The Charles Alden Seltzer Megapack

by Charles Alden Seltzer

  Inside the office he lighted a lamp and seated himself at his desk. There, with a pair of shears and a piece of black cloth, he fashioned a mask. He donned the mask and peered at himself in a mirror, grinning with satisfaction over the reflection. Had he not known himself for Alva Dale he would have been fooled by the covering.

  Working swiftly, he changed his clothes. Then, after again looking at his reflection, he put out the light, stepped outside, locked the door, and mounted his horse.

  Riding a ridge above a shallow arroyo he came upon a little level near a grove of cottonwood trees. He circled one side of the grove, and in a clearing he saw the Nyland cabin.

  He had visited the cabin before, but never had he felt about it as he felt at this moment. There had always been the presence of Ben Nyland to dampen the romantic thoughts that had beset him—for there had been a time when—if Peggy Nyland had been willing—he would have married her.

  That time had passed. Dale grinned wickedly as he dismounted and walked forward.

  There was no light showing in any of the windows, and Dale stepped stealthily to the rear door and knocked.

  There was no answer; and Dale repeated the blows. Then he grinned With delight as he heard Peggy’s voice, high-pitched and startled, saying:

  “Who’s there?”

  “It’s me—Sanderson,” he returned. “I’ve come for you!”

  “What for?” This time there was alarm in the girl’s voice, and Dale heard her walk across the floor and halt at the door. He mentally visualized her, standing there, one ear against the panel.

  “Didn’t they tell you?” he said in a hoarse voice, into which he succeeded in getting much pretended anger. “Why, I sent a man over here with word.”

  “Word about what?”

  Dale heard the girl fumbling at the fastenings of the door, and he knew that his imitation of Sanderson’s voice had deceived her.

  “Word that Ben was hurt,” he lied. “The east train hit him as it was pullin’ in. He’s bad off, but the doc says he’ll come around if he gets good nursin’, an’ that’s why I’ve come—”

  While he was talking the door burst open and Peggy appeared in the opening, her eyes wide with concern and eagerness.

  She had heard Dale’s first knock on the door, and knowing it was someone for her—perhaps Ben returning—she had begun to dress, finishing—except for her shoes and stockings—by the time she opened the door.

  In the dim light she did not at first see the mask on Dale’s face, and she was insistently demanding to be told just where Ben’s injuries were, when she detected the fraud.

  Then she gasped and stepped back, trying to close the door. She would have succeeded had not Dale thrust a foot into the aperture.

  She stamped at his foot with her bare one ineffectually. Dale laughed at her futile efforts to keep him from opening the door. He struck an arm through the aperture, leaned his weight against the door, and pushed it open.

  She was at the other side of the room when he entered, having dodged behind a table. He made a rush for her, but she evaded him, keeping the table between them.

  There was no word said. The girl’s breath was coming in great gasps from the fright and shock she had received, but Dale’s was shrill and laboring from the strength of his passions.

  Reason left him as they circled around the table, and with a curse he overturned it so that it rolled and crashed out of the way, leaving her with no obstacle behind which to find shelter.

  She ran toward the door, but Dale caught her at the threshold. She twisted and squirmed in his grasp, scratching him and clawing at his face in an access of terror, and one hand finally caught the black mask covering and tore it from his face.

  “Alva Dale!” she shrieked. “Oh, you beast!”

  Fighting with redoubled fury she forced him against one of the door jambs, still scratching and clawing. Dale grasped one hand, but the free one reached his face, the fingers sinking into the flesh and making a deep gash in his cheek.

  The pain made a demon of Dale, and he struck her. She fell, soundlessly, her head striking the edge of a chair with a deadening, thudding crash.

  Standing in the doorway looking down at her, the faint, outdoor light shining on her face and revealing its ghastly whiteness, Dale suffered a quick reaction. He had not meant to strike so hard, he told himself; he hoped he had not killed her.

  Kneeling beside her he felt her pulse and her head. The flesh under his hand was cold as marble; the pulse—if there was any—was not perceptible. Dale examined the back of her head, where it had struck the chair. He got up, his face ashen and convulsed with horror.

