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肩書を与える: The Vultures of Wahpeton Author: Robert E. Howard * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0608151h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: Nov 2006 Most 最近の update: Nov 2018 First PGA 見解／翻訳／版 produced by Richard Scott. New PGA/RGL 見解／翻訳／版 produced by Paul Moulder and Roy Glashan. 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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THIS story was 初めは published with two different endings in the December 1936 問題／発行する of 粉砕するing Novels Magazine under the 肩書を与える "The Vultures of Whapeton." It was に先行するd by the に引き続いて 公式文書，認める from the editor, Cliff Campbell:
"Of course, giving a story two endings is sort of unorthodox. But 粉砕するing Novels, ever since its first 問題／発行する, hasn't been a 特に 正統派の magazine. We've tried, and we are trying, to give you different stories with different slants, and we've been doing our darndest to give you the best stories possible."
The 現在の PGA/RGL e-調書をとる／予約する 版 適合するs with the 見解／翻訳／版 published in 粉砕するing Novels Magazine, except for 訂正するing the （一定の）期間ing of the scene of 活動／戦闘 from "Whapeton" to "Wahpeton."
粉砕するing Novels Magazine, December 1936
THE 明らかにする plank 塀で囲むs of the Golden Eagle Saloon seemed still to vibrate with the 衝突，墜落ing echoes of the guns which had 分裂（する） the sudden 不明瞭 with spurts of red. But only a nervous shuffling of booted feet sounded in the 緊張した silence that followed the 発射s. Then somewhere a match rasped on leather and a yellow flicker sprang up, etching a 不安定な 手渡す and a pallid 直面する. An instant later an oil lamp with a broken chimney illuminated the saloon, throwing 緊張した bearded 直面するs into bold 救済. The big lamp that hung from the 天井 was a 粉砕するd 廃虚; kerosene dripped from it to the 床に打ち倒す, making an oily puddle beside a grimmer, darker pool.
Two 人物／姿／数字s held the 中心 of the room, under the broken lamp. One lay facedown, motionless 武器 outstretching empty 手渡すs. The other was はうing to his feet, blinking and gaping stupidly, like a man whose wits are still muddled by drink. His 権利 arm hung limply by his 味方する, a long-バーレル／樽d ピストル sagging from his fingers.
The rigid line of 人物／姿／数字s along the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 melted into movement. Men （機の）カム 今後, stooping to 星／主役にする 負かす／撃墜する at the limp 形態／調整. A 混乱させるd babble of conversation rose. Hurried steps sounded outside, and the （人が）群がる divided as a man 押し進めるd his way 突然の through. 即時に he 支配するd the scene. His 幅の広い-shouldered, 削減する-hipped 人物／姿／数字 was above medium 高さ, and his 幅の広い-brimmed white hat, neat boots and cravat contrasted with the rough garb of the others, just as his keen, dark 直面する with its 狭くする 黒人／ボイコット mustache contrasted with the bearded countenances about him. He held an ivory-butted gun in his 権利 手渡す, muzzle 攻撃するd 上向き.
"What devil's work is this?" he 厳しく 需要・要求するd; and then his gaze fell on the man on the 床に打ち倒す. His 注目する，もくろむs 広げるd.
"Grimes!" he ejaculated. "Jim Grimes, my 副! Who did this?" There was something tigerish about him as he wheeled toward the uneasy （人が）群がる. "Who did this?" he 需要・要求するd, half-crouching, his gun still 解除するd, but seeming to hover like a live thing ready to 急襲する.
Feet shuffled as men 支援するd away, but one man spoke up: "We don't know, Middleton. Jackson there was havin' a little fun, shootin' at the ceilin', and the 残り／休憩（する） of us was at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, watchin' him, when Grimes come in and started to 逮捕（する） him—"
"So Jackson 発射 him!" snarled Middleton, his gun covering the befuddled one in a baffling blur of 動議. Jackson yelped in 恐れる and threw up his 手渡すs, and the man who had first spoken interposed.
"No, 郡保安官, it couldn't have been Jackson. His gun was empty when the lights went out. I know he slung six 弾丸s into the ceilin' while he was playin' the fool, and I heard him snap the gun three times afterwards, so I know it was empty. But when Grimes went up to him, somebody 発射 the light out, and a gun banged in the dark, and when we got a light on again, there Grimes was on the 床に打ち倒す, and Jackson was just gettin' up."
"I didn't shoot him," muttered Jackson. "I was just havin' a little fun. I was drunk, but I ain't now. I wouldn't have resisted 逮捕（する）. When the light went out I didn't know what had happened. I heard the gun bang, and Grimes dragged me 負かす／撃墜する with him as he fell. I didn't shoot him. I dunno who did."
"非，不，無 of us knows," 追加するd a bearded 鉱夫. "Somebody 発射 in the dark—"
"More'n one," muttered another. "I heard at least three or four guns speakin'."
Silence followed, in which each man looked sidewise at his neighbor. The men had drawn 支援する to the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, leaving the middle of the big room （疑いを）晴らす, where the 郡保安官 stood. 疑惑 and 恐れる galvanized the （人が）群がる, leaping like an electric 誘発する from man to man. Each man knew that a 殺害者 stood 近づく him, かもしれない at his 肘. Men 辞退するd to look 直接／まっすぐに into the 注目する，もくろむs of their neighbors, 恐れるing to surprise 有罪の knowledge there—and die for the 発見. They 星／主役にするd at the 郡保安官 who stood 直面するing them, as if 推定する／予想するing to see him 落ちる suddenly before a 爆破 from the same unknown guns that had mowed 負かす／撃墜する his 副.
Middleton's steely 注目する，もくろむs 範囲d along the silent line of men. Their 注目する，もくろむs 避けるd or gave 支援する his 星／主役にする. In some he read 恐れる; some were inscrutable; in others flickered a 悪意のある mockery.
"The men who killed Jim Grimes are in this saloon," he said finally. "Some of you are the 殺害者s." He was careful not to let his 注目する，もくろむs えり抜く anyone when he spoke; they swept the whole assemblage.
"I've been 推定する／予想するing this. Things have been getting a little too hot for the robbers and 殺害者s who have been terrorizing this （軍の）野営地，陣営, so they've started 狙撃 my 副s in the 支援する. I suppose you'll try to kill me, next. 井戸／弁護士席, I want to tell you こそこそ動くing ネズミs, whoever you are, that I'm ready for you, any time."
He fell silent, his rangy でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる 緊張した, his 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすing with watchful alertness. 非，不，無 moved. The men along the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 might have been 人物／姿／数字s 削減（する） from 石／投石する.
He relaxed and 押すd his gun into its scabbard; a sneer 新たな展開d his lips.
"I know your 産む／飼育する. You won't shoot a man unless his 支援する is toward you. Forty men have been 殺人d in the 周辺 of this （軍の）野営地，陣営 within the last year, and not one had a chance to defend himself.
"Maybe this 殺人，大当り is an 最終提案 to me. All 権利; I've got an answer ready: I've got a new 副, and you won't find him so 平易な as Grimes. I'm fighting 解雇する／砲火／射撃 with 解雇する／砲火／射撃 from here on. I'm riding out of the Gulch 早期に in the morning, and when I come 支援する, I'll have a man with me. A gunfighter from Texas!"
He paused to let this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） 沈む in, and laughed grimly at the furtive ちらりと見ることs that darted from man to man.
"You'll find him no lamb," he 予報するd vindictively. "He was too wild for the country where gun-throwing was invented. What he did 負かす／撃墜する there is 非，不，無 of my 商売／仕事. What he'll do here is what counts. And all I ask is that the men who 殺人d Grimes here, try that same trick on this Texan.
"Another thing, on my own account. I'm 会合 this man at Ogalala Spring tomorrow morning. I'll be riding out alone, at 夜明け. If anybody wants to try to waylay me, let him make his 計画（する）s now! I'll follow the open 追跡する, and anyone who has any 商売／仕事 with me will find me ready."
And turning his trimly-tailored 支援する scornfully on the throng at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, the 郡保安官 of Wahpeton strode from the saloon.
Ten miles east of Wahpeton a man squatted on his heels, frying （土地などの）細長い一片s of deer meat over a tiny 解雇する／砲火／射撃. The sun was just coming up. A short distance away a rangy mustang nibbled at the wiry grass that grew sparsely between broken 激しく揺するs. The man had （軍の）野営地，陣営d there that night, but his saddle and 一面に覆う／毛布 were hidden 支援する in the bushes. That fact showed him to be a man of 用心深い nature. No one に引き続いて the 追跡する that led past Ogalala Spring could have seen him as he slept の中で the bushes. Now, in 十分な daylight, he was making no 試みる／企てる to 隠す his presence.
The man was tall, 幅の広い-shouldered, 深い-chested, lean-hipped, like one who had spent his life in the saddle. His unruly 黒人／ボイコット hair matched a 直面する 燃やすd dark by the sun, but his 注目する，もくろむs were a 燃やすing blue. Low on either hip the 黒人／ボイコット butt of a 激しい Colt jutted from a worn 黒人／ボイコット leather scabbard. These guns seemed as much part of the man as his 注目する，もくろむs or his 手渡すs. He had worn them so 絶えず and so long that their 協会 was as natural as the use of his 四肢s.
As he fried his meat and watched his coffee boiling in a 乱打するd old マリファナ, his gaze darted continually eastward where the 追跡する crossed a wide open space before it 消えるd の中で the thickets of a broken hill country. 西方の the 追跡する 機動力のある a gentle slope and quickly disappeared の中で trees and bushes that （人が）群がるd up within a few yards of the spring. But it was always eastward that the man looked.
When a rider 現れるd from the thickets to the east, the man at the spring 始める，決める aside the skillet with its sizzling meat （土地などの）細長い一片s, and 選ぶd up his ライフル銃／探して盗む —a long 範囲 Sharps .50. His 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd with satisfaction. He did not rise, but remained on one 膝, the ライフル銃／探して盗む 残り／休憩（する）ing negligently in his 手渡すs, the muzzle 攻撃するd 上向き, not 目的（とする）d.
The rider （機の）カム straight on, and the man at the spring watched him from under the brim of his hat. Only when the stranger pulled up a few yards away did the first man 解除する his 長，率いる and give the other a 十分な 見解（をとる） of his 直面する.
The horseman was a supple 青年 of medium 高さ, and his hat did not 隠す the fact that his hair was yellow and curly. His wide 注目する，もくろむs were ingenuous, and an 感染性の smile curved his lips. There was no ライフル銃／探して盗む under his 膝, but an ivory-butted .45 hung low at his 権利 hip.
His 表現 as he saw the other man's 直面する gave no hint to his reaction, except for a slight, momentary 収縮過程 of the muscles that 支配（する）／統制する the 注目する，もくろむs—a movement involuntary and all but uncontrollable. Then he grinned 概して, and あられ／賞賛するd:
"That meat smells prime, stranger!"
"Light and help me with it," 招待するd the other 即時に. "Coffee, too, if you don't mind drinkin' out of the マリファナ."
He laid aside the ライフル銃／探して盗む as the other swung from his saddle. The blond youngster threw his reins over the horse's 長，率いる, fumbled in his 一面に覆う／毛布 roll and drew out a 乱打するd tin cup. 持つ／拘留するing this in his 権利 手渡す he approached the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 with the rolling gait of a man born to a horse.
"I ain't et my breakfast," he 認める. "（軍の）野営地，陣営d 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する a piece last night, and come on up here 早期に to 会合，会う a man. Thought you was the hombre till you looked up. Kinda startled me," he 追加するd 率直に. He sat 負かす／撃墜する opposite the taller man, who 押すd the skillet and coffee マリファナ toward him. The tall man moved both these utensils with his left 手渡す. His 権利 残り／休憩（する）d lightly and 明らかに casually on his 権利 thigh.
The 青年 filled his tin cup, drank the 黒人／ボイコット, unsweetened coffee with evident enjoyment, and filled the cup again. He 選ぶd out pieces of the 冷静な／正味のing meat with his fingers—and he was careful to use only his left 手渡す for that part of the breakfast that would leave grease on his fingers. But he used his 権利 手渡す for 注ぐing coffee and 持つ／拘留するing the cup to his lips. He did not seem to notice the position of the other's 権利 手渡す.
"指名する's Glanton," he confided. "Billy Glanton. Texas. Guadalupe country. Went up the 追跡する with a herd of mossy horns, went broke buckin' faro in Hayes City, and 長，率いるd west lookin' for gold. Hell of a prospector I turned out to be! Now I'm lookin' for a 職業, and the man I was goin' to 会合，会う here said he had one for me. If I read your 示すs 権利 you're a Texan, too?"
The last 宣告，判決 was more a 声明 than a question.
"That's my brand," grunted the other. "指名する's O'Donnell. Pecos River country, 初めは."
His 声明, like that of Glanton's, was 不明確な／無期限の. Both the Pecos and the Guadalupe cover かなりの areas of 領土. But Glanton grinned boyishly and stuck out his 手渡す.
"Shake!" he cried. "I'm glad to 会合，会う an hombre from my home 明言する／公表する, even if our stampin' grounds 負かす／撃墜する there are a 権利 smart piece apart!"
Their 手渡すs met and locked 簡潔に—brown, sinewy 手渡すs that had never worn gloves, and that gripped with the abrupt 緊張 of steel springs.
The handshake seemed to relax O'Donnell. When he 注ぐd out another cup of coffee he held the cup in one 手渡す and the マリファナ in the other, instead of setting the cup on the ground beside him and 注ぐing with his left 手渡す.
"I've been in California," he volunteered. "Drifted 支援する on this 味方する of the mountains a month ago. Been in Wahpeton for the last few weeks, but gold huntin' ain't my style. I'm a vaquero. Never should have tried to be anything else. I'm headin' 支援する for Texas."
"Why don't you try Kansas?" asked Glanton. "It's fillin' up with Texas men, bringin' cattle up the 追跡する to 在庫／株 the 範囲s. Within a year they'll be drivin' 'em into Wyoming and Montana."
"Maybe I might." O'Donnell 解除するd the coffee cup absently. He held it in his left 手渡す, and his 権利 lay in his （競技場の）トラック一周, almost touching the big 黒人／ボイコット ピストル butt. But the 緊張 was gone out of his でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる. He seemed relaxed, 吸収するd in what Glanton was 説. The use of his left 手渡す and the position of his 権利 seemed mechanical, 単に an unconscious habit.
"It's a 広大な／多数の／重要な country," 宣言するd Glanton, lowering his 長，率いる to 隠す the momentary and uncontrollable flicker of 勝利 in his 注目する，もくろむs. "罰金 範囲s. Towns springin' up wherever the 鉄道／強行採決する touches.
"Everybody gettin' rich on Texas beef. Talkin' about 'cattle kings'! Wish I could have knowed this beef にわか景気 was comin' when I was a kid! I'd have 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd up about fifty thousand of them 無所属の政治家 steers that was roamin' loose all over lower Texas, and put me a brand on 'em, and saved 'em for the market!" He laughed at his own conceit.
"They wasn't 価値（がある） six bits a 長，率いる then," he 追加するd, as men in making small talk will 明言する／公表する a fact 井戸／弁護士席 known to everyone. "Now twenty dollars a 長，率いる ain't the 最高の，を越す price."
He emptied his cup and 始める，決める it on the ground 近づく his 権利 hip. His 平易な flow of speech flowed on—but the natural movement of his 手渡す away from the cup turned into a blur of 速度(を上げる） that flicked the 激しい gun from its scabbard.
Two 発射s roared like one long stuttering detonation.
The blond newcomer 低迷d sidewise, his smoking gun 落ちるing from his fingers, a 広げるing 位置／汚点／見つけ出す of crimson suddenly dyeing his shirt, his wide 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd in sardonic self-mockery on the gun in O'Donnell's 権利 手渡す.
"Corcoran!" he muttered. "I thought I had you fooled— you—"
Self-mocking laughter 泡d to his lips, 冷笑的な to the last; he was laughing as he died.
The man whose real 指名する was Corcoran rose and looked 負かす／撃墜する at his 犠牲者 unemotionally. There was a 穴を開ける in the 味方する of his shirt, and a seared 位置／汚点／見つけ出す on the 肌 of his ribs 燃やすd like 解雇する／砲火／射撃. Even with his 目的（とする） spoiled by ripping lead, Glanton's 弾丸 had passed の近くに.
Reloading the empty 議会 of his Colt, Corcoran started toward the horse the dead man had ridden up to the spring. He had taken but one step when a sound brought him around, the 激しい Colt jumping 支援する into his 手渡す.
He scowled at the man who stood before him: a tall man, trimly built, and 覆う？ in frontier elegance.
"Don't shoot," this man said imperturbably. "I'm John Middleton, 郡保安官 of Wahpeton Gulch."
The 警告 態度 of the other did not relax.
"This was a 私的な 事柄," he said.
"I guessed as much. Anyway, it's 非，不，無 of my 商売／仕事. I saw two men at the spring as I 棒 over a rise in the 追跡する some distance 支援する. I was only 推定する／予想するing one. I can't afford to take any chance. I left my horse a short distance 支援する and （機の）カム on 進行中で. I was watching from the bushes and saw the whole thing. He reached for his gun first, but you already had your 手渡す almost on your gun. Your 発射 was first by a flicker. He fooled me. His move （機の）カム as an 絶対の surprise to me."
"He thought it would to me," said Corcoran. "Billy Glanton always 手配中の，お尋ね者 the 減少（する） on his man. He always tried to get some advantage before he pulled his gun.
"He knew me as soon as he saw me; knew that I knew him. But he thought he was making me think that he didn't know me. I made him think that. He could take chances because he knew I wouldn't shoot him 負かす／撃墜する without warnin'— which is just what he 人物／姿／数字d on doin' to me. Finally he thought he had me off my guard, and went for his gun. I was foolin' him all along."
Middleton looked at Corcoran with much 利益／興味. He was familiar with the two opposite 産む／飼育するs of gunmen. One 肉親，親類d was like Glanton; utterly 冷笑的な, 勇敢な enough when courage was necessary, but always preferring to 伸び（る） an advantage by treachery whenever possible. Corcoran typified the opposite 産む／飼育する; men too direct by nature, or too proud of their 技術 to 訴える手段／行楽地 to trickery when it was possible to 会合，会う their enemies in the open and rely on sheer 速度(を上げる） and 神経 and 正確. But that Corcoran was a strategist was 証明するd by his tricking Glanton into 製図／抽選.
Middleton looked 負かす／撃墜する at Glanton; in death the yellow curls and boyish features gave the youthful 銃器携帯者／殺しや an 外見 of innocence. But Middleton knew that that mask had covered the heart of a merciless grey wolf.
"A bad man!" he muttered, 星／主役にするing at the 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of niches on the ivory 在庫／株 of Glanton's Colt.
"Plenty bad," agreed Corcoran. "My folks and his had a 反目，不和 between 'em 負かす／撃墜する in Texas. He （機の）カム 支援する from Kansas and killed an uncle of 地雷— 発射 him 負かす／撃墜する in 冷淡な 血. I was in California when it happened. Got a letter a year after the 反目，不和 was over. I was headin' for Kansas, where I 人物／姿／数字d he'd gone 支援する to, when I met a man who told me he was in this part of the country, and was ridin' に向かって Wahpeton. I 削減（する） his 追跡する and （軍の）野営地，陣営d here last night waitin' for him.
"It'd been years since we'd seen each other, but he knew me—didn't know I knew he knew me, though. That gave me the 辛勝する／優位. You're the man he was goin' to 会合，会う here?"
"Yes. I need a gunfighting 副 bad. I'd heard of him. Sent him word."
Middleton's gaze wandered over Corcoran's hard でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる, ぐずぐず残る on the guns at his hips.
"You pack two アイロンをかけるs," 発言／述べるd the 郡保安官. "I know what you can do with your 権利. But what about the left? I've seen plenty of men who wore two guns, but those who could use both I can count on my fingers."
"井戸／弁護士席?"
"井戸／弁護士席," smiled the 郡保安官, "I thought maybe you'd like to show what you can do with your left."
"Why do you think it makes any difference to me whether you believe I can 扱う both guns or not?" retorted Corcoran without heat.
Middleton seemed to like the reply.
"A tinhorn would be anxious to make me believe he could. You don't have to 証明する anything to me. I've seen enough to show me that you're the man I need. Corcoran, I （機の）カム out here to 雇う Glanton as my 副. I'll make the same proposition to you. What you were 負かす／撃墜する in Texas, or out in California, makes no difference to me. I know your 産む／飼育する, and I know that you'll shoot square with a man who 信用s you, 関わりなく what you may have been in other parts, or will be again, somewhere else.
"I'm up against a 状況／情勢 in Wahpeton that I can't 対処する with alone, or with the 軍隊s I have.
"For a year the town and the （軍の）野営地，陣営s up and 負かす／撃墜する the gulch have been terrorized by a ギャング（団） of 無法者s who call themselves the Vultures.
"That 述べるs them perfectly. No man's life or 所有物／資産／財産 is 安全な. Forty or fifty men have been 殺人d, hundreds robbed. It's next to impossible for a man to pack out any dust, or for a big 出荷／船積み of gold to get through on the 行う／開催する／段階. So many men have been 発射 trying to 保護する 出荷／船積みs that the 行う／開催する／段階 company has trouble 雇うing guards any more.
