Burning Daylight

by Jack London

  CHAPTER IV

  Nathaniel Letton was talking when the door opened; he ceased, and withhis two companions gazed with controlled perturbation at BurningDaylight striding into the room. The free, swinging movements of thetrail-traveler were unconsciously exaggerated in that stride of his.In truth, it seemed to him that he felt the trail beneath his feet.

  "Howdy, gentlemen, howdy," he remarked, ignoring the unnatural calmwith which they greeted his entrance. He shook hands with them inturn, striding from one to another and gripping their hands so heartilythat Nathaniel Letton could not forbear to wince. Daylight flunghimself into a massive chair and sprawled lazily, with an appearance offatigue. The leather grip he had brought into the room he droppedcarelessly beside him on the floor.

  "Goddle mighty, but I've sure been going some," he sighed. "We suretrimmed them beautiful. It was real slick. And the beauty of the playnever dawned on me till the very end. It was pure and simple knockdown and drag out. And the way they fell for it was amazin'."

  The geniality in his lazy Western drawl reassured them. He was not soformidable, after all. Despite the act that he had effected anentrance in the face of Letton's instructions to the outer office, heshowed no indication of making a scene or playing rough.

  "Well," Daylight demanded good-humoredly, "ain't you-all got a goodword for your pardner? Or has his sure enough brilliance plumb dazzledyou-all?"

  Letton made a dry sound in his throat. Dowsett sat quietly and waited,while Leon Guggenhammer struggled into articulation.

  "You have certainly raised Cain," he said.

  Daylight's black eyes flashed in a pleased way.

  "Didn't I, though!" he proclaimed jubilantly. "And didn't we fool'em!I was totally surprised. I never dreamed they would be that easy.

  "And now," he went on, not permitting the pause to grow awkward,"we-all might as well have an accounting. I'm pullin' West thisafternoon on that blamed Twentieth Century." He tugged at his grip,got it open, and dipped into it with both his hands. "But don'tforget, boys, when you-all want me to hornswoggle Wall Street anotherflutter, all you-all have to do is whisper the word. I'll sure beright there with the goods."

  His hands emerged, clutching a great mass of stubs, check-books, andbroker's receipts. These he deposited in a heap on the big table, anddipping again, he fished out the stragglers and added them to the pile.He consulted a slip of paper, drawn from his coat pocket, and readaloud:--

  "Ten million twenty-seven thousand and forty-two dollars andsixty-eight cents is my figurin' on my expenses. Of course that-all'staken from the winnings before we-all get to figurin' on the whack-up.Where's your figures? It must a' been a Goddle mighty big clean-up."

  The three men looked their bepuzzlement at one another. The man was abigger fool than they had imagined, or else he was playing a game whichthey could not divine.

  Nathaniel Letton moistened his lips and spoke up.

  "It will take some hours yet, Mr. Harnish, before the full accountingcan be made. Mr. Howison is at work upon it now. We--ah--as you say,it has been a gratifying clean-up. Suppose we have lunch together andtalk it over. I'll have the clerks work through the noon hour, so thatyou will have ample time to catch your train."

  Dowsett and Guggenhammer manifested a relief that was almost obvious.The situation was clearing. It was disconcerting, under thecircumstances, to be pent in the same room with this heavy-muscled,Indian-like man whom they had robbed. They remembered unpleasantly themany stories of his strength and recklessness. If Letton could onlyput him off long enough for them to escape into the policed worldoutside the office door, all would be well; and Daylight showed all thesigns of being put off.

  "I'm real glad to hear that," he said. "I don't want to miss thattrain, and you-all have done me proud, gentlemen, letting me in on thisdeal. I just do appreciate it without being able to express myfeelings. But I am sure almighty curious, and I'd like terrible toknow, Mr. Letton, what your figures of our winning is. Can you-allgive me a rough estimate?"

  Nathaniel Letton did not look appealingly at his two friends, but inthe brief pause they felt that appeal pass out from him. Dowsett, ofsterner mould than the others, began to divine that the Klondiker wasplaying. But the other two were still under the blandishment of hischild-like innocence.

  "It is extremely--er--difficult," Leon Guggenhammer began. "You see,Ward Valley has fluctuated so, er--"

  "That no estimate can possibly be made in advance," Letton supplemented.

  "Approximate it, approximate it," Daylight counselled cheerfully.

  "It don't hurt if you-all are a million or so out one side or theother. The figures'll straighten that up. But I'm that curious I'mjust itching all over. What d'ye say?"

