Sorenson

“ Sorenson’s lips became compressed. He glanced down at his bleeding hand, shook the blood from his fingers.
“I stay here,” said he.
Weir went a step nearer and thrust his face forward, jaw set, eyes smoldering.
290
“Go on, I say,” he exclaimed.
But the other did not retreat before him or indeed move at all. A sneer lifted his gray mustache.
“You have a gun; you’re a killer; here I am unarmed and in your power,” he said. “You intend to take me in; I propose to stay here. If I go to San Mateo, it will be as a dead man. ”

“ He would not kill an unresisting man, even Sorenson, his worst enemy. Sorenson in his place probably would not have hesitated to do so, for he had no fine scruples in such matters; but for Steele Weir the thing was no more possible than striking a woman or a child.
It was not a question of nerve, as the other had stated. It was a test of brutality and consciencelessness. To shoot a man while escaping is one thing; to kill him while a prisoner, however contemptuous and brazen, was another. But there are means other than bullets for handling obstinate prisoners. ”

“ Ed Sorenson, the double-faced wretch who while engaged to her had attempted to entice away for his own vile gratification the simple, trustful girl on Terry Creek, he was to marry this sweet and charming companion. What diabolical tragedies life could mix! ”

“ That’s the way Sorenson keeps all of us poor devils, white and Mexican, eating out of his hand. I’ve just been poor since I came here a boy; the gang in San Mateo won’t let anybody but themselves have a chance. And I reckon old man Sorenson wouldn’t care much if his boy had ruined my girl. Cuss him a little, maybe; that would be all. But I won’t forget the whelp. Some day my chance will come to play even.” “Sure; if one just keeps quiet and waits,” Steele agreed. “Well, I must hit the trail. If you want work any time, come over to the dam; we can always use a man with a team.” Johnson nodded. ”

“ Sorenson said.
“Well, if the girl has it, we’ve got to get it from her if I have to wring her neck to do it.” It was Burkhardt’s inflamed utterance.
A pause followed.
“Sorenson, your boy is engaged to her,” Vorse stated.
“Yes.”
“Then it’s up to him to get it first thing in the morning. Maybe it goes against the grain to let him know about this business of the past, but it ain’t going to knock him over; he’s no fool, he’s a wise bird, he understands that a good many things are done in business that aren’t advertised. He knows we weren’t missionaries in the old days. ”

“ A curiosity, a sort of detached suspense, rooted them to the spot.
“Ah, he’s snapped them on!” Janet said, almost with relief.
The powerful beam of the headlights had suddenly blazed forth. Either feeling that he was safe from Weir’s gun or realizing that he was on the verge of a graver danger, Sorenson had chosen to make the light. He was going at headlong speed; even where they watched, Steele and Janet perceived that,––and only his fear of the peril behind which made him heedless of the difficulties in front could account for that reckless pace. ”

“ Sorenson snarled. “You crippled my boy, and you shall die for that. You’ve ruined me in San Mateo, and you shall die for that. You jailed Burkhardt and poisoned Gordon and shot Vorse, and you shall die for that. I’m going to choke the life out of you, and grind your dead head into the dust, and 292 then spit on you. That’s how I treat snakes. Say your prayers, if you know any, for you’ll never get another chance. Your friends won’t recognize your remains when I’m done with you.”
Venomous and impassioned, all the hate in the man’s heart flowed forth in a fuming stream. ”

“ Weir said. “Don’t let me interrupt. Only I must request you to conduct the proceedings there where you’re standing, Vorse, instead of at the rear of the room: Madden and I wish a good view of the ceremony. If Mr. Sorenson will be so agreeable as to step forward, you may go ahead.”
Sorenson did not join Vorse, but instead he spoke.
“Why haven’t you locked up your prisoner, Madden?” he demanded harshly. “And you’re letting him keep his gun. Don’t you know enough to disarm a murderer and throw him into jail when you arrest him?” ”

“ Sorenson had been riding rapidly but not hard; he now beat his horse to a furious gallop,––a good pony, too, from its speed, showing that the banker as well as Weir had picked his mount with care.
Weir did not urge his horse to a similar pace, only maintaining a fast steady gallop that kept the other in sight though the space between again widened. Apparently Sorenson realized the folly of attempting to outrun, his pursuer at once, for he soon dropped back into a regular, mile-eating gallop. Gradually in turn Weir crept up to his old position. ”

