by a man who sought to lure him to a spot where it would be an easy matter to put a bullet in him in safe cowardly fashion.

Starting point is 07:07:12 Suppose that he went, that he entered Pollard's place, and at such an hour. Pollard himself could kill him, admit the deed, and claim that he was but protecting his own premises. Any one of the Bedloe boys could shoot him, and who would know? Another suspicion, allied to this one, came and darked. hearkened the frown in his eyes was it possible that winifred waverley had written it acting at pollard's command that she was but doing the sort of thing he should look to one of pollard's blood to do comstock saying nothing further now seemed entirely engrossed in his cigar thornton the note in his fingers hesitated a third time he read the pencilled words then he folded the paper and slipped it into his pocket if a man wants to know anything real bad he said at last it's up to him to go and find out huh billy comstock

Starting point is 07:08:21 comstock turning his cigar thoughtfully answered that's right buck thornton glanced at his little alarm clock it was not yet half-past eight i've got to be in the corners by twelve o'clock he said as he went back to his chair i'll ride comet though and can make it handily in two hours now what's the line of talk comstock's look trailed back to his cigar i'm after a man he volunteered that's a safe bet what man not poor little jimmy clayton smiled comstock he's only a weak little fool at the worst and wouldn't be a bad sort if he had somebody around all the time to steer him right who is he retorted thornton steadily remembering he's the man you owe a debt of gratitude to laughed comstock he put some bullets through you one night down texas way found that he'd slipped up and that you'd put your money into a check and then played safe by nursing you through it the man who broke jail a month or so ago and beat it up here to you to see him through i'm not after him you seem to know a whole lot answered thornton noncommittally neither voice nor face nor eye showing a hint of surprise or other emotion and yet he was thinking swiftly that if this man spoke the truth he had a score to settle with jimmy clayton oh it's my business to know a whole lot resumed comstock answering the look in thornton's eyes

Starting point is 07:10:17 i just say that i'm not after jimmy clayton as i don't want you to think that you'll be giving away anything on a friend the man i want and he tilted his chair back a little farther drew up his carefully creased trousers with thumb and forefinger and crossed one leg over the other is a man who got away from me seven years ago down in new mexico name asked thornton bluntly his name doesn't matter i guess he had three during the time that i knew him and i suppose he's had half a dozen since before you go any further interrupted thornton tell me why you came to me at all banker templeton of drytown is a friend of mine we went to school together he's the man who led me to believe to hope he added softly that the man i want is working this country now i told templeton that i wanted to make a little visit to this neck of the woods and he gave me your name i see now about your man i'm going to ask you a string of questions thornton we haven't over much time and anyway there wouldn't be any use now in my stopping to explain just what i'm driving at and why i want to know this and that If you'll just answer what I ask, Fire away!

Starting point is 07:11:57 For a little, they smoked on in silence, two-hand Billy Comstock's expression, suggesting that he was planning precisely the course his inquiries were to take before beginning. Let's start it this way, he said at last. What men around here do you know real well, well enough to call friends? "'I've been here only a year,' Thornton told him.

Starting point is 07:12:24 "'I don't know many men here real well. "'Friends? Outside Bud King and the boys working for me, "'I don't know any I'd call friend.' "'Then,' placidly suggested, "'how about enemies? "'A man can make a good many enemies in a year "'and not half try.' "'If you'll change that to men I know

Starting point is 07:12:48 know pretty well and don't like, and who don't like me, I can name a name or two. Let's have him. There's Henry Pollard to begin with. The man you're buying from. First, how old a man is he, and what does he look like? Next, what do you know about him? Thornton described the man, guessed at his age, and told what he knew of rattlesnake Pollard. Comstock seemed interested in a mild sort of way, but neither now nor later,

Starting point is 07:13:27 as Thornton spoke of other men, did he give any sign of more than mild interest? Who are Pollard's friends, was the next question. Thornton named Ben Brodrick, two other men who do not come into the story, and Cole Dalton, the sheriff. As he named them, comstock asked him to give an estimate at their ages to tell what he knew of them and to give us close a personal description as he could having finished with pollard and his friends he spoke of the bedloe boys and united states deputy marshal comstock listened throughout with the same mild interest merely asking questions offering no opinions one last question he said finally if you had a guess who'd you say was the bad man this count he wants if any stock's missing from my range was the blunt answer i'd look up the bedloe outfit comstock offering no opinion smiled and sank into a thoughtful silence at half-past nine o'clock thornton got to his feet and took up his hat

Starting point is 07:14:46 i'd better be riding he said putting out his hand make yourself at home but comstock came to the door with him if you don't mind i'll ride along he offered carelessly i think my trail runs into dead man's too and by the way thornton he added a little sharply my name's just plain richard hampton for the present and my business right now is my business thornton nodded that he understood and together they left the cabin end of chapter twenty four chapter twenty five of six feet four by jackson gregory this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty five in the dark it was a pitch-black night the stars hidden by dense drifting clouds and intensely still buck thornton and two-hand billy comstock riding side by side with few words turned straight out across the fields the marshal raining his horse close in the marshall raining his horse close in to that other horse he could scarcely see and leaving to the cowboy the task of finding their way they rode slowly until they turned into the level country road and then swifter that they might come into hills corners before it was midnight when at last the twinkling lights of dead man's alley winked at them comstock struck a match and looked at his watch fifteen minutes of twelve he said you're a on time. And I guess you can do the rest of your riding alone? So long, I'm apt to drop in on you at

Starting point is 07:16:47 the ranch any day. Comstock had planned to ride straight to the brown bear saloon, to invest in a stack of chips and to spend the evening seeing the town. And Thornton, understanding that if the note from Winifford Waverley were truthful in all that it said, and in all that it suggested, It would be as well if he were not seen tonight, turning out along the outskirts of the village to come to Pollard's house without riding through the main street. Easy, Comet, easy, he muttered to his horse, having no desire to come to the appointed place before the appointed hour. We've got fifteen minutes, and then won't have to keep the lady waiting, if she's there, Comet. for even yet his suspicions were not all at rest already he rode with reins and quirt in the grip of his left hand the right caught in the loose band of his shaps it lacked but a few minutes of midnight when he entered the dark silent street in which was henry pollard's house here were a few straggling houses with many vacant lots between and no single light to show that any were awake

Starting point is 07:18:06 no gleam from a window to cut through the darkness which was absolute thornton drew his horse to the side of the road where the grass had not been worn away by the wheels of wagons and where the animal's footfalls were muffled hardly to be heard a score of paces away twice he stopped frowning into the gloom about him seeking to force his eyes to penetrate the impenetrable wall of the dark straining his ears to catch some little sound through the silence but there was nothing to see save the black forms of houses and the pear-trees in pollard's yard shapeless sinister shadows something darker than the emptiness against which they stood no sound save his horses breathing the faint creak of his own saddle-leather the low jingle of bridle and spur chain almost too still to be true he told himself but with a grim tightening of his lips too infernally dark for a man to pick me off with a shotgun if he wanted to fifty yards from pollard's front gate he stopped his horse swung down noiselessly from the saddle and tied comet to a tree standing at the edge of the road his jingling spurs he removed to have hang them over the horn of his saddle. Then he went forward on foot, walking guardedly, his tread upon the grass making no sound to reach his own ears, and came to Pollard's gate.

Starting point is 07:19:49 It was so dark under the pear trees that the obscurity was without detail. He must guess rather than know where the tree trunks were. It was hard to judge if they were ten feet or fifty feet from him. There might be no one here to keep trist with him, while on the other hand a dozen men might be waiting. For perhaps two or three minutes he waited, standing motionless at the gate. No faint noise came to him, no hint of a shadow stirring among those other shadows, as motionless as they were formless. The night seemed not to breathe, no sound even of rustling brats. branches coming to his ears from the old pear trees. It's twelve o'clock, and after, he thought.