"Nobody knows who are the leaders of the ギャング（団）. There are a number of ruffians who are 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of 存在 members of the Vultures, but we have no proof that would stand up, even in a 鉱夫s' 法廷，裁判所. Nobody dares give 証拠 against any of them. When a man 認めるs the men who 略奪する him he doesn't dare 明らかにする／漏らす his knowledge. I can't get anyone to identify a 犯罪の, though I know that robbers and 殺害者s are walking the streets, and rubbing 肘s with me along the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s. It's maddening! And yet I can't 非難する the poor devils. Any man who dared 証言する against one of them would be 殺人d.
"People 非難する me some, but I can't give 適する 保護 to the （軍の）野営地，陣営 with the 資源s 許すd me. You know how a gold （軍の）野営地，陣営 is; everybody so greedy-blind they don't want to do anything but 得る，とらえる for the yellow dust. My 副s are 勇敢に立ち向かう men, but they can't be everywhere, and they're not gunfighters. If I 逮捕（する） a man there are a dozen to stand up in a 鉱夫s' 法廷，裁判所 and 断言する enough lies to acquit him. Only last night they 殺人d one of my 副s, Jim Grimes, in 冷淡な 血.
"I sent for Billy Glanton when I heard he was in this country, because I need a man of more than usual 技術. I need a man who can 扱う a gun like a streak of forked 雷, and knows all the tricks of trapping and 殺人，大当り a man. I'm tired of 逮捕（する）ing 犯罪のs to be turned loose! Wild 法案 Hickok has the 権利 idea—kill the badmen and save the 刑務所，拘置所s for the petty 違反者／犯罪者s!"
The Texan scowled わずかに at the について言及する of Hickok, who was not loved by the riders who （機の）カム up the cattle 追跡するs, but he nodded 協定 with the 感情 表明するd. The fact that he, himself, would 落ちる into Hickok's 部類 of those to be 皆殺しにするd did not prejudice his viewpoint.
"You're a better man than Glanton," said Middleton 突然の. "The proof is that Glanton lies there dead, and here you stand very much alive. I'll 申し込む／申し出 you the same 条件 I meant to 申し込む／申し出 him."
He 指名するd a 月毎の salary かなり larger than that drawn by the 普通の／平均（する） Eastern city 保安官. Gold was the most plentiful 商品／必需品 in Wahpeton.
"And a 月毎の 特別手当," 追加するd Middleton. "When I 雇う talent I 推定する／予想する to 支払う／賃金 for it; so do the merchants and 鉱夫s who look to me for 保護."
Corcoran meditated a moment.
"No use in me goin' on to Kansas now," he said finally. "非，不，無 of my folks in Texas are havin' any 反目，不和 that I know of. I'd like to see this Wahpeton. I'll take you up."
"Good!" Middleton 延長するd his 手渡す and as Corcoran took it he noticed that it was much browner than the left. No glove had covered that 手渡す for many years.
"Let's get it started 権利 away! But first we'll have to 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせる of Glanton's 団体／死体."
"I'll take along his gun and horse and send 'em to Texas to his folks," said Corcoran.
"But the 団体／死体?"
"Hell, the buzzards'll 'tend to it."
"No, no!" 抗議するd Middleton. "Let's cover it with bushes and 激しく揺するs, at least."
Corcoran shrugged his shoulders. It was not vindictiveness which 誘発するd his seeming callousness. His 憎悪 of the blond 青年 did not 延長する to the lifeless 団体／死体 of the man. It was 簡単に that he saw no use in going to what seemed to him an unnecessary 仕事. He had hated Glanton with the merciless hate of his race, which is more 耐えるing and more relentless than the hate of an Indian or a Spaniard. But toward the 団体／死体 that was no longer animated by the personality he had hated, he was 簡単に indifferent. He 推定する／予想するd some day to leave his own 死体 stretched on the ground, and the thought of buzzards 涙／ほころびing at his dead flesh moved him no more than the sight of his dead enemy. His creed was pagan and nakedly elemental.
A man's 団体／死体, once life had left it, was no more than any other carcass, moldering 支援する into the 国／地域 which once produced it.
But he helped Middleton drag the 団体／死体 into an 開始 の中で the bushes, and build a rude cairn above it. And he waited 根気よく while Middleton carved the dead 青年's 指名する on a rude cross fashioned from broken 支店s, and thrust upright の中で the 石／投石するs.
Then they 棒 for Wahpeton, Corcoran 主要な the riderless roan; over the horn of the empty saddle hung the belt supporting the dead man's gun, the ivory 在庫／株 of which bore eleven notches, each of which 代表するd a man's life.
THE 採掘 town of Wahpeton sprawled in a wide gulch that wandered between sheer 激しく揺する 塀で囲むs and 法外な hillsides. Cabins, saloons and dance-halls 支援するd against the cliffs on the south 味方する of the gulch. The houses 直面するing them were almost on the bank of Wahpeton Creek, which wandered 負かす／撃墜する the gulch, keeping mostly to the 中心. On both 味方するs of the creek cabins and テントs straggled for a mile and a half each way from the main 団体／死体 of the town. Men were washing gold dust out of the creek, and out of its smaller 支流s which meandered into the canyon along tortuous ravines. Some of these ravines opened into the gulch between the houses built against the 塀で囲む, and the cabins and テントs which straggled up them gave the impression that the town had 洪水d the main gulch and 流出／こぼすd into its 支流s.
Buildings were of スピードを出す／記録につけるs, or of 明らかにする planks laboriously freighted over the mountains. Squalor and draggled or gaudy elegance rubbed 肘s. An 激しい virility 殺到するd through the scene. What other 質s it might have 欠如（する）d, it 洪水d with a superabundance of vitality. Color, 活動／戦闘, movement —growth and 力／強力にする! The atmosphere was alive with these elements, stinging and tingling. Here there were no delicate shadings or subtle contrasts. Life painted here in 幅の広い, raw colors, in bold, vivid 一打／打撃s. Men who （機の）カム here left behind them the delicate nuances, the cultured tranquilities of life. An empire was 存在 built on muscle and guts and audacity, and men dreamed gigantically and wrought terrifically. No dream was too mad, no 企業 too tremendous to be 遂行するd.
Passions ran raw and 騒然とした. Boot heels stamped on 明らかにする plank 床に打ち倒すs, in the eddying dust of the street. 発言する／表明するs にわか景気d, tempers 爆発するd in sudden 爆発s of 原始の 暴力／激しさ. Shrill 発言する／表明するs of painted harpies mingled with the clank of gold on 賭事ing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs, gusty mirth and vociferous altercation along the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s where raw アルコール飲料 hissed in a 安定した stream 負かす／撃墜する hairy, dust-caked throats. It was one of a thousand 類似の panoramas of the day, when a 巨大（な） empire was bellowing in lusty 幼少／幼藍期.
But a 悪意のある undercurrent was 明らかな. Corcoran, riding by the 郡保安官, was aware of this, his senses and intuitions whetted to かみそり keenness by the life he led. The instincts of a gunfighter were developed to an 異常な alertness, else he had never lived out his first year of gunmanship. But it took no abnormally developed instinct to tell Corcoran that hidden 現在のs ran here, darkly and 堅固に.
As they threaded their way の中で trains of pack-mules, rumbling wagons and 群れているs of men on foot which thronged the straggling street, Corcoran was aware of many 注目する，もくろむs に引き続いて them. Talk 中止するd suddenly の中で gesticulating groups as they 認めるd the 郡保安官, then the 注目する，もくろむs swung to Corcoran, searching and appraising. He did not seem to be aware of their scrutiny.
Middleton murmured: "They know I'm bringing 支援する a gunfighting 副. Some of those fellows are Vultures, though I can't 証明する it. Look out for yourself."
Corcoran considered this advice too unnecessary to 長所 a reply. They were riding past the King of Diamonds 賭事ing hall at the moment, and a group of men clustered in the doorway turned to 星／主役にする at them. One 解除するd a 手渡す in 迎える／歓迎するing to the 郡保安官.
"エース Brent, the biggest gambler in the gulch," murmured Middleton as he returned the salute. Corcoran got a glimpse of a わずかな／ほっそりした 人物／姿／数字 in elegant broadcloth, a keen, inscrutable countenance, and a pair of piercing 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs.
Middleton did not 大きくする upon his description of the man, but 棒 on in silence.
They 横断するd the 団体／死体 of the town—the clusters of 蓄える／店s and saloons—and passed on, 停止（させる）ing at a cabin apart from the 残り／休憩（する）. Between it and the town the creek swung out in a wide 宙返り飛行 that carried it some distance from the south 塀で囲む of the gulch, and the cabins and テントs straggled after the creek. That left this particular cabin 孤立するd, for it was built with its 支援する 塀で囲む squarely against the sheer cliff. There was a corral on one 味方する, a clump of trees on the other. Beyond the trees a 狭くする ravine opened into the gulch, 乾燥した，日照りの and unoccupied.
"This is my cabin," said Middleton. "That cabin 支援する there"—he pointed to one which they had passed, a few hundred yards 支援する up the road —"I use for a 郡保安官's office. I need only one room. You can bunk in the 支援する room. You can keep your horse in my corral, if you want to. I always keep several there for my 副s. It 支払う／賃金s to have a fresh 供給（する） of horseflesh always on 手渡す."
As Corcoran dismounted he ちらりと見ることd 支援する at the cabin he was to 占領する. It stood の近くに to a clump of trees, perhaps a hundred yards from the 法外な 塀で囲む of the gulch.
There were four men at the 郡保安官's cabin, one of which Middleton introduced to Corcoran as 陸軍大佐 Hopkins, 以前は of Tennessee. He was a tall, portly man with an アイロンをかける grey mustache and goatee, 同様に dressed as Middleton himself.
"陸軍大佐 Hopkins owns the rich Elinor A. （人命などを）奪う，主張する, in 共同 with 刑事 Bisley," said Middleton; "in 新規加入 to 存在 one of the most 目だつ merchants in the Gulch."
"A 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of good either 占領／職業 does me, when I can't get my money out of town," retorted the 陸軍大佐. "Three times my partner and I have lost big 出荷／船積みs of gold on the 行う／開催する／段階. Once we sent out a 負担 隠すd in wagons 負担d with 供給（する）s supposed to be ーするつもりであるd for the 鉱夫s at Teton Gulch. Once （疑いを）晴らす of Wahpeton the drivers were to swing 支援する east through the mountains. But somehow the Vultures learned of our 計画（する）; they caught the wagons fifteen miles south of Wahpeton, 略奪するd them and 殺人d the guards and drivers."
"The town's honeycombed with their 秘かに調査するs," muttered Middleton.
"Of course. One doesn't know who to 信用. It was 存在 whispered in the streets that my men had been killed and robbed, before their 団体／死体s had been 設立する. We know that the Vultures knew all about our 計画（する）, that they 棒 straight out from Wahpeton, committed that 罪，犯罪 and 棒 straight 支援する with the gold dust. But we could do nothing. We can't 証明する anything, or 罪人／有罪を宣告する anybody."
Middleton introduced Corcoran to the three 副s, 法案 McNab, Richardson, and Stark. McNab was as tall as Corcoran and more ひどく built, hairy and muscular, with restless 注目する，もくろむs that 反映するd a violent temper. Richardson was more slender, with 冷淡な, unblinking 注目する，もくろむs, and Corcoran 即時に 分類するd him as the most dangerous of the three. Stark was a burly, bearded fellow, not 異なるing in type from hundreds of 鉱夫s. Corcoran 設立する the 外見s of these men incongruous with their protestations of helplessness in the 直面する of the 半端物s against them. They looked like hard men, 井戸／弁護士席 able to take care of themselves in any 状況／情勢.
Middleton, as if sensing his thoughts, said: "These men are not afraid of the devil, and they can throw a gun as quick as the 普通の／平均（する） man, or quicker. But it's hard for a stranger to 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる just what we're up against here in Wahpeton. If it was a 事柄 of an open fight, it would be different. I wouldn't need any more help. But it's blind going, working in the dark, not knowing who to 信用. I don't dare to deputize a man unless I'm sure of his honesty. And who can be sure of who? We know the town is 十分な of 秘かに調査するs. We don't know who they are; we don't know who the leader of the Vultures is."
Hopkins' bearded chin jutted stubbornly as he said: "I still believe that gambler, エース Brent, is mixed up with the ギャング（団）. Gamblers have been 殺人d and robbed, but Brent's never been （性的に）いたずらするd. What becomes of all the dust he 勝利，勝つs? Many of the 鉱夫s, despairing of ever getting out of the gulch with their gold, blow it all in the saloons and 賭事ing halls. Brent's won thousands of dollars in dust and nuggets. So have several others. What becomes of it? It doesn't all go 支援する into 循環／発行部数. I believe they get it out, over the mountains. And if they do, when no one else can, that 証明するs to my mind that they're members of the Vultures."
"Maybe they （武器などの）隠匿場所 it, like you and the other merchants are doing," 示唆するd Middleton. "I don't know. Brent's intelligent enough to be the 長，指導者 of the Vultures. But I've never been able to get anything on him."
"You've never been able to get anything 限定された on anybody, except petty 違反者／犯罪者s," said 陸軍大佐 Hopkins bluntly, as he took up his hat. "No 罪／違反 ーするつもりであるd, John. We know what you're up against, and we can't 非難する you. But it looks like, for the good of the （軍の）野営地，陣営, we're going to have to take direct 活動／戦闘."
Middleton 星／主役にするd after the broadcloth-覆う？ 支援する as it receded from the cabin.
"'We,'" he murmured. "That means the vigilantes—or rather the men who have been agitating a vigilante movement. I can understand their feelings, but I consider it an unwise move. In the first place, such an organization is itself outside the 法律, and would be playing into the 手渡すs of the lawless element. Then, what's to 妨げる 無法者s from joining the vigilantes, and コースを変えるing it to 控訴 their own ends?"
"Not a damned thing!" broke in McNab heatedly. "陸軍大佐 Hopkins and his friends are hot-長，率いるd. They 推定する／予想する too much from us. Hell, we're just ordinary workin' men. We do the best we can, but we ain't gunslingers like this man Corcoran here."
Corcoran 設立する himself mentally 尋問 the whole truth of this 声明; Richardson had all the （ーのために）とっておくs of a 銃器携帯者／殺しや, if he had ever seen one, and the Texan's experience in such 事柄s 範囲d from the 太平洋の to the 湾.
Middleton 選ぶd up his hat. "You boys scatter out through the （軍の）野営地，陣営. I'm going to take Corcoran around, when I've sworn him in and given him his badge, and introduce him to the 主要な men of the （軍の）野営地，陣営.
"I don't want any mistake, or any chance of mistake, about his standing. I've put you in a tight 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, Corcoran, I'll 収容する／認める—誇るing about the gunfighting 副 I was going to get. But I'm 確信して that you can take care of yourself."
The 注目する，もくろむs that had followed their ride 負かす／撃墜する the street 焦点（を合わせる）d on the 郡保安官 and his companion as they made their way on foot along the straggling street with its teeming saloons and 賭事ing halls. Gamblers and bartenders were 押し寄せる／沼地d with 商売／仕事, and merchants were getting rich with all 商品／必需品s selling at unheard-of prices. 給料 for day-labor matched prices for groceries, for few men could be 設立する to toil for a prosaic, 始める，決める salary when their 注目する，もくろむs were dazzled by 見通しs of creeks fat with yellow dust and gorges crammed with nuggets. Some of those dreams were not disappointed; millions of dollars in virgin gold was 存在 taken out of the （人命などを）奪う，主張するs up and 負かす／撃墜する the gulch. But the finders frequently 設立する it a golden 負わせる hung to their necks to drag them 負かす／撃墜する to a 血まみれの death. Unseen, unknown, on furtive feet the human wolves stole の中で them, unerringly 場内取引員／株価 their prey and striking in the dark.
From saloon to saloon, dance hall to dance hall, where 疲れた／うんざりした girls in tawdry finery 許すd themselves to be tussled and 運ぶ／漁獲高d about by 耐える-like males who emptied 解雇（する）s of gold dust 負かす／撃墜する the low necks of their dresses, Middleton 操縦するd Corcoran, talking 速く and incessantly. He pointed out men in the （人が）群がる and gave their 指名するs and status in the community, and introduced the Texan to the more important 国民s of the （軍の）野営地，陣営.
All 注目する，もくろむs followed Corcoran curiously. The day was still in the 未来 when the northern 範囲s would be flooded by Texas cattle, driven by wiry Texas riders; but Texans were not unknown, even then, in the 採掘 （軍の）野営地，陣営s of the Northwest. In the first days of the gold 急ぐs they had drifted in from the （軍の）野営地，陣営s of California, to which, at a still earlier date, the 南西 had sent some of her staunchest and some of her most 騒然とした sons. And of late others had drifted in from the Kansas cattle towns along whose streets the lean riders were swaggering and fighting out 反目，不和s brought up from the far south country. Many in Wahpeton were familiar with the 特徴 of the Texas 産む／飼育する, and all had heard tales of the fighting men bred の中で the live oaks and mesquites of that hot, 騒然とした country where racial traits met and 衝突／不一致d, and the traditions of the Old South mingled with those of the untamed West.
Here, then, was a lean grey wolf from that southern pack; some of the men looked their scowling animosity; but most 単に looked, in the 役割 of 観客s, eager to 証言，証人／目撃する the 演劇 all felt 切迫した.
"You're, まず第一に／本来, to fight the Vultures, of course," Middleton told Corcoran as they walked together 負かす／撃墜する the street. "But that doesn't mean you're to overlook petty 違反者／犯罪者s. A lot of small-time crooks and いじめ（る）s are so emboldened by the success of the big robbers that they think they can get away with things, too. If you see a man 狙撃 up a saloon, take his gun away and throw him into 刑務所，拘置所 to sober up. That's the 刑務所，拘置所, up yonder at the other end of town. Don't let men fight on the street or in saloons. Innocent bystanders get 傷つける."
"All 権利." Corcoran saw no 害（を与える） in 狙撃 up saloons or fighting in public places. In Texas few innocent bystanders were ever 傷つける, for there men sent their 弾丸s straight to the 示す ーするつもりであるd. But he was ready to follow 指示／教授／教育s.
"So much for the smaller fry. You know what to do with the really bad men. We're not bringing any more 殺害者s into 法廷，裁判所 to be acquitted through their friends' lies!"
NIGHT had fallen over the roaring madness that was Wahpeton Gulch. Light streamed from the open doors of saloons and honky-tonks, and the gusts of noise that 急ぐd out into the street smote the passers-by like the 衝撃 of a physical blow.
Corcoran 横断するd the street with the smooth, 平易な stride of perfectly 均衡を保った muscles. He seemed to be looking straight ahead, but his 注目する，もくろむs 行方不明になるd nothing on either 味方する of him. As he passed each building in turn he 分析するd the sounds that 問題／発行するd from the open door, and knew just how much was rough merriment and horseplay, 認めるd the elements of 怒り／怒る and menace when they 辛勝する／優位d some of the 発言する／表明するs, and 正確に appraised the extent and intensity of those emotions. A real gunfighter was not 単に a man whose 注目する，もくろむ was truer, whose muscles were quicker than other men; he was a practical psychologist, a student of human nature, whose life depended on the correctness of his 結論s.
It was the Golden Garter dance hall that gave him his first 職業 as a defender of 法律 and order.
As he passed a startling clamor burst 前へ／外へ inside—strident feminine shrieks piercing a din of coarse masculine hilarity. 即時に he was through the door and 肘ing a way through the （人が）群がる which was clustered about the 中心 of the room. Men 悪口を言う／悪態d and turned belligerently as they felt his 肘s in their ribs, 新たな展開d their 長，率いるs to 脅す him, and then gave 支援する as they 認めるd the new 副.
Corcoran broke through into the open space the （人が）群がる （犯罪の）一味d, and saw two women fighting like furies. One, a tall, 罰金 blond girl, had bent a shrieking, biting, clawing Mexican girl 支援する over a billiard （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and the （人が）群がる was yelling joyful 激励 to one or the other: "Give it to her, Glory!" "Slug her, gal!" "Hell, Conchita, bite her!"
The brown girl 注意するd this last bit of advice and followed it so energetically that Glory cried out はっきりと and jerked away her wrist, which dripped 血. In the 支配する of the hysterical frenzy which 掴むs women in such moments, she caught up a billiard ball and 解除するd it to 衝突，墜落 it 負かす／撃墜する on the 長，率いる of her 叫び声をあげるing 捕虜.
Corcoran caught that uplifted wrist, and deftly flicked the ivory sphere from her fingers. 即時に she whirled on him like a tigress, her yellow hair 落ちるing in disorder over her shoulders, 明らかにするd by the 暴力／激しさ of the struggle, her 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing. She 解除するd her 手渡すs toward his 直面する, her fingers working spasmodically, at which some drunk bawled, with a shout of laughter: "Scratch his 注目する，もくろむs out, Glory!"
Corcoran made no move to defend his features; he did not seem to see the white fingers twitching so 近づく his 直面する. He was 星／主役にするing into her furious 直面する, and the candid 賞賛 of his gaze seemed to 混乱させる her, even in her 怒り／怒る. She dropped her 手渡すs but fell 支援する on woman's 伝統的な 武器—her tongue.
"You're Middleton's new 副! I might have 推定する／予想するd you to butt in! Where are McNab and the 残り／休憩（する）? Drunk in some gutter? Is this the way you catch 殺害者s? You lawmen are all alike—better at いじめ（る）ing girls than at catching 無法者s!"
Corcoran stepped past her and 選ぶd up the hysterical Mexican girl. Conchita, seeing that she was more 脅すd than 傷つける, scurried toward the 支援する rooms, sobbing in 激怒（する） and humiliation, and clutching about her the shreds of 衣料品s her enemy's tigerish attack had left her.
