Wolcott LeCléar Beard

“ General Torrenegro permitted himself only one astonished look at the sudden advent of a total stranger in his barricaded house while the authorities of the so-called republic were trying, thus far vainly, to effect an entrance. But he knew well that there was no time to waste in questions. Deciding with the quickness of an old soldier that this extraordinary person was more likely to be friend than foe, he picked up one of the rifles and, yielding, was led to the rear door. Helen, guided by Jack, came submissively, like one who walks in a waking dream of horror. ”

“ One would naturally have expected fingers that were capable of such an act to be massive and square-ended, but the fingers of Don Miguel were not in the least like that. They were long and tapering and shapely; they were the fingers of an artist. Rosemary, in the old days, had been, accustomed to ridicule them, asserting that they were like those of a woman, which also was true. Even then those fingers were incongruously strong—but not as they were now. Indeed not! There was a sort of vicarious pride in Rosie's shuddering breath of admiration.
"Are ye the strong man in that circus, Mike?" ”

“ It is a foolish practice, he thought, to post the horses with their tails to the finish. How quickly that mare turned! Much more readily than Wet Dog's horse, but that was the inherited instinct of the cow-pony. No training could equal that, and, truly, the mare ran fast; the Papagos were howling with joy. But soon their voices lowered, for the long stride of the thoroughbred was telling. The horse closed up; then his beautiful neck and shoulders appeared in the lead, and the Apache women broke into delirious shrieks as he won, hard held, by a length. The tribe was embarrassed with riches. ”

“ GRIZZLED and gaunt, Sergeant John Macnamara stood well within the freight-shed where the deep shadows rendered his speckless khaki uniform, with the gray subsistence chevrons on its sleeves, all but invisible to any one glancing in from the withering glare outside.
San Pablo, a typical town of the Mexican border, seemed to have drawn its soiled skirts away from the little corrugated-iron mission church as though in disapproval. For the "tin chapel," as it was irreverently called, squatted in the dust by itself, and a scant six yards from the freight-house. ”

“ No one else had any suggestions to offer. Dinner time passed unnoticed and in silence, save when Seldon remarked that this affair was sure to get about; that we would be made a laughing-stock, and that he, for one, intended to leave the city and to stay away; and Sam told him not to be more of a fool than he could help.
"Well, we're in a bad hole, but there's no use starving over it," said Greg, at last. "Let's all go somewhere and have dinner together. Perhaps we can think of some plan then."
"We haven't got the price among us, and we won't have until those checks come," objected Baynes. ”

“ Can you imagine any woman loving me?"
"I can't imagine anything more utterly morbid than the rot you're talking," I replied. "Moreover, Hilda told me only a few minutes ago that she——"
"I know what Hilda said; I heard her—and God bless her for saying it!" he interrupted. "But the love she spoke of isn't the love I mean—and you know it isn't. The love I mean—the love that one woman has for one man—is denied me as completely as though I were already as dead as I ought to have been long ago—as dead as I soon will be." ”

“ I am an average sort of man, I think, and therefore took myself as an example. I liked Hilda enormously. More than that, even in the few hours since first we met, I had formed a warm affection. But as to falling in love with her—well, I simply couldn't imagine myself in that position. It would be like falling in love with the Venus of Milo, or the Goddess of Liberty, or anything else that was unattainably big and beautiful, and though nominally feminine, still practically sexless.
But I understood what Hilda had meant when she spoke of the resemblance between herself and Honey. ”

“ As he arranged his men the sheriff dashed about the place, turning and sprinting on his quick-footed cow-pony, shouting orders and directions in a voice which not even his excitement could rob of its habitual drawl.
Then the rails began to snap, and, shrieking against its brakes, the great train reluctantly came to a stand. It was covered with men. They were lying head to feet on the roofs of the box-cars; they rode clinging to the ladders, astride the brake-beams, along the truss-rods. ”

“ Another bullet whined through one open door and out of the opposite one. Dropping her face on her hands as she lay on the old sergeant's blankets, Alice began to cry softly, but with great, shuddering sobs which racked her strong young body almost as though they would tear it apart. A keen pang of resentment shot through the old man's heart at the thought of Lionel Crosslett having won such love from this woman—when there were so many others in the world. ”