Starting point is 07:20:41 If she's coming, she ought to be here now. Still, he waited. And then when he knew it must be ten or fifteen minutes after the time Winifred had set, and remembering that she said specifically, under the pear trees, he moved forward suddenly, jerked the gate open,

Starting point is 07:21:02 and stood in Pollard's yard. The little noise of the gate winding upon its worn hinges sounded unnaturally loud. His footfall upon the warped boardwalk which led to the front door snapped through the silence like a pistol shot. If there's anybody laying for me here,

Starting point is 07:21:24 he knows now that I've come, he told himself. And with no hesitation now, yet with no lessening of his watchfulness, he came on swiftly until he stood under the pear trees and within ten feet of the front porch. It was still about him, intensely still, and black dark. He stood leaning forward a little, peering into the darkness, listening for a sound, any sound. He knew that it must be half-past twelve, that for close upon half an hour he had waited here, half an hour filled with quick conflicting thoughts suggesting a dozen explanations was the note really from miss waverley had she acted in good faith in sending it what was the danger of which she spoke why had she not come and why had she set an hour like this was it a mere hoax

Starting point is 07:22:26 if i could only have a smoke he muttered it wouldn't be so bad waiting to see what the play is but still he waited determined not to leave until possessed of the certainty of there being no need of staying longer cautiously he approached the house until he could have put his foot to the first of the steps leading up to the little porch there he stopped telling himself that doubtless he was just playing tom fool here in his enemy's garden less and less did he like the idea of prowling about the place of henry pollard at this time of night but now at last there was a sound to vibrate against the empty silence in his ears a little sound which at first he could not analyze and could not locate he could hardly be sure whether his senses had tricked him or if he actually heard it it seemed rather that he had felt it his body grew very tense as he tried to know where it was what it was but again the silence was heavier and more oppressive than before at last through the void of the absolute stillness it came again now he knew what it was although not even yet could he be certain whence it came it was a cautious step it might have been a man's step or a woman's no muscle of his rigid body moved save alone the muscles which turned his eyes to right and left at first he thought that there was some one moving toward him from behind someone who had perhaps just come in through the gate or had been hidden in the straggling shrubbery and the next instant he knew that the sounds were in front of him

Starting point is 07:24:23 him that what he heard was someone walking in the house tiptoeing cautiously and yet not silently because the old boards of the floor wind and crete under the slow tread had the night been less still had his ears been less ready for any sounds the faint creek creek would have not reached him woman or man was his problem winnifred waverley or henry pollard There came a second sound, and this he recognized. The scraping of dry wood against dry wood, the moving of the bars which the countryside knew that Henry Pollard used as the nightlock upon his doors. Thornton drew back a little, step by step, slowly, silently, and stopped under the pear trees.

Starting point is 07:25:19 Now he was ten feet from the first of the front steps, ten feet from the boardwalk when a man must trust everything to his ears for guidance his ears may tell him much thornton knew when the bars were down and when the door was opening very slowly and then suddenly he knew that there was a third person out here in the garden close to him and that this person man or woman was moving with as great a slow caution as himself and the other someone in the house there was the crack of a twig snapping underfoot silence slow cautious steps again the cowboy moved again a bare two steps now and stopped his back against the trunk of the largest of the pear trees his eyes running back and forth between the door he could not see and the moving someone he could not see at the corner of the house his widened nostrils had stiffened as though he would sent out these beings and his eyes were the alert eyes of an animal in the forest seeking its enemy through the denseness of a black undergrowth the door was open the soft step was at the threshold the other step at the corner of the house had stopped in the new silence the cowboy could hear his own deep regular breathing he could see nothing he knew that his body pressed against the tree trunk could not be seen and his hands were ready he began to long for a pistol shot for the spurt of red fire

Starting point is 07:27:07 for anything that would mean certainty and would release the coiled springs of his tense muscles but the still minutes dragged by and there was no certainty of anything save that the some one at the door and the someone at the door and the someone of the one of the door at the corner of the house at Thornton's right were standing as still, as tense, as himself. A little sense of the grim humor of this game three people were playing in the dark, this blind man's bluff, which he was waiting to understand, drew his lips into a quick, fleeting smile. Now, at last, came the first bit of certainty. The someone at the door moved again, came to the steps and down into the garden, taking the steps slowly with long pauses between. This someone was a man.

Starting point is 07:28:03 Dimly Thornton saw the blur of the form, but more than his eyes and ears told him that this tread, though guarded, was too heavy for a girl like Winifred Waverley. Pollard, he told himself swiftly, not ten feet away, and if he comes this way. The man at the steps stopped, and in the long silence,

Starting point is 07:28:29 Thornton knew that the two other people playing this grim game with him were listening even as he was, trying to force their eyes to see through the shadows. Then the heavy tread again, and Thornton thought that it was coming nearer. Then a pause, the step once more, and Pollard, if Pollard it were, had turned the other way, and keeping close to the house was moving toward the far corner. The steps grew fainter as they drew farther away, and he knew that the man had gone around the corner of the building.

Starting point is 07:29:09 That other person at the other corner of the house, at Thornton's right, had heard and understood too. The cowboy heard steps there again, quick steps, almost running, soft, quick, breathing, not a yard away, and bending forward a little, knew that Winifred Waverly had come to keep her trist with him. Miss Waverly, he whispered softly. She was at his side, close to him, so close that he could feel the sweep of her skirts against his boots. She too had leaned forward, her face lifted up to his, her eyes seeking to make sure who this man was.

Starting point is 07:29:55 Buck Thornton, she whispered back. Yes, what is it? Here, quick! She had thrust a folded paper into his fingers, closing them tightly upon it. Now go! Do what I tell you in it. henry pollard suspects something he is looking for me go quickly she was already passing him hastening toward the steps and the front door wait he commanded his hand hard upon her arm i don't understand for god's sake let me go only a whisper but he thought he heard a quiver of terror in it he knew the her arm was trembling violently.

Starting point is 07:30:45 He'd kill me. Oh, my God, go! If there is danger for you... There is none if you go now, if he doesn't find me here. Please, Buck! She jerked away from him and went swiftly to the steps. He could hear her every step now so plainly, his heart stood still with fear that Pollard must hear, too. he heard her go to the door she passed on and so became one with the blot of darkness within the house then he drew back slowly half regretfully back toward the gate stopping for a last time under the trees there

Starting point is 07:31:30 and after a very long time he heard pollard steps again the man had made a tour of his grounds keeping rather close to the house and now mounted the steps with no effort at silence slammed the door and dropped the bars into place it was as though he had flung them angrily into their sockets thornton went out of the yard and to his waiting horse she says to go away to leave her there alone with pollard he muttered dully and something's up she said he'd kill her if he knew that she was talking to me he hesitated his horse's tie-rope in his hand of half a mind to go back to force his way into henry pollard's house to demand to know what was wrong to take the girl away if there were real danger to her but then the urgent pleading in her voice came back to him her insistence that he'd go that with him gone there would no longer be any danger for her slowly regretfully he swung into the saddle he had made up his mind he would obey her at least in part he would go where he could read the paper she had given him and then perhaps he would understand anyway he said under his breath she's a real girl for you he rode swiftly the five hundred yards through the dark street which ran as nearly parallel with the main street as two such crooked streets could approximate parallelism until he was behind the here's house saloon here he dismounted and leaving his horse with reins thrown over his head to the ground strode up

Starting point is 07:33:26 off toward the side door of the saloon. Under the window he glanced in swiftly. Chance had it that the cover was off of the little used billiard table and that two men, in shirt-sleeved comfort, were playing. Both men he knew. They were Charlie Bedloe and his brother, the kid. The Bedloe boys were intent upon their game, the kid laughing softly at a miscue.

Starting point is 07:33:56 Charlie had made. Charlie was chalking his cue angrily and cursing his luck, and neither of them glanced toward the window. Thornton, drawing back a little so that he could not be seen, did they happen to look his way, unfolded the paper Winifred had given him. "'Watch me play out my string, Charlie,' he heard the kid call, banteringly. Then he heard nothing more from the room.