Corcoran looked again at Glory, who stood clenching and unclenching her white 握りこぶしs. She was still fermenting with 怒り／怒る, and furious at his 介入. No one in the （人が）群がる about them spoke; no one laughed, but all seemed to 持つ／拘留する their breaths as she 開始する，打ち上げるd into another tirade. They knew Corcoran was a dangerous man, but they did not know the code by which he had been 後部d; did not know that Glory, or any other woman, was 安全な from 暴力／激しさ at his 手渡すs, whatever her 罪／違反.
"Why don't you call McNab?" she sneered. "裁判官ing from the way Middleton's 副s have been working, it will probably take three or four of you to drag one helpless girl to 刑務所，拘置所!"
"Who said anything about takin' you to 刑務所，拘置所?" Corcoran's gaze dwelt in fascination on her ruddy cheeks, the crimson of her 十分な lips in startling contrast against the whiteness of her teeth. She shook her yellow hair 支援する impatiently, as a spirited young animal might shake 支援する its flowing mane.
"You're not 逮捕（する）ing me?" She seemed startled, thrown into 混乱 by this 予期しない 声明.
"No. I just kept you from killin' that girl. If you'd brained her with that billiard ball I'd have had to 逮捕（する） you."
"She lied about me!" Her wide 注目する，もくろむs flashed, and her breast heaved again.
"That wasn't no excuse for makin' a public show of yourself," he answered without heat. "If ladies have got to fight, they せねばならない do it in 私的な."
And so 説 he turned away. A gusty exhalation of breath seemed to escape the （人が）群がる, and the 緊張 消えるd, as they turned to the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業. The 出来事/事件 was forgotten, 単に a trifling episode in an 存在 （人が）群がるd with violent 出来事/事件s. Jovial masculine 発言する／表明するs mingled with the shriller laughter of women, as glasses began to clink along the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業.
Glory hesitated, 製図／抽選 her torn dress together over her bosom, then darted after Corcoran, who was moving toward the door. When she touched his arm he whipped about as quick as a cat, a 手渡す flashing to a gun. She glimpsed a momentary gleam in his 注目する，もくろむs as 脅迫的な and predatory as the 脅し that leaps in a panther's 注目する，もくろむs. Then it was gone as he saw whose 手渡す had touched him.
"She lied about me," Glory said, as if defending herself from a 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of 不品行／姦通. "She's a dirty little cat."
Corcoran looked her over from 長，率いる to foot, as if he had not heard her; his blue 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすd her like a physical 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
She stammered in 混乱. Direct and 明かすd 賞賛 was commonplace, but there was an elemental candor about the Texan such as she had never before 遭遇（する）d.
He broke in on her stammerings in a way that showed he had paid no attention to what she was 説.
"Let me buy you a drink. There's a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する over there where we can sit 負かす／撃墜する."
"No. I must go and put on another dress. I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to say that I'm glad you kept me from 殺人，大当り Conchita. She's a slut, but I don't want her 血 on my 手渡すs."
"All 権利."
She 設立する it hard to make conversation with him, and could not have said why she wished to make conversation.
"McNab 逮捕（する）d me once," she said, irrelevantly, her 注目する，もくろむs dilating as if at the memory of an 不正. "I slapped him for something he said. He was going to put me in 刑務所，拘置所 for resisting an officer of the 法律! Middleton made him turn me loose."
"McNab must be a fool," said Corcoran slowly.
"He's mean; he's got a 汚い temper, and he—what's that?"
負かす／撃墜する the street sounded a fusillade of 発射s, a blurry 発言する／表明する yelling gleefully.
"Some fool 狙撃 up a saloon," she murmured, and darted a strange ちらりと見ること at her companion, as if a drunk 狙撃 into the 空気／公表する was an unusual occurrence in that wild 採掘 （軍の）野営地，陣営.
"Middleton said that's against the 法律," he grunted, turning away.
"Wait!" she cried はっきりと, catching at him. But he was already moving through the door, and Glory stopped short as a 手渡す fell lightly on her shoulder from behind. Turning her 長，率いる she paled to see the 熱心に-chiseled 直面する of エース Brent. His 手渡す lay gently on her shoulder, but there was a 命令（する） and a 血-冷気／寒がらせるing 脅し in its touch. She shivered and stood still as a statue, as Corcoran, unaware of the 演劇 存在 played behind him, disappeared into the street.
The ゆすり was coming from the Blackfoot 長，指導者 Saloon, a few doors 負かす／撃墜する, and on the same 味方する of the street as the Golden Garter. With a few long strides Corcoran reached the door. But he did not 急ぐ in. He 停止（させる）d and swept his 冷静な／正味の gaze deliberately over the 内部の. In the 中心 of the saloon a 概略で dressed man was reeling about, whooping and 発射する／解雇するing a ピストル into the 天井, perilously の近くに to the big oil lamp which hung there. The 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 was lined with men, all bearded and uncouthly garbed, so it was impossible to tell which were ruffians and which were honest 鉱夫s. All the men in the room were at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, with the exception of the drunken man.
Corcoran paid little 注意する to him as he （機の）カム through the door, though he moved straight toward him, and to the 緊張した 選挙立会人s it seemed the Texan was looking at no one else. In reality, from the corner of his 注目する，もくろむ he was watching the men at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業; and as he moved deliberately from the door, across the room, he distinguished the 提起する／ポーズをとる of honest curiosity from the 緊張 of ーするつもりであるd 殺人. He saw the three 手渡すs that gripped gun butts.
And as he, 明らかに ignorant of what was going on at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, stepped toward the man reeling in the 中心 of the room, a gun jumped from its scabbard and pointed toward the lamp. And even as it moved, Corcoran moved quicker. His turn was a blur of 動議 too quick for the 注目する，もくろむ to follow and even as he turned his gun was 燃やすing red.
The man who had drawn died on his feet with his gun still pointed toward the 天井, unfired. Another stood gaping, stunned, a ピストル dangling in his fingers, for that (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing tick of time; then as he woke and whipped the gun up, hot lead ripped through his brain. A third gun spoke once as the owner 解雇する／砲火／射撃d wildly, and then he went to his 膝s under the 爆破 of ripping lead, 低迷d over on the 床に打ち倒す and lay twitching.
It was over in a flash, 活動／戦闘 so blurred with 速度(を上げる） that not one of the 選挙立会人s could ever tell just 正確に／まさに what had happened. One instant Corcoran had been moving toward the man in the 中心 of the room, the next both guns were 炎ing and three men were 落ちるing from the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, 衝突，墜落ing dead on the 床に打ち倒す.
For an instant the scene held, Corcoran half-crouching, guns held at his hips, 直面するing the men who stood stunned along the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業. Wisps of blue smoke drifted from the muzzles of his guns, forming a misty 隠す through which his grim 直面する looked, implacable and passionless as that of an image carved from granite. But his 注目する，もくろむs 炎d.
Shakily, moving like puppets on a string, the men at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 解除するd their 手渡すs （疑いを）晴らす of their waistline. Death hung on the crook of a finger for a shuddering tick of time. Then with a choking gasp the man who had played drunk made a つまずくing 急ぐ toward the door. With a catlike wheel and 一打／打撃 Corcoran 衝突，墜落d a gun バーレル／樽 over his 長，率いる and stretched him stunned and bleeding on the 床に打ち倒す.
The Texan was 直面するing the men at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 again before any of them could have moved. He had not looked at the men on the 床に打ち倒す since they had fallen.
"井戸／弁護士席, amigos!" His 発言する／表明する was soft, but it was 厚い with 殺し屋's lust. "Why don't you-all keep the 保釈（金） goin'? Ain't these hombres got no friends?"
明らかに they had not. No one made a move.
Realizing that the 危機 had passed, that there was no more 殺人，大当り to be done just then, Corcoran straightened, 押すing his guns 支援する in his scabbards.
"Purty 天然のまま," he 非難するd. "I don't see how anybody could 落ちる for a trick that stale. Man plays drunk and starts shootin' at the roof. Officer comes in to 逮捕（する） him. When the officer's 支援する's turned, somebody shoots out the light, and the drunk 落ちるs on the 床に打ち倒す to get out of the line of 解雇する／砲火／射撃. Three or four men 工場／植物d along the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 start blazin' away in the dark at the place where they know the 法律's standin', and out of eighteen or twenty-four 発射s, some's bound to connect."
With a 厳しい laugh he stooped, grabbed the "drunk" by the collar and 運ぶ／漁獲高d him upright. The man staggered and 星／主役にするd wildly about him, 血 dripping from the gash in his scalp.
"You got to come along to 刑務所，拘置所," said Corcoran unemotionally. "郡保安官 says it's against the 法律 to shoot up saloons. I せねばならない shoot you, but I ain't in the habit of pluggin' men with empty guns. Reckon you'll be more value to the 郡保安官 alive than dead, anyway."
And propelling his dizzy 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, he strode out into the street. A （人が）群がる had gathered about the door, and they gave 支援する suddenly. He saw a supple, feminine 人物／姿／数字 dart into the circle of light, which illumined the white 直面する and golden hair of the girl Glory.
"Oh!" she exclaimed はっきりと. "Oh!" Her exclamation was almost 溺死するd in a sudden clamor of 発言する／表明するs as the men in the street realized what had happened in the Blackfoot 長，指導者.
Corcoran felt her pluck at his sleeve as he passed her, heard her 緊張した whisper.
"I was afraid—I tried to 警告する you—I'm glad they didn't—"
A 影をつくる／尾行する of a smile touched his hard lips as he ちらりと見ることd 負かす／撃墜する at her. Then he was gone, striding 負かす／撃墜する the street toward the 刑務所，拘置所, half-押し進めるing, half-dragging his bewildered 囚人.
CORCORAN locked the door on the man who seemed utterly unable to realize just what had happened, and turned away, 長，率いるing for the 郡保安官's office at the other end of town. He kicked on the door of the jailer's shack, a few yards from the 刑務所，拘置所, and roused that individual out of a slumber he believed was アル中患者, and 知らせるd him he had a 囚人 in his care. The jailer seemed as surprised as the 犠牲者 was.
No one had followed Corcoran to the 刑務所，拘置所, and the street was almost 砂漠d, as the people jammed morbidly into the Blackfoot 長，指導者 to 星／主役にする at the 団体／死体s and listen to 相反する stories as to just what had happened.
陸軍大佐 Hopkins （機の）カム running up, breathlessly, to 得る，とらえる Corcoran's 手渡す and pump it vigorously.
"By gad, sir, you have the real spirit! Guts! 速度(を上げる）! They tell me the loafers at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 didn't even have time to dive for cover before it was over! I'll 収容する／認める I'd 中止するd to 推定する／予想する much of John's 副s, but you've shown your metal! These fellows were undoubtedly Vultures. That Tom 取引，協定, you've got in 刑務所，拘置所, I've 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd him for some time. We'll question him—make him tell us who the 残り／休憩（する） are, and who their leader is. Come in and have a drink, sir!"
"Thanks, but not just now. I'm goin' to find Middleton and 報告（する）／憶測 this 商売／仕事. His office せねばならない be closer to the 刑務所，拘置所. I don't think much of his jailer. When I get through reportin' I'm goin' 支援する and guard that fellow myself."
Hopkins emitted more laudations, and then clapped the Texan on the 支援する and darted away to 参加する whatever informal 検死 was 存在 made, and Corcoran strode on through the emptying street. The fact that so much uproar was 存在 made over the 殺人，大当り of three would-be 殺害者s showed him how rare was a successful 抵抗 to the Vultures. He shrugged his shoulders as he remembered 反目，不和s and 範囲 wars in his native 南西: men 落ちるing like 飛行機で行くs under the unerring 運動 of 弾丸s on the open 範囲 and in the streets of Texas towns. But there all men were frontiersmen, sons and grandsons of frontiersmen; here, in the 採掘 （軍の）野営地，陣営s, the frontier element was only one of several elements, many drawn from sections where men had forgotten how to defend themselves through 世代s of 法律 and order.
He saw a light spring up in the 郡保安官's cabin just before he reached it, and, with his mind on possible gunmen lurking in 待ち伏せ／迎撃する—for they must have known he would go 直接／まっすぐに to the cabin from the 刑務所，拘置所—he swung about and approached the building by a 大勝する that would not take him across the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of light 注ぐing from the window. So it was that the man who （機の）カム running noisily 負かす／撃墜する the road passed him without seeing the Texan as he kept in the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the cliff. The man was McNab; Corcoran knew him by his powerful build, his slouching carriage. And as he burst through the door, his 直面する was illuminated and Corcoran was amazed to see it contorted in a grimace of passion.
発言する／表明するs rose inside the cabin, McNab's bull-like roar, 厚い with fury, and the calmer トンs of Middleton. Corcoran hurried 今後, and as he approached he heard McNab roar: "Damn you, Middleton, you've got a lot of explainin' to do! Why didn't you 警告する the boys he was a 殺し屋?"
At that moment Corcoran stepped into the cabin and 需要・要求するd: "What's the trouble, McNab?"
The big 副 whirled with a feline snarl of 激怒（する）, his 注目する，もくろむs glaring with murderous madness as they 認めるd Corcoran.
"You damned—" A string of filthy expletives 噴出するd from his 厚い lips as he ripped out his gun. Its muzzle had scarcely （疑いを）晴らすd leather when a Colt banged in Corcoran's 権利 手渡す. McNab's gun clattered to the 床に打ち倒す and he staggered 支援する, しっかり掴むing his 権利 arm with his left 手渡す, and 悪口を言う／悪態ing like a madman.
"What's the 事柄 with you, you fool?" 需要・要求するd Corcoran 厳しく. "Shut up! I did you a 好意 by not killin' you. If you wasn't a 副 I'd have 演習d you through the 長，率いる. But I will anyway, if you don't shut your dirty 罠（にかける）."
"You killed Breckman, Red 法案 and Curly!" raved McNab; he looked like a 負傷させるd grizzly as he swayed there, 血 trickling 負かす／撃墜する his wrist and dripping off his fingers.
"Was that their 指名するs? 井戸／弁護士席, what about it?"
"法案's drunk, Corcoran," interposed Middleton. "He goes crazy when he's 十分な of アルコール飲料."
McNab's roar of fury shook the cabin. His 注目する，もくろむs turned red and he swayed on his feet as if about to 急落（する），激減（する） at Middleton's throat.
"Drunk?" he bellowed. "You 嘘（をつく）, Middleton! Damn you, what's your game? You sent your own men to death! Without warnin'!"
"His own men?" Corcoran's 注目する，もくろむs were suddenly glittering slits. He stepped 支援する and made a half-turn so that he was 直面するing both men; his 手渡すs became claws hovering over his gun-butts.
"Yes, his men!" snarled McNab. "You fool, he's the 長，指導者 of the Vultures!"
An electric silence gripped the cabin. Middleton stood rigid, his empty 手渡すs hanging limp, knowing that his life hung on a thread no more 相当な than a filament of morning dew. If he moved, if, when he spoke, his トン jarred on Corcoran's 怪しげな ears, guns would be roaring before a man could snap his fingers.
"Is that so?" Corcoran 発射 at him.
"Yes," Middleton said calmly, with no inflection in his 発言する／表明する that could be taken as a 脅し. "I'm 長，指導者 of the Vultures."
Corcoran glared at him puzzled. "What's your game?" he 需要・要求するd, his トン 厚い with the deadly instinct of his 産む／飼育する.
"That's what I want to know!" bawled McNab. "We killed Grimes for you, because he was catchin' on to things. And we 始める，決める the same 罠（にかける） for this devil. He knew! He must have known! You 警告するd him—told him all about it!"
"He told me nothin'," grated Corcoran. "He didn't have to. Nobody but a fool would have been caught in a 罠（にかける） like that. Middleton, before I blow you to Hell, I want to know one thing: what good was it goin' to do you to bring me into Wahpeton, and have me killed the first night I was here?"
"I didn't bring you here for that," answered Middleton.
"Then what'd you bring him here for?" yelled McNab. "You told us— "
"I told you I was bringing a new 副 here, that was a gunslinging fool," broke in Middleton. "That was the truth. That should have been 警告 enough."
"But we thought that was just talk, to fool the people," 抗議するd McNab bewilderedly. He sensed that he was beginning to be 負傷させる in a web he could not break.
"Did I tell you it was just talk?"
"No, but we thought—"
"I gave you no 推論する／理由 to think anything. The night when Grimes was killed I told everyone in the Golden Eagle that I was bringing in a Texas gunfighter as my 副. I spoke the truth."
"But you 手配中の，お尋ね者 him killed, and—"
"I didn't. I didn't say a word about having him killed."
"But—"
"Did I?" Middleton 追求するd relentlessly. "Did I give you a 限定された order to kill Corcoran, to （性的に）いたずらする him in any way?"
Corcoran's 注目する，もくろむs were molten steel, 燃やすing into McNab's soul. The befuddled 巨大（な） scowled and floundered, ばく然と realizing that he was 存在 put in the wrong, but not understanding how, or why.
"No, you didn't tell us to kill him in so many words; but you didn't tell us to let him alone."
"Do I have to tell you to let people alone to keep you from 殺人，大当り them? There are about three thousand people in this （軍の）野営地，陣営 I've never given any 限定された orders about. Are you going out and kill them, and say you thought I meant you to do it, because I didn't tell you not to?"
"井戸／弁護士席, I—" McNab began apologetically, then burst out in righteous though bewildered wrath: "Damn it, it was the understandin' that we'd get rid of 副s like that, who wasn't on the inside. We thought you were bringin' in an honest 副 to fool the folks, just like you 雇うd Jim Grimes to fool 'em. We thought you was just makin' a talk to the fools in the Golden Eagle. We thought you'd want him out of the way as quick as possible—"
"You drew your own 結論s and 行為／法令／行動するd without my orders," snapped Middleton. "That's all that it 量s to. 自然に Corcoran defended himself. If I'd had any idea that you fools would try to 殺人 him, I'd have passed the word to let him alone. I thought you understood my 動機s. I brought Corcoran in here to fool the people; yes. But he's not a man like Jim Grimes. Corcoran is with us. He'll clean out the thieves that are working outside our ギャング（団）, and we'll 遂行する two things with one 一打／打撃: get rid of 競争 and make the 鉱夫s think we're on the level."
McNab stood glaring at Middleton; three times he opened his mouth, and each time he shut it without speaking. He knew that an 不正 had been done him; that a 責任／義務 that was not rightfully his had been 捨てるd on his brawny shoulders. But the subtle play of Middleton's wits was beyond him; he did not know how to defend himself or make a countercharge.
"All 権利," he snarled. "We'll forget it. But the boys ain't goin' to forget how Corcoran 発射 負かす／撃墜する their pards. I'll talk to 'em, though. Tom 取引，協定's got to be out of that 刑務所，拘置所 before daylight. Hopkins is aimin' to question him about the ギャング（団）. I'll 行う／開催する／段階 a 偽の jailbreak for him. But first I've got to get this arm dressed." And he slouched out of the cabin and away through the 不明瞭, a baffled 巨大（な）, 燃やすing with murderous 激怒（する）, but too 絡まるd in a 逮捕する of subtlety to know where or how or who to smite.
支援する in the cabin Middleton 直面するd Corcoran who still stood with his thumbs 麻薬中毒の in his belt, his fingers 近づく his gun butts. A whimsical smile played on Middleton's thin lips, and Corcoran smiled 支援する; but it was the mirthless grin of a crouching panther.
"You can't 絡まる me up with words like you did that big ox," Corcoran said. "You let me walk into that 罠（にかける）. You knew your men were ribbin' it up. You let 'em go ahead, when a word from you would have stopped it. You knew they'd think you 手配中の，お尋ね者 me killed, like Grimes, if you didn't say nothin'. You let 'em think that, but you played 安全な by not givin' any 限定された orders, so if anything went wrong, you could step out from under and 転換 the 非難する の上に McNab."
Middleton smiled appreciatively, and nodded coolly.
"That's 権利. All of it. You're no fool, Corcoran."
Corcoran ripped out an 誓い, and this glimpse of the 熱烈な nature that lurked under his inscrutable exterior was like a momentary glimpse of an enraged cougar, 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing, spitting and snarling.
"Why?" he exclaimed. "Why did you 陰謀（を企てる） all this for me? If you had a grudge against Glanton, I can understand why you'd rib up a 罠（にかける） for him, though you wouldn't have had no more luck with him than you have with me. But you ain't got no 反目，不和 against me. I never saw you before this mornin'!"
"I have no 反目，不和 with you; I had 非，不，無 with Glanton. But if 運命／宿命 hadn't thrown you into my path, it would have been Glanton who would have been 待ち伏せ／迎撃するd in the Blackfoot 長，指導者. Don't you see, Corcoran? It was a 実験（する）. I had to be sure you were the man I 手配中の，お尋ね者."
Corcoran scowled, puzzled himself now.
"What do you mean?"
"Sit 負かす／撃墜する!" Middleton himself sat 負かす／撃墜する on a nearby 議長，司会を務める, unbuckled his gun-belt and threw it, with the 激しい, holstered gun, の上に a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, out of 平易な reach. Corcoran seated himself, but his vigilance did not relax, and his gaze 残り／休憩（する）d on Middleton's left arm 炭坑，オーケストラ席, where a second gun might be hidden.