  "Why continue to play at cross purposes?" Dowsett demanded abruptly andcoldly. "Let us have the explanation here and now. Mr. Harnish islaboring under a false impression, and he should be set straight. Inthis deal--"

  But Daylight interrupted. He had played too much poker to be unawareor unappreciative of the psychological factor, and he headed Dowsettoff in order to play the denouncement of the present game in his ownway.

  "Speaking of deals," he said, "reminds me of a poker game I once seenin Reno, Nevada. It wa'n't what you-all would call a square game.They-all was tin-horns that sat in. But they was atenderfoot--short-horns they-all are called out there. He standsbehind the dealer and sees that same dealer give hisself four acesoffen the bottom of the deck. The tenderfoot is sure shocked. Heslides around to the player facin' the dealer across the table.

  "'Say,' he whispers, 'I seen the dealer deal hisself four aces.'

  "'Well, an' what of it?" says the player.

  "'I'm tryin' to tell you-all because I thought you-all ought to know,'says the tenderfoot. 'I tell you-all I seen him deal hisself fouraces.'

  "'Say, mister,' says the player, 'you-all'd better get outa here.You-all don't understand the game. It's his deal, ain't it?'"

  The laughter that greeted his story was hollow and perfunctory, butDaylight appeared not to notice it.

  "Your story has some meaning, I suppose," Dowsett said pointedly.

  Daylight looked at him innocently and did not reply. He turnedjovially to Nathaniel Letton.

  "Fire away," he said. "Give us an approximation of our winning. As Isaid before, a million out one way or the other won't matter, it'sbound to be such an almighty big winning." By this time Letton wasstiffened by the attitude Dowsett had taken, and his answer was promptand definite.

  "I fear you are under a misapprehension, Mr. Harnish. There are nowinnings to be divided with you. Now don't get excited, I beg of you.I have but to press this button..."

  Far from excited, Daylight had all the seeming of being stunned. Hefelt absently in his vest pocket for a match, lighted it, anddiscovered that he had no cigarette. The three men watched him withthe tense closeness of cats. Now that it had come, they knew that theyhad a nasty few minutes before them.

  "Do you-all mind saying that over again?" Daylight said. "Seems to meI ain't got it just exactly right. You-all said...?"

  He hung with painful expectancy on Nathaniel Letton's utterance.

  "I said you were under a misapprehension, Mr. Harnish, that was all.You have been stock gambling, and you have been hard hit. But neitherWard Valley, nor I, nor my associates, feel that we owe you anything."

  Daylight pointed at the heap of receipts and stubs on the table.

  "That-all represents ten million twenty-seven thousand and forty-twodollars and sixty-eight cents, hard cash. Ain't it good for anythinghere?"

  Letton smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

  Daylight looked at Dowsett and murmured:--

  "I guess that story of mine had some meaning, after all." He laughedin a sickly fashion. "It was your deal all right, and you-all dolethem right, too. Well, I ain't kicking. I'm like the player in thatpoker game. It was your deal, and you-all had a right to do your best.And you do
ne it--cleaned me out slicker'n a whistle."

  He gazed at the heap on the table with an air of stupefaction.

  "And that-all ain't worth the paper it's written on. Gol dast it,you-all can sure deal 'em 'round when you get a chance. Oh, no, I ain'ta-kicking. It was your deal, and you-all certainly done me, and a manain't half a man that squeals on another man's deal. And now the handis played out, and the cards are on the table, and the deal's over,but..."

  His hand, dipping swiftly into his inside breast pocket, appeared withthe big Colt's automatic.

  "As I was saying, the old deal's finished. Now it's MY deal, and I'ma-going to see if I can hold them four aces--

  "Take your hand away, you whited sepulchre!" he cried sharply.

  Nathaniel Letton's hand, creeping toward the push-button on the desk,was abruptly arrested.

  "Change chairs," Daylight commanded. "Take that chair over there, yougangrene-livered skunk. Jump! By God! or I'll make you leak tillfolks'll think your father was a water hydrant and your mother asprinkling-cart. You-all move your chair alongside, Guggenhammer; andyou-all Dowsett, sit right there, while I just irrelevantly explain thevirtues of this here automatic. She's loaded for big game and she goesoff eight times. She's a sure hummer when she gets started.