“ As he spoke, Tim Murphy leaned across the table, his under jaw truculently pugnacious. His latter words, however, were not spoken to Don Miguel, but to a cripple, a man so young that he was hardly more than a boy—younger even than Terry Burke—who came blunderingly in, his twisted form more twisted even than usual from the weight of a basket which he lugged with both hands. ”

“ With a dozen men that I know of—real men—I don't include myself among them—ready to fall at her feet and worship her, Maisie chooses to fall prostrate at the shrine of—Harvey Priest! Harvey Priest, who really cares for nothing but his own big carcass and its appetites and vanities; who's poisoning that pure mind of hers exactly as the drippings from a sewer will poison a spring. ”

“ Without a word, General Torrenegro slipped over the door-sill and, with Jack’s help, found the ledge. Facing outward, grasping the line with both hands and keeping his eyes tightly closed so as not to see the void beneath his feet, he sidled away. Jack turned to Helen.
“You see it’s easy,” said he, in a tone intended to carry encouragement. “It’ll be your turn in a minute, now.”
“I can’t!” she replied, in a whisper.
“But you must!” he exclaimed in return. “Don’t you see? It’s not hard, if you keep your head, and don’t be——”
“I’m not frightened,” she interrupted. ”

“ Don Miguel ducked, and the chair missed him, to smash against the wall with a resounding crash. Tim's left fist followed the chair, also to miss its mark. With a gleam of polished metal, a pistol appeared in Tim's right hand, and a shot rang out, but the bullet drilled its way harmlessly into the paneled ceiling. For with a heave, which seemed too mighty by far, and too effortless to have been wrought by human hands, the table had risen from the floor. ”

“ They will collect all duties until indemnity has been paid.'
"And you, you blockheads and asses, whose grandmothers were geese—do you know what this means?" the merchant went on. "It means that the United States will collect a huge sum of money—that they will collect it once. But it means also that the scoundrel Alfaro will use this condition—which he himself has brought about—as an excuse for collecting it a dozen times, as he has done before. As an excuse for more taxes, and yet more. It is you who will pay! Will pay while your wives and little ones starve, as others have starved." ”

“ On a little rise, shaded by a Cottonwood tree, the racer was standing, being rubbed down with bunches of grass by two of Wet Dog's squaws. Beyond the other strip of pasture was a spur of the opposite mesa, lower and broader than the one on which Wet Dog's camp was placed, and there the two canvas saloons and the store which constituted Cactus City showed glaringly white against the black basalt cliff as the sun fell full on their gable ends.
Three men came out of the larger saloon, the Triangle, and, mounting their horses, rode away down the river. Wet Dog knew them all. ”

“ The question as to whether or not a messenger could live to reach the other camp had been decided in the negative many times as the morning wore on. The sun blazed down with pitiless fervor, and the horses stamped uneasily in their sheltered corral; the men lay gasping with the heat, under anything standing high enough to cast the least shadow on the glaring sand.
No one had spoken for some time when Specs walked quickly to the wagon from which, after some fumbling, he extracted a large brass kettle. ”

“ A long-haired young artist—one whom I knew slightly as a visitor to Honey's house—picked up the object and weighed it in his hand. It was the section of shade-roller, run full of melted lead, that we had made for a crossbow bolt. I knew all along that it would be found there. The twang of that bowstring had told me so. But the wooden, lead-filled cylinder sent all others, the police included, far away on a false scent—and no wonder. Who could have guessed the truth?
"The man has been sandbagged!" shouted that excited young artist. "You could kill an ox with that thing. Is he dead, doctor?" ”

“ How in the end we managed to get a concession of twenty-four hours in which to move our goods, I do not know, but imagine that the marshal granted it to us largely because it was fiercely opposed by Siegel. At all events, we did obtain this much grace, and Siegel and the marshal went away, leaving us alone.
We tried to put the best face we could upon the matter, but the best was very bad indeed. The boys sat down in the chairs we had provided for our expected guests and looked at each other in blank despair. Except Seldon, that is. He just hid his face in his hands and groaned. ”