"In the first place," said Middleton, his 発言する／表明する flowing tranquilly, but pitched too low to be heard outside the cabin, "I'm 長，指導者 of the Vultures, as that fool said. I 組織するd them, even before I was made 郡保安官. 殺人，大当り a robber and 殺害者, who was working outside my ギャング（団）, made the people of Wahpeton think I'd make a good 郡保安官. When they gave me the office, I saw what an advantage it would be to me and my ギャング（団）.
"Our organization is airtight. There are about fifty men in the ギャング（団）. They are scattered throughout these mountains. Some 提起する／ポーズをとる as 鉱夫s; some are gamblers—エース Brent, for instance. He's my 権利-手渡す man. Some work in saloons, some clerk in 蓄える／店s. One of the 正規の／正選手 drivers of the 行う／開催する／段階-line company is a Vulture, and so is a clerk of the company, and one of the men who 作品 in the company's stables, tending the horses.
"With 秘かに調査するs scattered all over the （軍の）野営地，陣営, I know who's trying to take out gold, and when. It's a cinch. We can't lose."
"I don't see how the （軍の）野営地，陣営 stands for it," grunted Corcoran.
"Men are too crazy after gold to think about anything else. As long as a man isn't （性的に）いたずらするd himself, he doesn't care much what happens to his neighbors. We are 組織するd; they are not. We know who to 信用; they don't. It can't last forever. Sooner or later the more intelligent 国民s will 組織する themselves into a vigilante 委員会 and sweep the gulch clean. But when that happens, I ーするつもりである to be far away—with one man I can 信用."
Corcoran nodded, comprehension beginning to gleam in his 注目する，もくろむs.
"Already some men are talking vigilante. 陸軍大佐 Hopkins, for instance. I encourage him as subtly as I can."
"Why, in the 指名する of Satan?"
"To 回避する 疑惑; and for another 推論する／理由. The vigilantes will serve my 目的 at the end."
"And your 目的 is to skip out and leave the ギャング（団） holdin' the 解雇（する）!"
"正確に／まさに! Look here!"
Taking the candle from the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, he led the way through a 支援する room, where 激しい shutters covered the one window. Shutting the door, he turned to the 支援する 塀で囲む and drew aside some 肌s which were hung over it. Setting the candle on a 概略で hewed （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, he fumbled at the スピードを出す／記録につけるs, and a section swung outward, 明らかにする／漏らすing a 激しい plank door 始める，決める in the solid 激しく揺する against which the 支援する 塀で囲む of the cabin was built. It was を締めるd with アイロンをかける and showed a ponderous lock. Middleton produced a 重要な, and turned it in the lock, and 押し進めるd the door inward. He 解除するd the candle and 明らかにする／漏らすd a small 洞穴, lined and heaped with canvas and buckskin 解雇（する）s. One of these 解雇（する）s had burst open, and a golden stream caught the glints of the candle.
"Gold! 解雇（する）s and 解雇（する）s of it!"
Corcoran caught his breath, and his 注目する，もくろむs glittered like a wolf's in the candlelight. No man could visualize the contents of those 捕らえる、獲得するs unmoved. And the gold-madness had long ago entered Corcoran's veins, more powerfully than he had dreamed, even though he had followed the 誘惑する to California and 支援する over the mountains again. The sight of that glittering heap, of those bulging 解雇（する）s, sent his pulses 続けざまに猛撃するing in his 寺s, and his 手渡す unconsciously locked on the butt of a gun.
"There must be a million there!"
"Enough to 要求する a good-sized mule-train to pack it out," answered Middleton. "You see why I have to have a man to help me the night I pull out. And I need a man like you. You're an outdoor man, 常習的な by wilderness travel. You're a frontiersman, a vaquero, a 追跡する-driver. These men I lead are mostly ネズミs that grew up in 国境 towns—gamblers, thieves, barroom gladiators, saloon-bred gunmen; a few 鉱夫s gone wrong. You can stand things that would kill any of them.
"The flight we'll have to make will be hard traveling. We'll have to leave the beaten 追跡するs and strike out through the mountains. They'll be sure to follow us, and we'll probably have to fight them off. Then there are Indians —Blackfeet and Crows; we may run into a war party of them. I knew I had to have a fighting man of the keenest type; not only a fighting man, but a man bred on the frontier. That's why I sent for Glanton. But you're a better man than he was."
Corcoran frowned his 疑惑.
"Why didn't you tell me all this at first?"
"Because I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to try you out. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be sure you were the 権利 man. I had to be sure. If you were stupid enough, and slow enough to be caught in such a 罠（にかける） as McNab and the 残り／休憩（する） would 始める，決める for you, you weren't the man I 手配中の，お尋ね者."
"You're takin' a lot for 認めるd," snapped Corcoran. "How do you know I'll 落ちる in with you and help you 略奪する the （軍の）野営地，陣営 and then 二塁打-cross your ギャング（団）? What's to 妨げる me from blowin' your 長，率いる off for the trick you played on me? Or spillin' the beans to Hopkins, or to McNab?"
"Half a million in gold!" answered Middleton. "If you do any of those things, you'll 行方不明になる your chance to 株 that （武器などの）隠匿場所 with me."
He shut the door, locked it, 押し進めるd the other door to and hung the 肌s over it. Taking the candle he led the way 支援する into the outer room.
He seated himself at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and 注ぐd whisky from a jug into two glasses.
"井戸／弁護士席, what about it?"
Corcoran did not at once reply. His brain was still filled with blinding golden 見通しs. His countenance darkened, became 悪意のある as he meditated, 星／主役にするing into his whisky glass.
The men of the West lived by their own code. The line between the 無法者 and the honest cattleman or vaquero was いつかs a hair line, too vague to always be traced with 正確. Men's personal codes were frequently inconsistent, but rigid as アイロンをかける. Corcoran would not have stolen one cow, or three cows from a 無断占拠者, but he had swept across the 国境 to 略奪する Mexican rancherios of hundreds of 長，率いる. He would not 停止する a man and take his money, nor would he 殺人 a man in 冷淡な 血; but he felt no compunctions about 殺人，大当り a どろぼう and taking the money the どろぼう had stolen. The gold in that （武器などの）隠匿場所 was bloodstained, the fruit of 罪，犯罪s to which he would have 軽蔑（する）d to stoop. But his code of honesty did not 妨げる him from 略奪するing it from the thieves who had 略奪するd it in turn from honest men.
"What's my part in the game?" Corcoran asked 突然の.
Middleton grinned zestfully.
"Good! I thought you'd see it my way. No man could look at that gold and 辞退する a 株 of it! They 信用 me more than they do any other member of the ギャング（団）. That's why I keep it here. They know—or think they know— that I couldn't slip out with it. But that's where we'll fool them.
"Your 職業 will be just what I told McNab: you'll 支持する 法律 and order. I'll tell the boys not to pull any more ピストル強盗s inside the town itself, and that'll give you a 評判. People will think you've got the ギャング（団） too 脅すd to work in の近くに. You'll 施行する 法律s like those against 狙撃 up saloons, fighting on the street, and the like. And you'll catch the thieves that are still working alone. When you kill one we'll make it appear that he was a Vulture. You've put yourself solid with the people tonight, by 殺人，大当り those fools in the Blackfoot 長，指導者. We'll keep up the deception.
"I don't 信用 エース Brent. I believe he's 内密に trying to usurp my place as 長，指導者 of the ギャング（団）. He's too damned smart. But I don't want you to kill him. He has too many friends in the ギャング（団）. Even if they didn't 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う I put you up to it, even if it looked like a 私的な quarrel, they'd want your scalp. I'll でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる him—get somebody outside the ギャング（団） to kill him, when the time comes.
"When we get ready to skip, I'll 始める，決める the vigilantes and the Vultures to 戦う／戦いing each other—how, I don't know, but I'll find a way—and we'll こそこそ動く while they're at it. Then for California—South America and the 株ing of the gold!"
"The sharin' of the gold!" echoed Corcoran, his 注目する，もくろむs lit with grim laughter.
Their hard 手渡すs met across the rough （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and the same enigmatic smile played on the lips of both men.
CORCORAN stalked through the milling （人が）群がる that 群れているd in the street, and 長，率いるd toward the Golden Garter Dance Hall and Saloon. A man lurching through the door with the wide swing of hilarious intoxication つまずくd into him and clutched at him to keep from 落ちるing to the 床に打ち倒す.
Corcoran 権利d him, smiling faintly into the bearded, rubicund countenance that peered into his.
"Steve Corcoran, by 雷鳴!" whooped the inebriated one gleefully. "Besh damn' 副 in the 領土! 'S' a 栄誉（を受ける） to get 選ぶd up by Steve Corcoran! Come in and have a drink."
"You've had too many now," returned Corcoran.
"権利!" agreed the other. "I'm goin' home now, 'f I can get there. Lasht time I was a little 十分な, I didn't make it, by a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile! I went to sleep in a 溝へはまらせる／不時着する across from your shack. I'd 'a' come in and slept on the 床に打ち倒す, only I was 'fraid you'd shoot me for one of them derned Vultures!"
Men about them laughed. The intoxicated man was Joe Willoughby, a 目だつ merchant in Wahpeton, and 極端に popular for his 解放する／自由な-hearted and open-手渡すd ways.
"Just knock on the door next time and tell me who it is," grinned Corcoran. "You're welcome to a 一面に覆う／毛布 in the 郡保安官's office, or a bunk in my room, any time you need it."
"Soul of gener—generoshity!" 布告するd Willoughby boisterously. "Goin' home now before the licker gets 負かす／撃墜する in my 脚s. S'long, old pard!"
He weaved away 負かす／撃墜する the street, まっただ中に the jovial joshings of the 鉱夫s, to which he retorted with bibulous good nature.
Corcoran turned again into the dance hall and 小衝突d against another man, at whom he ちらりと見ることd はっきりと, 公式文書，認めるing the 始める，決める jaw, the haggard countenance and the bloodshot 注目する，もくろむs. This man, a young 鉱夫 井戸／弁護士席 known to Corcoran, 押し進めるd his way through the （人が）群がる and hurried up the street with the manner of a man who goes with a 限定された 目的. Corcoran hesitated, as though to follow him, then decided against it and entered the dance hall. Half the 推論する／理由 for a gunfighter's continued 存在 lay in his ability to read and 分析する the 表現s men wore, to 正確に 解釈する／通訳する the jut of jaw, the glitter of 注目する，もくろむ. He knew this young 鉱夫 was 決定するd on some course of 活動／戦闘 that might result in 暴力／激しさ. But the man was not a 犯罪の, and Corcoran never 干渉するd in 私的な quarrels so long as they did not 脅す the public safety.
A girl was singing, in a （疑いを）晴らす, melodious 発言する／表明する, to the accompaniment of a jangling, banging piano. As Corcoran seated himself at a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, with his 支援する to the 塀で囲む and a （疑いを）晴らす 見解（をとる） of the whole hall before him, she 結論するd her number まっただ中に a boisterous clamor of 賞賛. Her 直面する lit as she saw him. Coming lightly across the hall, she sat 負かす／撃墜する at his （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. She 残り／休憩（する）d her 肘s on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, cupped her chin in her 手渡すs, and 直す／買収する，八百長をするd her wide （疑いを）晴らす gaze on his brown 直面する.
"発射 any Vultures today, Steve?"
He made no answer as he 解除するd the glass of beer brought him by a waiter.
"They must be 脅すd of you," she continued, and something of youthful hero-worship glowed in her 注目する，もくろむs. "There hasn't been a 殺人 or ピストル強盗 in town for the past month, since you've been here. Of course you can't be everywhere. They still kill men and 略奪する them in the （軍の）野営地，陣営s up the ravines, but they keep out of town.
"And that time you took the 行う／開催する／段階 through to Yankton! It wasn't your fault that they held it up and got the gold on the other 味方する of Yankton. You weren't in it, then. I wish I'd been there and seen the fight, when you fought off the men who tried to 持つ／拘留する you up, halfway between here and Yankton."
"There wasn't any fight to it," he said impatiently, restless under 賞賛する he knew he did not deserve.
"I know; they were afraid of you. You 発射 at them and they ran."
Very true; it had been Middleton's idea for Corcoran to take the 行う／開催する／段階 through to the next town east, and （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 off a 偽の 試みる／企てる at ピストル強盗. Corcoran had never relished the memory; whatever his faults, he had the pride of his profession; a 偽の gunfight was as repugnant to him as a 商売／仕事 hoax to an honest 実業家.
"Everybody knows that the 行う／開催する／段階 company tried to 雇う you away from Middleton, as a 正規の／正選手 shotgun-guard. But you told them that your 商売／仕事 was to 保護する life and 所有物／資産／財産 here in Wahpeton."
She meditated a moment and then laughed reminiscently.
"You know, when you pulled me off of Conchita that night, I thought you were just another blustering いじめ（る） like McNab. I was beginning to believe that Middleton was taking 支払う／賃金 from the Vultures, and that his 副s were crooked. I know things that some people don't." Her 注目する，もくろむs became 影をつくる／尾行するd as if by an unpleasant memory in which, though her companion could not know it, was limned the handsome, 悪意のある 直面する of エース Brent. "Or maybe people do. Maybe they guess things, but are afraid to say anything.
"But I was mistaken about you, and since you're square, then Middleton must be, too. I guess it was just too big a 職業 for him and his other 副s. 非，不，無 of them could have wiped out that ギャング（団） in the Blackfoot 長，指導者 that night like you did. It wasn't your fault that Tom 取引，協定 got away that night, before he could be questioned. If he hadn't though, maybe you could have made him tell who the other Vultures were."
"I met Jack McBride comin' out of here," said Corcoran 突然の. "He looked like he was about ready to start gunnin' for somebody. Did he drink much in here?"
"Not much. I know what's the 事柄 with him. He's been 賭事ing too much 負かす／撃墜する at the King of Diamonds. エース Brent has been winning his money for a week. McBride's nearly broke, and I believe he thinks Brent is crooked. He （機の）カム in here, drank some whisky, and let 落ちる a 発言／述べる about having a 対決 with Brent."
Corcoran rose 突然の. "Reckon I better drift 負かす／撃墜する に向かって the King of Diamonds. Somethin' may 破産した／（警察が）手入れする loose there. McBride's quick with a gun, and high tempered. Brent's deadly. Their 私的な 商売／仕事 is 非，不，無 of my 事件／事情／状勢. But if they want to fight it out, they'll have to get out where innocent people won't get 攻撃する，衝突する by 逸脱する slugs."
Glory Bland watched him as his tall, 築く 人物／姿／数字 swung out of the door, and there was a glow in her 注目する，もくろむs that had never been awakened there by any other man.
Corcoran had almost reached the King of Diamonds 賭事ing hall, when the ordinary noises of the street were 分裂（する） by the 衝突，墜落 of a 激しい gun. 同時に men （機の）カム headlong out of the doors, shouting, 押すing, 急落（する），激減（する）ing in their haste.
"McBride's killed!" bawled a hairy 鉱夫.
"No, it's Brent!" yelped another. The （人が）群がる 殺到するd and milled, craning their necks to see through the windows, yet （人が）群がるing 支援する from the door in 恐れる of 逸脱する 弾丸s. As Corcoran made for the door he heard a man bawl in answer to an eager question: "McBride （刑事）被告 Brent of usin' 示すd cards, and 申し込む／申し出d to 証明する it to the （人が）群がる. Brent said he'd kill him and pulled his gun to do it. But it snapped. I heard the 大打撃を与える click. Then McBride 演習d him before he could try again."
Men gave way as Corcoran 押し進めるd through the （人が）群がる. Somebody yelped: "Look out, Steve! McBride's on the warpath!"
Corcoran stepped into the 賭事ing hall, which was 砂漠d except for the gambler who lay dead on the 床に打ち倒す, with a 弾丸-穴を開ける over his heart, and the 殺し屋 who half-crouched with his 支援する to the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, and a smoking gun 解除するd in his 手渡す.
McBride's lips were 新たな展開d hard in a snarl, and he looked like a wolf at bay.
"Get 支援する, Corcoran," he 警告するd. "I ain't got nothin' against you, but I ain't goin' to be 殺人d like a sheep."
"Who said anything about murderin' you?" 需要・要求するd Corcoran impatiently.
"Oh, I know you wouldn't. But Brent's got friends. They'll never let me get away with killin' him. I believe he was a Vulture. I believe the Vultures will be after me for this. But if they get me, they've got to get me fightin'."
"Nobody's goin' to 傷つける you," said Corcoran tranquilly. "You better give me your gun and come along. I'll have to 逮捕（する） you, but it won't 量 to nothin', and you せねばならない know it. As soon as a 鉱夫s' 法廷，裁判所 can be got together, you'll be tried and acquitted. It was a plain 事例／患者 of self-弁護. I reckon no honest folks will do any grievin' for エース Brent."
"But if I give up my gun and go to 刑務所，拘置所," 反対するd McBride, wavering, "I'm afraid the 堅いs will take me out and lynch me."
"I'm givin' you my word you won't be 害（を与える）d while you're under 逮捕（する）," answered Corcoran.
"That's enough for me," said McBride 敏速に, 延長するing his ピストル.
Corcoran took it and thrust it into his waistband. "It's damned foolishness, takin' an honest man's gun," he grunted. "But accordin' to Middleton that's the 法律. Give me your word that you won't skip, till you've been 適切に acquitted, and I won't lock you up."
"I'd rather go to 刑務所，拘置所," said McBride. "I wouldn't skip. But I'll be safer in 刑務所，拘置所, with you guardin' me, than I would be walkin' around loose for some of Brent's friends to shoot me in the 支援する. After I've been （疑いを）晴らすd by 予定 過程 of 法律, they won't dare to lynch me, and I ain't afraid of 'em when it comes to gunfightin', in the open."
"All 権利." Corcoran stooped and 選ぶd up the dead gambler's gun, and thrust it into his belt. The （人が）群がる 殺到するing about the door gave way as he led his 囚人 out.
"There the skunk is!" bawled a rough 発言する／表明する. "He 殺人d エース Brent!"
McBride turned pale with 怒り／怒る and glared into the （人が）群がる, but Corcoran 勧めるd him along, and the 鉱夫 grinned as other 発言する／表明するs rose: "A damned good thing, too!" "Brent was crooked!" "He was a Vulture!" bawled somebody, and for a space a 緊張した silence held. That 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 was too 悪意のある to bring 率直に against even a dead man. 脅すd by his own indiscretion the man who had shouted slunk away, hoping 非，不，無 had identified his 発言する／表明する.
"I've been gamblin' too much," growled McBride, as he strode along beside Corcoran. "Afraid to try to take my gold out, though, and didn't know what else to do with it. Brent won thousands of dollars 価値（がある） of dust from me; poker, mostly.
"This mornin' I was talkin' to Middleton, and he showed a card he said a gambler dropped in his cabin last night. He showed me it was 示すd, in a way I'd never have 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd. I 認めるd it as one of the same brand Brent always uses, though Middleton wouldn't tell me who the gambler was. But later I learned that Brent slept off a drunk in Middleton's cabin. Damned poor 商売／仕事 for a gambler to get drunk.
"I went to the King of Diamonds awhile ago, and started playin' poker with Brent and a couple of 鉱夫s. As soon as he raked in the first マリファナ, I called him—flashed the card I got from Middleton and started to show the boys where it was 示すd. Then Brent pulled his gun; it snapped, and I killed him before he could cock it again. He knew I had the goods on him. He didn't even give me time to tell where I'd gotten the card."
Corcoran made no reply. He locked McBride in the 刑務所，拘置所, called the jailer from his nearby shack and told him to furnish the 囚人 with food, アルコール飲料 and anything else he needed, and then hurried to his own cabin. Sitting on his bunk in the room behind the 郡保安官's office, he 排除する／（飛行機などから）緊急脱出するd the cartridge on which Brent's ピストル had snapped. The cap was dented, but had not 爆発させるd the 砕く. Looking closely he saw faint abrasions on both the 弾丸 and 厚かましさ／高級将校連 事例／患者. They were such as might have been made by the jaws of アイロンをかける pinchers and a vise.
安全な・保証するing a wire-切断機，沿岸警備艇 with pincher jaws, he began to work at the 弾丸. It slipped out with unusual 緩和する, and the contents of the 事例／患者 流出／こぼすd into his 手渡す. He did not need to use a match to 証明する that it was not 砕く. He knew what the stuff was at first ちらりと見ること—アイロンをかける filings, to give the proper 負わせる to the cartridge from which the 砕く had been 除去するd.
At that moment he heard someone enter the outer room, and 認めるd the 会社／堅い, 平易な tread of 郡保安官 Middleton. Corcoran went into the office and Middleton turned, hung his white hat on a nail.
"McNab tells me McBride killed エース Brent!"
"You せねばならない know!" Corcoran grinned. He 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd the 弾丸 and empty 事例／患者 on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, 捨てるd the tiny pile of アイロンをかける dust beside them.
"Brent spent the night with you. You got him drunk, and stole one of his cards to show to McBride. You knew how his cards were 示すd. You took a cartridge out of Brent's gun and put that one in place. One would be enough. You knew there'd be gunplay between him and McBride, when you showed McBride that 示すd card, and you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be sure it was Brent who stopped lead."
"That's 権利," agreed Middleton. "I 港／避難所't seen you since 早期に yesterday morning. I was going to tell you about the でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる I'd ribbed, as soon as I saw you. I didn't know McBride would go after Brent as quickly as he did.
"Brent got too ambitious. He 行為／法令／行動するd as if he were 怪しげな of us both, lately. Maybe, though, it was just jealousy as far as you were 関心d. He liked Glory Bland, and she could never see him. It gouged him to see her 落ちるing for you.