  “Good Lord!” he muttered hoarsely, “she’s dead—or dying. I’ve done it now!”

  CHAPTER XXIII

  THE GUNMAN

  Dale’s first decision was to leave Peggy in the cabin. But she might recover, and she had recognized him. Ben Nyland would exact stern vengeance for the outrage.

  Dale stood for some seconds in the doorway, his brain working rapidly. Then he leaped inside the cabin, took the girl up in his arms, carried her to his horse, mounted, and with the limp, sagging body in his arms rode into the night.

  Reaction, also, was working on Banker Maison. Though more than an hour had passed since he had got into bed, following the departure of his nocturnal visitor, he had not slept a wink. His brain revolving the incidents of the night—it had been a positive panorama of vivid horrors.

  The first gray streak of dawn was splitting the horizon when he gave it up, clambered out of bed and poured a generous drink from the bottle on the sideboard.

  “God, a man needs something like this to brace him up after such a night!” he declared.

  He took a second drink from the bottle, and a third. In the act of pouring a fourth he heard a sound at the back door, and with a gulp of terror he remembered that he had again forgotten to lock it.

  Sanderson undoubtedly was returning!

  Again Maison’s body became clammy with a cold sweat. He stood in the room near the sideboard, tremblingly listening. For again there was a step on the stairs.

  When he saw the door begin to open his knees knocked together, but there entered, not the dread apparition he expected, but Alva Dale, with the limp form of a woman in his arms!

  The sudden breaking of the tension, and astonishment over what he saw, made Maison’s voice hoarse.

  “What’s up now?” he demanded.

  “Hell!” muttered Dale. He told Maison the whole story—with some reservations.

  “I was sparkin’ her—like I’ve been doin’ for a long time. We had a tiff over—over somethin’—an’ I pushed her. She fell over, hittin’ her head.”

  “You damned fool!” snapped Maison. Dale was not Sanderson, and Maison felt the authority of his position. “This is Peggy Nyland, isn’t it? She’s the girl Silverthorn was telling me about—that you’re sweet on. You damned fool. Can’t you let the women alone when we’re in a deal like this! You’ll ruin the whole thing! Get her out of here!”

  Dale eyed the other sullenly, his face bloating with rage.

  “Look here, Maison; you quit your infernal yappin’. She stays here. I thought at first I’d killed her an’ I was goin’ to plant her. But she’s been groanin’ a little while I’ve been comin’ here, an’ there’s a chance for her. Go get the doctor.”

  “What about her brother?” demanded Maison. “He’s a shark with a gun, they tell me, an’ a tiger when he’s aroused. If he finds out about this he’ll kill both of us.”

  Dale grinned saturninely. “I’ll take care of the brother,” he said. “You get the doc—an’ be damned quick about it!”

  Maison went out, and in five minutes returned with the doctor. The latter worked for more than an hour with Peggy, and at last succeeded in reviving her.

  But though Peggy opened her eyes, there was no light of reason in them—only the vacuous, unseeing stare of a dulled and apathetic brain.

  “She’s got an awf
ul whack,” said the doctor. “It’s cracked her skull. It’ll be weeks before she gets over it—if she ever does. I’ll come and see her tomorrow.”

  The doctor came the next day—in the morning. He found the patient no better. A woman, hired by Dale, was caring for the girl.

  Also, in the morning, Dale paid a visit. His visit was to Dal Colton, the man Dale had employed to kill Sanderson, and who had so signally failed.

  The scene of the meeting between Dale and Colton was in the rear room of the City Hotel.

  “Look here,” said Dale. “This deal can’t be no whizzer like you run in on Sanderson. He’s got to be dropped, or things are goin’ to happen to all of us. His name’s Nyland—Ben Nyland. You know him?”

  Colton nodded. “Plenty. He’s a fast man with a gun. I’ll have to get him when he ain’t lookin’. You’ll get me clear?”