Starting point is 07:34:26 room, nothing to tell him of another man not ten steps from him in the darkness, for his whole mind had been caught by Winifred's first words. "'I have wronged you from the beginning,' she had written. "'I thought I had seen you that day on the trail behind me. You denied it. I thought that you were lying to me. While you were out after the horse, a man, masked, came into the cabin and robbed me of the $5,000 I was taken to Henry Pollard. I thought that it was you. The man was dressed as you were dressed. His gray handkerchief even was like yours. Now I know it was a man named Ben Broderick who robbed me, and that he wanted me to think that it was you. Can't you

Starting point is 07:35:19 see the whole scheme? Broderick and the men who are with him have been committing these crimes. and pretty soon in a few days in five days i think they will be ready to make the evidence show that you are the man who has done it all there was more there were several sheets of paper closely written thornton saw the names of henry pollard of cole dalton but he read no further in one instant the mind which had been so intent upon these things a girl's writing was telling him, forgot Winifred Waverley, Henry Pollard, Broderick, everything except that which was happening at his side. For a while he read, there had been the sharp crack of a revolver. He saw the spit of angry reddish flame almost at his side, and as he saw, he dropped to his knee, Winifred's note in his left hand, his right flashing to his own revolver. for his first thought was that a man had crept up behind him that it was pollard that he was shooting at him but almost with the flash and the report of the gun he knew that this man was not shooting at him

Starting point is 07:36:40 there came the crash and tinkle of broken glass one of the small panes of the window beside which thornton had been reading dropped out and almost before the falling pieces had ceased to rattle against the small panes of the window beside which thornton had been reading dropped out and almost before the falling pieces had ceased to rattle against the bare floor he heard the sound of running footsteps behind him the man who had fired had made sure with one shot then thornton heard the kid cry out his voice hoarse and inarticulate and with the cry came a moan from charlie bedloe charlie staggered half across the room his two big hands going automatically to his hips he had come close to his younger brother staring at him with wide eyes and then slipped forward and down quiet and limp and dead thornton's one first emotion one so natural to a man who takes his fight in the open was a boundless rage toward the man who had been a boundless rage toward the man who had murdered another man in this cold-blooded fashion, taking his grim toll from the darkness, and without warning, he whirled about, his own gun blazing in his hand, and as fast as his finger could work the trigger sent six shots after the flying footsteps. The footsteps were gone.

Starting point is 07:38:09 Again the cowboy looked swiftly in at the window. He saw that Charlie Bedloe was dead. the kid his face contorted hideously twisted to his blended rage and grief stood staring about him helplessly then the moment of paralysis gone the kid suddenly leaped over his brother's body and ran to the window it's buck thornton roared the kid both of his big guns were already in his hands take that you-then then bob thornton roared the kid both of his big guns were already in his hands take that you then buck thornton making most of an unforeseen situation did a thing that he had never done before in his life which he never would do again he turned and ran stumbling through the darkness into which one leap carried him for he knew that the kid had no shadow of a shred of doubt that he had killed charlie bedloe he knew that if he did not run for it run like a scared rabbit now, why then he'd have to kill the kid, or the kid would kill him.

Starting point is 07:39:21 He had no wish to meet his death for the cowardly act of another man, and he had no wish to kill Kid Bedloe because another man had murdered his brother. If there were anything left to him but to run for it, he did not know what it was. He found his horse,

Starting point is 07:39:41 leaped into the saddle, and turned out toward the north. The kid sure had his nerve running right up to the window after Charlie dropped, he muttered, with the abrupt beginning of the first bit of admiration he had ever felt for a man whom he had appraised as even lower in the scale

Starting point is 07:40:00 than Rattlesnake Pollard. The boy is game, and now he's going to come out after me, and there won't be any talking done and is going to be kid bedloe or me. And with much certainty, but with a little sigh, half regretful, the kid is just a shade slow on the draw. Sure as two and two, I've got to kill him.

Starting point is 07:40:29 Oh, hell, he concluded disgustedly, Why did this have to happen? Haven't I got enough on my hands already? End of chapter 25. Chapter 26 of 6 Feet 4 by Jackson Gregory This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 26 The Frame Up

Starting point is 07:41:01 Thornton returned to his cabin long before the first faint streak of daylight, and not once during the night did he think of sleep. At his little table, in the light of his coal-oil lamp, he read over and over the hurried words which Winifred Waverley had been driven to put on paper for him. At first, his look was merely charged with perplexity. Then there came into it in credulity and finally sheer amazement. The pack of hounds! he cried softly when he had done,

Starting point is 07:41:40 his fist striking hard upon the table. The pack of low-down dirty hounds! For now, in a flash, saw and understood beyond the limits to which the girl's vision had gone grasping explanations denied to her she had told him everything which she knew or suspected saying somewhere in her account i know now that my first judgment of you before i was deceived into thinking ben broderick you was right i know that you are a man and a gentleman i know that you are square so-i know that you are square so now if you think that you owe me anything for what i am doing for you i want you to remember that henry pollard is my uncle my dead mother's brother and to make things no harder for him than he has made them for himself with no other reference to a relation to the man with no further hint of a plea for herself she went on to tell what she knew of pollard and broderick of their meetings with dalton who whom she thought they had completely deceived, of the talk she had overheard that night at the schoolhouse.

Starting point is 07:42:57 She said nothing of her own precarious position at Pollard's house. When he finished reading, Buck Thornton's eyes were very bright. "'A real woman,' he muttered. "'A real man's sort of girl. I doped her up right at the first jump, and then I went and insulted her by thinking that she was like rattlesnake Pollard. Lord, Lordy, what a difference! And then, very gently, his eyes clouding a little,

Starting point is 07:43:31 he muttered over and over under his breath, Poor little kid! But ever his thoughts came back to the tangle into which day by day he himself had been moving deeper and deeper. he saw how simple the whole matter had been how seemingly sure of success broderick was close enough to him in size and form to make the scheme eminently practicable it was easy for broderick to dress himself as thornton dressed boots shaps old and worn big black hat and gray neck handkerchief it was simple enough for broderick here in this land of catalan horses to find a horse that would be a fair match for any horse which Thornton rode. He would allow himself to be seen only at a distance, as upon the day Winifred Waverly had seen him,

Starting point is 07:44:29 or indistinctly at night, and when the time came and the arrest was made, there would rise up many men to swear to Buck Thornton. Broderick himself had already said that he had been robbed of a can of gold dust. He would be ready to swear that Thornton had robbed him. Pollard would add his word. One by one he remembered episodes, which until now had meant nothing. Cattle had been stolen from the ranges all about him. No single cow was missing from the poison hole.

Starting point is 07:45:07 He had thought that this had been because of his own great vigilance, his night riding over his herds. But what would a jury say? he remembered that the last time he had seen old man king just a few days ago when king had remarked dryly upon the fact that no cattle were missing from thornton's range there had been a swift look of suspicion in the old cattleman's shrewd eyes already he was suspected how many men besides king were ready to believe the worst of buck thornton a man who had been in their midst only a year there were many days in the life of buck thornton as in the lives of other cattlemen hereabouts when he was absolutely alone with his horse when he rode far out day and night upon some range errand when perhaps he went two or three days together and saw no other man thornton remembered suddenly that when he had first heard of the murder of bill varney the stage driver he had just returned from such a lonely ride a three days trip into the mountains to look for new pasture lands if these men planned to commit these crimes and then to throw the burden upon him he saw how simple a matter it would be for them to select some such occasion as this when he could not prove an alibi

