章节正文
Without a word the Captain complied. When they were all inside
Duane closed the door, and, drawing a deep breath as if of
relief, he faced them calmly.
"Miss Longstreth, you and Miss Ruth try to make yourselves
comfortable now," he said. "And don't be distressed." Then he
turned to his captain. "MacNelly, this girl is the daughter of
the man I've brought to you, and this one is his niece."
Then Duane brieflyrelated Longstreth's story, and, though he
did not spare the rustler chief, he was generous.
"When I went after Longstreth," concluded Duane, "it was either
to kill him or offer him freedom on conditions. So I chose the
latter for his daughter's sake. He has already disposed of all
his property. I believe he'll live up to the conditions. He's
to leave Texas never to return. The name Cheseldine has been a
mystery, and now it'll fade."
A few moments later Duane followed MacNelly to a large room,
like a hall, and here were men reading and smoking. Duane knew
them--rangers!
MacNelly beckoned to his men.
"Boys, here he is."
"How many men have you?" asked Duane.
"Fifteen."
MacNelly almost embraced Duane, would probably have done so but
for the dark grimness that seemed to be coming over the man.
Instead he glowed, he sputtered, he tried to talk, to wave his
hands. He was beside himself. And his rangers crowded closer,
eager, like hounds ready to run. They all talked at once, and
the word most significant and frequent in their speech was
"outlaws."
MacNelly clapped his fist in his hand.
"This'll make the adjutant sick with joy. Maybe we won't have
it on the Governor! We'll show them about the ranger service.
Duane! how'd you ever do it?"
"Now, Captain, not the half nor the quarter of this job's done.
The gang's coming down the road. I saw them from the train.
They'll ride into town on the dot--two-thirty."
"How many?" asked MacNelly.
"Poggin, Blossom Kane, Panhandle Smith, Boldt, Jim Fletcher,
and another man I don't know. These are the picked men of
Cheseldine's gang. I'll bet they'll be the fastest, hardest
bunch you rangers ever faced."
"Poggin--that's the hard nut to crack! I've heard their records
since I've been in Val Verde. Where's Knell? They say he's a
boy, but hell and blazes!"
"Knell's dead."
"Ah!" exclaimed MacNelly, softly. Then he grew businesslike,
cool, and of harder aspect. "Duane, it's your game to-day. I'm
only a ranger under orders. We're all under your orders. We've
absolute faith in you. Make your plan quick, so I can go around
and post the boys who're not here."
"You understand there's no sense in trying to arrest Poggin,
Kane, and that lot?" queried Duane.
"No, I don't understand that," replied MacNelly, bluntly.
"It can't be done. The drop can't be got on such men. If you
meet them they shoot, and mighty quick and straight. Poggin!
That outlaw has no equal with a gun--unless--He's got to be
killed quick. They'll all have to be killed. They're all bad,
desperate, know no fear, are lightning in action."
"Very well, Duane; then it's a fight. That'll be easier,
perhaps. The boys are spoiling for a fight. Out with your plan,
now."
"Put one man at each end of this street, just at the edge of
town. Let him hide there with a rifle to block the escape of
any outlaw that we might fail to get. I had a good look at the
bank building. It's well situated for our purpose. Put four men
up in that room over the bank--four men, two at each open
window. Let them hide till the game begins. They want to be
there so in case these foxy outlaws get wise before they're
down on the ground or inside the bank. The rest of your men put
inside behind the counters, where they'll hide. Now go over to
the bank, spring the thing on the bank officials, and don't let
them shut up the bank. You want their aid. Let them make sure
of their gold. But the clerks and cashier ought to be at their
desks or window when Poggin rides up. He'll glance in before he
gets down. They make no mistakes, these fellows. We must be
slicker than they are, or lose. When you get the bank people
wise, send your men over one by one. No hurry, no excitement,
no unusual thing to attract notice in the bank."
"All right. That's great. Tell me, where do you intend to
wait?"
Duane heard MacNelly's question, and it struck him peculiarly.
He had seemed to be planning and speakingmechanically. As he
was confronted by the fact it nonplussed him somewhat, and he
became thoughtful, with lowered head.
