The Night Horseman

THE MESSAGE

Buck Daniels opened his eyes and sat bolt-upright in bed.  He had dreamed the dream again, and this time, as always, he awakened before the end.  He needed no rubbing of eyes to rouse his senses.  If a shower of cold water had been dashed upon him he could not have rallied from sound slumber so suddenly.  His first movement was to snatch his gun from under his mattress, not that he dreamed of needing it, but for some reason the pressure of the butt against his palm was reassuring.  It was better than the grip of his friend—­a strong man.

It was the first grey of dawn, a light so feeble that it served merely to illuminate the darkness, so to speak.  It fell with any power upon one thing alone, the bit of an old, dusty bridle that hung against the wall, and it made the steel glitter like a watchful eye.  There was a great dryness in the throat of Buck Daniels; and his whole big body shook with the pounding of his heart.

He was not the only thing that was awake in the grey hour.  For now he caught a faint and regular creaking of the stairs.  Someone was mounting with an excessively cautious and patient step, for usually the crazy stairs that led up to this garret room of the Rafferty house creaked and groaned a protest at every footfall.  Now the footfall paused at the head of the stairs, as when one stops to listen.

Buck Daniels raised his revolver and levelled it on the door; but his hand was shaking so terribly that he could not keep his aim—­the muzzle kept veering back and forth across the door.  He seized his right hand with his left, and crushed it with a desperate pressure.  Then it was better.  The quivering of the two hands counteracted each other and he managed to keep some sort of a bead.

Now the step continued again, down the short hall.  A hand fell on the knob of the door and pressed it slowly open.  Against the deeper blackness of the hall beyond, Buck saw a tall figure, hatless.  His finger curved about the trigger, and still he did not fire.  Even to his hysterical brain it occurred that Dan Barry would be wearing a hat—­and moreover the form was tall.

“Buck!” called a guarded voice.

The muzzle of Daniels’ revolver dropped; he threw the gun on his bed and stood up.

“Jim Rafferty!” he cried, with something like a groan in his voice.  “What in the name of God are you doin’ here at this hour?”

“Someone come here and banged on the door a while ago.  Had a letter for you.  Must have rid a long ways and come fast; while he was givin’ me the letter at the door I heard his hoss pantin’ outside.  He wouldn’t stay, but went right back.  Here’s the letter, Buck.  Hope it ain’t no bad news.  Got a light here, ain’t you?”

“All right, Jim,” answered Buck Daniels, taking the letter.  “I got a lantern.  You get back to bed.”

The other replied with a noisy yawn and left the room while Buck kindled the lantern.  By that light he read his name upon the envelope and tore it open.  It was very brief.

   “Dear Buck,

Last night at supper Dan found out where you are.  In the morning he’s leaving the ranch and we know that he intends to ride for Rafferty’s place; he’ll probably be there before noon.  The moment you get this, saddle your horse and ride.  Oh, Buck, why did you stay so close to us?

Relay your horses.  Don’t stop until you’re over the mountains.  Black Bart is well enough to take the trail and Dan will use him to follow you.  You know what that means.

   Ride, ride, ride!

   Kate.”

He crumpled up the paper and sank back upon the bed.

“Why did you stay so close?”

He had wondered at that, himself, many times in the past few days.  Like the hunted rabbit, he expected to find safety under the very nose of danger.  Now that he was discovered it seemed incredible that he could have followed so patently foolish a course.  In a sort of daze he uncrumpled the note again and read the wrinkled writing word by word.  He had leaned close to read by the uncertain light, and now he caught the faintest breath of perfume from the paper.  It was a small thing, smaller among scents than a whisper is among voices, but it made Buck Daniels drop his head and crush the paper against his face.  It was a moment before he could uncrumple the paper sufficiently to study the contents of the note thoroughly.  At first his dazed brain caught only part of the significance.  Then it dawned on him that the girl thought he had fled from the Cumberland Ranch through fear of Dan Barry.

Ay, there had been fear in it.  Every day at the ranch he had shuddered at the thought that the destroyer might ride up on that devil of black silken grace, Satan.  But every day he had convinced himself that even then Dan Barry remembered the past and was cursing himself for the ingratitude he had shown his old friend.  Now the truth swept coldly home to Buck Daniels.  Barry was as fierce as ever upon the trail; and Kate Cumberland thought that he—­Buck Daniels,—­had fled like a cur from danger.

He seized his head between his hands and beat his knuckles against the corrugated flesh of his forehead.  She had thought that!

Desire for action, action, action, beset him like thirst.  To close with this devil, this wolf-man, to set his big fingers in the smooth, almost girlish throat, to choke the yellow light out of those eyes—­or else to die, but like a man proving his manhood before the girl.

He read the letter again and then in an agony he crumpled it to a ball and hurled it across the room.  Catching up his hat and his belt he rushed wildly from the room, thundered down the crazy stairs, and out to the stable.

Long Bess, the tall, bay mare which had carried him through three years of adventure and danger and never failed him yet, raised her aristocratic head above the side of the stall and whinnied.  For answer he shook his fist at her and cursed insanely.

The saddle he jerked by one stirrup leather from the wall and flung it on her back, and when she cringed to the far side of the stall, he cursed her again, bitterly, and drew up the cinch with a lunge that made her groan.  He did not wait to lead her to the door before mounting, but sprang into the saddle.

Here he whirled her about and drove home the spurs.  Cruel usage, for Long Bess had never denied him the utmost of her speed and strength at the mere sound of his voice.  Now, half-mad with fear and surprise, she sprang forward at full gallop, slipped and almost sprawled on the floor, and then thundered out of the door.

At once the soft sandy-soil received and deadened the impact of her hoofs.  Off she flew through the grey of the morning, soundless as a racing ghost.

Long Bess—­there was good blood in her.  She was as delicately limbed as an antelope, and her heart was as strong as the smooth muscles of her shoulders and hips.  Yet to Buck Daniels her fastest gait seemed slower than a walk.  Already his thoughts were flying far before.  Already he stood before the ranch house calling to Dan Barry.  Ay, at the very door of the place they should meet and one of them must die.  And better by far that the blood of him who died should stain the hands of Kate Cumberland.