Starting point is 07:46:39 they've come mighty close to getting me he muttered sternly mighty damned uncomfortably close he saw further winnifred waverley had said frankly that she had sworn to the sheriff that she knew it was buck thornton who had robbed her they were managing to hold cole dalton off and they had a reason what perhaps to work their game as long as they dared to make a last big hall or to have their chain of evidence welded so strongly link by link that thornton could not free himself from it and that no faintest breath of suspicion might reach them pollard would be in a position to prove that thornton had paid him his five thousand only to take it back it would give him a chance to break the contract to regain possession of the poison hole and to keep the other ten thousand dollars already paid in as forfeited why had they chosen him to bear the brunt of their manifold crimes that too was clear to him with him in the penitentiary or gone to the gallows the whole episode would be closed the men who had put through their monumental scheme would be in a position to enjoy their boldly acquired profits with no fear of the law so much as searching for them it was necessary to them that some man suffer for their wrongdoing now why buck thornton in particular the reasons were forthcoming logical and in order

Starting point is 07:48:26 he was a man whom pollard hated already pollard regretted having sold the poison hole ranch for twenty thousand dollars he wanted it back thornton happened to be a new man in the country and new men are always open to suspicion he happened to be close enough to ben broadrick in size and form and carriage to make the deception easy and thought thornton there was one other reason. The undertaking of these men had already grown too big, the work too extensive, for it to be handled by two men alone. They had Confederates. That was inevitable. Blackie, the saloon-keeper in Drytown, was one of them, he felt sure. The Bedloe boys, always ready for deeds of wildness and lawlessness, were others. The Bedloe boys hated him as keenly as did Pollard, and they were not the kind to miss an opportunity like this to break even with him. It was noteworthy that he had had no trouble with them

Starting point is 07:49:38 since he had shot the kid's revolvers out of his hands at John Smith's place last winter. They had left him entirely unmolested. The three of them who he knew were fearless and hard and vengeful had not sought in any way to punish him. Here was the reason. He went back to Winifred Waverley's letter. She had ended by saying, I know that Henry Pollard suspects me of knowing more than I have admitted to him.

Starting point is 07:50:12 I suppose I did not entirely deceive him about that yellow envelope. He is watching me all the time. That is why I have written this, to be ready to give it to you. you if i get the chance if i dare not talk with you don't try to see me i am in no danger now but if you came if he knew that we were seeing each other i don't know at last when thornton got up and went to his door day was breaking he returned to his table where his lamplight was growing a sickly pale yellow in the dawn and holding winnifred's letter over the chimney burned it. He took her other little note from his pocket and let the yellow flame lick it up. Then, grinding the ashes under his heel, he put out the light and went again to the door. The recent shooting at the Here's House saloon by some man who had stood almost at the cowboy's elbow,

Starting point is 07:51:15 he had for a little forgotten as he pondered on his own personal danger and admitted that the case was going to look bad against him, in spite of what he might do. But now, for a moment, he forgot his own predicament to become lost in frowning speculation upon the night's crime. He knew that men like the bedlows, hard men living hard lives, have many enemies. There were the men whom they had cheated at cards,

Starting point is 07:51:46 and who had cheated them, with whom they had drunk, and quarreled. It was clear to him that any one of a dozen men, bearing a grudge against Charlie Bedloe, but afraid to attack in the open any one of these three brothers who fought like tigers, and who took up one another's quarrels with no thought of the right and the wrong of it, might have chosen this method. Yes, this was clear. But one thing was not. The night had passed, and neither the kid nor ed bedloe had called to square with him he did not understand this for he did not believe that even their affiliation with broderick and pollard would have held the kid and ed back from their vengeance now it was patent that the kid had leaped to the natural conclusion that he had killed charley bedloe

Starting point is 07:52:42 he understood the emotion which he had seen depicted in the kid's twisted face as charlie staggered and fell at his brother's feet it was a great blind grief unutterable wrathful terrible like the unreasoning tempestuous grief of a wild thing of a mother bear whose cubs had been shot before her eyes for the one thing which it seemed god had put into the natures of these men was love the love which led them to seek no wife no friend no confidante outside their own close fraternity and yet the night had passed and neither the kid nor ed had come something happened to stop them mused thornton for a few hours only they'll come and i'd give a hundred dollars to know who the jasper was that put that bullet into charley he went back into his cabin put his two guns on the table threw out the cartridges and for fifteen minutes oiled and cleaned then with a careful eye to every shell he loaded them again when he once more threw his door open and went outside his eyes were a little regretful but very very hard he was inclined to believe that winnifred was mistaken in judging ben broadrick's to be the brains of this thing he thought that he saw pollard's hand directing until now he had fully expected to go to dry town to raise the four thousand five hundred dollars with which to make his last payment upon the poison-hole ranch.

Starting point is 07:54:32 Now he more than suspected that this was but a play of Pollards to get him out of the way, while the last crime be perpetrated, to have him out upon one of his lonely rides so that he could prove no alibi, perhaps even to rob him of the $4,500 before he could come with it to Hill's Corners. now he made up his mind that he was not going to give pollard this one last chance he wanted for he felt convinced if he did succeed in getting through with the money without a bullet in the back and if he actually brought it to pollard the latter would tell him that he had changed his mind and so the rash act would have been done uselessly having no way of holding pollard to his bargain he had little wish to make the long ride to dry town and back thornton for several days had planned to ride out to the borders of his range to see his cowboys giving them full instructions for work to be done during the week which followed in case he should not be able to give more time to them now with a great deal to think about he was not averse to a solitary day in the saddle of late he had noted how the cinch of his cinch of his own

Starting point is 07:55:55 his working saddle was weakening. Some of the strands had parted even. He should mend it now, but he had no time to lose, and he did have another saddle, which he did not use twice during the years, and which for months now he had not even seen. He had put it out of the way, high up in the loft. He went down to the barn, meaning to get it

Starting point is 07:56:21 and make the exchange. If he was going to have some hard riding during the coming days, it was as well if he used this saddle, the best he had ever seen. Rather too ornate with its profuse silver chasings and carved leather for every day's use, a heavy Mexican affair with which he had won in a Bronco-busting competition down in Texas four years ago. He came up into the loft, half filled with hay, and went to the far end where the saddle had hung upon its peg. It was gone.

Starting point is 07:57:01 He stood staring at the peg in surprise. Surely he had left it here. Surely he had not removed it. He tried to think when he had seen it last. And he remembered. It had been two or three months ago, and he knew that he had left it here. He even remembered the trouble he had had had.

Starting point is 07:57:23 and drawing it up after him through the small trap-door. Now, where was it? His first suspicion was that one of his men had been using it, but he knew that was impossible. He would have seen it, and, moreover, one man does not take another man's saddle without saying, by your leave. The thing is worth three hundred dollars, easy, he muttered. It would be funny.

Starting point is 07:57:53 he went to the loose hay heaped at the wall and began to kick it about half expecting to have his boot strike against the silver-tipped horn or the heavy tapaderos and then at last did the swift certain suspicion of the truth flash upon him he came upon a small soap-box hidden far under the loose hay he drew it out whisking away the straw which half filled it after the first start of amazement and a swift examination of the contents he understood a plant he cried angrily a damned cowardly plant lord lordy but they're making a clean job of this upon the top of the pile the first thing he took into his hands was a heavy silver watch it bore a name scratched within the case and the name was that of jed macintosh the man who blacky had told him had been cleaned out in dry town there were two bank notes one for ten dollars one for twenty and both were soiled with dark smears that told of dry blood there was a little much-worn memorandum book with many pencil scribbled entries in it and upon the fly-leaf it bore the name of seth powers the man who had been robbed in gold run and who had been found beaten into unconsciousness there was a small tin can in the bottom of it some pine pitch and adhering to the pitch a fine sifting of gold dust a can he knew ben broderick would identify as the one of which he had been robbed

Starting point is 07:59:49 there were other articles two more watches a revolver an empty purse which he could not identify but which he realized keenly would be identified when the time came suppose that the time came now suppose that he should hear the sheriff's voice calling upon him that a posse should come upon him and find him with this box in his possession what chance would he have his face went white with the anger which surged up within him and the desire leaped up strong and bitter to get in his two hands the man who had framed him and to choke the treacherous life out of him then suddenly he was cool again seeing the present danger and the urgent need of prompt action first he made certain that there was no other damning bit of false evidence concealed in the hay or anywhere in the loft. Then, taking the box under his arm, he went down into the stable. Here again he made careful search,