"And he 手配中の，お尋ね者 my place as leader of the Vultures. If there was one man in the ギャング（団） that could have kept us from skipping with the 略奪する, it was エース Brent.
"But I think I've worked it neatly. No one can 告発する／非難する me of having him 殺人d, because McBride isn't in the ギャング（団）. I have no 支配（する）／統制する over him. But Brent's friends will want 復讐."
"A 鉱夫s' 法廷，裁判所 will acquit McBride on the first 投票（する）."
"That's true. Maybe we'd better let him get 発射, trying to escape!"
"We will like hell!" rapped Corcoran. "I swore he wouldn't be 害（を与える）d while he was under 逮捕（する）. His part of the 取引，協定 was on the level. He didn't know Brent had a blank in his gun, any more than Brent did. If Brent's friends want his scalp, let 'em go after McBride, like white men せねばならない, when he's in a position to defend himself."
"But after he's acquitted," argued Middleton, "they won't dare ギャング（団） up on him in the street, and he'll be too sharp to give them a chance at him in the hills."
"What the hell do I care?" snarled Corcoran. "What difference does it make to me whether Brent's friends get even or not? Far as I'm 関心d, he got what was comin' to him. If they ain't got the guts to give McBride an even break, I sure ain't goin' to 直す／買収する，八百長をする it so they can 殺人 him without riskin' their own hides. If I catch 'em sneakin' around the 刑務所，拘置所 for a 発射 at him, I'll fill 'em 十分な of hot lead.
"If I'd thought the 鉱夫s would be crazy enough to do anything to him for killin' Brent, I'd never 逮捕（する）d him. They won't. They'll acquit him. Until they do, I'm 責任がある him, and I've give my word. And anybody that tries to lynch him while he's in my 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 better be damned sure they're quicker with a gun than I am."
"There's nobody of that nature in Wahpeton," 認める Middleton with a wry smile. "All 権利, if you feel your personal 栄誉（を受ける） is 伴う／関わるd. But I'll have to find a way to placate Brent's friends, or they'll be 告発する／非難するing me of 存在 indifferent about what happened to him."
NEXT morning Corcoran was awakened by a wild shouting in the street. He had slept in the 刑務所，拘置所 that night, not 信用ing Brent's friends, but there had been no 試みる／企てる at 暴力／激しさ. He jerked on his boots, and went out into the street, followed by McBride, to learn what the shouting was about.
Men milled about in the street, even at that 早期に hour—for the sun was not yet up—殺到するing about a man in the garb of a 鉱夫. This man was astride a horse whose coat was dark with sweat; the man was wild 注目する，もくろむd, bareheaded, and he held his hat in his 手渡すs, 持つ／拘留するing it 負かす／撃墜する for the shouting, 悪口を言う／悪態ing throng to see.
"Look at 'em!" he yelled. "Nuggets as big as 女／おっせかい屋 eggs! I took 'em out in an hour, with a 選ぶ, diggin' in the wet sand by the creek! And there's plenty more! It's the richest strike these hills ever seen!"
"Where?" roared a hundred 発言する／表明するs.
"井戸／弁護士席, I got my （人命などを）奪う，主張する 火刑／賭けるd out, all I need," said the man, "so I don't mind tellin' you. It ain't twenty miles from here, in a little canyon everybody's overlooked and passed over—Jackrabbit Gorge! The creek's buttered with dust, and the banks are crammed with pockets of nuggets!"
An exuberant whoop 迎える／歓迎するd this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, and the （人が）群がる broke up suddenly as men raced for their shacks.
"New strike," sighed McBride enviously. "The whole town will be surgin' 負かす／撃墜する Jackrabbit Gorge. Wish I could go."
"Gimme your word you'll come 支援する and stand 裁判，公判, and you can go," 敏速に 申し込む／申し出d Corcoran. McBride stubbornly shook his 長，率いる.
"No, not till I've been （疑いを）晴らすd 合法的に. Anyway, only a handful of men will get anything. The 残り／休憩（する） will be pullin' 支援する into their （人命などを）奪う，主張するs in Wahpeton Gulch tomorrow. Hell, I've been in plenty of them 急ぐs. Only a few ever get anything."
陸軍大佐 Hopkins and his partner 刑事 Bisley hurried past. Hopkins shouted: "We'll have to 延期する your 裁判，公判 until this 急ぐ is over, Jack! We were going to 持つ／拘留する it today, but in an hour there won't be enough men in Wahpeton to impanel a 陪審／陪審員団! Sorry you can't make the 急ぐ. If we can, 刑事 and I will 火刑／賭ける out a （人命などを）奪う，主張する for you!"
"Thanks, 陸軍大佐!"
"No thanks! The （軍の）野営地，陣営 借りがあるs you something for ridding it of that scoundrel Brent. Corcoran, we'll do the same for you, if you like."
"No, thanks," drawled Corcoran. "Minin's too hard work. I've got a gold 地雷 権利 here in Wahpeton that don't take so much labor!"
The men burst into laughter at this conceit, and Bisley shouted 支援する as they hurried on: "That's 権利! Your salary looks like an assay from the Comstock lode! But you earn it, all 権利!"
Joe Willoughby （機の）カム rolling by, 主要な a seedy-looking burro on which illy-hung 選ぶ and shovel banged against skillet and kettle. Willoughby しっかり掴むd a jug in one 手渡す, and that he had already been 見本ing it was 証明するd by his wide-legged gait.
"H'ray for the new diggin's!" he whooped, brandishing the jug at Corcoran and McBride. "Git along, jackass! I'll be scoopin' out nuggets bigger'n this jug before night—if the licker don't git in my 脚s before I git there!"
"And if it does, he'll 落ちる into a ravine and wake up in the mornin' with a fifty 続けざまに猛撃する nugget in each 手渡す," said McBride. "He's the luckiest son of a gun in the （軍の）野営地，陣営; and the best natured."
"I'm goin' and get some ham-and-eggs," said Corcoran. "You want to come and eat with me, or let Pete Daley 直す／買収する，八百長をする your breakfast here?"
"I'll eat in the 刑務所，拘置所," decided McBride. "I want to stay in 刑務所，拘置所 till I'm acquitted. Then nobody can 告発する／非難する me of tryin' to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 the 法律 in any way."
"All 権利." With a shout to the jailer, Corcoran swung across the road and 長，率いるd for the （軍の）野営地，陣営's most pretentious restaurant, whose proprietor was growing rich, in spite of the terrific prices he had to 支払う／賃金 for vegetables and food of all 肉親，親類d—prices he passed on to his 顧客s.
While Corcoran was eating, Middleton entered hurriedly, and bending over him, with a 手渡す on his shoulder, spoke softly in his ear.
"I've just got 勝利，勝つd that that old 鉱夫, Joe Brockman, is trying to こそこそ動く his gold out on a pack mule, under the pretense of making this 急ぐ. I don't know whether it's so or not, but some of the boys up in the hills think it is, and are planning to waylay him and kill him. If he ーするつもりであるs getting away, he'll leave the 追跡する to Jackrabbit Gorge a few miles out of town, and swing 支援する toward Yankton, taking the 追跡する over Grizzly 山の尾根—you know where the thickets are so の近くに. The boys will be laying for him either on the 山の尾根 or just beyond.
"He hasn't enough dust to make it 価値（がある） our while to take it. If they 持つ／拘留する him up they'll have to kill him, and we want as few 殺人s as possible. Vigilante 感情 is growing, in spite of the people's 信用 in you and me. Get on your horse and ride to Grizzly 山の尾根 and see that the old man gets away 安全な. Tell the boys Middleton said to lay off. If they won't listen—but they will. They wouldn't buck you, even without my word to 支援する you. I'll follow the old man, and try to catch up with him before he leaves the Jackrabbit Gorge road.
"I've sent McNab up to watch the 刑務所，拘置所, just as a 形式順守. I know McBride won't try to escape, but we mustn't be （刑事）被告 of carelessness."
"Let McNab be mighty careful with his shootin' アイロンをかけるs," 警告するd Corcoran. "No '発射 while attemptin' to escape', Middleton. I don't 信用 McNab. If he lays a 手渡す on McBride, I'll kill him as sure as I'm sittin' here."
"Don't worry. McNab hated Brent. Better get going. Take the short 削減（する） through the hills to Grizzly 山の尾根."
"Sure." Corcoran rose and hurried out in the street which was all but 砂漠d. Far 負かす／撃墜する toward the other end of the gulch rose the dust of the rearguard of the army which was 殺到するing toward the new strike. Wahpeton looked almost like a 砂漠d town in the 早期に morning light, foreshadowing its ultimate 運命.
Corcoran went to the corral beside the 郡保安官's cabin and saddled a 急速な／放蕩な horse, ちらりと見ることing cryptically at the powerful pack mules whose numbers were 刻々と 増加するing. He smiled grimly as he remembered Middleton telling 陸軍大佐 Hopkins that pack mules were a good 投資. As he led his horse out of the corral his gaze fell on a man sprawling under the trees across the road, lazily whittling. Day and night, in one way or another, the ギャング（団） kept an 注目する，もくろむ on the cabin which hid the （武器などの）隠匿場所 of their gold. Corcoran 疑問d if they 現実に 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd Middleton's 意向s. But they 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be sure that no stranger did any snooping about.
Corcoran 棒 into a ravine that straggled away from the gulch, and a few minutes later he followed a 狭くする path to its 縁, and 長，率いるd through the mountains toward the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, miles away, where a 追跡する crossed Grizzly 山の尾根, a long, 法外な backbone, thickly 木材／素質d.
He had not left the ravine far behind him when a quick 動揺させる of hoofs brought him around, in time to see a horse slide recklessly 負かす／撃墜する a low bluff まっただ中に a にわか雨 of shale. He swore at the sight of its rider.
"Glory! What the hell?"
"Steve!" She reined up breathlessly beside him. "Go 支援する! It's a trick! I heard Buck Gorman talking to Conchita; he's 甘い on her. He's a friend of Brent's—a Vulture! She 新たな展開s all his secrets out of him. Her room is next to 地雷, she thought I was out. I overheard them talking. Gorman said a trick had been played on you to get you out of town. He didn't say how. Said you'd go to Grizzly 山の尾根 on a wild-goose chase. While you're gone they're going to 組み立てる／集結する a '鉱夫s' 法廷，裁判所,' out of the riff-raff left in town. They're going to 任命する a '裁判官' and '陪審／陪審員団,' take McBride out of 刑務所，拘置所, try him for 殺人，大当り エース Brent—and hang him!"
A lurid 誓い ripped through Steve Corcoran's lips, and for an instant the tiger flashed into 見解（をとる）, 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing, fangs 明らかにするd. Then his dark 直面する was an inscrutable mask again. He wrenched his horse around.
"Much 強いるd, Glory. I'll be dustin' 支援する into town. You circle around and come in another way. I don't want folks to know you told me."
"Neither do I!" she shuddered. "I knew エース Brent was a Vulture. He 誇るd of it to me, once when he was drunk. But I never dared tell anyone. He told me what he'd do to me if I did. I'm glad he's dead. I didn't know Gorman was a Vulture, but I might have guessed it. He was Brent's closest friend. If they ever find out I told you—"
"They won't," Corcoran 保証するd her. It was natural for a girl to 恐れる such 黒人／ボイコット-hearted rogues as the Vultures, but the thought of them 現実に 害（を与える）ing her never entered his mind. He （機の）カム from a country where not even the worst of scoundrels would ever dream of 傷つけるing a woman.
He drove his horse at a 無謀な gallop 支援する the way he had come, but not all the way. Before he reached the Gulch he swung wide of the ravine he had followed out, and 急落（する），激減（する）d into another, that would bring him into the Gulch at the end of town where the 刑務所，拘置所 stood. As he 棒 負かす／撃墜する it he heard a 深い, awesome roar he 認めるd—the roar of the man-pack, 追跡（する）ing its own 肉親，親類d.
A 禁止（する）d of men 殺到するd up the dusty street, roaring, 悪口を言う／悪態ing. One man waved a rope. Pale 直面するs of bartenders, 蓄える／店 clerks and dance hall girls peered timidly out of doorways as the unsavory 暴徒 roared past. Corcoran knew them, by sight or 評判: plug-uglies, barroom loafers, skulkers—many were Vultures, as he knew; others were riff-raff, ready for any sort of deviltry that 要求するd neither courage nor 知能—the scum that gathers in any 採掘 （軍の）野営地，陣営.
Dismounting, Corcoran glided through the straggling trees that grew behind the 刑務所，拘置所, and heard McNab challenge the 暴徒.
"What do you want?"
"We 目的（とする） to try your 囚人!" shouted the leader. "We come in the 予定 過程 of 法律. We've app'inted a jedge and パネル盤d a 陪審／陪審員団, and we 需要・要求するs that you を引き渡す the 囚人 to be tried in 鉱夫s' 法廷，裁判所, accordin' to 合法的な precedent!"
"How do I know you're 代表者／国会議員 of the （軍の）野営地，陣営?" parried McNab.
"'原因（となる） we're the only 団体／死体 of men in （軍の）野営地，陣営 権利 now!" yelled someone, and this was 迎える／歓迎するd by a roar of laughter.
"We come 権力を与えるd with the proper 当局—" began the leader, and broke off suddenly: "得る，とらえる him, boys!"
There was the sound of a 簡潔な／要約する scuffle, McNab swore vigorously, and the leader's 発言する／表明する rose triumphantly: "Let go of him, boys, but don't give him his gun. McNab, you せねばならない know better'n to try to …に反対する 合法的な 手続き, and you a upholder of 法律 and order!"
Again a roar of sardonic laughter, and McNab growled: "All 権利; go ahead with the 裁判，公判. But you do it over my 抗議するs. I don't believe this is a 代表者／国会議員 議会."
"Yes, it is," averred the leader, and then his 発言する／表明する thickened with 血-lust. "Now, Daley, gimme that 重要な and bring out the 囚人."
The 暴徒 殺到するd toward the door of the 刑務所，拘置所, and at that instant Corcoran stepped around the corner of the cabin and leaped up on the low porch it 誇るd. There was a hissing intake of breath. Men 停止（させる）d suddenly, digging their heels against the 圧力 behind them. The 殺到するing line wavered backward, leaving two 人物／姿／数字s 孤立するd—McNab, scowling, 武装解除するd, and a hairy 巨大（な） whose 抱擁する belly was girt with a 幅の広い belt bristling with gun butts and knife hilts. He held a noose in one 手渡す, and his bearded lips gaped as he glared at the 予期しない apparition.
For a breathless instant Corcoran did not speak. He did not look at McBride's pallid countenance peering through the 閉めだした door behind him. He stood 直面するing the 暴徒, his 長，率いる わずかに bent, a somber, immobile 人物／姿／数字, 悪意のある with menace.
"井戸／弁護士席," he said finally, softly, "what's holdin' up the 保釈（金）?"
The leader blustered feebly.
"We come here to try a 殺害者!"
Corcoran 解除するd his 長，率いる and the man involuntarily recoiled at the lethal glitter of his 注目する，もくろむs.
"Who's your 裁判官?" the Texan 問い合わせd softly.
"We 任命するd Jake Bissett, there," spoke up a man, pointing at the uncomfortable 巨大（な） on the porch.
"So you're goin' to 持つ／拘留する a 鉱夫s' 法廷，裁判所," murmured Corcoran. "With a 裁判官 and 陪審／陪審員団 選ぶd out of the dives and honky-tonks—scum and dirt of the gutter!" And suddenly uncontrollable fury 炎上d in his 注目する，もくろむs. Bissett, sensing his 意向, bellowed in ox-like alarm and grabbed frantically at a gun. His fingers had scarcely touched the checkered butt when smoke and 炎上 roared from Corcoran's 権利 hip. Bissett pitched backward off the porch as if he had been struck by a 大打撃を与える; the rope 絡まるd about his 四肢s as he fell, and he lay in the dust that slowly turned crimson, his hairy fingers twitching spasmodically.
Corcoran 直面するd the 暴徒, livid under his sun-burnt bronze. His 注目する，もくろむs were coals of blue hell's-解雇する／砲火／射撃. There was a gun in each 手渡す, and from the 権利-手渡す muzzle a wisp of blue smoke drifted lazily 上向き.
"I 宣言する this 法廷，裁判所 延期，休会するd!" he roared. "The 裁判官 is done 弾こうするd, and the 陪審／陪審員団's 発射する／解雇するd! I'll give you thirty seconds to （疑いを）晴らす the courtroom!"
He was one man against nearly a hundred, but he was a grey wolf 直面するing a pack of yapping jackals. Each man knew that if the 暴徒 殺到するd on him, they would drag him 負かす／撃墜する at last; but each man knew what an awful （死傷者）数 would first be paid, and each man 恐れるd that he himself would be one of those to 支払う／賃金 that （死傷者）数.
They hesitated, つまずくd 支援する—gave way suddenly and scattered in all directions. Some 支援するd away, some shamelessly turned their 支援するs and fled. With a snarl Corcoran thrust his guns 支援する in their scabbards and turned toward the door where McBride stood, しっかり掴むing the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s.
"I thought I was a goner that time, Corcoran," he gasped. The Texan pulled the door open, and 押し進めるd McBride's ピストル into his 手渡す.
"There's a horse tied behind the 刑務所，拘置所," said Corcoran. "Get on it and dust out of here. I'll take the 十分な 責任／義務. If you stay here they'll 燃やす 負かす／撃墜する the 刑務所，拘置所, or shoot you through the window. You can make it out of town while they're scattered. I'll explain to Middleton and Hopkins. In a month or so, if you want to, come 支援する and stand 裁判，公判, as a 事柄 of 形式順守. Things will be cleaned up around here by then."
McBride needed no 勧めるing. The grisly 運命／宿命 he had just escaped had shaken his 神経. Shaking Corcoran's 手渡す passionately, he ran stumblingly through the trees to the horse Corcoran had left there. A few moments later he was fogging it out of the Gulch.
McNab （機の）カム up, scowling and 不平（をいう）ing.
"You had no 当局 to let him go. I tried to stop the 暴徒—"
Corcoran wheeled and 直面するd him, making no 試みる／企てる to 隠す his 憎悪.
"You did like hell! Don't pull that stuff with me, McNab. You was in on this, and so was Middleton. You put up a bluff of talk, so afterwards you could tell 陸軍大佐 Hopkins and the others that you tried to stop the lynchin' and was overpowered. I saw the 捨てる you put up when they grabbed you! Hell! You're a rotten actor."
"You can't talk to me like that!" roared McNab.
The old tigerish light flickered in the blue 注目する，もくろむs. Corcoran did not 正確に／まさに move, yet he seemed to 沈む into a half-crouch, as a cougar does for the 殺人，大当り spring.
"If you don't like my style, McNab," he said softly, thickly, "you're more'n welcome to open the 保釈（金） whenever you get ready!"
For an instant they 直面するd each other, McNab 黒人／ボイコット browed and scowling, Corcoran's thin lips almost smiling, but blue 解雇する／砲火／射撃 lighting his 注目する，もくろむs. Then with a grunt McNab turned and slouched away, his shaggy 長，率いる swaying from 味方する to 味方する like that of a surly bull.
MIDDLETON pulled up his horse suddenly as Corcoran reined out of the bushes. One ちらりと見ること showed the 郡保安官 that Corcoran's mood was far from placid. They were まっただ中に a grove of alders, perhaps a mile from the Gulch.
"Why, hello, Corcoran," began Middleton, 隠すing his surprise. "I caught up with Brockman. It was just a wild 噂する. He didn't have any gold. That—"
"減少（する） it!" snapped Corcoran. "I know why you sent me off on that wild-goose chase—same 推論する／理由 you pulled out of town. To give Brent's friends a chance to get even with McBride. If I hadn't turned around and dusted 支援する into Wahpeton, McBride would be kickin' his life out at the end of a rope, 権利 now."
"You （機の）カム 支援する—?"
"Yeah! And now Jake Bissett's in Hell instead of Jack McBride, and McBride's dusted out—on a horse I gave him. I told you I gave him my word he wouldn't be lynched."
"You killed Bissett?"
"Deader'n hell!"
"He was a Vulture," muttered Middleton, but he did not seem displeased. "Brent, Bissett—the more Vultures die, the easier it will be for us to get away when we go. That's one 推論する／理由 I had Brent killed. But you should have let them hang McBride. Of course I でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd this 事件／事情／状勢; I had to do something to 満足させる Brent's friends. さもなければ they might have gotten 怪しげな.
"If they 疑惑d I had anything to do with having him killed, or thought I wasn't anxious to punish the man who killed him, they'd make trouble for me. I can't have a 分裂（する） in the ギャング（団） now. And even I can't 保護する you from Brent's friends, after this."
"Have I ever asked you, or any man, for 保護?" The quick jealous pride of the gunfighter vibrated in his 発言する／表明する.
"Breckman, Red 法案, Curly, and now Bissett. You've killed too many Vultures. I made them think the 殺人，大当り of the first three was a mistake, all around. Bissett wasn't very popular. But they won't 許す you for stopping them from hanging the man who killed エース Brent. They won't attack you 率直に, of course. But you'll have to watch every step you make. They'll kill you if they can, and I won't be able to 妨げる them."
"If I'd tell 'em just how エース Brent died, you'd be in the same boat," said Corcoran bitingly. "Of course, I won't. Our final 逃亡 depends on you keepin' their 信用／信任—同様に as the 信用／信任 of the honest folks. This last killin' せねばならない put me, and therefore you, エース-high with Hopkins and his （人が）群がる."