"Where'll you wait, Duane?" insisted MacNelly, with keen eyes
speculating.
"I'll wait in front, just inside the door," replied Duane, with
an effort.
"Why?" demanded the Captain.
"Well," began Duane, slowly, "Poggin will get down first and
start in. But the others won't be far behind. They'll not get
swift till inside. The thing is--they MUSTN'T get clear inside,
because the instant they do they'll pull guns. That means death
to somebody. If we can we want to stop them just at the door."
"But will you hide?" asked MacNelly.
"Hide!" The idea had not occurred to Duane.
"There's a wide-open doorway, a sort of round hall, a
vestibule, with steps leading up to the bank. There's a door in
the vestibule, too. It leads somewhere. We can put men in
there. You can be there."
Duane was silent.
"See here, Duane," began MacNelly, nervously. "You shan't take
any undue risk here. You'll hide with the rest of us?"
"No!"The word was wrenched from Duane.
MacNelly stared, and then a strange, comprehending light seemed
to flit over his face.
"Duane, I can give you no orders to-day," he said, distinctly.
"I'm only offering advice. Need you take any more risks? You've
done a grand job for the service--already. You've paid me a
thousand times for that pardon. You've redeemed yourself.--The
Governor, the adjutant-general--the whole state will rise up
and honor you. The game's almost up. We'll kill these outlaws,
or enough of them to break for ever their power. I say, as a
ranger, need you take more risk than your captain?"
Still Duane remained silent. He was locked between two forces.
And one, a tide that was bursting at its bounds, seemed about
to overwhelm him. Finally that side of him, the retreating
self, the weaker, found a voice.
"Captain, you want this job to be sure?" he asked.
"Certainly."
"I've told you the way. I alone know the kind of men to be met.
Just WHAT I'll do or WHERE I'll be I can't say yet. In meetings
like this the moment decides. But I'll be there!"
MacNelly spread wide his hands, looked helplessly at his
curious and sympathetic rangers, and shook his head.
"Now you've done your work--laid the trap--is this strange move
of yours going to be fair to Miss Longstreth?" asked MacNelly,
in significant low voice.
Like a great tree chopped at the roots Duane vibrated to that.
He looked up as if he had seen a ghost.
Mercilessly the ranger captain went on: "You can win her,
Duane! Oh, you can't fool me. I was wise in a minute. Fight
with us from cover--then go back to her. You will have served
the Texas Rangers as no other man has. I'll accept your
resignation. You'll be free, honored, happy. That girl loves
you! I saw it in her eyes. She's--"
But Duane cut him short with a fiercegesture. He lunged up to
his feet, and the rangers fell back. Dark, silent, grim as he
had been, still there was a transformation singularly more
sinister, stranger.
"Enough. I'm done," he said, somberly. "I've planned. Do we
agree--or shall I meet Poggin and his gang alone?"
MacNelly cursed and again threw up his hands, this time in
baffled chagrin. There was deep regret in his dark eyes as they
rested upon Duane.
Duane was left alone.
Never had his mind been so quick, so clear, so wonderful in its
understanding of what had heretofore been intricate and elusive
impulses of his strange nature. His determination was to meet
Poggin; meet him before any one else had a chance--Poggin
first--and then the others! He was as unalterable in that
decision as if on the instant of its acceptance he had become
stone.
Why? Then came realization. He was not a ranger now. He cared
nothing for the state. He had no thought of freeing the
community of a dangerous outlaw, of ridding the country of an
obstacle to its progress and prosperity. He wanted to kill
Poggin. It was significant now that he forgot the other
outlaws. He was the gunman, the gun-thrower, the gun-fighter,
passionate and terrible. His father's blood, that dark and
fiercestrain, his mother's spirit, that strong and
unquenchable spirit of the surviving pioneer--these had been in
him; and the killings, one after another, the wild and haunted
years, had made him, absolutely in spite of his will, the
gunman. He realized it now, bitterly, hopelessly. The thing he
had intelligence enough to hate he had become. At last he
shuddered under the driving, ruthless inhuman blood-lust of the
gunman. Long ago he had seemed to seal in a tomb that horror of
his kind--the need, in order to forget the haunting, sleepless
presence of his last victim, to go out and kill another. But it
was still there in his mind, and now it stalked out, worse,
more powerful, magnified by its rest, augmented by the violent
passions peculiar and inevitable to that strange, wild product
of the Texas frontier--the gun-fighter. And those passions were
so violent, so raw, so base, so much lower than what ought to
have existed in a thinking man. Actual pride of his record!
