Tolliver looked bleakly at him. The spell this man had woven over him twenty-odd years ago was broken forever. “I’m through with you, Jake,” he said.
“You ain’t intendin’ to lift a hand for me?”
“Not a finger.”
“Won’t you tell these men howcome it I rode down to Bear Cat after June?”
The Piceance Creek man’s jaw tightened. His small eyes flashed hate. “Sure, I’ll tell ’em that. About two-three weeks ago Houck showed up at my place an’ stayed overnight. I knew him when we was both younger, but I hadn’t seen him for a long time. He took a notion to my June. She didn’t want to have a thing to do with him, but he bullied her, same as he did me. June she found out he knew something about me, an’ she was afraid to make him mad. I reckon finally he got some kinda promise outa her. He had some business at Meeker, an’ he was comin’ back to the ranch yestiddy. Then he aimed to bring her here to get married.”
He was looking steadily at Houck. Pete had found at last the courage to defy him. He could tell anything he liked about the escape from Cañon City.
“I was away all day lookin’ over my traps an’ fixin’ them up. When I reached home I found two notes. I got ’em here somewheres.” Tolliver fumbled in his coat pockets, but did not find them. “One was from June. She said she was runnin’ away to marry the Dillon boy. The other was from Jake Houck. He’d got to the house before I did, found her note to me, an’ lit out after her. Soon’s I could run up a horse I hit the trail too.”
“Threw me down, eh, Pete?” Houck said bitterly. “Well, there’s two can play at that.”
Tolliver did not flinch. “Go to it, soon as you’ve a mind to. I don’t owe you a thing except misery. You wrecked my life. I suffered for you an’ kept my mouth padlocked. I was coyote enough to sit back an’ let you torment my li’l’ girl because I was afraid for to have the truth come out an’ hurt her. I’d ought to have gone after you with a forty-five. I’m through. They can’t hang you any too soon to suit me. If they don’t—an’ if my June don’t get well—I’ll gun you sure as God made li’l’ apples.”
He turned and walked out of the room with Dud Hollister.