“ Now Miss Alice was married, and to Captain Lionel Crosslett. That was the thing so hard to bear—to Captain Lionel Crosslett.
Sergeant John wanted to be fair. Very hard indeed he tried to analyze, dispassionately and without prejudice, his reasons for so intensely disliking this man, and to give due weight to his merits.
Captain Crosslett, despite his service, his commission, and the uniform he wore, was and always must remain essentially a civilian. Never would he be able to fathom the hearts of his men. ”

“ More quickly than the eye could follow, Don Miguel's hand flicked forward and back, once and then again.
It sent two of the ice-picks streaking through the air, their blades trailing behind them like the tails of small but efficient comets. The iron-bound handle of one struck the bartender between the eyes; that of the other, arriving immediately afterward, came into violent contact with the point of Mr. Shea's jaw. Both men dropped limply and lay quite still.
Hardly two seconds had passed, and it took Tim Murphy that time to recover from the second shock. Now his pistol flashed upward. ”

“ No groups of sullen men were standing there. Save for two mountain-guns and a half-dozen platoons of infantry, the little park was empty of living men.
But, though the plaza was empty, the houses surrounding it were not. This fact was proved by several motionless bodies dressed in uniforms as gaudy as the flowers among which they lay sprawling, and by three more lying under the guns. Against one of them a wounded man leaned wearily. Rifles cracked from windows everywhere, and two platoons of soldiers were firing at will. ”

“ Insults are only words. True, blood of the Black Douglases, heated by generations of Texan suns, is ill to trifle with; but in justice to Alfaro it should be said that if this thought occurred to him it had no more effect upon his conduct than did the insult. Men do not attain to the position then enjoyed by Eloy Alfaro through being either sensitive or cowardly.
Tramping doggedly around the curve of the arena, Archie Douglas re-entered his own box, where he had left two guests. ”

“ A narrow shadow, for it was barely past noon—a shadow just broad enough to cover the slender path, making it appear almost in twilight when contrasted with the brilliant sunlight which lighted up the jagged masses of black rock littering the steep incline that broke down from its outer edge. The day was burning hot, even for Arizona. The horseman who moved slowly up the road did not seem to mind the heat—appeared rather to enjoy it. ”

“ She has no more mind than a kitten. Yet men fall in love with her—go wild about her! Real men—men with brains, some of whom don't even particularly like her; for liking has nothing to do with loving. And Maisie collapses utterly at the feet of Harvey Priest, who loves nothing in the world except himself, who'd be tired to death of her in a week, but is willing to amuse himself for that week. ”

“ The strongest evidence of this wisdom, perhaps, lay in his guileful reference to Tim Murphy, which was a chance shot, but one which, nevertheless, rung a bull's-eye. Rosie's elbows were on the table now, and her face was hidden in her thin, work-scarred hands, from between the fingers of which a tear presently trickled, while her shoulders heaved with noiseless sobs.
"Would I like it!" she gasped forth after a little. "Would I like it! Faith, heaven itself, I'm thinkin', could offer no better. If Terry and me was alone, that is, not bothered by any one," she added as an afterthought. ”

“ Seldon looked around the shabby room and made a despairing gesture.
"That's not a bad idea, just the same," said Jimmy, in reply to Seldon's gesture. "We can brace up the looks of the room here by clubbing our stuff. Then we'll get a lot of people down here who can do things—singing and monologues and the like; we know plenty—and then ask a lot of others to hear 'em. We can kill off a lot of people that way; dinners and things—those dances, for instance, that Seldon's growling about." ”

“ By sheer force of brains and courage—aided by a woman's intuitions, a woman's occasional ruthlessness, by her utter contempt for any laws that she can't use for her own ends, and also by an entire lack of all feminine weakness—she has raised herself to a position of greater power than western South America has seen before since the days of the Incas. That's what she has done—among other things. Not many people know how great her power is. And let me tell you, young Douglas, that you're a blazing lucky chap to have Lady Gaunt for a friend. ”