Actual vanity in his speed with a gun. Actual jealousy of any
rival!
Duane could not believe it. But there he was, without a choice.
What he had feared for years had become a monstrous reality.
Respect for himself, blindness, a certain honor that he had
clung to while in outlawry--all, like scales, seemed to fall
away from him. He stood stripped bare, his soul naked--the soul
of Cain. Always since the first brand had been forced and
burned upon him he had been ruined. But now with conscience
flayed to the quick, yet utterly powerless over this tiger
instinct, he was lost. He said it. He admitted it. And at the
utter abasement the soul he despised suddenly leaped and
quivered with the thought of Ray Longstreth.
Then came agony. As he could not govern all the chances of this
fatal meeting--as all his swift and deadlygenius must be
occupied with Poggin, perhaps in vain--as hard-shooting men
whom he could not watch would be close behind, this almost
certainly must be the end of Buck Duane. That did not matter.
But he loved the girl. He wanted her. All her sweetness, her
fire, and pleading returned to torture him.
At that moment the door opened, and Ray Longstreth entered.
"Duane," she said, softly. "Captain MacNelly sent me to you."
"But you shouldn't have come," replied Duane.
"As soon as he told me I would have come whether he wished it
or not. You left me--all of us--stunned. I had no time to thank
Duane closed the door, and, drawing a deep breath as if of
relief, he faced them calmly.
"Miss Longstreth, you and Miss Ruth try to make yourselves
comfortable now," he said. "And don't be distressed." Then he
turned to his captain. "MacNelly, this girl is the daughter of
the man I've brought to you, and this one is his niece."
Then Duane brieflyrelated Longstreth's story, and, though he
did not spare the rustler chief, he was generous.
"When I went after Longstreth," concluded Duane, "it was either
to kill him or offer him freedom on conditions. So I chose the
latter for his daughter's sake. He has already disposed of all
his property. I believe he'll live up to the conditions. He's
to leave Texas never to return. The name Cheseldine has been a
mystery, and now it'll fade."
A few moments later Duane followed MacNelly to a large room,
like a hall, and here were men reading and smoking. Duane knew
them--rangers!
MacNelly beckoned to his men.
"Boys, here he is."
"How many men have you?" asked Duane.
"Fifteen."
MacNelly almost embraced Duane, would probably have done so but
for the dark grimness that seemed to be coming over the man.
Instead he glowed, he sputtered, he tried to talk, to wave his
hands. He was beside himself. And his rangers crowded closer,
eager, like hounds ready to run. They all talked at once, and
the word most significant and frequent in their speech was
"outlaws."
MacNelly clapped his fist in his hand.
"This'll make the adjutant sick with joy. Maybe we won't have
it on the Governor! We'll show them about the ranger service.
Duane! how'd you ever do it?"
"Now, Captain, not the half nor the quarter of this job's done.
The gang's coming down the road. I saw them from the train.
They'll ride into town on the dot--two-thirty."
"How many?" asked MacNelly.
"Poggin, Blossom Kane, Panhandle Smith, Boldt, Jim Fletcher,
and another man I don't know. These are the picked men of
Cheseldine's gang. I'll bet they'll be the fastest, hardest
bunch you rangers ever faced."
"Poggin--that's the hard nut to crack! I've heard their records
since I've been in Val Verde. Where's Knell? They say he's a
boy, but hell and blazes!"
"Knell's dead."
"Ah!" exclaimed MacNelly, softly. Then he grew businesslike,
cool, and of harder aspect. "Duane, it's your game to-day. I'm
only a ranger under orders. We're all under your orders. We've
absolute faith in you. Make your plan quick, so I can go around
and post the boys who're not here."
