“I'll see you in hell before I give you nothin'. I was a man, or a partways man, till I met up with you tonight, and now I'm a houn'-dog that's done my partner dirt! God amighty, what made me do it?”
He beat his knuckles against his forehead.
“What you've done you can't undo,” answered the sheriff. “Vic, I've seen gents do considerable worse than you've done and come clean afterwards. You're goin' to get off for what you've done to Blondy, and you're goin' to live straight afterwards. You're goin' to get married and you're goin' to play white. Why, man, I had to use you as far as I could. But you think I wanted you to bring me out Barry? You couldn't look Betty square in the face if you'd done what you set out to do. Now, I ain't pressin' you, but I done some scouting while you was away, and I heard four men's voices in the house. Can you tell me who's there?”
“You've played square, Pete,” answered Vic hoarsely, “and I'll do my part. Go down and get on your hosses and ride like hell; because in ten minutes you're goin' to have three bad ones around your necks.”
A mutter came from the rest of the posse, for this was rather more than they had planned ahead. The sheriff, however, only sighed, and as the moonlight increased Vic could see that he was deeply, childishly contented, for in the heart of the little dusty man there was that inextinguishable spark, the love of battle. Chance had thrown him on the side of the law, but sooner or later dull times were sure to come and then Pete Glass would cut out work of his own making go bad. The love of the man-trail is a passion that works in two ways, and they who begin by hunting will in the end be the hunted; the mountain-desert is filled with such histories.
“Three to five,” said the sheriff, “sounds more interestin', Vic.”
A sudden passion to destroy that assured calm rose in Gregg.
“Three common men might make you a game,” he said, glowering, “but them ain't common ones. One of 'em I don't know, but he has a damned nervous hand. Another is Lee Haines!”
He had succeeded in part, at least. The sheriff sat bolt erect; he seemed to be hearing distant music.
“Lee Haines!” he murmured. “That was Jim Silent's man. They say he was as fast with a gun as Jim himself.” He sighed again. “They's nothing like a big man, Vic, to fill your sights.”