  “No one will know about it,” declared Dale. “You go out to his ranch an’ lay for him. He’ll be in on the afternoon train. When he comes into the door of his house, nail him. That’s easy.”

  CHAPTER XXIV

  CONCERNING A WOMAN

  Day was breaking when Sanderson rode in to the Double A corral and dismounted. Several of the men of the outfit were astir, and he called to one of them, and told the man to care for his horse. He grinned around at them all, and then went into the house.

  Mary Bransford was not yet up. The door that Sanderson had gone out of the night before was still unlocked. He opened it and entered, passing through the sitting-room and halting in the kitchen. He had noted that the door to Mary’s room was closed.

  Sanderson’s dominant emotion was that of grim satisfaction. He had compelled Maison to disgorge the money without jeopardizing his own liberty. Judge Graney’s word would suffice to prove his case should Maison proceed against him.

  But Sanderson had little fear that Maison would attempt reprisal. If he had judged the man correctly, Maison would not talk, even to Silverthorn.

  Sanderson cared very little if he did talk. He had reached the point where the killing of his enemies would come easy to him. They had chosen lawlessness, and he could wage that kind of warfare as well as they. He had shown them that he could.

  He disclosed the visible proof of his ability. One by one he drew the packages of currency from various pockets, tossing them at random on the kitchen table. He was standing at the table, counting the bills in one of the packages, when he heard a sound behind him. He wheeled, to confront Mary Bransford.

  She was dressed, but her face was as yet unwashed, and her hair uncombed. She stood in the doorway between the dining-room and the kitchen, looking at Sanderson in sleepy-eyed bewilderment.

  “I saw you riding in,” she said. “Where on earth have you been at this hour? You came from the direction of Okar.”

  “Business,” he grinned.

  “Business! Why, what kind of business could take you to Okar during the night?”

  “If you could get the sleep out of your eyes,” he suggested, “mebbe you could see. It’s the kind of business that all the world is interested in—gettin’ the money.”

  And then she saw the packages of bills. She rubbed her eyes as though in doubt of the accuracy of her vision; they grew wide and bright with astonishment and wonder, and she gave a little, breathless gasp as she ran forward to the table and looked down at the mound of wealth.

  And then, convinced that her senses had not played her a trick, her face whitened, she drew a long breath, and turned to Sanderson, grasping the lapels of his coat and holding them tightly.

  “Sanderson,” she said in an awed voice, “what have you done? Where did you get that money?”

  He told her, and her eyes dilated. “What a reckless thing to do!” she said. “They might have killed you!”

  “Maison was havin’ thoughts the other way round,” he grinned. “He was mighty glad I didn’t make him pay for the men he killed.”

  “They’ll be after you—they’ll kill you for that!” she told him.

  “Shucks,” he laughed. He showed her the document written and signed by Maison, and attested by Judge Graney:

  This is to certify that I have tonight paid to Deal Sanderson the sum of ninety thousand dollars for three thousand head of cattle received to my full satisfaction.

  “There ain’t no comeback to that!” exulted Sanderson. “Now we’ll start buildin’ that dam. Mebbe, though,” he added, grinning at her, “if you knew where a mighty hungry man could find a good cook that would be willin’ to rustle some grub, there’d be—”

  She laughed. “Right away!” she said, and went outside to perform her ablutions.

  Sanderson, while she was outside, counted out ten thousand dollars and put it into a pocket. Then he piled the remainder of the money neatly on the table. When Mary came in, her face glowing, her hair freshly combed, he stood and looked at her with admiration in his eyes, and a great longing in his heart.

  “I’ve dreamed of seein’ you that way,” he said.

  “As your cook?” she demanded, reddening.

  “A man’s grub would taste a heap better if his wife did the cookin’,” he said, his face sober.

  “Why—why—” she said; “do you mean—”

  “I wouldn’t be finicky if—if my wife was doin’ my cookin’,” he declared, his own face crimson. “I wouldn’t kick if she gave me the same kind of grub every mornin’—if it was she I’ve wanted.”