“ That’s ‘the right view to take’”––he paused, then added softly––“Janet.”
“How strong-souled you are!” she whispered.
Strong, in truth, he seemed. Ignoring danger he had come swift on Sorenson’s track and rescued her, saved her, kept her clean from her assailant’s infamous brutishness. The one was a knave and a beast; but he, Steele Weir, was a man, clear to see, quick to act, hard towards enemies, gentle to friends. Every particle a man––sure of himself, and fearless, and true-hearted, and firm of soul. ”

“ Mr. Sorenson is one of the men you referred to, or he would never seek to direct suspicion at you. I saw the look on your face, sir, as he spoke. But why should you two be enemies! You come here a stranger to San Mateo, or have you been here before sometime? Did you know him before?”
Again he could feel her eyes straining at him.
“It seems mad to think of him and Mr. Burkhardt, and perhaps others, hiring some one to shoot you down from a dark doorway. It is utterly mad––crazy. But why should they want to convict you, in the crowd’s opinion at least, of murdering the man. ”

“ At last he gave up for the time further seeking, with a conviction that the vital paper was gone for good, destroyed in the fire of the burning car. But for his own over-confidence, his belief he had Sorenson a safe prisoner back there in the cabin, the sheets might be secure in his pocket. Well, it was too late now.
He again lifted the unconscious man in his arms and returned to the log house. Inside he laid him on the rude bed which Sorenson himself had spread with sheets and blankets.
“He’s alive?” Janet asked, awed.
“Alive, but badly hurt.” ”

“ Vorse said.
“It will mean–––” Judge Gordon began in an agitated voice, but did not finish.
Sorenson gave a nod of his head. His bear-trap mouth was compressed in a determined evil line.
“Exactly. He’ll never use his proofs. We’re in too far to halt now if matters come to the point of his trying to use them. He has a grip on us in one way; he knows we can’t declare his father, Joe Weir, did the killing; that would make us––what do you call it, Judge?” ”

“ That’s why they’re uneasy; that’s why the four are sitting over in the cattle company’s office this minute with their heads together, meeting the minute Sorenson arrives home. I saw them go in. Leaving aside the question of your own affairs, I’d like to have matters changed here in this county so that every man has a fair chance. Anything that will bring that about enlists my interest. When I heard your statement to Gordon and saw his face, I knew there was something in the past that alarmed him. ”

“ Weir said he would stay right with them and see that they got married next day before a minister, then Sorenson snapped out he was to marry you. That opened Mary’s eyes, that and his refusing to go before a preacher as the engineer demanded. So Weir brought her home to me.
“And that isn’t all I know,” he snarled. “Mexicans and cowboys and others have talked––women don’t 112 hear these things––how he’s had to pay Mexicans hush-money for girls of theirs he’s wronged. But what do people care? He’s rich, he’s old man Sorenson’s boy; everything’s kept quiet; and he goes around as big as life.” ”

“ Under Steele Weir’s biting speech Sorenson’s face went red and pale by turns. His lips twitched and worked, moving his mustache in little angry lifts, while he breathed with short spasmodic intakes.
“First, you’re after Mexican girls,” Weir went on mercilessly. “Then Mary Johnson, whom I pulled out 169 of your vile fingers. And now it’s––” The engineer’s fist arose suddenly above the other’s head. “Why, I ought to drop you dead in your tracks for so much as looking at Janet Hosmer! Why don’t you fight? Why don’t you give me a chance, you cowardly girl-robber? ”

“ Weir?”
“Go ahead.”
“In the light of what I suggested during our talk in my office, the silly twaddle of Burkhardt and Sorenson is understandable. I look right through their scheme. 78 They always frame up something against anybody they want to dispose of; they do it in business matters regularly, and very skillfully. They immediately perceived a chance, sir, in this unfortunate encounter of yours and laid hands on it; their talk was the first delicate maneuver to ‘frame’ you.” ”