Starting point is 08:00:59 spending an hour in a stubborn search. Then, leaving the box in a manger, straw-covered, he went back to the cabin on the top of the knoll. His eyes, running to the four points of the compass, told him that there was no other man within sight. Taking off his boots and socks, he waded out into the middle of big little river, carrying a shovel and the box. In the soft sandy soil, he made a hole deep enough to hold the box,

Starting point is 08:01:32 which he put into it. Swiftly he filled it with stones, placed a big flat rock over it, saw that there was no sign of his work as the sand and mud drifted in to fill the little hollow, and then went back for his boots. The shovel he put again against the bunkhouse wall. When at last he had mended his cinch and rode comet out towards the east and the mountains upon the flank of the poison hole,

Starting point is 08:02:02 he had made up his mind what he was going to do. It's a gamble, he told himself coolly. But I guess I've got to gamble now. And I'm going to play it heavy. End of chapter twenty. chapter twenty seven of six feet four by jackson gregory this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty seven jimmy squares himself a horseman was riding toward him upon the far bank of the big little river where it straightened out beyond the cabin he recognized the horse and a moment later the rider now waving his hat to him and knew that it was two-hand Billy Comstock returning. He turned and rose slowly to meet the officer.

Starting point is 08:03:03 Back already, Comstock, he called carelessly. What luck! Bulley luck, grinned Comstock, replacing his hat and looking as fresh and well-groomed, as though he were but this minute up from bed and a long sleep. First, let me tell you the news! He slipped his hand into his breast, pressed pocket and took out an envelope more mail for you thornton you're doing a big correspondence it seems to me in spite of him a quick flush ran up to thornton's brow for his first thought was that winniford waverley wrong guess buck chuckled comstock his good humor seemingly flowing from an inexhaustible source it's from a man who demanded thornton sharply putting out his hand comstock's amusement welled up into open laughter it's a prime joke of the fates he cried cheerfully here is william comstock united states deputy marshal carrying a message from no less a person than jimmy clayton jailbird crook and murderer a man wanted in two states

Starting point is 08:04:23 clayton said thornton in amazement you don't mean to tell me oh he'd never seen me you know nor i him but then i've seen his picture more than once and i know all about him he's keeping low but he took a chance on me i was just a whisky drummer last night you know and happened to let it out that i was riding this way this morning on my way to dry town so jimmy slay slipped me the letter. Read it." Thornton took it, wondering. The envelope was sealed and much soiled where Jimmy Clayton's hand had closed the mucilageed flap. He tore it open and read almost at a glance, "'Dear Buck, come down the same place to-night. I want to put you wise. There is some danger to you, Buck. Keep your eyes open on the way. I will be there, Lidon.

Starting point is 08:05:23 late to-night. J.C. Thornton looked up to see the twinkling eyes of two-hand Billy Comstock watching him. "'You'd better tell me what he says,' said Comstock, coolly. "'I don't know but that I should have been well within my rights to open it, eh? But I hate to open another man's private mail.' Thornton hesitated. He must not forget the Comstock was an officer. that even now he was upon a state errand that it was his duty to bring such men as jimmy clayton to justice he must not forget that clayton had been a friend to him or at least that he had credited the crook with the feeling of friendship and the care of a friend

Starting point is 08:06:11 true comstock who seemed to know everything had said in a matter-of-fact way that it had been jimmy clayton who had shot him that night between warrez and el paso but nothing was proven he had long thought of clayton as a man to whom he owed a debt of gratitude and now with the man hunted as he was his sympathy naturally went out to him evil-doer as he knew him to be evidently comstock read what was passing in the cowboys mind i'm not asking you to squeal on him buck he said quietly look here i could have taken him in last night if i had wanted to i could have got him a week ago if i had wanted him but i didn't want him i don't want him now i'm hunting bigger game still thornton hesitated but now his hesitation was brief he swung his horse around toward the cabin let's ride back comstock he said shortly i want a good long talk with you not another word about the matter did either man say as they unsaddled or as they went up the knoll to the cabin not a word until the fragrance of boiling coffee and frying baking baking and went out to mingle with the freshness of the new day. Then as they sat at table and Comstock began to soak the biscuits Thornton had made in the bacon gravy,

Starting point is 08:07:47 they looked at each other and their eyes were alike, grave and equally stern. First thing, began Comstock. Let me finish my news. Charlie Bedlow was murdered last night. I know. the devil you do all right then here's something else his brother the kid they call him swears that you killed him i know nodded thornton as quietly as before comstock made no pretense of hiding his surprise i thought you had left before the shooting happened i was all over town no one saw you except the kid he did he saw me outside the window through which somebody shot charlie comstock returned his attention to his biscuit and gravy i'm a failure as a newsmonger he grunted go on you tell me and thornton told him before he had finished comstock had pushed back his chair and was letting his coffee go cold

Starting point is 08:09:04 for thornton had told him not alone of what had happened at the here's house saloon last night but of the work that broderick and pollard were doing of all his certainties and his suspicions of the planted evidence he had found in the hayloft of the missing saddle only he did not mention the name of a girl and he remembered that pollard was her uncle and spared him where he could what a game by high heaven what a game comstock pursed his lips into a long whistle then he banged his fist down upon the table his eyes grown wonderfully bright and keen crying softly i've got him i've got him at last and he's going to pay to the uttermost for what he has done in the last seven years and before got him by thunder pollard asked the cowboy quickly no not pollard then broderick not broderick bedloe the kid what does his name matter i'll give him a dozen names when the time comes and by heaven he's got a crime to pay for for every name he has ever wore he grew suddenly silent and sat staring out through the open door at the distant mountains at last he turned back toward thornton his eyes very clear his expression placid guess why they are waiting five days more before springing their mind he asked abrupt Yes, I figured it out a little while ago, after I found the truck in my loft.

Starting point is 08:10:57 In five days, it'll be the first of the month. On the first of the month, the stage from the Rock Creek mines will be worth holding up. It carried in $10,000 last month. At times, there has been a lot more. Just as sure as a hen lays eggs, it is due to be robbed on the first. they'll find something here to prove i was the hold-up man and i-and you go over the road for life or take a drop at the end of a rope and they quit being bad men and buy ranches that's it that's it it's a gamble but-but it's a damned good gamble laughed comstock softly you ought to be sheriff buck but buck thinking of how blind to all this he had been so long how not even now would he have his eyes open were it not for a girl longed with an intense longing for the end of this thing when she might be free to go from the house of a man like henry pollard when he might be free to go to her

Starting point is 08:12:09 how does it happen he asked suddenly that you are not after jimmy clayton when i'm out for a big grizzly returned comstock i can't waste my time on little brown bears that's one thing another is that jimmy clayton never had a chance of getting away if he lives ten days he'll be nabbed and he won't live ten days he's shot to pieces and he's sick on top of it i told you last night the poor devil is a fool and a tool rather than a real bad man if he's got a chance to die quietly why let him die outside of jail it's all one in the end thornton had always felt a sort of pity for jimmy clayton it had always seemed to him that the poor devil was merely one of the weaker vessels that go down to him that the poor devil was merely one of the weaker vessels that go down on the stream of life, born this way and that by the current that sweeps them on, with little enough chance from the beginning, having come warped and misshapen from the hands of the potter. And now Jimmy was about to die. Well, whether it had been Jimmy Clayton or another man who had shot him that night down in Texas, he would heed the entreaty of the letter and go to him

Starting point is 08:13:33 for the last time. so that night when darkness came thornton left comstock at the cabin and rode out towards the mountains towards the poison hole and the dug-out at its side it was dark but not so dark as last night there being no clouds to blot out the stars and the moon was slipping upward through the trees upon the mountain top when thornton came at last to the lake as before he was watchful and alert clayton was kid bedloe's friend and clayton had always struck him as a man in whom one could put little faith it was quite in keeping with what he knew that jimmy's note had been written at the instigation of kid bedloe himself and that he was to be led out here where kid bedloe and ed might be in waiting for him it was quite possible even probable but he thought it more than likely that for once jimmy clayton was acting in good faith the jimmy clayton whom he found alone a little after moonrise was very much as he had found him that other night the fugitive lay upon the bunk in the darkness of the dug-out and only when he was assured that it was buck thornton come to him did he light his stub of candle as before thornton entered and closed the door after him to look down on the man with a sharp twinge of pity how are they comin jimmy he asked gently

Starting point is 08:15:13 can't you see replied clayton with a nervous laugh i'm all in buck all in if ever a man looked to be all in it was poor little jimmy clayton he threw back his coat for thornton to see there upon the side was the stain of blood hardly dry upon the shirt his eyes were hollow sunken fever filled his cheeks unthensethed thought unthinkably drawn, yellow, white, and sticky. The hand which fell back weakly from the exertion of opening his coat showed the bones thrust up as though they would pierce the skin. You've been shot again? demanded the cowboy. Jimmy shook his head. The same old hole, Buck?

