Dad," said Kate. "It hasn't come yet! Buck, what has happened?"
"The end of the world has come for Dan," he said. "That devil Silent —"
"Dan," cried old Joe, and rushed around the table to Buck.
"Silent has dared Dan to meet him at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon in Tully's saloon in Elkhead! He's held up four men in the last twenty-four hours and told them that he'll be at Tully's tomorrow and will expect Dan there!"
"It isn't possible!" cried Kate. "That means that Silent is giving himself up to the law!"
Buck laughed bitterly.
"The law will not put a hand on them if it thinks that they'll fight it out together," he said.
"There'll be a crowd in the saloon, but not a hand will stir to arrest Silent till after the fight."
"But Dan won't go to Tully's," broke in old Joe. "If Silent is crazy enough to do such a thing, Dan won't be."
"He will," said Kate. "I know!"
"You've got to stop him," urged Buck. "You've got to get to Elkhead and turn Dan back."
"Ay," said Joe, "for even if he kills Silent, the crowd will tackle him after the fight—a hundred against one."
She shook her head.
"You won't go?"
"Not a step."
"But Kate, don't you understand—?"
"I couldn't turn Dan back. There is his chance to meet Silent. Do you dream any one could turn him back?"
The two men were mute.
"You're right," said Buck at last. "I hoped for a minute that you could do it, but now I remember the way he was in that dark shanty up the Bald-eagle Creek. You can't turn a wolf from a trail, and Whistling Dan has never forgotten the taste of his own blood."
"Kate!" called her father suddenly. "What's the matter, honey?"
With bowed head and a faltering step she was leaving the room. Buck caught old Joe by the arm and held him back as he would have followed.
"Let her be!" said Buck sharply. "Maybe she'll want to see you at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon, but until then she'll want to be alone. There'll be ghosts enough with her all the time. You c'n lay to that."
Joe Cumberland wiped his glistening forehead.
"There ain't nothin' we c'n do, Buck, but sit an' wait."
Buck drew a long breath.
"What devil gave Silent that idea?"
"Fear!"
"Jim Silent don't know what fear is!"
"Any one who's seen the yaller burn in Dan's eyes knows what fear is."
Buck winced.
Cumberland went on: "Every night Silent has been seein' them eyes that glow yaller in the dark. They lie in wait for him in every shadow. Between dark and dawn he dies a hundred deaths. He can't stand it no more. He's goin' to die. Somethin' tells him that. But he wants to die where they's humans around him, and when he dies he wants to pull Dan down with him."
They sat staring at each other for a time.
"If he lives through that fight with Silent," said Buck sadly, "the crowd will jump in on him. Their numbers'll make 'em brave."
"An' then?"
"Then maybe he'd like a friend to fight by his side," said Buck simply. "So long, Joe!"
The old man wrung his hand and then followed him out to the hitching-rack where Buck's horse stood.
"Ain't Dan got no friends among the crowd?" asked Cumberland. "Don't they give him no thanks for catching the rest of Silent's gang?"
"They give him lots of credit," said Buck. "An' Haines has said a lot in favour of Dan, explainin' how the jail bustin' took place. Lee is sure provin' himself a white man. He's gettin' well of his wounds and it's said the Governor will pardon him. You see, Haines went bad because the law done him dirt a long time ago, and the Governor is takin' that into account."
"But they'd still want to kill Dan?"
"Half of the boys wouldn't," said Buck. "The other half is all wrought up over the killings that's been happenin' on the range in the last month. Dan is accused of about an even half of 'em, an' the friends of dead men don't waste no time listenin' to arguments. They say Dan's an outlawed man an' that they're goin' to treat him like one."
"Damn them!" groaned Cumberland. "Don't Morris's confession make no difference?"
"Morris was lynched before he had a chance to swear to what he said in Dan's favour. Kilduff an' Jordan an' Rhinehart might testify that Dan wasn't never bought over by Silent, but they know they're done for themselves, an' they won't try to help anybody else, particular the man that put 'em in the hands of the law. Kilduff has swore that Dan was bribed by Silent, that he went after Silent not for revenge, but to get some more money out of him, an' that the fight in the shanty up at Bald-eagle Creek was because Silent refused to give Dan any more money."
"Then there ain't no hope," muttered Cumberland. "But oh, lad, it breaks my heart to think of Kate! Dan c'n only die once, but every minute is a death to her!"
37. DEATH
Before noon of the next day Buck joined the crowd which had been growing for hours around Tully's saloon. Men gave way before him, whispering. He was a marked man—the friend of Whistling Dan Barry. Cowpunchers who had known him all his life now avoided his eyes, but caught him with side glances. He smiled grimly to himself, reading their minds. He was more determined than ever to stand or fall with Whistling Dan that day.
There was not an officer of the law in sight. If one were present it would be his manifest duty to apprehend the outlaws as soon as they appeared, and the plan was to allow them to fight out their quarrel and perhaps kill each other.
Arguments began to rise among separate groups, where the crimes attributed to Whistling Dan Barry were numbered and talked over. It surprised Buck to discover the number who believed the stories which he and Haines had told. They made a strong faction, though manifestly in the minority.
Hardly a man who did not, from time to time, nervously fumble the butt of his six-gun. As three o'clock drew on the talk grew less and less. It broke out now and again in little uneasy bursts. Someone would tell a joke. Half-hysterical laughter would greet it, and die suddenly, as it began. These were all hard-faced men of the mountain-desert, warriors of the frontier. What unnerved them was the strangeness of the thing which was about to happen. The big wooden clock on the side of the long barroom struck once for half-past two. All talk ceased.
Men seemed unwilling to meet each other's