“ The camp of Wet Dog and his friends was breaking. They waited awhile until the squaws joined them, and all moved westward along the trail save a few, who, detaching themselves, rode toward the cliff. This was just the hour invariably chosen by the Apaches for their attacks, so when a chorus of shrill yells rent the air, to an accompaniment of dropping rifle-shots, Cactus City was roused in a moment. Men started from their blankets around the ashes of their dead fires, clutching hastily snatched weapons ”

“ Now Don Miguel did not appear to be watching the fingers of Mr. Shea as the latter dealt those cards. He—Don Miguel—seemed to be wholly occupied in biting off the end of his cigar, an operation that he had overlooked when trying to light it. But he was watching, nevertheless; and he was, moreover, eminently qualified to watch, as a man who was practically the "whole show"—who was perhaps the only man living whose accomplishments ranged from feats of gigantic strength, through jugglery, to sleight-of-hand—must be qualified to watch a performance of this sort. ”

“ Harvey Priest reached over and plucked the taut bowstring, so that it gave forth a deep, resonant note. He put his foot on the string and pressed, then shook his head and smiled at the resistance it offered. Maisie giggled at this, though there was nothing in the world, that I could see, to giggle about.
Then Hilda stepped forward. Picking up the arblast, she slipped her foot into the stirrup at its muzzle-end and, stooping, grasped the bowstring with both hands. She tried to straighten—failed—tried again. The bow bent, ever so little.
"Don't!" I cried. "You'll hurt yourself!" ”

“ The skirmish-line stopped, hesitated, and stood fast. Mexicans are vile shots as a class, yet three of the recruits dropped, one of them screaming horridly. Despite the efforts of the non-commissioned officers to stop them, their comrades began to fire wildly, though nothing of the enemy, save now and then the pointed crown of a sombrero, could be seen.
They were good boys, those recruits, thought Sergeant John, otherwise they would not stand as they were doing. He hated those men behind the sand-hill with a personal and deadly hatred. ”

“ Barton rode slowly around the camp, telling off each family as he came to it, in order to make sure that all were present; and I found time to notice, in a vague sort of way, that Specs was shuffling rapidly up and down, muttering to himself, his arms twitching nervously. Each time he met any one at all in authority he would stop and seem about to speak, but no one helped him begin, so he would pass on, twitching and muttering as before.
The sheriff had finished his round, and pulling up his horse, he sat, with a troubled look, facing the group of men near which I was standing. ”

“ Farther, it had been asked of Wet Dog as a favor that the horses should stand facing the finish instead of pointing the other way, and having to turn at the start as the custom was, and as a favor he had granted it, but he would rather have given his second best horse—the one he was riding—than not to have had it so. Then, the night before, a panther had sprung on a colt and had been shot by one of Wet Dog's sons; there could be no more fortunate omen than this, as everyone knows. The horse of the white man must be in that tent, but why thus house the beast? ”

“ Still laughing, with his suspicions apparently at rest, Harvey counted out fifty dollars from a big roll of bills and placed the amount in the goddess's hand.
"Let's go to dinner," said he. "Where shall it be?"
"The usual place," answered the goddess decidedly. "You run along and take that gun to your rooms and then go to the restaurant. Maisie and I will meet you there."
To this proposition Maisie—which evidently was the owl-girl's name—assented with enthusiasm. Therefore she wriggled into a long coat which covered her bloomers and her upper gorgeousness. ”

“ Sergeant John nodded, and without waiting for her consent lifted her in his arms. For the moment there was no safer spot than that upon which they were, but it would not be safe for long, he knew. Running to the car he had left, he placed her in it and vaulted after. Then he laid her in a little alleyway formed by boxes of tinned stuff.
"Will ye stay here, now?" he demanded.
"Send him to me!" she begged. "He's not fit to be out there. And anyway he's not in charge of those recruits—they're infantrymen." ”

“ His squeaky voice soared to a pitch almost unprecedented even in the voice of Thrale.
"Listen!" he shrilled. "I've played cards with Douglas—yes! He's lost. Not much. Enough to make him wild to get even. No more. Now it'll be different. Get that? Different! He's going to lose big. Big! And you won't do a thing. Not you! You'll sit tight and see Duggy take his medicine. Yes, you will! There's a reason. Here!"
Leering triumphantly, Thrale flung a folded paper on the table before Lady Gaunt and stalked majestically toward the door. ”