Starting point is 08:16:06 Coat 45. It won't heal up. It breaks out all the time. I can't sleep with it. I can't eat. I can't set still. He had begun manfully, but now the little whimper came back into his voice. His shaking hand gripped Thornton's arm feebly, and he cried tremulously, I wished I was dead, Buck. Honest to God, I wish I was dead. Poor little old Jimmy! Thornton muttered, just as he had muttered the words once before, or, gently, pityingly.

Starting point is 08:16:44 "'Is there anything I can do, Jimmy?' Jimmy drew back his hand and lay still for a little, his eyes, seeming unnaturally large as he turned them upwards, filled at once with a sort of defiance at an abject, cringing terror. "'Nothing,' he said a little sullenly. His eyes dropped and ran to the fingers of his hand which were plucking nervously at his coat. He parted his lips as though he would say something else,

Starting point is 08:17:16 and then closed them tightly. Even his eyes shut tight for a moment. Thornton watched him, waiting. It was easy to see that Jimmy Clayton had upon the tip of his tongue something he wished to say, and that he hesitated, through fear. "'What is it, Jimmy?' Thornton asked after a while.

Starting point is 08:17:39 jimmy lifted his head quickly his eyes flew open with a look in them almost of defiance as he blurted out do you know who shot you that time down in warrez was it you jimmy asked thornton jimmy's eyes grew larger all defiance fled from them and the terror came back you-you think he faltered You thought all along? Was it you, Jimmy? The voice was soft, the eyes gentle, and now a little smile accompanied the words. It was so easy to forget what had happened so long ago, to disregard it when one looked into this man's eyes

Starting point is 08:18:29 and saw there the end of the earthly sort of a man who had not been a good man, because he had never had a chance, who had never really earned his spurs, as a Western bad man, because he was of too small caliber, who was, after all, a vessel that had come imperfect from the hands of the potter. Now, Jimmy answered, his voice hushed, his eyes wide, his soul filled with wonderment. It was me, Buck.

Starting point is 08:19:03 Well, Jimmy, I'm sorry, but it can't be helped now, can it? and i'll forget it if you will he looked at the worn frail form and knew the comstock was right and that little jimmy clayton was lying in the valley of the shadow of death so he added his voice very low and very gentle i'll even shake hands if you will jimmy jimmy closed his eyes but not quick enough to hide the mistiness which had rushed into them his breathing was irregular and heavy its sound being the only sound in the dug-out he did not put out his hand finally his voice steadier than it had been before he spoke again you've been square with me buck i want to be square with you there's a frame up to get you now don't stop me and i'll talk as fast as i can it hurts me to talk much He pressed a thin hand upon his side, paused a moment, and then went on. "'I think Broderick's the man as has been putting over most of the stick-ups around here for quite some time. Him and Pollard in together.

Starting point is 08:20:26 I ain't squealing on a pal when I tell you this, neither,' with a little flash of his old defiance. "'Brodrick's no pal of mine.' a dirty cur he could have got me clear he wanted to make em give me up to get the reward their game is to make folks think you've been doing these things and to send you up for him he stopped to rest but even now did not look to see what effect his words had upon his hearer i don't know much about it he went on after a moment you can find you can find out. But I do know they stole a saddle of yours, and a horse. They're going to stick up the stage out of Rock Creek mines next week. There's going to be some shooting, and a horse is going to get killed. That'll be your horse, Buck, and it'll have your saddle on. He had told his story. He told nothing of how he knew, and Thornton did not press him, for he guessed swiftly that somehow

Starting point is 08:21:37 the telling would implicate Kid Bedloe, who is a pal. And little Jimmy Clayton was not going to squeal on a pal. Half an hour after he had come to the dugout, Thornton left it, for Clayton could not talk further and would not let him stay. I got a horse out there, he said irritably. I can get along. I'm going to move on in the morning. So long, Buck.

Starting point is 08:22:07 so thornton went back to his horse wondering if when to-morrow came jimmy clayton would not indeed be moving on moving on like little joe to the land where men will be given an even break where they will be given their chance his foot was in the stirrup when he heard clayton's voice calling he went back into the dug-out the light was out and it was very dark what is it jimmy he asked i was thinking buck came the halting answer that if you don't care i will shake hands thornton put out his hand a little eagerly and his strong fingers closed tightly upon the thin nervous fingers of jimmy clayton then he went on without speaking end of chapter twenty seven chapter twenty-seven chapter twenty-seven chapter twenty eight of six feet four by jackson gregory this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter twenty eight the showdown upon the first day of the month the stage leaving the rock creek mines in the early morning carried a certain long narrow lock-box carefully bestowed under the seat whereon sat half smith and the guard also a single passenger a swarthy little man with ink-black hair plastered down close upon a low atavistic forehead and with small ink-black eyes in dry town beyond the mountains to which he was evidently now returning from the mines he was known as blackie bartender of the last chance saloon this morning he had been abroad as early as the earliest

Starting point is 08:24:11 he seemed to take a bright interest in everything from the harnessing of the four horses to the taking on of mail-bags and boxes in a moment when hap smith before the mine superintendent's cabin was rolling a cigarette preparatory to the long drive blackie even stepped forward briskly and gave the guard a hand with the long narrow lock-box keen-eyed and watchful as blackie was he failed to see a man who never lost sight of him or of the stage until it rolled out of the mining camp through the early morning the man unusually tall wearing black shaggy shaps gray soft shirt and neck handkerchief and a large black hat kept the stage in view from around the corner of the woodshed standing back of the superintendent's cabin then swinging up to the back of a rangy granite-colored roan he turned into the road we're playing to win this time comet he said softly And as we said all along, Blackie's the capper for their game. Shake a foot, comment, old boy. Maybe at the end of a hard day's work, we'll look in on her. When an hour later, the stage made its brief stop at Miller's flat to take on mailbags,

Starting point is 08:25:41 Blackie was leaning out smoking a cigar and looking about him alertly. A lounger near the post office door turned to watch. in great seeming idleness. His eyes met the bartenders for a second, and he nodded casually. How's everything? he asked in the customary inconsequential manner of casual acquaintanceship. Fine, said Blackie, in a tone of equal casualness. Couldn't be better. The stranger slouched on his way, climbed into the saddle of the horse he had left by the door, and, and, and, he was a watcher. rode off. And Buck Thornton, from the bend in the road where he had halted comet under a big live oak tree, noted how the horseman rode on his spurs, when once he had passed from the sight of

Starting point is 08:26:33 the stage driver. Taking the Red Canyon Trail, he marked with satisfaction, carrying the word to Broderick and Pollard that there's been no slip-up, and that the box is really aboard, and now, shake a foot comet here's where we put one over on blackie the man who had passed the time of day with the saloon man had disappeared over a ridge and out of sight thornton consequently rode swiftly to overtake the stage before the four running horses had drawn the creaking wagon after them a half mile hap smith stopped his horses in answer to the shout from behind him and and stared over his shoulder, wonderingly. What the hell? he began. And then with a shade of relief in his tone,

Starting point is 08:27:30 and yet half-hesitatingly, the frown still on his face as Thornton rode close up. It's you, is it? I thought for a minute. That it was Broderick, laughed Thornton. You didn't think so, did you, Blackie? Blackie drew back and slipped his hand covertly into his coat pocket. Thornton, giving no sign that he had seen, said briefly to Hap Smith, You've talked things over with Banker Templeton and with Comstock?

