The Night Horseman

THE CHALLENGE

All this time Black Bart had trotted contentedly ahead of Satan, never having to glance back but apparently knowing the intended direction; save that when Dan Barry turned to the road leading out of the little town, the wolf-dog had turned in an opposite direction.  The rider turned in the saddle and sent a sharp whistle towards the animal, but he was answered by a short howl of woe that made him check Satan and swing around.  Black Bart stood in the centre of the street facing in the opposite direction, and he looked back over his shoulder towards his master.

There was apparently a perfect understanding between them, and the master first glanced up and made sure of the position of the sun and the length of time he might allow for the trip home, before he decided to follow the whim of the wolf-dog.  Then he turned Satan and cantered, with the piebald trailing, back towards Black Bart.

At this the wolf-dog began to trot down the street, turned the next corner, and drew up at the door of a rambling building above which hung a dirty, cracked sign:  “GILEAD SALOON” and underneath in smaller letters was painted the legend:  “Here’s where you get it!”

Black Bart strolled up to the swinging doors of the emporium and then turned to look back at his master; clearly he wished Dan to enter the place.  But the rider shook his head and would certainly have ridden on had not, at that moment, the rain which had hitherto fallen only in rattling bursts, now burst over the roofs of the town with a loud roaring as of wind through a forest.  It was possible that the shower might soon pass over, so Dan rode under the long shelter which stretched in front of the saloon, dismounted, and entered behind Black Bart.

It was occupied by a scattering of people, for the busy time of the day had not yet commenced and Pale Annie was merely idling behind the bar—­working at half-speed, as it were.  To this group Black Bart paid not the slightest heed but glided smoothly down the centre of the long room until he approached the tables at the end, where, in a corner, sat a squat, thick-chested man, and opposite him the most cadaverously lean fellow that Whistling Dan had ever seen.  Before these two Black Bart paused and then cast a glance over his shoulder towards the master; Whistling Dan frowned in wonder; he knew neither of the pair.

But Black Bart apparently did.  He slouched a pace closer, crouched, and bared his fangs with a tremendous snarl.  At this the lean man left his chair and sprang back to a distance.  Terror convulsed his face; but his eyes glittered with a fascinated interest and he glanced first at his companion and then at the great wolf-dog, as if he were making a comparison between them.  It was the broad shouldered man who first spoke.

“Partner,” he said in a thick voice, in which the articulation was almost lost, “maybe you better take your dog out before he gets hurt.  He don’t like me and I don’t like him none too much.”

“Bart!” called Dan Barry.

But Black Bart gave no heed.  There had been a slight flexing of his muscles as he crouched, and now he leaped—­a black bolt of fighting weight—­squarely in the face of the giant.  He was met and checked midway in his spring.  For the two long arms darted out, two great hands fastened in the throat of the beast, and Black Bart fell back upon the floor, with Mac Strann following, his grip never broken by the fall.

A scurry of many feet running towards the scene; a shouting of twenty voices around him; but all that Whistling Dan saw were the fangs of Bart as they gnashed fruitlessly at the wrists of Mac Strann, and then the great red tongue lolling out and the eyes bulging from their sockets—­all he heard was the snarling of the wolf and the peculiar whine of rage which came from the throat of the man-beast fighting the wolf.  Then he acted.  His hands darted between the thick forearms of Mac Strann—­his elbows jerked out and snapped the grip; next he dragged Black Bart away from the danger.

The wolf was instantly on his feet and lunging again, but a sharp “Heel!” from Dan checked him mid-leap.  He came to a shuddering halt behind the legs of his master.  Whistling Dan slipped a little closer to the giant.

“I should have knowed you before,” he said in a voice which carried only to the ears of Strann.  “You’re the brother of Jerry Strann.  And they’s a reason why Bart hates you, partner!”

The thick upper lip of Strann lifted slightly as he spoke.

“Him or you—­you and your wolf together or one by one—­it don’t make no difference to me.  I’ve come for you, Barry!”