“ He must be taught better. And yet, somehow, in the back of her mind, she liked being told exactly what to do, and given no choice in the matter—liked it vastly, in spite of herself. To have some one to lean upon, some one to order the life which she had found so hard to through its troubled waters, brought with it a sense of inexpressible relief. ”

“ Hilda does what she can. She can't do much more. At best Hilda's only a woman, and Maisie's beginning to balk. I tell you, there's no one but me. Me—whom Maisie trusts because I'm such a damned horror to look at that she can't conceive my love for her being other than pure. ”

“ It was not a new thought, but he had forgotten it—that in civil life this man still could find his place; that he would give happiness to the woman who loved him; that he might live respected, and at his death be mourned decently by others as well as she. And all of this was, after all, what a woman lived for.
So the muzzle dropped a little and the rifle spoke. The husband of Miss Alice went headlong with a bullet neatly placed through the exact centre of a knee-joint.
The man was senseless when Sergeant John reached him. ”

“ As O'Neill had said, Thrale was not afraid of Lady Gaunt. His lack of imagination prevented his conceiving any circumstances in which an old and crippled woman could imperil his interests. By dint of an effort almost suicidal he had thus far succeeded in controlling his temper, simply in order that no mental heat might blunt the edge of what he considered his cutting sarcasm, of which he was very proud. ”

“ With the same hand Don Miguel fished from his pocket that plethoric roll of bills, stripped off one, and tossed it to the cripple.
"Take that—and beat it," he said.
The cripple, obeying, vanished. Shoving back his chair, Mr. Shea rose and got behind it, as though for shelter. He was a rat of a man, Don Miguel decided, and, like a rat, would fight if cornered. But Terry, now—Terry was different.
Terry was confused and undecided. Tim Murphy—well, Mike O'Farrell knew him also. For the moment, startled and perhaps partially stunned, Tim was silent. But that wouldn't last. It didn't. ”

“ In some occult way she seems to know everything she wants to know. Well, the corrida is over, and that poor devil of a bull at last can get some rest. Are you bound for the club?"
Archie rose. "I have an engagement there with Thrale," said he. "I wish I hadn't, now."
"Don't let that trouble you," advised Major O'Neill, as they made their way to the exit and the street. "Thrale won't be there. The note you saw McCabe deliver was a summons before the throne—from Lady Gaunt, you know."
"Thrale won't obey any such summons," returned Archie, unconvinced. ”

“ I suppose you know that inside I'm just a man. A man—like you, it seems—with a collector's passion for arms—for weapons, and especially missile-throwing weapons. I love their history, their mechanism—their use, except when they're used to kill something. I can't bear to kill. Moreover, I have a morbid terror—inborn—prenatal, I suppose—of the sound of firearms. I dread the report of a gun infinitely more than I dread its bullet, Harvey Priest knows that—he's a sort of cousin of mine. That's why he made me fire that wheel-lock. He wants me to die. On account of Maisie. ”

“ Trade was slack at that time of day, and for the moment Don Miguel was alone save for a negligible party of minor political henchmen who conversed among themselves in mysterious undertones, hardly glancing up at the entrance of this semi-inebriated stranger.
Don Miguel pressed a button, and at the summons there appeared a bartender of truculent appearance, whose head was decorated with a "cauliflower" ear. Don Miguel ordered whisky, which was brought him. Diving into a pocket, he produced a roll of yellow-backed bills of a thickness that caused the bartender's eyes to glisten acquisitively. ”

“ For that I shall break Thrale—yes—in passing; taken alone he's a nuisance merely. But Alfaro! O'Neill, I shall see to it that Alfaro receives, while still in this world, a foretaste of the other world to which he shall go this very night."
"But I say," O'Neill objected, in his most insinuating tone, "aren't you afraid that those Yankee cruisers—there are two of 'em no farther away than Puno—will come blundering in and spoil the show?"
With a suddenness that seemed almost miraculous. Lady Gaunt's fury had passed. ”