"They're still talking vigilante. I encourage it. It's coming anyway. 殺人s in the 辺ぴな （軍の）野営地，陣営s are 運動ing men to a frenzy of 恐れる and 激怒（する）, even though such 罪，犯罪s have 中止するd in Wahpeton. Better to 落ちる in line with the 必然的な and 新たな展開 it to a man's own ends, than to try to …に反対する it. If you can keep Brent's friends from 殺人，大当り you for a few more weeks, we'll be ready to jump. Look out for Buck Gorman. He's the most dangerous man in the ギャング（団）. He was Brent's friend, and he has his own friends—all dangerous men. Don't kill him unless you have to."
"I'll take care of myself," answered Corcoran somberly. "I looked for Gorman in the 暴徒, but he wasn't there. Too smart. But he's the man behind the 暴徒. Bissett was just a stupid ox; Gorman planned it—or rather, I reckon he helped you 計画（する） it."
"I'm wondering how you 設立する out about it," said Middleton. "You wouldn't have come 支援する unless somebody told you. Who was it?"
"非，不，無 of your 商売／仕事," growled Corcoran. It did not occur to him that Glory Bland would be in any danger from Middleton, even if the 郡保安官 knew about her part in the 事件／事情／状勢, but he did not relish 存在 questioned, and did not feel 強いるd to answer anybody's queries.
"That new gold strike sure （機の）カム in mighty handy for you and Gorman," he said. "Did you でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる that, too?"
Middleton nodded.
"Of course. That was one of my men who 提起する／ポーズをとるs as a 鉱夫. He had a hatful of nuggets from the （武器などの）隠匿場所. He served his 目的 and joined the men who hide up there in the hills. The 暴徒 of 鉱夫s will be 支援する tomorrow, tired and mad and disgusted, and when they hear about what happened, they'll 認める the handiwork of the Vultures; at least some of them will. But they won't connect me with it in any way. Now we'll ride 支援する to town. Things are breaking our way, in spite of your foolish 干渉，妨害 with the 暴徒. But let Gorman alone. You can't afford to make any more enemies in the ギャング（団）."
Buck Gorman leaned on the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 in the Golden Eagle and 表明するd his opinion of Steve Corcoran in no uncertain 条件. The （人が）群がる listened sympathetically, for, almost to a man, they were the ruffians and riff-raff of the （軍の）野営地，陣営.
"The dog pretends to be a 副!" roared Gorman, whose bloodshot 注目する，もくろむs and damp 絡まるd hair attested to the 量 of アルコール飲料 he had drunk. "But he kills an 任命するd 裁判官, breaks up a 法廷，裁判所 and 運動s away the 陪審／陪審員団— yes, and 解放（する）s the 囚人, a man 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with 殺人!"
It was the day after the 偽の gold strike, and the disillusioned 鉱夫s were 溺死するing their chagrin in the saloons. But few honest 鉱夫s were in the Golden Eagle.
"陸軍大佐 Hopkins and other 目だつ 国民s held an 調査," said someone. "They 宣言するd that 証拠 showed Corcoran to have been 正当化するd—公然と非難するd the 法廷，裁判所 as a 暴徒, acquitted Corcoran of 殺人，大当り Bissett, and then went ahead and acquitted McBride for 殺人，大当り Brent, even though he wasn't there."
Gorman snarled like a cat, and reached for his whisky glass. His 手渡す did not twitch or quiver, his movements were more catlike than ever. The whisky had inflamed his mind, illumined his brain with a white-hot certainty that was akin to insanity, but it had not 影響する／感情d his 神経s or any part of his muscular system. He was more deadly drunk than sober.
"I was Brent's best friend!" he roared. "I was Bissett's friend."
"They say Bissett was a Vulture," whispered a 発言する／表明する. Gorman 解除するd his tawny 長，率いる and glared about the room as a lion might glare.
"Who says he was a Vulture? Why don't these slanderers 告発する／非難する a living man? It's always a dead man they 告発する／非難する! 井戸／弁護士席, what if he was? He was my friend! Maybe that makes me a Vulture!"
No one laughed or spoke as his 炎上ing gaze swept the room, but each man, as those 炎ing 注目する，もくろむs 残り／休憩（する）d on him in turn, felt the 冷気／寒がらせる breath of Death blowing upon him.
"Bissett a Vulture!" he said, wild enough with drink and fury to commit any folly, 同様に as any 残虐（行為）. He did not 注意する the 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on him, some in 恐れる, a few in 激しい 利益／興味. "Who knows who the Vultures are? Who knows who, or what anybody really is? Who really knows anything about this man Corcoran, for instance? I could tell—"
A light step on the threshold brought him about as Corcoran ぼんやり現れるd in the door. Gorman froze, snarling, lips writhed 支援する, a tawny-maned incarnation of hate and menace.
"I heard you was makin' a talk about me 負かす／撃墜する here, Gorman," said Corcoran. His 直面する was 荒涼とした and emotionless as that of a 石／投石する image, but his 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすd with murderous 目的.
Gorman snarled wordlessly.
"I looked for you in the 暴徒," said Corcoran, tonelessly, his 発言する／表明する as soft and without 強調 as the even 一打／打撃s of a feather. It seemed almost as if his 発言する／表明する were a thing apart from him; his lips murmuring while all the 残り／休憩（する） of his 存在 was 緊張した with 集中 on the man before him.
"You wasn't there. You sent your coyotes, but you didn't have the guts to come yourself, and—"
The dart of Gorman's 手渡す to his gun was like the blurring 一打／打撃 of a snake's 長，率いる, but no 注目する，もくろむ could follow Corcoran's 手渡す. His gun 粉砕するd before anyone knew he had reached for it. Like an echo （機の）カム the roar of Gorman's 発射. But the 弾丸 ploughed splinteringly into the 床に打ち倒す, from a 手渡す that was already death-stricken and 落ちるing. Gorman pitched over and lay still, the swinging lamp glinting on his 上昇傾向d 刺激（する）s and the blue steel of the smoking gun which lay by his 手渡す.
COLONEL HOPKINS looked absently at the アルコール飲料 in his glass, stirred restlessly, and said 突然の: "Middleton, I might 同様に come to the point. My friends and I have 組織するd a vigilante 委員会, just as we should have done months ago. Now, wait a minute. Don't take this as a 批評 of your methods. You've done wonders in the last month, ever since you brought Steve Corcoran in here. Not a ピストル強盗 in the town, not a 殺人，大当り—that is, not a 殺人, and only a few 狙撃s の中で the honest 国民s.
"追加するd to that the ridding of the （軍の）野営地，陣営 of such scoundrels as Jake Bissett and Buck Gorman. They were both undoubtedly members of the Vultures. I wish Corcoran hadn't killed Gorman just when he did, though. The man was drunk, and about to make some 無謀な 公表，暴露s about the ギャング（団）. At least that's what a friend of 地雷 thinks, who was in the Golden Eagle that night. But anyway it couldn't be helped.
"No, we're not 非難するing you at all. But 明白に you can't stop the 殺人s and 強盗s that are going on up and 負かす／撃墜する the Gulch, all the time. And you can't stop the 無法者s from 持つ／拘留するing up the 行う／開催する／段階 定期的に.
"So that's where we come in. We have 精査するd the （軍の）野営地，陣営, carefully, over a period of months, until we have fifty men we can 信用 絶対. It's taken a long time, because we've had to be sure of our men. We didn't want to take in a man who might be a 秘かに調査する for the Vultures. But at last we know where we stand. We're not sure just who is a Vulture, but we know who isn't, in as far as our organization is 関心d.
"We can work together, John. We have no 意向 of 干渉するing within your 裁判権, or trying to take the 法律 out of your 手渡すs. We 需要・要求する a 解放する／自由な 手渡す outside the （軍の）野営地，陣営; inside the 限界s of Wahpeton we are willing to 行為／法令／行動する under your orders, or at least によれば your advice. Of course we will work in 絶対の secrecy until we have proof enough to strike."
"You must remember, 陸軍大佐," reminded Middleton, "that all along I've 認める the impossibility of my breaking up the Vultures with the 限られた／立憲的な means at my 処分. I've never …に反対するd a vigilante 委員会. All I've 需要・要求するd was that when it was formed, it should be composed of honest men, and be 解放する／自由な of any element which might 捜し出す to 新たな展開 its 目的 into the wrong channels."
"That's true. I didn't 推定する／予想する any 対立 from you, and I can 保証する you that we'll always work 手渡す-in-手渡す with you and your 副s." He hesitated, as if over something unpleasant, and then said: "John, are you sure of all your 副s?"
Middleton's 長，率いる jerked up and he 発射 a startled ちらりと見ること at the 陸軍大佐, as if the latter had surprised him by putting into words a thought that had already occurred to him.
"Why do you ask?" he parried.
"井戸／弁護士席," Hopkins was embarrassed, "I don't know—maybe I'm prejudiced—but—井戸／弁護士席, damn it, to put it bluntly, I've いつかs wondered about 法案 McNab!"
Middleton filled the glasses again before he answered.
"陸軍大佐, I never 告発する／非難する a man without アイロンをかける-覆う？ 証拠. I'm not always 満足させるd with McNab's 活動／戦闘s, but it may 単に be the man's nature. He's a surly brute. But he has his virtues. I'll tell you 率直に, the 推論する／理由 I 港／避難所't 発射する／解雇するd him is that I'm not sure of him. That probably sounds あいまいな."
"Not at all. I 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる your position. You have as much as said you 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う him of 二塁打-取引，協定ing, and are keeping him on your 軍隊 so you can watch him. Your wits are not dull, John. 率直に—and this will probably surprise you—until a month ago some of the men were beginning to whisper some queer things about you—queer 疑惑s, that is. But your bringing Corcoran in showed us that you were on the level. You'd have never brought him in if you'd been taking 支払う／賃金 from the Vultures!"
Middleton 停止（させる）d with his glass at his lips.
"広大な／多数の／重要な heavens!" he ejaculated. "Did they 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う me of that?"
"Just a fool idea some of the men had," Hopkins 保証するd him. "Of course I never gave it a thought. The men who thought it are ashamed now. The 殺人，大当り of Bissett, of Gorman, of the men in the Blackfoot 長，指導者, show that Corcoran's on the level. And of course, he's 単に taking his orders from you. All those men were Vultures, of course. It's a pity Tom 取引，協定 got away before we could question him." He rose to go.
"McNab was guarding 取引，協定," said Middleton, and his トン 暗示するd more than his words said.
Hopkins 発射 him a startled ちらりと見ること.
"By heaven, so he was! But he was really 負傷させるd—I saw the 弾丸 穴を開ける in his arm, where 取引，協定 発射 him in making his 逃亡."
"That's true." Middleton rose and reached for his hat. "I'll walk along with you. I want to find Corcoran and tell him what you've just told me."
"It's been a week since he killed Gorman," mused Hopkins. "I've been 推定する／予想するing Gorman's Vulture friends to try to get him, any time."
"So have I!" answered Middleton, with a grimness which his companion 行方不明になるd.
DOWN the gulch lights 炎d; the windows of cabins were yellow squares in the night, and beyond them the velvet sky 反映するd the lurid heart of the （軍の）野営地，陣営. The intermittent 微風 brought faint 緊張するs of music and the other noises of hilarity. But up the gulch, where a clump of trees straggled 近づく an unlighted cabin, the 不明瞭 of the moonless night was a mask that the faint 星／主役にするs did not illuminate.
人物／姿／数字s moved in the 深い 影をつくる／尾行するs of the trees, 発言する／表明するs whispered, their furtive トンs mingling with the rustling of the 勝利，勝つd through the leaves.
"We ain't の近くに enough. We せねばならない lay と一緒に his cabin and 爆破 him as he goes in."
A second 発言する／表明する joined the first, muttering like a bodyless 発言する／表明する in a conclave of ghosts.
"We've gone all over that. I tell you this is the best way. Get him off guard. You're sure Middleton was playin' cards at the King of Diamonds?"
Another 発言する／表明する answered: "He'll be there till daylight, likely."
"He'll be awful mad," whispered the first （衆議院の）議長.
"Let him. He can't afford to do anything about it. Listen! Somebody's comin' up the road!"
They crouched 負かす／撃墜する in the bushes, 合併するing with the blacker 影をつくる／尾行するs. They were so far from the cabin, and it was so dark, that the approaching 人物／姿／数字 was only a 薄暗い blur in the gloom.
"It's him!" a 発言する／表明する hissed ひどく, as the blur 合併するd with the bulkier 影をつくる／尾行する that was the cabin.
In the stillness a door rasped across a sill. A yellow light sprang up, streaming through the door, 封鎖するing out a small window high up in the 塀で囲む. The man inside did not cross the lighted doorway, and the window was too high to see through into the cabin.
The light went out after a few minutes.
"Come on!" The three men rose and went stealthily toward the cabin. Their 明らかにする feet made no sound, for they had discarded their boots. Coats too had been discarded, any 衣料品 that might swing loosely and rustle, or catch on 発射／推定s. Cocked guns were in their 手渡すs, they could have been no more 用心深い had they been approaching the lair of a lion. And each man's heart 続けざまに猛撃するd suffocatingly, for the prey they stalked was far more dangerous than any lion.
When one spoke it was so low that his companions hardly heard him with their ears a 事柄 of インチs from his bearded lips.
"We'll take our places like we planned, Joel. You'll go to the door and call him, like we told you. He knows Middleton 信用s you. He don't know you'd be helpin' Gorman's friends. He'll 認める your 発言する／表明する, and he won't 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う nothin'. When he comes to the door and opens it, step 支援する into the 影をつくる／尾行するs and 落ちる flat. We'll do the 残り／休憩（する） from where we'll be layin'."
His 発言する／表明する shook わずかに as he spoke, and the other man shuddered; his 直面する was a pallid oval in the 不明瞭.
"I'll do it, but I bet he kills some of us. I bet he kills me, anyway. I must have been crazy when I said I'd help you fellows."
"You can't 支援する out now!" hissed the other. They stole 今後, their guns 前進するd, their hearts in their mouths. Then the 真っ先の man caught at the 武器 of his companions.
"Wait! Look there! He's left the door open!"
The open doorway was a blacker 影をつくる／尾行する in the 影をつくる／尾行する of the 塀で囲む.
"He knows we're after him!" There was a catch of hysteria in the babbling whisper. "It's a 罠（にかける）!"
"Don't be a fool! How could he know? He's asleep. I hear him snorin'. We won't wake him. We'll step into the cabin and let him have it! We'll have enough light from the window to 位置を示す the bunk, and we'll rake it with lead before he can move. He'll wake up in Hell. Come on, and for God's sake, don't make no noise!"
The last advice was unnecessary. Each man, as he 始める，決める his 明らかにする foot 負かす／撃墜する, felt as if he were setting it into the lair of a diamond-支援するd rattler.
As they glided, one after another, across the threshold, they made いっそう少なく noise than the 勝利，勝つd blowing through the 黒人／ボイコット 支店s. They crouched by the door, 緊張するing their 注目する，もくろむs across the room, whence （機の）カム the rhythmic snoring. Enough light 精査するd through the small window to show them a vague 輪郭（を描く） that was a bunk, with a shapeless 集まり upon it.
A man caught his breath in a short, uncontrollable gasp. Then the cabin was shaken by a thunderous ボレー, three guns roaring together. Lead swept the bunk in a 破滅的な 嵐／襲撃する, thudding into flesh and bone, smacking into 支持を得ようと努めるd. A wild cry broke in a gagging gasp. 四肢s thrashed wildly and a 激しい 団体／死体 宙返り／暴落するd to the 床に打ち倒す. From the 不明瞭 on the 床に打ち倒す beside the bunk 井戸／弁護士席d up hideous sounds, choking gurgles and a convulsive flopping and 強くたたくing. The men crouching 近づく the door 注ぐd lead blindly at the sounds. There was 恐れる and panic in the haste and number of their 発射s. They did not 中止する jerking their 誘発する／引き起こすs until their guns were empty, and the noises on the 床に打ち倒す had 中止するd.
"Out of here, quick!" gasped one.
"No! Here's the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and a candle on it. I felt it in the dark. I've got to know that he's dead before I leave this cabin. I've got to see him lyin' dead if I'm goin' to sleep 平易な. We've got plenty of time to get away. Folks 負かす／撃墜する the gulch must have heard the 発射s, but it'll take time for them to get here. No danger. I'm goin' to light the candle!"
There was a rasping sound, and a yellow light sprang up, etching three 星／主役にするing, bearded 直面するs. Wisps of blue smoke blurred the light as the candle wick 点火（する）d from the fumbling match, but the men saw a 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd 形態／調整 crumpled 近づく the bunk, from which streams of dark crimson radiated in every direction.
"Ahhh!"
They whirled at the sound of running footsteps.
"Oh, God!" shrieked one of the men, 落ちるing to his 膝s, his 手渡すs 解除するd to shut out a terrible sight. The other ruffians staggered with the shock of what they saw. They stood gaping, livid, helpless, empty guns sagging in their 手渡すs.
For in the doorway, glaring in dangerous amazement, with a gun in each 手渡す, stood the man whose lifeless 団体／死体 they thought lay over there by the 後援d bunk!
"減少（する） them guns!" Corcoran rasped. They clattered on the 床に打ち倒す as the 手渡すs of their owner mechanically reached skyward. The man on the 床に打ち倒す staggered up, his 手渡すs empty; he retched, shaken by the nausea of 恐れる.
"Joel Miller!" said Corcoran 平等に; his surprise was passed, as he realized what had happened. "Didn't know you run with Gorman's （人が）群がる. Reckon Middleton'll be some surprised, too."
"You're a devil!" gasped Miller. "You can't be killed! We killed you —heard you roll off your bunk and die on the 床に打ち倒す, in the dark. We kept 狙撃 after we knew you were dead. But you're alive!"
"You didn't shoot me," grunted Corcoran. "You 発射 a man you thought was me. I was comin' up the road when I heard the 発射s. You killed Joe Willoughby! He was drunk and I reckon he staggered in here and fell in my bunk, like he's done before."
The men went whiter yet under their bushy 耐えるd, with 激怒（する） and chagrin and 恐れる.
"Willoughby!" babbled Miller. "The （軍の）野営地，陣営 will never stand for this! Let us go, Corcoran! Hopkins and his （人が）群がる will hang us! It'll mean the end of the Vultures! Your end, too, Corcoran! If they hang us, we'll talk first! They'll find out that you're one of us!"
"In that 事例／患者," muttered Corcoran, his 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするing, "I'd better kill the three of you. That's the sensible 解答. You killed Willoughby, tryin' to get me; I kill you, in self-弁護."
"Don't do it, Corcoran!" 叫び声をあげるd Miller, frantic with terror.
"Shut up, you dog," growled one of the other men, glaring balefully at their captor. "Corcoran wouldn't shoot 負かす／撃墜する 非武装の men."
"No, I wouldn't," said Corcoran. "Not unless you made some 肉親，親類d of a break. I'm peculiar that way, which I see is a 障害（者） in this country. But it's the way I was raised, and I can't get over it. No, I ain't goin' to beef you 冷淡な, though you've just tried to get me that way.
"But I'll be damned if I'm goin' to let you こそこそ動く off, to come 支援する here and try it again the minute you get your 神経 bucked up. I'd about as soon be hanged by the vigilantes as 発射 in the 支援する by a passle of ネズミs like you-all. Vultures, hell! You ain't even got the guts to be good buzzards.
"I'm goin' to take you 負かす／撃墜する the gulch and throw you in 刑務所，拘置所. It'll be up to Middleton to decide what to do with you. He'll probably work out some 計画／陰謀 that'll 搾取する everybody except himself; but I 警告する you—one yap about the Vultures to anybody, and I'll forget my raisin' and send you to Hell with your belts empty and your boots on."
The noise in the King of Diamonds was hushed suddenly as a man 急ぐd in and bawled: "The Vultures have 殺人d Joe Willoughby! Steve Corcoran caught three of 'em, and has just locked 'em up! This time we've got some live Vultures to work on!"
A roar answered him and the 賭事ing hall emptied itself as men 急ぐd yelling into the street. John Middleton laid 負かす／撃墜する his 手渡す of cards, donned his white hat with a 手渡す that was 安定した as a 激しく揺する, and strode after them.
Already a （人が）群がる was 殺到するing and roaring around the 刑務所，拘置所. The 鉱夫s were 攻撃するd into a murderous frenzy and were 抑制するd from 粉々にするing the door and dragging 前へ／外へ the cowering 囚人s only by the presence of Corcoran, who 直面するd them on the 刑務所，拘置所-porch. McNab, Richardson and Stark were there, also. McNab was pale under his whiskers, and Stark seemed nervous and ill at 緩和する, but Richardson, as always, was 冷淡な as ice.
"Hang 'em!" roared the 暴徒. "Let us have 'em, Steve! You've done your part! This （軍の）野営地，陣営's put up with enough! Let us have 'em!"
Middleton climbed up on the porch, and was 迎える／歓迎するd by loud 元気づけるs, but his 成果／努力s to 静かな the throng 証明するd futile. Somebody brandished a rope with a noose in it. 憤慨, long smoldering, was bursting into 炎上, fanned by hysterical 恐れる and hate. The 暴徒 had no wish to 害（を与える） either Corcoran or Middleton—did not ーするつもりである to 害（を与える） them. But they were 決定するd to drag out the 囚人s and string them up.