  “Why, Sanderson! Is this—”

  “It’s a proposal, ma’am. I can’t say what I want to say—what I’ve figured on sayin’ to you. I don’t seem to be able to find the words I wanted to use. But you’ll understand, ma’am.”

  “That you want a cook more than you want a—a wife? Oh, Sanderson!” she mocked.

  She knew that it was bashfulness that had caused him to mention the cooking; that he had introduced the subject merely for the purpose of making an oblique start; but she could not resist the temptation to taunt him.

  She looked furtively at him to see how deeply she had hurt him, but was surprised to see him grinning widely.

  “Women ain’t so wise as they pretend to be,” he said. “There’s grub, an’ grub. An’ what kind of grub is it that a man in love wants most?”

  She caught his meaning, now, and blushed rosy red, drooping her eyes from his.

  “That wasn’t fair, Sanderson,” she said lowly. “Besides, a man can’t live on kisses.”

  “I know a man who can,” he smiled, his eyes eager and glowing, now that he saw she was not going to repel him; “that is,” he added lowly, “if he could find a cook that would give them to him whenever he wanted them. But it would take a lot of them, an’ they’d have to be given with the cook’s consent. Do you think you could—”

  He paused and looked at her, for her eyes were shining and her lips were pursed in a way that left no doubt of the invitation.

  “Why, Mary!” he said, as he caught her in his arms.

  For a time the money lay on the table unnoticed and forgotten, and there was an eloquent silence in the kitchen.

  A little later, Barney Owen, passing close to the kitchen window—having seen the men caring for Sanderson’s horse, and learning from them that Sanderson had come in early after having apparently been out all night—heard Sanderson’s voice issuing from the kitchen:

  “There’s a difference in kisses; them that you gave me when you thought I was your brother wasn’t half so thrillin’ as—”

  Owen stiffened and stood rigid, his face whitening.

  And then again he heard Sanderson’s voice:

  “There’s a judge in Okar—Judge Graney. An’ if you’d consider gettin’ married today, ma’am, why—”

  “Why, Sanderson!” came Mary’s voice in mild reproof.

  “Well, then,” sounded Sanderson’s voice, full of resignation this time; “have it your way; I don’t want to hurry you.”

  “Hurry me? Oh, no!” laughed the girl in gentle mockery. Whereat they
both laughed. The sound of it must have pleased Owen, for he, too, laughed as he left the window and went toward the bunkhouse.

  An hour later Sanderson emerged from the house, threw saddle and bridle on Streak, and rode out into the basin to a camp where he found Kent Williams and his men. He gave the engineer the package of bills he had taken from the table.

  “Here is ten thousand dollars,” he said. “You take your men, ride over to Lazette, get your supplies, an’ hustle them right back here. It ain’t likely there’ll be any more trouble, but we ain’t takin’ any chances. My men ain’t got any more cattle to bother with, an’ they’ll go with you an’ your men to Lazette, an’ come back with the wagons to see that they ain’t interfered with. Start as soon as you can get ready.”

  “Within an hour the engineer, his men, and the men of the Double A outfit were on the move. Barney Owen did not go. He sat on one of the top rails of the corral fence, alternately watching the men of the outfit as they faded into the vast space toward Lazette, and Mary Bransford and Sanderson, as they stood on the porch, close together, likewise watching the men.

  “I’d say—if anyone was to ask me—that there is a brother who seems to have been forgotten,” said Owen with a curious smile.

  CHAPTER XXV

  A MAN IS AROUSED

  The coming of the dawn and the comforting contact with other human beings, brought Banker Maison relief from the terrifying fear that had gripped him during the night. He became almost courageous after breakfast, and began to think that perhaps he had yielded too readily to Sanderson’s demands.

  As the hours passed and the memory of the night’s horror grew more distant, he began to feel indignant over the treatment accorded him by Sanderson. Later the indignation grew to a deep and consuming rage, and he entertained thoughts of his power and influence and of the comparative unimportance of the grim-faced man who had robbed him.