"You understand there's no sense in trying to arrest Poggin,
Kane, and that lot?" queried Duane.
"No, I don't understand that," replied MacNelly, bluntly.
"It can't be done. The drop can't be got on such men. If you
meet them they shoot, and mighty quick and straight. Poggin!
That outlaw has no equal with a gun--unless--He's got to be
killed quick. They'll all have to be killed. They're all bad,
desperate, know no fear, are lightning in action."
"Very well, Duane; then it's a fight. That'll be easier,
perhaps. The boys are spoiling for a fight. Out with your plan,
now."
"Put one man at each end of this street, just at the edge of
town. Let him hide there with a rifle to block the escape of
any outlaw that we might fail to get. I had a good look at the
bank building. It's well situated for our purpose. Put four men
up in that room over the bank--four men, two at each open
window. Let them hide till the game begins. They want to be
there so in case these foxy outlaws get wise before they're
down on the ground or inside the bank. The rest of your men put
inside behind the counters, where they'll hide. Now go over to
the bank, spring the thing on the bank officials, and don't let
them shut up the bank. You want their aid. Let them make sure
of their gold. But the clerks and cashier ought to be at their
desks or window when Poggin rides up. He'll glance in before he
gets down. They make no mistakes, these fellows. We must be
slicker than they are, or lose. When you get the bank people
wise, send your men over one by one. No hurry, no excitement,
no unusual thing to attract notice in the bank."
"All right. That's great. Tell me, where do you intend to
wait?"
Duane heard MacNelly's question, and it struck him peculiarly.
He had seemed to be planning and speakingmechanically. As he
was confronted by the fact it nonplussed him somewhat, and he
became thoughtful, with lowered head.
"Where'll you wait, Duane?" insisted MacNelly, with keen eyes
speculating.
"I'll wait in front, just inside the door," replied Duane, with
an effort.
"Why?" demanded the Captain.
"Well," began Duane, slowly, "Poggin will get down first and
start in. But the others won't be far behind. They'll not get
swift till inside. The thing is--they MUSTN'T get clear inside,
because the instant they do they'll pull guns. That means death
to somebody. If we can we want to stop them just at the door."
"But will you hide?" asked MacNelly.
"Hide!" The idea had not occurred to Duane.
"There's a wide-open doorway, a sort of round hall, a
vestibule, with steps leading up to the bank. There's a door in
the vestibule, too. It leads somewhere. We can put men in
there. You can be there."
Duane was silent.
"See here, Duane," began MacNelly, nervously. "You shan't take
any undue risk here. You'll hide with the rest of us?"
"No!"The word was wrenched from Duane.
MacNelly stared, and then a strange, comprehending light seemed
to flit over his face.
"Duane, I can give you no orders to-day," he said, distinctly.
"I'm only offering advice. Need you take any more risks? You've
done a grand job for the service--already. You've paid me a
thousand times for that pardon. You've redeemed yourself.--The
Governor, the adjutant-general--the whole state will rise up
and honor you. The game's almost up. We'll kill these outlaws,
or enough of them to break for ever their power. I say, as a
ranger, need you take more risk than your captain?"
Still Duane remained silent. He was locked between two forces.
And one, a tide that was bursting at its bounds, seemed about
to overwhelm him. Finally that side of him, the retreating
self, the weaker, found a voice.
"Captain, you want this job to be sure?" he asked.
"Certainly."
"I've told you the way. I alone know the kind of men to be met.
Just WHAT I'll do or WHERE I'll be I can't say yet. In meetings
like this the moment decides. But I'll be there!"
MacNelly spread wide his hands, looked helplessly at his
curious and sympathetic rangers, and shook his head.
"Now you've done your work--laid the trap--is this strange move
of yours going to be fair to Miss Longstreth?" asked MacNelly,
in significant low voice.
Like a great tree chopped at the roots Duane vibrated to that.
He looked up as if he had seen a ghost.