  "Preliminary remarks being over, I now proceed to deal. Remember, Iain't making no remarks about your deal. You done your darndest, andit was all right. But this is my deal, and it's up to me to do mydarndest. In the first place, you-all know me. I'm BurningDaylight--savvee? Ain't afraid of God, devil, death, nor destruction.Them's my four aces, and they sure copper your bets. Look at thatthere living skeleton. Letton, you're sure afraid to die. Your bonesis all rattling together you're that scared. And look at that fat Jewthere. This little weapon's sure put the fear of God in his heart.He's yellow as a sick persimmon. Dowsett, you're a cool one. You-allain't batted an eye nor turned a hair. That's because you're great onarithmetic. And that makes you-all dead easy in this deal of mine.You're sitting there and adding two and two together, and you-all knowI sure got you skinned. You know me, and that I ain't afraid ofnothing. And you-all adds up all your money and knows you ain'ta-going to die if you can help it."

  "I'll see you hanged," was Dowsett's retort.

  "Not by a damned sight. When the fun starts, you're the first I plug.I'll hang all right, but you-all won't live to see it. You-all die hereand now while I'll die subject to the law's delay--savvee? Being dead,with grass growing out of your carcasses, you won't know when I hang,but I'll sure have the pleasure a long time of knowing you-all beat meto it."

  Daylight paused.

  "You surely wouldn't kill us?" Letton asked in a queer, thin voice.

  Daylight shook his head.

  "It's sure too expensive. You-all ain't worth it. I'd sooner have mychips back. And I guess you-all'd sooner give my chips back than go tothe dead-house."

  A long silence followed.

  "Well, I've done dealt. It's up to you-all to play. But while you'redeliberating, I want to give you-all a warning: if that door opens andany one of you cusses lets on there's anything unusual, right here andthen I sure start plugging. They ain't a soul'll get out the roomexcept feet first."

  A long session of three hours followed. The deciding factor was notthe big automatic pistol, but the certitude that Daylight would use it.Not alone were the three men convinced of this, but Daylight himselfwas convinced. He was firmly resolved to kill the men if his money wasnot forthcoming. It was not an easy matter, on the spur of the moment,to raise ten millions in paper currency, and there were vexatiousdelays. A dozen times Mr. Howison and the head clerk were summonedinto the room. On these occasions the pistol lay on Daylight's lap,covered carelessly by a newspaper, while he was usually engaged inrolling or lighting his brown-paper cigarettes. But in the end, thething was accomplished. A suit-case was brought up by one of theclerks from the waiting motor-car, and Daylight snapped it shut on thelast package of bills. He paused at the door to make his final remarks.

  "There's three several things I sure want to tell you-all. When I getoutside this door, you-all'll be set free to act, and I just want towarn you-all about what to do. In the first place, no warrants for myarrest--savvee? This money's mine, and I ain't robbed you of it. Ifit gets out how you gave me the double-cross and how I done you backagain, the laugh'll be on you, and it'll sure be an almighty big laugh.You-all can't afford that laugh. Besides, having got back my stake thatyou-all robbed me of, if you arrest me and try to rob me a second time,I'll go gunning for you-all, and I'll sure get you. No littlefraid-cat shrimps like you-all can skin Burning Daylight. If you winyou lose, and there'll sure be some several unexpected funerals aroundthis burg.

  "Just look me in the eye, and you-all'll savvee I mean business. Themstubs and receipts on the table is all yourn. Good day."

  As the door shut behind him, Nathaniel Letton sprang for the telephone,and Dowsett intercepted him.

  "What are you going to do?" Dowsett demanded.

  "The police. It's downright robbery. I won't stand it. I tell you Iwon't stand it."

  Dowsett smiled grimly, but at the same time bore the slender financierback and down into his chair.

  "We'll talk it over," he said; and in Leon Guggenhammer he found ananxious ally.

  And nothing ever came of it. The thing remained a secret with thethree men. Nor did Daylight ever give the secret away, though thatafternoon, leaning back in his stateroom on the Twentieth Century, hisshoes off, and feet on a chair, he chuckled long and heartily. NewYork remained forever puzzled over the affair; nor could it hit upon arational explanation. By all rights, Burning Daylight should have gonebroke, yet it was known that he immediately reappeared in San Franciscopossessing an apparently unimpaired capital. This was evidenced by themagnitude of the enterprises he engaged in, such as, for instance,Panama Mail, by sheer weight of money and fighting power wresting thecontrol away from Shiftily and selling out in two months to theHarriman interests at a rumored enormous advance.