陸軍大佐 Hopkins 軍隊d his way through the （人が）群がる, 機動力のある the step, and waved his 手渡すs until he 得るd a 確かな 量 of silence.
"Listen, men!" he roared, "this is the beginning of a new 時代 for Wahpeton! This （軍の）野営地，陣営 has been terrorized long enough. We're beginning a 支配する of 法律 and order, 権利 now! But don't spoil it at the very beginning! These men shall hang—I 断言する it! But let's do it 合法的に, and with the 許可／制裁 of 法律. Another thing: if you hang them out of 手渡す, we'll never learn who their companions and leaders are.
"Tomorrow, I 約束 you, a 法廷，裁判所 of 調査 will sit on their 事例／患者. They'll be questioned and 軍隊d to 明らかにする／漏らす the men above and behind them. This （軍の）野営地，陣営 is going to be cleaned up! Let's clean it up 合法の and in order!"
"陸軍大佐's 権利!" bawled a bearded 巨大（な）. "Ain't no use to hang the little ネズミs till we find out who's the big 'uns!"
A roar of approbation rose as the temper of the 暴徒 changed. It began to break up, as the men scattered to 急いで 支援する to the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s and indulge in their passion to discuss the new 開発.
Hopkins shook Corcoran's 手渡す heartily.
"Congratulations, sir! I've seen poor Joe's 団体／死体. A terrible sight. The fiends 公正に／かなり 発射 the poor fellow to 略章s. Middleton, I told you the vigilantes wouldn't usurp your 当局 in Wahpeton. I keep my word. We'll leave these 殺害者s in your 刑務所，拘置所, guarded by your 副s. Tomorrow the vigilante 法廷，裁判所 will sit in 開会／開廷／会期, and I hope we'll come to the 底（に届く） of this filthy mess."
And so 説 he strode off, followed by a dozen or so steely-注目する，もくろむd men whom Middleton knew formed the 核 of the 陸軍大佐's organization.
When they were out of 審理，公聴会, Middleton stepped to the door and spoke quickly to the 囚人s: "Keep your mouths shut. You fools have gotten us all in a jam, but I'll snake you out of it, somehow." To McNab he spoke: "Watch the 刑務所，拘置所. Don't let anybody come 近づく it. Corcoran and I have got to talk this over." Lowering his 発言する／表明する so the 囚人s could not hear, he 追加するd: "If anybody does come, that you can't order off, and these fools start 狙撃 off their 長，率いるs, の近くに their mouths with lead."
Corcoran followed Middleton into the 影をつくる／尾行する of the gulch 塀で囲む. Out of earshot of the nearest cabin, Middleton turned. "Just what happened?"
"Gorman's friends tried to get me. They killed Joe Willoughby by mistake. I 運ぶ／漁獲高d them in. That's all."
"That's not all," muttered Middleton. "There'll be hell to 支払う／賃金 if they come to 裁判，公判. Miller's yellow. He'll talk, sure. I've been afraid Gorman's friends would try to kill you—wondering how it would work out. It's worked out just about the worst way it かもしれない could. You should either have killed them or let them go. Yet I 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる your 態度. You have scruples against 冷淡な-血d 殺人; and if you'd turned them loose, they'd have been 支援する potting at you the next night."
"I couldn't have turned them loose if I'd 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. Men had heard the 発射s; they （機の）カム runnin'; 設立する me there holdin' a gun on those devils, and Joe Willoughby's 団体／死体 layin' on the 床に打ち倒す, 発射 to pieces."
"I know. But we can't keep members of our own ギャング（団） in 刑務所，拘置所, and we can't 手渡す them over to the vigilantes. I've got to 延期する that 裁判，公判, somehow. If I were ready, we'd jump tonight, and to hell with it. But I'm not ready. After all, perhaps it's 同様に this happened. It may give us our chance to skip. We're one jump ahead of the vigilantes and the ギャング（団）, too. We know the vigilantes have formed and are ready to strike, and the 残り／休憩（する） of the ギャング（団） don't. I've told no one but you what Hopkins told me 早期に in the evening.
"Listen, Corcoran, we've got to move tomorrow night! I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to pull one last 職業, the biggest of all—the 略奪するing of Hopkins and Bisley's 私的な （武器などの）隠匿場所. I believe I could have done it, in spite of all their guards and 警戒s. But we'll have to let that slide. I'll 説得する Hopkins to put off the 裁判，公判 another day. I think I know how. Tomorrow night I'll have the vigilantes and the Vultures at each others' throats! We'll 負担 the mules and pull out while they're fighting. Once let us get a good start, and they're welcome to chase us if they want to.
"I'm going to find Hopkins now. You get 支援する to the 刑務所，拘置所. If McNab 会談 to Miller or the others, be sure you listen to what's said."
Middleton 設立する Hopkins in the Golden Eagle Saloon.
"I've come to ask a 好意 of you, 陸軍大佐," he began 直接／まっすぐに. "I want you, if it's possible, to put off the 調査／捜査するing 裁判，公判 until day after tomorrow. I've been talking to Joel Miller. He's 割れ目ing. If I can get him away from Barlow and Letcher, and talk to him, I believe he'll tell me everything I want to know. It'll be better to get his 自白, 調印するd and sworn to, before we bring the 事柄 into 法廷，裁判所. Before a 裁判官, with all 注目する，もくろむs on him, and his friends in the （人が）群がる, he might 強化する and 辞退する to 罪を負わせる anyone. I don't believe the others will talk. But talking to me, alone, I believe Miller will 流出／こぼす the whole 作品. But it's going to take time to wear him 負かす／撃墜する. I believe that by tomorrow night I'll have a 十分な 自白 from him."
"That would make our work a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 easier," 認める Hopkins.
"And another thing: these men せねばならない be 代表するd by proper counsel. You'll 起訴する them, of course; and the only other lawyer within reach is 裁判官 Bixby, at Yankton. We're doing this thing in as の近くに 一致 to 正規の／正選手 合法的な 手続き as possible. Therefore we can't 辞退する the 囚人 the 権利 to be defended by an 弁護士／代理人／検事. I've sent a man after Bixby. It will be late tomorrow evening before he can get 支援する with the 裁判官, even if he has no trouble in 位置を示すing him.
"Considering all these things, I feel it would be better to 延期する the 裁判，公判 until we can get Bixby here, and until I can get Miller's 自白."
"What will the （軍の）野営地，陣営 think?"
"Most of them are men of 推論する／理由. The few hotheads who might want to take 事柄s into their own 手渡すs can't do any 害（を与える）."
"All 権利," agreed Hopkins. "After all, they're your 囚人s, since your 副 逮捕（する）d them, and the 殺人未遂 of an officer of the 法律 is one of the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s for which they'll have to stand 裁判，公判. We'll 始める，決める the 裁判，公判 for day after tomorrow. 一方／合間, work on Joel Miller. If we have his 調印するd 自白, 指名するing the leaders of the ギャング（団）, it will 促進する 事柄s a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 at the 裁判，公判."
WAHPETON learned of the 延期 of the 裁判，公判 and 反応するd in さまざまな ways. The 空気／公表する was 割増し料金d with 緊張. Little work was done that day. Men 集会 in heated, gesticulating groups, （人が）群がるd in at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s. 発言する／表明するs rose in hot altercation, 握りこぶしs 続けざまに猛撃するd on the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s. Unfamiliar 直面するs were 観察するd, men who were seldom seen in the gulch—鉱夫s from （人命などを）奪う，主張するs in distant canyons, or more 悪意のある 人物／姿／数字s from the hills, whose 商売／仕事 was いっそう少なく obvious.
Lines of cleavage were noticed. Here and there clumps of men gathered, keeping to themselves and talking in low トンs. In 確かな dives the ruffian element of the （軍の）野営地，陣営 gathered, and these saloons were shunned by honest men. But still the 広大な／多数の／重要な 集まり of the people milled about, 怪しげな and uncertain. The status of too many men was still in 疑問. 確かな men were known to be above 疑惑, 確かな others were known to be ruffians and 犯罪のs; but between these two extremes there were 可能性s for all shades of 不信 and 疑惑.
So most men wandered aimlessly to and fro, with their 武器s ready to their 手渡すs, ちらりと見ることing at their fellows out of the corners of their 注目する，もくろむs.
To the surprise of all, Steve Corcoran was noticed at several 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s, drinking ひどく, though the アルコール飲料 did not seem to 影響する／感情 him in any way.
The men in the 刑務所，拘置所 were 苦しむing from 神経s. Somehow the word had gotten out that the vigilante organization was a reality, and that they were to be tried before a vigilante 法廷，裁判所. Joel Miller, hysterical, （刑事）被告 Middleton of 二塁打-crossing his men.
"Shut up, you fool!" snarled the 郡保安官, showing the 緊張する under which he was laboring 単に by the irascible 辛勝する／優位 on his 発言する／表明する. "港／避難所't you seen your friends drifting by the 刑務所，拘置所? I've gathered the men in from the hills. They're all here. Forty-半端物 men, every Vulture in the ギャング（団）, is here in Wahpeton.
"Now, get this: and McNab, listen closely: we'll 行う／開催する／段階 the break just before daylight, when everybody is asleep. Just before 夜明け is the best time, because that's about the only time in the whole twenty-four hours that the （軍の）野営地，陣営 isn't going 十分な 爆破.
"Some of the boys, with masks on, will 急襲する 負かす／撃墜する and overpower you 副s. There'll be no 発射s 解雇する／砲火／射撃d until they've gotten the 囚人s and started off. Then start yelling and 狙撃 after them—in the 空気／公表する, of course. That'll bring everybody on the run to hear how you were overpowered by a ギャング（団） of masked riders.
"Miller, you and Letcher and Barlow will put up a fight—"
"Why?"
"Why, you fool, to make it look like it's a 暴徒 that's 逮捕（する）ing you, instead of friends 救助（する）ing you. That'll explain why 非，不，無 of the 副s are 傷つける. Men wanting to lynch you wouldn't want to 傷つける the officers. You'll yell and 叫び声をあげる blue 殺人, and the men in the masks will drag you out, tie you and throw you across horses and ride off. Somebody is bound to see them riding away. It'll look like a 逮捕（する）, not a 救助（する）."
Bearded lips gaped in admiring grins at the 戦略.
"All 権利. Don't make a botch of it. There'll be hell to 支払う／賃金, but I'll 納得させる Hopkins that it was the work of a 暴徒, and we'll search the hills to find your 団体／死体s hanging from trees. We won't find any 団体／死体s, 自然に, but maybe we'll contrive to find a 集まり of ashes where a スピードを出す／記録につける hut had been 燃やすd to the ground, and a few hats and belt buckles 平易な to identify."
Miller shivered at the 関わりあい／含蓄 and 星／主役にするd at Middleton with painful intensity.
"Middleton, you ain't planning to have us put out of the way? These men in masks are our friends, not vigilantes you've put up to this?"
"Don't be a fool!" ゆらめくd Middleton disgustedly. "Do you think the ギャング（団） would stand for anything like that, even if I was imbecile enough to try it? You'll 認める your friends when they come.
"Miller, I want your 指名する at the foot of a 自白 I've drawn up, 巻き込むing somebody as the leader of the Vultures. There's no use trying to 否定する you and the others are members of the ギャング（団）. Hopkins knows you are; instead of trying to play innocent, you'll コースを変える 疑惑 to someone outside the ギャング（団）. I 港／避難所't filled in the 指名する of the leader, but 刑事 Lennox is as good as anybody. He's a gambler, has few friends, and never would work with us. I'll 令状 his 指名する in your '自白' as 長，指導者 of the Vultures, and Corcoran will kill him 'for resisting 逮捕（する）,' before he has time to 証明する that it's a 嘘（をつく）. Then, before anybody has time to get 怪しげな, we'll make our last big 運ぶ／漁獲高—the （警察の）手入れ，急襲 on the Hopkins and Bisley （武器などの）隠匿場所!—and blow! Be ready to jump, when the ギャング（団） 急襲するs in.
"Miller, put your 署名 to this paper. Read it first if you want to. I'll fill in the blanks I left for the '長，指導者's' 指名する later. Where's Corcoran?"
"I saw him in the Golden Eagle an hour ago," growled McNab. "He's drinkin' like a fish."
"Damnation!" Middleton's mask slipped a bit にもかかわらず himself, then he 回復するd his 平易な 支配（する）／統制する. "井戸／弁護士席, it doesn't 事柄. We won't need him tonight. Better for him not to be here when the 刑務所，拘置所 break's made. Folks would think it was funny if he didn't kill somebody. I'll 減少（する） 支援する later in the night."
Even a man of steel 神経s feels the 緊張する of waiting for a 危機. Corcoran was in this 事例／患者 no exception. Middleton's mind was so 占領するd in planning, 計画／陰謀ing and conniving that he had little time for the 緊張する to corrode his willpower. But Corcoran had nothing to 占領する his attention until the moment （機の）カム for the jump.
He began to drink, almost without realizing it. His veins seemed on 解雇する／砲火／射撃, his 外部の senses abnormally 警報. Like most men of his 産む／飼育する he was high-strung, his nervous system 均衡を保った on a hair-誘発する／引き起こす balance, in spite of his mask of unemotional coolness. He lived on, and for, violent 活動／戦闘. 活動／戦闘 kept his mind from turning inward; it kept his brain （疑いを）晴らす and his 手渡す 安定した; failing 活動／戦闘, he fell 支援する on whisky. アルコール飲料 artificially 刺激するd him to that pitch which his temperament 要求するd. It was not 恐れる that made his 神経s thrum so intolerably. It was the 緊張する of waiting inertly, the 現実化 of the 火刑／賭けるs for which they played. Inaction maddened him. Thought of the gold （武器などの）隠匿場所d in the 洞穴 behind John Middleton's cabin made Corcoran's lips 乾燥した，日照りの, 始める，決める a 神経 to 続けざまに猛撃するing maddeningly in his 寺s.
So he drank, and drank, and drank again, as the long day wore on.
The noise from the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 was a blurred medley in the 支援する room of the Golden Garter. Glory Bland 星／主役にするd uneasily across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する at her companion. Corcoran's blue 注目する，もくろむs seemed lit by dancing 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. Tiny beads of perspiration shone on his dark 直面する. His tongue was not 厚い; he spoke lucidly and without exaggeration; he had not つまずくd when he entered. にもかかわらず he was drunk, though to what extent the girl did not guess.
"I never saw you this way before, Steve," she said reproachfully.
"I've never had a 手渡す in a game like this before," he answered, the wild 炎上 flickering bluely in his 注目する，もくろむs. He reached across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and caught her white wrist with an unconscious strength that made her wince. "Glory, I'm pullin' out of here tonight. I want you to go with me!"
"You're leaving Wahpeton? Tonight?"
"Yes. For good. Go with me! This 共同の ain't fit for you. I don't know how you got into this game, and I don't give a damn. But you're different from these other dance hall girls. I'm takin' you with me. I'll make a queen out of you! I'll cover you with diamonds!"
She laughed nervously.
"You're drunker than I thought. I know you've been getting a big salary, but—"
"Salary?" His laugh of contempt startled her. "I'll throw my salary into the street for the beggars to fight over. Once I told that fool Hopkins that I had a gold 地雷 権利 here in Wahpeton. I told him no 嘘（をつく）. I'm rich!"
"What do you mean?" She was わずかに pale, 脅すd by his vehemence.
His fingers unconsciously 強化するd on her wrist and his 注目する，もくろむs gleamed with the hard arrogance of 所有／入手 and 願望（する）.
"You're 地雷, anyway," he muttered. "I'll kill any man that looks at you. But you're in love with me. I know it. Any fool could see it. I can 信用 you. You wouldn't dare betray me. I'll tell you. I wouldn't take you along without tellin' you the truth. Tonight Middleton and I are goin' over the mountains with a million dollars' 価値（がある） of gold tied on pack mules!"
He did not see the growing light of incredulous horror in her 注目する，もくろむs.
"A million in gold! It'd make a devil out of a saint! Middleton thinks he'll kill me when we get away 安全な, and 得る，とらえる the whole 負担. He's a fool. It'll be him that dies, when the time comes. I've planned while he planned. I didn't ever ーするつもりである to 分裂（する） the 略奪する with him. I wouldn't be a どろぼう for いっそう少なく than a million."
"Middleton—" she choked.
"Yeah! He's 長，指導者 of the Vultures, and I'm his 権利-手渡す man. If it hadn't been for me, the （軍の）野営地，陣営 would have caught on long ago."
"But you upheld the 法律," she panted, as if clutching at straws. "You killed 殺害者s—saved McBride from the 暴徒."
"I killed men who tried to kill me. I 発射 as square with the （軍の）野営地，陣営 as I could, without goin' against my own 利益／興味s. That 商売／仕事 of McBride has nothin' to do with it. I'd given him my word. That's all behind us now. Tonight, while the vigilantes and the Vultures kill each other, we'll vamose! And you'll go with me!"
With a cry of loathing she wrenched her 手渡す away, and sprang up, her 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing.
"Oh!" It was a cry of bitter disillusionment. "I thought you were straight—honest! I worshiped you because I thought you were honorable. So many men were dishonest and bestial—I idolized you! And you've just been pretending—playing a part! Betraying the people who 信用d you!" The poignant anguish of her enlightenment choked her, then galvanized her with another 可能性.
"I suppose you've been pretending with me, too!" she cried wildly. "If you 港／避難所't been straight with the （軍の）野営地，陣営, you couldn't have been straight with me, either! You've made a fool of me! Laughed at me and shamed me! And now you 誇る of it in my teeth!"
"Glory!" He was on his feet, groping for her, stunned and bewildered by her grief and 激怒（する）. She sprang 支援する from him.
"Don't touch me! Don't look at me! Oh, I hate the very sight of you!"
And turning, with an hysterical sob, she ran from the room. He stood swaying わずかに, 星／主役にするing stupidly after her. Then fumbling with his hat, he stalked out, moving like an automaton. His thoughts were a 混乱させるd maelstrom, whirling until he was giddy. All at once the アルコール飲料 seethed madly in his brain, dulling his perceptions, even his recollections of what had just passed. He had drunk more than he realized.
Not long after dark had settled over Wahpeton, a low call from the 不明瞭 brought 陸軍大佐 Hopkins to the door of his cabin, gun in 手渡す.
"Who is it?" he 需要・要求するd suspiciously.
"It's Middleton. Let me in, quick!"
The 郡保安官 entered, and Hopkins, shutting the door, 星／主役にするd at him in surprise. Middleton showed more agitation than the 陸軍大佐 had ever seen him 陳列する，発揮する. His 直面する was pale and drawn. A 広大な／多数の／重要な actor was lost to the world when John Middleton took the dark road of outlawry.
"陸軍大佐, I don't know what to say. I've been a blind fool. I feel that the lives of 殺人d men are hung about my neck for all Eternity! All through my blindness and stupidity!"
"What do you mean, John?" ejaculated 陸軍大佐 Hopkins.
"陸軍大佐, Miller talked at last. He just finished telling me the whole dirty 商売／仕事. I have his 自白, written as he dictated."
"He 指名するd the 長，指導者 of the Vultures?" exclaimed Hopkins 熱望して.
"He did!" answered Middleton grimly, producing a paper and 広げるing it. Joel Miller's unmistakable 署名 sprawled at the 底（に届く）. "Here is the 指名する of the leader, dictated by Miller to me!"
"Good God!" whispered Hopkins. "法案 McNab!"
"Yes! My 副! The man I 信用d next to Corcoran. What a fool— what a blind fool I've been. Even when his 活動／戦闘s seemed peculiar, even when you 発言する／表明するd your 疑惑s of him, I could not bring myself to believe it. But it's all （疑いを）晴らす now. No wonder the ギャング（団） always knew my 計画（する）s as soon as I knew them myself! No wonder my 副s—before Corcoran （機の）カム—were never able to kill or 逮捕（する） any Vultures. No wonder, for instance, that Tom 取引，協定 'escaped,' before we could question him. That 弾丸 穴を開ける in McNab's arm, 恐らく made by 取引，協定—Miller told me McNab got that in a quarrel with one of his own ギャング（団）. It （機の）カム in handy to help pull the wool over my 注目する，もくろむs.
"陸軍大佐 Hopkins, I'll turn in my 辞職 tomorrow. I recommend Corcoran as my 後継者. I shall be glad to serve as 副 under him."
"Nonsense, John!" Hopkins laid his 手渡す sympathetically on Middleton's shoulder. "It's not your fault. You've played a man's part all the way through. Forget that talk about 辞職するing. Wahpeton doesn't need a new 郡保安官; you just need some new 副s. Just now we've got some planning to do. Where is McNab?"
"At the 刑務所，拘置所, guarding the 囚人s. I couldn't 除去する him without exciting his 疑惑. Of course he doesn't dream that Miller has talked. And I learned something else. They 計画（する） a jailbreak すぐに after midnight."
"We might have 推定する／予想するd that!"
"Yes. A 禁止（する）d of masked men will approach the 刑務所，拘置所, pretend to overpower the guards—yes, Stark and Richardson are Vultures, too—and 解放（する） the 囚人s. Now this is my 計画（する）. Take fifty men and 隠す them in the trees 近づく the 刑務所，拘置所. You can 工場／植物 some on one 味方する, some on the other. Corcoran and I will be with you, of course. When the 強盗団の一味 come, we can kill or 逮捕（する） them all at one 急襲する. We have the advantage of knowing their 計画（する）s, without their knowing we know them."
"That's a good 計画（する）, John!" 温かく 是認するd Hopkins. "You should have been a general. I'll gather the men at once. Of course, we must use the 最大の secrecy."