The other straightened a little, and his eyes travelled slowly up and down the form of Strann.

“I been hungering to meet a man like you,” he said.  “Hungerin’, partner.”

“North of town they’s the old McDuffy place, all in ruins and nobody ever near it.  I’ll be there in an hour, m’frien’.”

“I’ll be waiting for you there,” nodded Mac Strann, and so saying, he turned back to his table as if he had been interrupted by nothing more than a casual greeting.  Still Dan Barry remained a moment with his eyes on the face of Mac Strann.  And when he turned and walked with his light, soundless step down the length of the silent barroom, the wolf-dog slunk at his heels, ever and anon swinging his head over his shoulder and glancing back at the giant at the end of the room.  As the door closed on man and dog, the saloon broke once more into murmur, and then into an excited clamoring.  Pale Annie stepped from behind the bar and leaned upon the table beside Mac Strann.  Even while leaning in this manner the bartender was as tall as the average man; he waved back the others with a gesture of his tremendous arm.  Then he reached out and took the hand of Mac Strann in his clammy fingers.

“My friend,” said the ex-undertaker in his careful manner, “I seen a man once California a husky two-year-old—­which nobody said could be done, and I’ve seen some other things, but I’ve never seen anything to touch the way you handled Black Bart.  D’you know anything about that dog?”

Mac Strann shook his ponderous head and his dull eyes considered Pale Annie with an expression of almost living curiosity.

“Black Bart has a record behind him that an old time gun-man would have heard with envy.  There are dead men in the record of that dog, sir!”

All this he had spoken in a comparatively loud voice, but now, noting that the others had heeded his gesture and had made back towards the bar to drink on the strength of that strange fight between man and beast, the bartender approached his lips close to the ear of the giant.

He said in a rapid murmur:  “I watched you talking with Dan Barry and I saw Barry’s face when he went out.  You and he are to meet somewhere again to-day.  My friend, don’t throw yourself away.”

Here Mac Strann stared down at his mighty hand—­a significant answer, but Pale Annie went on swiftly:  “Yes, you’re strong, but strength won’t save you from Dan Barry.  We know him here in Elkhead.  Do you know that if he had pulled his gun and shot you down right here where you sit, that he could have walked out of this room without a hand raised to stop him?  Yes, sir!  And why?  Because we know his record; and I’d rather go against a wolf with my bare hands—­as you did—­than stand up against Dan Barry with guns.  I could tell you how he fought Jim Silent’s gang, one to six.  I could tell you a lot of other things.  My friend, I will tell you about ’em if you’ll listen.”

But Mac Strann considered the speaker with his dull eyes.

“I never was much on talkin’,” he observed mildly.  “I don’t understand talkin’ very well.”

Pale Annie started to speak again, but he checked himself, stared earnestly at Mac Strann, and then hurried back behind his bar.  His face was even graver than usual; but business was business with Pale Annie—­and all men have to die in their time!  Haw-Haw Langley took the place which Pale Annie had left vacant opposite Mac Strann.

He cast a frightened glance upward, where the rain roared steadily on the roof of the building; then his eyes fluttered back until they rested on the face of his companion.  He had to moisten his thin lips before he could speak and even then it was a convulsive effort, like a man swallowing too large a morsel.

“Well?” said Haw-Haw.  “Is it fixed?”

“It’s fixed,” said Mac Strann.  “Maybe you’d get the hosses, Haw-Haw.  If you’re comin with me?”

A dark shadow swept over the face of Haw-Haw Langley.

“You’re going to beat it?” he sneered.  “After you come all this way you’re going to run away from Barry?  And him not half your size?”

“I’m going out to meet him,” answered Mac Strann.

Haw-Haw Langley started up as if he feared Mac Strann would change his mind if there were any delay.  His long fingers twisted together, as if to bring the blood into circulation about the purple knuckles.

“I’ll have the hosses right around to the front,” he said.  “By the time you got your slicker on, Mac, I’ll have ’em around in front!”

And he stalked swiftly from the room.