Starting point is 08:28:06 Yes, said Hap Smith, his thick squat figure growing tense where he sat, as though with a sudden nervous bracing within. Yes. and you expected me here you will give me a free hand yes cried smith ringingly damn em yes go to it buck thornton turned stern eyes upon blackie i can shoot twelve holes through you before you get your hand out of your pocket he said crisply you damned stool pigeon now suppose you pull your hand out of your hand out and stick it up high above your head think it over blackie before you take any fool chances his left hand held comet's reins gathered up close as he spoke his right rested lightly on the horn of his saddle blacky plainly hesitated a tinge of red warmed his swarthy cheek his eyes glittered evilly then suddenly he whipped out his hand A revolver in it.

Starting point is 08:29:19 But Thornton, for all of the handicap, fired first. His own right hand went at swift shoreway to the gun swinging loose on its holster under his left armpit. He jabbed it forward, even as he swung himself to one side of the saddle, and fired. The revolver slipped from Blackie's hand and clattered down to the bed of the wagon, while Blackie, crying out chokingly, his face going white with fear, clutched at his shoulder and gave up the fight. With scant time allowed in their plans to waste on such as Blackie, he was made to lie down in the bottom of the wagon, his wrists bound,

Starting point is 08:30:05 his wound very rudely bandaged, his body screened from any chance view by the boxes and mailbags, and a handkerchief jammed into his mouth. Within ten minutes, Hap Smith was clattering on, his and the guard's mouths and eyes, grim and hard, and Thornton had again dropped behind, just out of sight around the first bend in the road. "'And now, my boy,' muttered Hap Smith to his friend, the guard,

Starting point is 08:30:39 "'keep both eyes peeled and your trigger finger free.' hell's gone a pop in considerable lessen no time nor was the stage driver unduly pessimistic half an hour after blackie had gone down among boxes and bags the lumbering vehicle thundered into one of the many deep gorges through which the narrow road wound here was a sharp turn and a bit of steep grade to take on the run if the stage were to keep to schedule time But suddenly, and with a curse from Smith and a sharp exclamation from the guard, Hap slammed on his brake. A newly fallen pine tree, three feet thick, lay across the road.

Starting point is 08:31:29 The guard's rifle was ready in his hands. In a flash, Hap Smith had dropped his reins, so that they were held only by the ring caught over the little hook at the back of the seat and had whipped out his own big ugly revolver. His eyes ran this way and that. In his soul, he knew well enough that no mere bitter chance

Starting point is 08:31:53 had thrown the obstruction across his way. But never a head nor an arm nor a rifle barrel rewarded his look, until suddenly, heralded by a curt-shouted command, a man rode out into the open road from the mouth of a canyon. Don't be a fool, Smith. Take a look around first.

Starting point is 08:32:18 It was a voice eminently cool and steady and insolent. Though his gun rose slowly, Hap Smith heated the note of arrogance, and, with a hard finger, crooked to the trigger, looked about him again, and this time not in vain. Yonder, from across the top of a bowl-were, a rifle barrel bore unwaveringly upon the breadth of his chest ten feet higher up on the mountain side where there was a pile of granite rocks and a handful of scrub brush a second rifle gave it sinister silent warning

Starting point is 08:32:58 two other guns looked forth from the other side of the road in all at least five armed men hapsmith's eyes went back to the man sitting there his horse in the middle of the road just across the fallen pine tree. A tall, powerfully built man dressed quite as hap Smith and the guard had been told to expect. Black shaggy shaps, gray shirt, and neck handkerchief, broad black hat, red bandana across his face with wide slits for the eyes. And yet both of the men in the stage stared and were on the, verge of uncertainty had they not been prepared both would have sworn that it was buck thornton on buck thornton's horse and later they would no doubt have sworn to buck thornton's saddle five to two seemed the odds with all of the highwaymen saving the one bold figure screened from view and so holding the advantage of position and yet for once the odds were not what they seemed for now there came abruptly and utterly with no sign of warning the answer to the last big play of ben broadrick and henry pollard and the rest

Starting point is 08:34:24 into the road out of the same canyon from which the masked man on the horse had come now rode two more men side by side and with a thunderous racket of pounding hoofs beating at rocky soil their heads up their faces unhidden their eyes hard and bright and their right hands lifted a little two-hand billy comstock and buck thornton come at the top speed of a swinging gallop to alter the odds and take a hand and as thornton's horses hoofs struck in the dust of the road and the masked rider swung about startled in the moment of his supreme arrogant confidence it looked to those who saw as if there came buck thornton on the one big gray horse racing down upon another buck thornton on that big gray's mate with but a hundred yards between them pull the rag off your face broderick shouted thornton savagely and oddly enough ben broderick with a swift realization that a bandana hiding his face now could no longer befriend him and might flap across his eyes at a time when he should see straight and quick yanked it away and with the same gesture he jerked his lifted gun down and started firing straight at a time when he should see straight and quick yanked it away and with the same gesture he jerked his lifted gun down and started firing straight at Thornton. Of the five rifles trained upon those in the stage, not a one was silent now. Hap Smith jumped to his feet and fired as fast as he could work the trigger.

Starting point is 08:36:07 The man at his side leaped down into the road, crouched at the wagon wheel, and poured shot after shot into the brush, whence he had seen the muzzles of two guns. Before Ben Broderick's pistol had broken the silence, Bark Thornton had fired from the hip, and two-hand Billy Comstock, his reins on his saddle horn, was freshening his right to his title, firing with one gun after the other in regular mechanical fashion. Hap Smith was the first man down.

Starting point is 08:36:44 He toppled, steadied himself, fired again, and collapsed. lapsed, sliding down against the dashboard and thence to the ground. His horses had plunged, leaped, and in a tangle of straining harness, tugged this way in that a moment, and then, with the stage jerking and toppling after them, went down over a six-foot bank and into the thicket of willows along the creek bed. With them went blacky, his face showing a moment gray with thither. fear. Hap Smith, alive simply because the trampling horses had whirled the other way, lifted himself a half-dozen inches from the roadbed, struggled with his gun and fainted.

Starting point is 08:37:33 The guard saw a head exposed from behind a tree and sent a 30-30 rifle ball crashing through it. On the instant, another bullet from another quarter compacted with his own body, and he went down. shot through the shoulder. Thornton's eyes were for Ben Broderick alone, and it would seem Broderick's for Thornton. But in their expression, there was nothing of similarity. In Thornton's was a stern readiness to meet out punishment, while from Broderick's there looked forth a sudden furtiveness,

Starting point is 08:38:13 a feverish desire for escape. Broderick had never drawn to, to himself the epithet of coward. But now he knew what he was doing, where wisdom pointed, and what was his one chance. There was still a good fifty yards between him and the man who rode down upon him, a long shot for a revolver when the horses which both men bestrode were rearing and plunging wildly. Broderick bent forward suddenly, whirled his horse, drove his spurs deep, into the gray sides, and in a flash had cleared the fallen log, shot around the bend in the road, and taking his desperate chance with all of the cool defiance of danger which was part of the man,

Starting point is 08:39:03 sent his mount leaping down the steeping bank into the willow thicket and on a cross. Shouting mightily and wrathfully after him came Buck Thornton. But Broderick had the few yards head start, and for the moment his destiny was with him. Thornton saw only a thicket of willows wildly disturbed, as Broderick went threshing through them, and knew that for the present at least, Broderick was beyond pursuit. Swinging about angrily, he rode back to join Comstock. Already the battle there in the canyon was over, the smell of powder was gone from the still air the last reverberating echo of a shot had died away and in the road lay three men two of them severely wounded while the other was already dead

Starting point is 08:40:02 stooping over this man a queer look in his eyes stood comstock i hankered to bring him in alive he muttered but after all it's just as well and it had to be him or me pollard asked thornton quickly but comstock shook his head then thornton riding close looking down from the saddle saw the white upturned face this time as his eyes came back to comstock comstock nodded cole dalton sheriff he said gravely yes and he's the man I came all this way to gather in, Buck. I've been after him for seven years, never guessing until lately that he was out here working the old Henry Plummer game of Sheriff and Badman at the same time.