“ Weir stated. “Last night he tried to steal yet another girl from San Mateo, and fleeing when overtaken was pitched from his car and crushed against a rock. He will steal no more daughters of San Mateo.”
Sensation on sensation. The crowd fairly hummed with new excitement resulting from these disclosures. Ed Sorenson’s ways were known to most and the revelations seemed true to his character; and from believing the statements of the son to accepting those concerning 302 the father was but a step. Cattle––girls! It began to look as if this engineer was in the right. ”

“ The sharp report of a shot cracked between the adobe walls. With an unbelievably rapid movement Steele Weir drew the revolver 61 in his pocket, and which he had carried ever since his encounter with young Sorenson in the restaurant, fired twice where he had seen the flame and leaped aside into the darkness beside the doorway. There he waited, half crouching, for a further attack.
But none came. Men began to run towards the place. Shouts and calls echoed along the street. In two minutes a crowd was surging before Martinez’ door wildly asking questions. ”

“ Hard luck for a young man like him. He’ll wish at times he was killed outright.”
Unobserved by the speaker Weir and Johnson exchanged a meaningful look. In the minds of both moved the same thought, that Providence had punished Ed Sorenson according to his sins and more adequately than could man. Dreadful years were before him. He would, in truth, wish a thousand times that he had died at the foot of the ledge.
Half an hour later the visitors had departed, the rancher going with the physician and his charge to Bowenville, Weir returning to San Mateo. ”

“ If there was anything crooked about the deal, and I set it down that there was with Sorenson mixed in, and with Vorse and Burkhardt the witnesses named in the deed and Judge Gordon taking the acknowledgment of Joseph Weir’s signature, as the record shows, then there should be some weak spot that could be attacked. There may be men yet alive conversant with the circumstances; they may know whether duress or fraud was exercised, supposing the sale was not honest. ”

“ Sorenson asked.
“Along next week. They’re to drop off down along the railroad at different towns and I’ll run them up into the mountains with some grub. Then we’ll assemble them quietly a couple miles off from the dam, where they’ll be handy on the chosen night. Afterwards we’ll slip them back to the railroad, and they 119 fade into Mexico. Weir’s workmen will be drunk and rowing––and will have done the job, eh?” Burkhardt shook with suppressed, evil laughter.
“If they’re drunk, they may join in and help,” Judge Gordon stated, acutely. “A mob full of whiskey will do anything. ”

“ Indeed, he rode at first as if in no great haste, 283 but as he turned his mount into a narrow by-way, more a lane than a street that disappeared between two mud walls, Weir saw him strike his heels into the pony’s flanks.
But for the startled movement of the nearby horses when Sorenson took stirrup, Weir would not have looked that way. He might possibly have seen the horseman start off, but that is not certain. He unquestionably would have supposed him an ordinary rider if he had not noticed the man until he reached the mouth of the lane. ”

“ That’s the reason you hate those men, Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Vorse and Mr. Burkhardt; because of some injury they worked your father.”
“That’s the reason. And that too is why they’re trying to get rid of me one way or another. But they didn’t hire the Mexican to attempt to shoot me; Ed Sorenson employed him. Martinez, when you told me the man’s name, telegraphed around the country from Bowenville till he got track of the fellow. He also secured evidence that a white man resembling Ed Sorenson had been seen talking with him at the place he came from. So we can draw our conclusions.” ”

“ Employees of the plotters, men who had received favors from Sorenson or Vorse or Burkhardt, Mexicans of a naturally vicious and unruly temper, were all for rushing the jail. The great number of the people, however, peaceful and indolent, preferred to content themselves with satisfying their curiosity by talk instead of seeking a taste of blood. And so as a result of this divided opinion the hostility for Weir had not expressed itself in an effort to assail the keepers of the jail. ”

“ In his office immediately after dinner he gave the easterner a complete account of happenings in San Mateo since his arrival as manager, with a statement of his father’s earlier residence here, of the fraud practiced by Sorenson and his companions on him and his tragically ruined life.
“This, you see, has resulted not only in bringing the animosity of these men against me but in aggravating 204 their hostility to the company,” he concluded. “I’ve never been a quitter. It would go sorely against the grain with me to quit now while under fire. ”