"Impossible!" cried Elizabeth.

She had not thought of this phase of the matter. All at once she hated the sheriff.

"It really is possible," said Vance. "You see, it's known that Terry never fights if he can avoid it. There never has been any real reason for fighting until today. But you know how gossip will put the most unrelated facts together, and make a complete story in some way."

"I wish the sheriff were dead!" moaned Elizabeth. "Oh, Vance, if you only hadn't gone near Craterville! If you only hadn't distributed those wholesale invitations!"

It was almost too much for Vance--to be reproached after so much of the triumph was on her side--such a complete victory that she herself would never dream of the peril she and Terry had escaped. But he had to control his irritation. In fact, he saw his whole life ahead of him carefully schooled and controlled. He no longer had anything to sell. Elizabeth had made a mock of him and shown him that he was hollow, that he was living on her charity. He must all the days that she remained alive keep flattering her, trying to find a way to make himself a necessity to her.

And after her death there would be a still harder task. Terry, who disliked him pointedly, would then be the master, and he would face the bitter necessity of cajoling the youngster whom he detested. A fine life, truly! An almost n.o.ble anguish of the spirit came upon Vance. He was urged to the very brink of the determination to thrust out into the world and make his own living. But he recoiled from that horrible idea in time.

"Yes," he said, "that was the worst step I ever took. But I was trying to be wholehearted in the Western way, my dear, and show that I had entered into the spirit of things."

"As a matter of fact," sighed Elizabeth, "you nearly ruined Terry's life--and mine!"

"Very near," said the penitent Vance. "But then--you see how well it has turned out? Terry has taken the acid test, and now you can trust him under any--"

The words were literally blown off ragged at his lips. Two revolver shots exploded at them. No one gun could have fired them. And there was a terrible significance in the angry speed with which one had followed the other, blending, so that the echo from the lofty side of Sleep Mountain was but a single booming sound. In that clear air it was impossible to tell the direction of the noise.

Everyone in the room seemed to listen stupidly for a repet.i.tion of the noises. But there was no repet.i.tion.

"Vance," whispered Elizabeth in such a tone that the coward dared not look into her face. "It's happened!"

"What?" He knew, but he wanted the joy of hearing it from her own lips.

"It has happened," she whispered in the same ghostly voice. "But which one?"

That was it. Who had fallen--Terry, or the sheriff? A long, heavy step crossed the little porch. Either man might walk like that.

The door was flung open. Terence Hollis stood before them.

"I think that I've killed the sheriff," he said simply. "I'm going up to my room to put some things together; and I'll go into town with any man who wishes to arrest me. Decide that between yourselves."

With that he turned and walked away with a step as deliberately unhurried as his approach had been. The manner of the boy was more terrible than the thing he had done. Twice he had shocked them on the same afternoon.

And they were just beginning to realize that the sh.e.l.l of boyhood was being ripped away from Terence Colby. Terry Hollis, son of Black Jack, was being revealed to them.

The men received the news with utter bewilderment. The sheriff was as formidable in the opinion of the mountains as some Achilles. It was incredible that he should have fallen. And naturally a stern murmur rose: "Foul play!"

Since the first vigilante days there has been no sound in all the West so dreaded as that deep-throated murmur of angry, honest men. That murmur from half a dozen law-abiding citizens will put the fear of death in the hearts of a hundred outlaws. The rumble grew, spread: "Foul play." And they began to look to one another, these men of action.

Only Elizabeth was silent. She rose to her feet, as tall as her brother, without an emotion on her face. And her brother would never forget her.

"It seems that you've won, Vance. It seems that blood will out, after all. The time is not quite up--and you win the bet!"

Vance shook his head as though in protest and struck his hand across his face. He dared not let her see the joy that contorted his features.

Triumph here on the very verge of defeat! It misted his eyes. Joy gave wings to his thoughts. He was the master of the valley.

"But--you'll think before you do anything, Elizabeth?"

"I've done my thinking already--twenty-four years of it. I'm going to do what I promised I'd do."

"And that?"

"You'll see and hear in time. What's yonder?"

The men were rising, one after another, and bunching together. Before Vance could answer, there was a confusion in the hall, running feet here and there. They heard the hard, shrill voice of Wu Chi chattering directions and the guttural murmurs of his fellow servants as they answered. Someone ran out into the hall and came back to the huddling, stirring crowd in the living room.

"He's not dead--but close to it. Maybe die any minute--maybe live through it!"

That was the report.

"We'll get young Hollis and hold him to see how the sheriff comes out."

"Aye, we'll get him!"

All at once they boiled into action and the little crowd of men thrust for the big doors that led into the hall. They cast the doors back and came directly upon the tall, white-headed figure of Gainor.

CHAPTER 15

Gainor's dignity split the force of their rush. They recoiled as water strikes on a rock and divides into two meager swirls. And when one or two went past him on either side, he recalled them.

"Boys, there seems to be a little game on hand. What is it?"

Something repelling, coldly inquiring in his att.i.tude and in his voice.

They would have gone on if they could, but they could not. He held them with a force of knowledge of things that they did not know. They were remembering that this man had gone out with the sheriff to meet, apparently, his death. And yet Gainor, a well-tried friend of the sheriff, seemed unexcited. They had to answer his question, and how could they lie when he saw them rushing through a door with revolvers coming to brown, skillful hands? It was someone from the rear who made the confession.

"We're going to get young Black Jack!"

That was it. The speech came out like the crack of a gun, clearing the atmosphere. It told every man exactly what was in his own mind, felt but not confessed. They had no grudge against Terry, really. But they were determined to hang the son of Black Jack. Had it been a lesser deed, they might have let him go. But his victim was too distinguished in their society. He had struck down Joe Minter; the ghost of the great Black Jack himself seemed to have stalked out among them.

"You're going to get young Terry Hollis?" interpreted Gainor, and his voice rose and rang over them. Those who had slipped past him on either side came back and faced him. In the distance Elizabeth had not stirred.

Vance kept watching her face. It was cold as ice, unreadable. He could not believe that she was allowing this lynching party to organize under her own roof--a lynching party aimed at Terence. It began to grow in him that he had gained a greater victory than he imagined.

"If you aim at Terry," went on Gainor, his voice even louder, "you'll have to aim at me, too. There's going to be no lynching bee, my friends!"

The women had crowded back in the room. They made a little bank of stir and murmur around Elizabeth.

"Gentlemen," said Gainor, shaking his white hair back again in his imposing way, "there has been no murder. The sheriff is not going to die.

There has been a disagreement between two men of honor. The sheriff is now badly wounded. I think that is all. Does anybody want to ask questions about what has happened?"

There was a bustle in the group of men. They were putting away the weapons, not quite sure what they could do next.

"I am going to tell you exactly what has happened," said Gainor. "You heard the unfortunate things that pa.s.sed at the table today. What the sheriff said was not said as an insult; but under the circ.u.mstances it became necessary for Terence Hollis to resent what he had heard. As a man of honor he could not do otherwise. You all agree with me in that?"

They grunted a grudging a.s.sent. There were ways and ways of looking at such things. The way of Gainor was a generation old. But there was something so imposing about the old fellow, something which breathed the very spirit of honor and fair play, that they could not argue the point.