Starting point is 08:41:03 He's kept undercover, that being always his way. You'd never have thought that Pollard, Broderick Bedloe were all tools, but I got him, Buck, at last. a moment only thornton stared incredulously then his shoulders twitched as though this was a matter which could not concern him at present and he had other things to think of pollard he asked shortly over yonder comstock nodded toward the patch of brush on the mountain side shot through the head and the others one was the kid wasn't it but now the kid answered for himself he rose to his knees among the stunted manzanita bushes not twenty steps from them and for a moment knelt there his big bulky body wavering as he tried to bring his rifle to rest at his shoulder his eyes peering out wildly from a blood-smeared face but his gesture was awkward and slow and uncertain he was too badly hurt to shoot straight or quick and thornton swift and sure and yet merciful withal was before him

Starting point is 08:42:25 the kid's rifle clattered to the ground the kid's left arm the bone broken dropped uselessly to his side he tried to steady the gun with his one good arm alone but it shook hopelessly. He dropped it and turned bloodshot eyes on Thornton. Damn you, he said tonelessly. Better do a clean job, you white-livered coward, or I'll see you hang yet for killing Charlie. I was outside when he was shot, said Thornton coolly. I saw just as much as you did.

Starting point is 08:43:07 Somebody shot him from behind me. Lyer, jeered Bedloe. And... Don't be a fool, Bedloe, snapped Comstock. The man you want is the same man we want. Only the other day he had a quarrel with Charlie and got a bullet alongside the head. Not Ben Broderick, gasped the kid stupidly.

Starting point is 08:43:33 Not him. I think your little friend Jimmy Clayton knew, said Comstock. and you ought to know that thornton isn't that kind with widening eyes the kid stared at him at last he got again to his knees finally and shakily to his feet jimmy told me to watch him he muttered thickly and him and charlie did have words he stared at them stupidly hesitated pondered the matter then he turned and went lumbering down the road comstock stepping forward swiftly called out i say bedloe none of that but bedloe neither turned again nor paused thornton's hand shut down hard on comstock's arm he's going after broderick he said sharply don't you see he'll know where broderick is and we don't we don't don't. Besides, I don't know just why we should stop him. If Broderick did kill Charlie, Comstock went back to administer to Hap Smith and the guard. Thornton watched the kid go to a horse

Starting point is 08:44:56 hidden in a clump of trees. Then as Bedloe rode down into the road and passed on whither it led, sitting slumped forward, and seeming at each step about to fall, Thornton rode after him. him the kid did not so much as look around perhaps it mattered to him not in the least just then who followed or how many so that they left him to ride on ahead it was straight into the town of dead man's alley that the kid's way led the high sun glared down into a deserted street when he and buck thornton a hundred yards behind him passed by the here's house salooned and the brown bear, and at last drew rain at Henry Pollard's gate. A couple of men at the lunch counter stared curiously after the kid. They even got down hastily from their high stools and stared more curiously still when they saw who it was who followed.

Starting point is 08:46:01 "'They've rode hard, them too,' said one of the men thoughtfully. "'Their horses is all in.' The kid ahead and Buck Thornton following, grunted the other, musingly. And the kid never looking around. He shook his head, and, long after both of the riders had passed out of sight down the crooked street, these two men looked after them wonderingly. At Pollard's gate, the kid dismounted stiffly. Now, for the first time, Thornton came up to him.

Starting point is 08:46:39 If you think Burlard's Gate, the kid dismounted stiffly. Broderick's in there, he said sharply. You'd better let me go ahead. You're in no shape, Bedloe. You go to hell, said Bedloe, heavily. He's mine. He stepped forward and pulled open the gate. Here he paused just long enough to drag his revolver from the holster at his hip.

Starting point is 08:47:04 With the weapon in his hand, swaying in his long strided walk, he went to Pollard's front door. Just behind him, almost at his heels, came Thornton. As he tried the door cautiously, the kid looked over his shoulder with a show of teeth. He's mine, he snarled again. You keep your hands off. Thornton offered no answer. The kid, having ascertained that the door was locked, drew back,

Starting point is 08:47:38 steadied himself with his hand against the wall, lifted his foot, and with all of the power in him, drove his heavy boot against the lock. Something broke, the panel splintered. The door gave a little, but only a little. The heavy bar which Henry Pollard used was in its place. Again, said Thornton, together, quick! So, together, Buckthornton, and Kid Bedlow, two men who had long hated each other,

Starting point is 08:48:12 struck savagely at Pollard's barricade. And such was the weight of the two men, such the power resident in the two big bodies, that a hinge gave, and after it, an iron socket screwed to the wall was torn away from the woodwork, and the door went down. Gathering all there was of strength left in him,

Starting point is 08:48:36 kid Bedlow pushed to the fore and went down the hall, and Thornton followed at his heels. In this fashion they came to the door of Pollard's study and saw through it, since it had been flung wide open and so left. In a far corner of the room was Winifred Waverley, her face dead white, her body pressed tight into the angle of the walls, her hands twisting before her, her eyes going swiftly to the two entering figures from that other figure which had held her fascinated. Upon the floor, just rising, knelt Ben Broderick. He had tossed a rug aside and had lifted out the short sections of a half a dozen strips of flooring, disclosing a rude wooden vault below. Here was the accumulation of loot, here where the kid had known Broderick was to be found.

Starting point is 08:49:38 For a very brief yet electrically vital and vivid moment, there was no sound in the room, wherein never a single muscle twitched. And then there were no words, and only three sharp pistol shots. Broderick had seen what lay in the kid's eye, a little. look to be read by any man. He had snatched his gun up from the floor beside him and had fired, point-blank. There is no name for the brief fragment of time between his shot and the kids, but Ben Broderick had shot true to the mark, and the kid was sinking. Bedloe's bullet had gone wide. And then the third shot, Thornton's. And as the two men fell, Kid Bedloe and Ben Broderick,

Starting point is 08:50:30 they pitched forward toward the center of the room, and the big body of the kid lay across the body of Ben Broderick. As the kid died, his eyes were upon Thornton, and in them was a look of content and of gratitude. Again, he tried to kiss me. He tried to kiss me. He he is all brute he-he told me you are dead oh dear god dear god cried the girl shrinking back covering her face with her hands thornton his face set and white and grave came to her she was trembling so that he put his arm about her she sobbed and caught at him as a child might have done his arm tightened holding her close. Let me take you away, he said gently. With never a look back to see what long-horted booty

Starting point is 08:51:31 there in the hole in the floor had drawn Ben Broderick back to Pollard's house, he turned, and with his arm still about her, led the girl from the room, from the house, and out to his horse at the fence. She moaned again and drooped against him. He gathered her up into his arms. arms tenderly, and with a tenderness which was to become part of the man, he held her close while he swung slowly into the saddle. Winifred Waverley, he began. There he stopped, looking with puzzled eyes down into her white face. God knew how much she had gone through, what fear Ben Broderick had put into her heart.

Starting point is 08:52:18 But at the least, now she had fainted. she's all alone muttered the cowboy all alone and somebody's got to look out for her he turned slowly and row down the crooked street carrying her lightly in his arms and now more than ever did the two men at the lunch counter stare the end end of chapter twenty eight end of six feet four by jackson gregory Thank you.

Classic Audiobook Collection - Six Feet Four by Jackson Gregory ~ Full Audiobook [adventure]

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.