Mercilessly the ranger captain went on: "You can win her,
Duane! Oh, you can't fool me. I was wise in a minute. Fight
with us from cover--then go back to her. You will have served
the Texas Rangers as no other man has. I'll accept your
resignation. You'll be free, honored, happy. That girl loves
you! I saw it in her eyes. She's--"
But Duane cut him short with a fiercegesture. He lunged up to
his feet, and the rangers fell back. Dark, silent, grim as he
had been, still there was a transformation singularly more
sinister, stranger.
"Enough. I'm done," he said, somberly. "I've planned. Do we
agree--or shall I meet Poggin and his gang alone?"
MacNelly cursed and again threw up his hands, this time in
baffled chagrin. There was deep regret in his dark eyes as they
rested upon Duane.
Duane was left alone.
Never had his mind been so quick, so clear, so wonderful in its
understanding of what had heretofore been intricate and elusive
impulses of his strange nature. His determination was to meet
Poggin; meet him before any one else had a chance--Poggin
first--and then the others! He was as unalterable in that
decision as if on the instant of its acceptance he had become
stone.
Why? Then came realization. He was not a ranger now. He cared
nothing for the state. He had no thought of freeing the
community of a dangerous outlaw, of ridding the country of an
obstacle to its progress and prosperity. He wanted to kill
Poggin. It was significant now that he forgot the other
outlaws. He was the gunman, the gun-thrower, the gun-fighter,
passionate and terrible. His father's blood, that dark and
fiercestrain, his mother's spirit, that strong and
unquenchable spirit of the surviving pioneer--these had been in
him; and the killings, one after another, the wild and haunted
years, had made him, absolutely in spite of his will, the
gunman. He realized it now, bitterly, hopelessly. The thing he
had intelligence enough to hate he had become. At last he
shuddered under the driving, ruthless inhuman blood-lust of the
gunman. Long ago he had seemed to seal in a tomb that horror of
his kind--the need, in order to forget the haunting, sleepless
presence of his last victim, to go out and kill another. But it
was still there in his mind, and now it stalked out, worse,
more powerful, magnified by its rest, augmented by the violent
passions peculiar and inevitable to that strange, wild product
of the Texas frontier--the gun-fighter. And those passions were
so violent, so raw, so base, so much lower than what ought to
have existed in a thinking man. Actual pride of his record!
Actual vanity in his speed with a gun. Actual jealousy of any
rival!
Duane could not believe it. But there he was, without a choice.
What he had feared for years had become a monstrous reality.
Respect for himself, blindness, a certain honor that he had
clung to while in outlawry--all, like scales, seemed to fall
away from him. He stood stripped bare, his soul naked--the soul
of Cain. Always since the first brand had been forced and
burned upon him he had been ruined. But now with conscience
flayed to the quick, yet utterly powerless over this tiger
instinct, he was lost. He said it. He admitted it. And at the
utter abasement the soul he despised suddenly leaped and
quivered with the thought of Ray Longstreth.
Then came agony. As he could not govern all the chances of this
fatal meeting--as all his swift and deadlygenius must be
occupied with Poggin, perhaps in vain--as hard-shooting men
whom he could not watch would be close behind, this almost
certainly must be the end of Buck Duane. That did not matter.
But he loved the girl. He wanted her. All her sweetness, her
fire, and pleading returned to torture him.
At that moment the door opened, and Ray Longstreth entered.
"Duane," she said, softly. "Captain MacNelly sent me to you."
"But you shouldn't have come," replied Duane.
