G. B. Lancaster

“ But the mare flinched from her weight on it, and stood, shivering.
Yorke packed away his case in silence. He dared not speak. Like most men whose work lies among horses he loved them, and in sight of what he termed “a piece of condemned brutality” he sorrowed that the culprit was not a man.
The girl's wrath had grown with the minutes. ”

“ The man who shot Morten?”
“I have already demanded him.”
“But you didn't get him. Well, I guess I can get him. But I don't want any men. To go up there with even a handful of troops would make those beggars think such a damned lot of themselves. I'll go with an interpreter and a dog-whip and I bet you a new panama to a cent that I'll get my man. Oh, you know that right enough, Chesney. Bluff is the biggest winner on earth, and I've got all America to bluff with. Man alive, they'll punt him out quicker than thought.” ”

“ Now, come on, and do as you're told.”
“You think yourself mighty brave,” snapped Curral, viciously. “But it is just your day's work. I come as an outsider, and—”
“You think you're the braver? Well, I don't. Because you wouldn't have come at all if you'd had the ghost of a choice. I like to work with a man who gets some fun out of life. What's the Jap for 'Good-day?'”
They made their salutations where the little brown men were lying close as a bee-swarm on a bough, and then, through Curral, Yorke requested conversation with some one in authority. ”

“ But he rode his mad young colt on a light snaffle only, and derived more joy from his flights with it than anything else the present time offered. Then, sudden and solid as a dropped thunder bolt, came the word which called all his brain and body muscles up into tautness and demanded of him the last inch he could give. ”

“ Curral delivered his message with fire struck from the flint of desperation, and Yorke saw that it had some slight effect. He had planned each move, but he was trusting to his prestige to rush him through. Not only in cantonments was he known as “the man who could do things.” ”

“ Remember that they understand sound if not sense. I wish your parents had licked a little wisdom into you, Curral.” Here he straightened up, standing with folded arms on the center of the flag. “Tell 'em that the President of the United States of America has given me forty minutes in which to receive Haishi Toko and Morten's body on the American flag—and they'd best look sharp for there are only three left. Oh, you beggars,” said Yorke, suddenly thrusting his face forward. “I've got you cold.” ”

“ Yorke settled back in the saddle with a sigh of content.
“Now we'll get down to work,” he said. “Tell him, Curral, that we have come here for Morten's body and for the man who killed Morten and that we give him just forty minutes in which to produce them both. It is now five minutes to four, and they must be here by four thirty-five. I'm not going to take a dead man down that track in the dark. Get busy, now. ”

“ Curral never knew it was done. But as they rode down the mountain flank with six small, civil, men bearing before them the body of Morten w rapped in the flag and Haishi Toko and a second man running handcuffed at Yorke's side, put his puzzlement into words, and Yorke answered him.
“Bluff will generally carry you through if you bluff high enough. If a man must lie let him lie well. ”

“ A Man Who Could Do Things
BY G. B. LANCASTER
Author of “Sons o' Men,” etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY ROBERT W. AMICK
YORKE, Captain of the Honolulu Mounted Police and nothing of anything anywhere else, so far as men knew, was in a bad temper. From dawn until this five of the clock on a windy evening, he had been in the saddle along the dusty, little-trod trails that give out from the main roads tapping the mountain wildernesses, and all his tact and reputation, all his wise knowledge of native language and honor and beliefs had not given him the information that he was looking for. ”