Roy Norton

“ The bookkeeper, a white-haired, overworked little man, fumbled in his pocket, produced a pair of spectacles, and affixed his seal. Specimen Jones and Frank Barnes each stepped forward and inscribed their names as witnesses, in a silence that would have been noticeable had not the prospector quietly hummed a tune as if to avert observance of anything unusual.
“I think that's all Mr. Vance wants of you,” he said to the bookkeeper, but frowning at Vance to remind him of their previous talk. ”

“ Vance instinctively threw an arm upward to shield his face as from a shot, and for a moment they were transfixed in this attitude, until, recovering himself, the prospector slowly settled back to his seat.
“Enough of this!” he said coldly. “Vance, you've got one chance for your life—just one! No more! And I'm givin' it to you because I've got to think of Tom Rogers and what's due him, and I couldn't get it if I did what I'm hungerin' to do—put five shots through your cussed skull! ”

“ But a feller can't always do what he'd like to in this world, and when he's got others to think of, and—— So I give you one chance.”
Vance, with the cold perspiration plunging through the pores of his forehead, asked, in a whisper: “What is that chance?”
“You're goin' to deed the Horseshoe Mine to Tom Rogers—lock, stock, and barrel! You're goin' to be out of this country in twenty-four hours! You're never comin' back! You're bein' allowed to get away with all you stole—more than any other perjured thief was ever allowed. And it hurts me to let you get away so easily: That's your only chance. ”

“ Well, here we go!”
“Got something new on Vance?” Specimen asked, after a time, observing the grim face of the prospector.
“I've got this, Specimen: that it was Cash Vance's boot that made the trail down there in the pass that night when I was shot.”
“Then you're doin' the right thing, Josh. We both know that the one safe rule when a man is out for you is to find him and get him first,” Specimen said gravely. “You can leave it to me to see that Pete don't interfere.” ”

“ Vance debated whether or not he dared defy the prospector at the critical moment, and decided that he could. He was too familiar with bullet wounds to doubt that more than one pocket shot ever proved fatal, expert though the marksman might be. He had but small concern as to the identity of the visitors who could interrupt. Any one would do. Luck was again playing into his hands. Some one, the leader of the visitors, was running up the steep path to his isolated cabin. He frowned. Why should any one run? ”

“ Vance sat stodgily in his chair, bent forward and thinking. They had overlooked the witnesses. He barely heard, with his divided, harassed mind, the admonitions of the prospector, who had swiftly stepped across the room and to the side of the window as if to place himself cleare of attack.
“When the notary man comes, you are to try to look pleasant. You are to tell him you signed that; that you've sold the mine to Tom Rogers, and that I'm actin' as Tom's agent. Then, when he gets his part done, you're to tell him to go back to his cabin. He'll still be up at this time.” ”

“ Time to get away from under the sinister stare of the gun! Time to plot! He would agree, and——
The hand holding the gun that had been laid across the edge of the desk suddenly shut tighter, leaped upward for the frontiersman's quick shot, and Vance had barely an instant in which to shout: “Good! I agree!” ”

“ It was a past that he wished to forget, inasmuch as he was steadily growing rich, could retire comfortably at any time he chose and indulge in the fleshpots for which he had hankered, but eschewed, until he was completely beyond financial worry. ”

“ Truth abuses no man. Now, I'm goin' to caution you before I go on. It's not your night to talk. I'll do most of the talkin' and all of the shootin'. Get me?”
Vance nodded a surly nod.
“Very well. To begin with, you robbed my old pardner, Bill Rogers, out of this mine. You did it by gettin' two fellers to swear to a false prior location. One of 'em is alive, and made his affidavit to that effect. Karluk Pete I'm talkin' of. Do you deny that?” ”

“ Goin' to wipe it clean, to-night, if one of us has to be left on the floor for the coroner to look over. So, if you don't feel like bein' mixed up in it too far, you can just take me as far as that trail you know about, then forget all I've said and all about me, and ride home. ”