"As soon as he told me I would have come whether he wished it
or not. You left me--all of us--stunned. I had no time to thank
- breath [breθ]
n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词) - briefly [´bri:fli] ad.简短地；简略地 (初中英语单词)
- reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
- frequent [´fri:kwənt] a.常见的，频繁的 (初中英语单词)
- blossom [´blɔsəm] n.花；开花期 vi.开花 (初中英语单词)
- softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
- aspect [´æspekt] n.面貌；神色；方向 (初中英语单词)
- arrest [ə´rest] vt.逮捕 n.逮捕；停止 (初中英语单词)
- lightning [´laitniŋ] n.闪电 a.突然的 (初中英语单词)
- situated [´sitʃueitid] a.位于；处于....境地 (初中英语单词)
- unusual [ʌn´ju:ʒuəl] a.不平常的；异常的 (初中英语单词)
- instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中英语单词)
- doorway [´dɔ:wei] n.门口 (初中英语单词)
- pardon [´pɑ:dən] n.&vt.原谅；饶恕；赦免 (初中英语单词)
- sympathetic [,simpə´θetik] a.同情的，有同情心的 (初中英语单词)
- fierce [fiəs] a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词)
- gesture [´dʒestʃə] n.手势 v.打手势 (初中英语单词)
- realization [,riəlai´zeiʃən] n.实现；认识 (初中英语单词)
- prosperity [prɔ´speriti] n.繁荣；成功；幸运 (初中英语单词)
- absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
- bitterly [´bitəli] ad.悲痛地；憎恨地 (初中英语单词)
- intelligence [in´telidʒəns] n.智力；消息 (初中英语单词)
- horror [´hɔrə] n.恐怖；战栗 (初中英语单词)
- victim [´viktim] n.牺牲者；受害者 (初中英语单词)
- peculiar [pi´kju:liə] a.特有的；奇异的 (初中英语单词)
- violent [´vaiələnt] a.强暴的；猛烈的 (初中英语单词)
- actual [´æktʃuəl] a.现实的；实际的 (初中英语单词)
- vanity [´væniti] n.虚荣；自负；空虚 (初中英语单词)
- govern [´gʌvən] v.统治；控制；指导 (初中英语单词)
- deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
- genius [´dʒi:niəs] n.天才(人物)；天赋 (初中英语单词)
- torture [´tɔ:tʃə] n.&vt.折磨；痛苦；拷问 (初中英语单词)
- related [ri´leitid] a.叙述的；有联系的 (高中英语单词)
- crowded [´kraudid] a.充(拥)满了的 (高中英语单词)
- significant [sig´nifikənt] a.重要的；意义重大的 (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- thoughtful [´θɔ:tfəl] a.深思的；体贴的 (高中英语单词)
- offering [´ɔfəriŋ] n.提供；礼物；捐献 (高中英语单词)
- overwhelm [,əuvə´welm] vt.压倒；淹没；打翻 (高中英语单词)
- determination [di,tə:mi´neiʃən] n.决心；决定 (高中英语单词)
- acceptance [ək´septəns] n.接受；承认 (高中英语单词)
- strain [strein] vt.拉紧 vi.拖 n.张力 (高中英语单词)
- inevitable [i´nevitəbəl] a.不可避免的 (高中英语单词)
- jealousy [´dʒeləsi] n.妒忌；猜忌 (高中英语单词)
- monstrous [´mɔnstrəs] a.怪异的；庞大的 (高中英语单词)
- sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中英语单词)
- drawing [´drɔ:iŋ] n.画图；制图；图样 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- outlaw [´autlɔ:] n.歹徒 vt.将...放逐 (英语四级单词)
- cashier [kæ´ʃiə] n.出纳员 (英语四级单词)
- nervously [´nə:vəsli] ad.神经质地；胆怯地 (英语四级单词)
- transformation [,trænsfə´meiʃən] n.转化；转变；改造 (英语四级单词)
- heretofore [,hiətu´fɔ:] ad.以前，迄今为止 (英语四级单词)
- intricate [´intrikit] a.错综复杂的；难懂的 (英语四级单词)
- hopelessly [´həuplisli] ad.无希望地，绝望地 (英语四级单词)
- blindness [´blaindnis] n.失明；愚味，文盲 (英语四级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
- mechanically [mi´kænikəli] ad.机械地；无意识地 (英语六级单词)
- helplessly [´helplisli] ad.无能为力地 (英语六级单词)
- chagrin [´ʃægrin] n.悔恨，懊恼，委曲 (英语六级单词)
- ruthless [´ru:θləs] a.无情的；残忍的 (英语六级单词)
- powerless [´pauələs] a.软弱的；无资源的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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