"Of course. If we work it 権利, we'll 捕らえる、獲得する 囚人s, 副s and 救助者s with one 一打／打撃. We'll break the 支援する of the Vultures!"
"John, don't ever talk 辞職 to me again!" exclaimed Hopkins, grabbing his hat and buckling on his gun-belt. "A man like you せねばならない be in the 上院. Go get Corcoran. I'll gather my men and we'll be in our places before midnight. McNab and the others in the 刑務所，拘置所 won't hear a sound."
"Good! Corcoran and I will join you before the Vultures reach the 刑務所，拘置所."
Leaving Hopkins' cabin, Middleton hurried to the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of the King of Diamonds. As he drank, a rough-looking individual moved casually up beside him. Middleton bent his 長，率いる over his whisky glass and spoke, hardly moving his lips. 非，不，無 could have heard him a yard away.
"I've just talked to Hopkins. The vigilantes are afraid of a 刑務所，拘置所 break. They're going to take the 囚人s out just before daylight and hang them out of 手渡す. That talk about 合法的な 訴訟／進行s was just a bluff. Get all the boys, go to the 刑務所，拘置所 and get the 囚人s out within a half-hour after midnight. Wear your masks, but let there be no 狙撃 or yelling. I'll tell McNab our 計画（する）'s been changed. Go silently. Leave your horses at least a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile 負かす／撃墜する the gulch and こそこそ動く up to the 刑務所，拘置所 on foot, so you won't make so much noise. Corcoran and I will be hiding in the 小衝突 to give you a 手渡す in 事例／患者 anything goes wrong."
The other man had not looked toward Middleton; he did not look now. Emptying his glass, he strolled deliberately toward the door. No casual onlooker could have known that any words had passed between them.
When Glory Bland ran from the backroom of the Golden Garter, her soul was in an emotional 騒動 that almost 量d to insanity. The shock of her 残虐な disillusionment vied with 熱烈な shame of her own gullibility and an unreasoning 怒り／怒る. Out of this seething cauldron grew a blind 願望（する） to 傷つける the man who had unwittingly 傷つける her. Smarting vanity had its part, too, for with characteristic and illogical feminine conceit, she believed that he had practiced an (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する deception ーするために fool her into 落ちるing in love with him—or rather with the man she thought he was. If he was 誤った with men, he must be 誤った with women, too. That thought sent her into hysterical fury, blind to all except a 願望（する） for 復讐. She was a 原始の, elemental young animal, like most of her profession of that age and place; her emotions were powerful and easily stirred, her passions 嵐の. Love could change quickly to hate.
She reached an instant 決定／判定勝ち（する）. She would find Hopkins and tell him everything Corcoran had told her! In that instant she 願望（する）d nothing so much as the 廃虚 of the man she had loved.
She ran 負かす／撃墜する the （人が）群がるd street, ignoring men who pawed at her and called after her. She hardly saw the people who 星／主役にするd after her. She supposed that Hopkins would be at the 刑務所，拘置所, helping guard the 囚人s, and she directed her steps thither. As she ran up on the porch 法案 McNab 直面するd her with a leer, and laid a 手渡す on her arm, laughing when she jerked away.
"Come to see me, Glory? Or are you lookin' for Corcoran?"
She struck his 手渡す away. His words, and the insinuating guffaws of his companions were 誘発するs enough to touch off the 爆発性のs seething in her.
"You fool! You're 存在 sold out, and don't know it!"
The leer 消えるd.
"What do you mean?" he snarled.
"I mean that your boss is 直す／買収する，八百長をするing to skip out with all the gold you thieves have grabbed!" she blurted, heedless of consequences, in her emotional 嵐／襲撃する, indeed scarcely aware of what she was 説. "He and Corcoran are going to leave you 持つ／拘留するing the 解雇（する）, tonight!"
And not seeing the man she was looking for, she eluded McNab's しっかり掴む, jumped 負かす／撃墜する from the porch and darted away in the 不明瞭.
The 副s 星／主役にするd at each other, and the 囚人s, having heard everything, began to clamor to be turned out.
"Shut up!" snarled McNab. "She may be lyin'. Might have had a quarrel with Corcoran and took this fool way to get even with him. We can't afford to take no chances. We've got to be sure we know what we're doin' before we move either way. We can't afford to let you out now, on the chance that she might be lyin'. But we'll give you 武器s to defend yourselves.
"Here, take these ライフル銃／探して盗むs and hide 'em under the bunks. Pete Daley, you stay here and keep folks shooed away from the 刑務所，拘置所 till we get 支援する. Richardson, you and Stark come with me! We'll have a 対決 with Middleton 権利 now!"
When Glory left the 刑務所，拘置所 she 長，率いるd for Hopkins' cabin. But she had not gone far when a reaction shook her. She was like one waking from a nightmare, or a 麻薬-jag. She was still sickened by the 発見 of Corcoran's duplicity in regard to the people of the （軍の）野営地，陣営, but she began to 適用する 推論する／理由 to her 疑惑s of his 動機s in regard to herself. She began to realize that she had 行為／法令／行動するd illogically. If Corcoran's 態度 toward her was not sincere, he certainly would not have asked her to leave the （軍の）野営地，陣営 with him. At the expense of her vanity she was 軍隊d to 収容する／認める that his attentions to her had not been necessary in his game of duping the （軍の）野営地，陣営. That was something apart; his own 私的な 商売／仕事; it must be so. She had 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd him of trifling with her affections, but she had to 収容する／認める that she had no proof that he had ever paid the slightest attention to any other woman in Wahpeton. No; whatever his 動機s or 活動／戦闘s in general, his feeling toward her must be sincere and real.
With a shock she remembered her 現在の errand, her 無謀な words to McNab. Despair 掴むd her, in which she realized that she loved Steve Corcoran in spite of all he might be. 冷気／寒がらせる 恐れる 掴むd her that McNab and his friends would kill her lover. Her unreasoning fury died out, gave way to frantic terror.
Turning she ran 速く 負かす／撃墜する the gulch toward Corcoran's cabin. She was hardly aware of it when she passed through the 炎ing heart of the （軍の）野営地，陣営. Lights and bearded 直面するs were like a nightmarish blur, in which nothing was real but the icy terror in her heart.
She did not realize it when the clusters of cabins fell behind her. The patter of her slippered feet in the road terrified her, and the 黒人／ボイコット 影をつくる／尾行するs under the trees seemed 妊娠している with menace. Ahead of her she saw Corcoran's cabin at last, a light streaming through the open door. She burst into the office-room, panting—and was 直面するd by Middleton who wheeled with a gun in his 手渡す.
"What the devil are you doing here?" He spoke without friendliness, though he returned the gun to its scabbard.
"Where's Corcoran?" she panted. 恐れる took 持つ／拘留する of her as she 直面するd the man she now knew was the monster behind the grisly 罪，犯罪s that had made a 統治する of terror over Wahpeton Gulch. But 恐れる for Corcoran 影を投げかけるd her own terror.
"I don't know. I looked for him through the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s a short time ago, and didn't find him. I'm 推定する／予想するing him here any minute. What do you want with him?"
"That's 非，不，無 of your 商売／仕事," she ゆらめくd.
"It might be." He （機の）カム toward her, and the mask had fallen from his dark, handsome 直面する. It looked wolfish.
"You were a fool to come here. You 調査する into things that don't 関心 you. You know too much. You talk too much. Don't think I'm not wise to you! I know more about you than you 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う."
A 冷気／寒がらせる 恐れる froze her. Her heart seemed to be turning to ice. Middleton was like a stranger to her, a terrible stranger. The mask was off, and the evil spirit of the man was 反映するd in his dark, 悪意のある 直面する. His 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすd her like actual coals.
"I didn't 調査する into secrets," she whispered with 乾燥した，日照りの lips. "I didn't ask any questions. I never before 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd you were the 長，指導者 of the Vultures—"
The 表現 of his 直面する told her she had made an awful mistake.
"So you know that!" His 発言する／表明する was soft, almost a whisper, but 殺人 stood stark and naked in his 炎上ing 注目する，もくろむs. "I didn't know that. I was talking about something else. Conchita told me it was you who told Corcoran about the 計画（する） to lynch McBride. I wouldn't have killed you for that, though it 干渉するd with my 計画（する）s. But you know too much. After tonight it wouldn't 事柄. But tonight's not over yet—"
"Oh!" she moaned, 星／主役にするing with dilated 注目する，もくろむs as the big ピストル slid from its scabbard in a dull gleam of blue steel. She could not move, she could not cry out. She could only cower dumbly until the 衝突，墜落 of the 発射 knocked her to the 床に打ち倒す.
As Middleton stood above her, the smoking gun in his 手渡す, he heard a stirring in the room behind him. He quickly upset the long （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, so it could hide the 団体／死体 of the girl, and turned, just as the door opened. Corcoran （機の）カム from the 支援する room, blinking, a gun in his 手渡す. It was evident that he had just awakened from a drunken sleep, but his 手渡すs did not shake, his pantherish tread was sure as ever, and his 注目する，もくろむs were neither dull nor bloodshot.
にもかかわらず Middleton swore.
"Corcoran, are you crazy?"
"You 発射?"
"I 発射 at a snake that はうd across the 床に打ち倒す. You must have been mad, to soak up アルコール飲料 today, of all days!"
"I'm all 権利," muttered Corcoran, 押すing his gun 支援する in its scabbard.
"井戸／弁護士席, come on. I've got the mules in the clump of trees next to my cabin. Nobody will see us 負担 them. Nobody will see us go. We'll go up the ravine beyond my cabin, as we planned. There's nobody watching my cabin tonight. All the Vultures are 負かす／撃墜する in the （軍の）野営地，陣営, waiting for the signal to move. I'm hoping 非，不，無 will escape the vigilantes, and that most of the vigilantes themselves are killed in the fight that's sure to come. Come on! We've got thirty mules to 負担, and that 職業 will take us from now until midnight, at least. We won't pull out until we hear the guns on the other 味方する of the （軍の）野営地，陣営."
"Listen!"
It was footsteps, approaching the cabin almost at a run. Both men wheeled and stood motionless as McNab ぼんやり現れるd in the door. He lurched into the room, followed by Richardson and Stark. 即時に the 空気／公表する was supercharged with 疑惑, hate, 緊張. Silence held for a tick of time.
"You fools!" snarled Middleton. "What are you doing away from the 刑務所，拘置所?"
"We （機の）カム to talk to you," said McNab. "We've heard that you and Corcoran planned to skip with the gold."
Never was Middleton's superb self-支配（する）／統制する more evident. Though the shock of that blunt thunderbolt must have been terrific, he showed no emotion that might not have been showed by any honest man, 誤って （刑事）被告.
"Are you utterly mad?" he ejaculated, not in a 激怒（する）, but as if amazement had 潜水するd whatever 怒り／怒る he might have felt at the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金.
McNab 転換d his 広大な／多数の／重要な 本体，大部分／ばら積みの uneasily, not sure of his ground. Corcoran was not looking at him, but at Richardson, in whose 冷淡な 注目する，もくろむs a lethal glitter was growing. More quickly than Middleton, Corcoran sensed the 必然的な struggle in which this 状況／情勢 must 最高潮に達する.
"I'm just sayin' what we heard. Maybe it's so, maybe it ain't. If it ain't, there's no 害（を与える） done," said McNab slowly. "On the chance that it was so, I sent word for the boys not to wait till midnight. They're goin' to the 刑務所，拘置所 within the next half-hour and take Miller and the 残り／休憩（する） out."
Another breathless silence followed that 声明. Middleton did not bother to reply. His 注目する，もくろむs began to smolder. Without moving, he yet seemed to crouch, to gather himself for a spring. He had realized what Corcoran had already sensed; that this 状況／情勢 was not to be passed over by words, that a 最高潮 of 暴力／激しさ was 必然的な.
Richardson knew this; Stark seemed 単に puzzled. McNab, if he had any thoughts, 隠すd the fact.
"Say you was intendin' to skip," he said, "this might be a good chance, while the boys was takin' Miller and them off up into the hills. I don't know. I ain't accusin' you. I'm just askin' you to （疑いを）晴らす yourself. You can do it 平易な. Just come 支援する to the 刑務所，拘置所 with us and help get the boys out."
Middleton's answer was what Richardson, 直感的に man-殺し屋, had sensed it would be. He whipped out a gun in a blur of 速度(を上げる）. And even as it （疑いを）晴らすd leather, Richardson's gun was out. But Corcoran had not taken his 注目する，もくろむs off the 冷淡な-注目する，もくろむd 銃器携帯者／殺しや, and his draw was the quicker by a 雷-flicker. Quick as was Middleton, both the other guns spoke before his, like a 二塁打 detonation. Corcoran's slug 爆破d Richardson's brains just in time to spoil his 発射 at Middleton. But the 弾丸 grazed Middleton so の近くに that it 原因（となる）d him to 行方不明になる McNab with his first 発射.
McNab's gun was out and Stark was a 分裂（する） second behind him. Middleton's second 発射 and McNab's first 衝突，墜落d almost together, but already Corcoran's guns had sent lead ripping through the 巨大（な）'s flesh. His ball 単に flicked Middleton's hair in passing, and the 長，指導者's slug 粉砕するd 十分な into his brawny breast. Middleton 解雇する／砲火／射撃d again and yet again as the 巨大（な） was 落ちるing. Stark was 負かす／撃墜する, dying on the 床に打ち倒す, having pulled 誘発する／引き起こす blindly as he fell, until the gun was empty.
Middleton 星／主役にするd wildly about him, through the floating blue 霧 of smoke that 隠すd the room. In that (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing instant, as he glimpsed Corcoran's image-like 直面する, he felt that only in such a setting as this did the Texan appear fitted. Like a somber 人物／姿／数字 of 運命／宿命 he moved implacably against a background of 血 and 虐殺（する）.
"God!" gasped Middleton. "That was the quickest, bloodiest fight I was ever in!" Even as he talked he was jamming cartridges into his empty gun 議会s.
"We've got no time to lose now! I don't know how much McNab told the ギャング（団） of his 疑惑s. He must not have told them much, or some of them would have come with him. Anyway, their first move will be to 解放する the 囚人s. I have an idea they'll go through with that just as we planned, even when McNab doesn't return to lead them. They won't come looking for him, or come after us, until they turn Miller and the others loose.
"It just means the fight will come within the half-hour instead of at midnight. The vigilantes will be there by that time. They're probably lying in 待ち伏せ／迎撃する already. Come on! We've got to sling gold on those mules like devils. We may have to leave some of it; we'll know when the fight's started, by the sound of the guns! One thing, nobody will come up here to 調査／捜査する the 狙撃. All attention is 焦点（を合わせる）d on the 刑務所，拘置所!"
Corcoran followed him out of the cabin, then turned 支援する with a muttered: "Left a 瓶／封じ込める of whisky in that 支援する room."
"井戸／弁護士席, hurry and get it and come on!" Middleton broke into a run toward his cabin, and Corcoran re-entered the smoke-隠すd room. He did not ちらりと見ること at the crumpled 団体／死体s which lay on the crimson-stained 床に打ち倒す, 星／主役にするing glassily up at him. With a stride he reached the 支援する room, groped in his bunk until he 設立する what he 手配中の，お尋ね者, and then strode again toward the outer door, the 瓶／封じ込める in his 手渡す.
The sound of a low moan brought him whirling about, a gun in his left 手渡す. Startled, he 星／主役にするd at the 人物／姿／数字s on the 床に打ち倒す. He knew 非，不，無 of them had moaned; all three were past moaning. Yet his ears had not deceived him.
His 狭くするd 注目する，もくろむs swept the cabin suspiciously, and 焦点（を合わせる）d on a thin trickle of crimson that stole from under the upset （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する as it lay on its 味方する 近づく the 塀で囲む. 非，不，無 of the 死体s lay 近づく it.
He pulled aside the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and 停止（させる）d as if 発射 through the heart, his breath catching in a convulsive gasp. An instant later he was ひさまづくing beside Glory Bland, cradling her golden 長，率いる in his arm. His 手渡す, as he brought the whisky 瓶／封じ込める to her lips, shook queerly.
Her magnificent 注目する，もくろむs 解除するd toward him, glazed with 苦痛. But by some 奇蹟 the delirium faded, and she knew him in her last few moments of life.
"Who did this?" he choked. Her white throat was laced by a tiny trickle of crimson from her lips.
"Middleton—" she whispered. "Steve, oh, Steve—I tried—" And with the whisper uncompleted she went limp in his 武器. Her golden 長，率いる lolled 支援する; she seemed like a child, a child just fallen asleep. Dazedly he 緩和するd her to the 床に打ち倒す.
Corcoran's brain was （疑いを）晴らす of アルコール飲料 as he left the cabin, but he staggered like a drunken man. The monstrous, incredible thing that had happened left him stunned, hardly able to credit his own senses. It had never occurred to him that Middleton would kill a woman, that any white man would. Corcoran lived by his own code, and it was wild and rough and hard, violent and incongruous, but it 含むd the 有罪の判決 that womankind was sacred, 免疫の from the 暴力／激しさ that …に出席するd the lives of men. This code was as much a 決定的な, living element of the life of the Southwestern frontier as was personal 栄誉（を受ける）, and the 憤慨 of 侮辱. Without pompousness, without pretentiousness, without any of the tawdry glitter and sham of a 誤った chivalry, the people of Corcoran's 産む／飼育する practiced this code in their daily lives. To Corcoran, as to his people, a woman's life and 団体／死体 were inviolate. It had never occurred to him that that code would, or could be 侵害する／違反するd, or that there could be any other 肉親，親類d.
冷淡な 激怒（する） swept the daze from his mind and left him crammed to the brim with 殺人. His feelings toward Glory Bland had approached the normal love experienced by the 普通の／平均（する） man as closely as was possible for one of his アイロンをかける nature. But if she had been a stranger, or even a person he had disliked, he would have killed Middleton for 乱暴／暴力を加えるing a code he had considered 絶対の.
He entered Middleton's cabin with the soft stride of a stalking panther. Middleton was bringing bulging buckskin 解雇（する）s from the 洞穴, heaping them on a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in the main room. He staggered with their 負わせる. Already the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する was almost covered.
"Get busy!" he exclaimed. Then he 停止（させる）d short, at the 炎 in Corcoran's 注目する，もくろむs. The fat 解雇（する）s 流出／こぼすd from his 武器, thudding on the 床に打ち倒す.
"You killed Glory Bland!" It was almost a whisper from the Texan's livid lips.
"Yes." Middleton's 発言する／表明する was even. He did not ask how Corcoran knew, he did not 捜し出す to 正当化する himself. He knew the time for argument was past. He did not think of his 計画（する）s, or of the gold on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, or that still 支援する there in the 洞穴. A man standing 直面する to 直面する with Eternity sees only the naked elements of life and death.
"Draw!" A catamount might have spat the challenge, 注目する，もくろむs 炎上ing, teeth flashing.
Middleton's 手渡す was a streak to his gun butt. Even in that flash he knew he was beaten—heard Corcoran's gun roar just as he pulled 誘発する／引き起こす. He swayed 支援する, 落ちるing, and in a blind gust of passion Corcoran emptied both guns into him as he crumpled.
For a long moment that seemed ticking into Eternity the 殺し屋 stood over his 犠牲者, a somber, brooding 人物／姿／数字 that might have been carved from the アイロンをかける night of the 運命／宿命s. Off toward the other end of the （軍の）野営地，陣営 other guns burst 前へ／外へ suddenly, in 一斉射撃 after 雷鳴ing 一斉射撃. The fight that was plotted to mask the flight of the Vulture 長，指導者 had begun. But the 人物／姿／数字 which stood above the dead man in the lonely cabin did not seem to hear.
Corcoran looked 負かす／撃墜する at his 犠牲者, ばく然と finding it strange, after all, that all those 血まみれの 計画／陰謀s and terrible ambitions should end like that, in a puddle of oozing 血 on a cabin 床に打ち倒す. He 解除するd his 長，率いる to 星／主役にする somberly at the bulging 解雇（する）s on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Revulsion gagged him.
A 解雇（する） had 分裂（する）, 流出／こぼすing a golden stream that glittered evilly in the candlelight. His 注目する，もくろむs were no longer blinded by the yellow sheen. For the first time he saw the 血 on that gold, it was 黒人／ボイコット with 血; the 血 of innocent men; the 血 of a woman. The mere thought of touching it nauseated him, made him feel as if the わずかな／ほっそりした that had covered John Middleton's soul would befoul him. Sickly he realized that some of Middleton's 犯罪 was on his own 長，率いる. He had not pulled the 誘発する／引き起こす that ripped a woman's life from her 団体／死体; but he had worked 手渡す-in-glove with the man 運命にあるd to be her 殺害者—Corcoran shuddered and a clammy sweat broke out upon his flesh.
負かす／撃墜する the gulch the 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing had 中止するd, faint yells （機の）カム to him, freighted with victory and 勝利. Many men must be shouting at once, for the sound to carry so far. He knew what it portended; the Vultures had walked into the 罠（にかける） laid for them by the man they 信用d as a leader. Since the 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing had 中止するd, it meant the whole 禁止（する）d were either dead or 捕虜s. Wahpeton's 統治する of terror had ended.
But he must 動かす. There would be 囚人s, eager to talk. Their speech would weave a noose about his neck.
He did not ちらりと見ること again at the gold, gleaming there where the honest people of Wahpeton would find it. Striding from the cabin he swung on one of the horses that stood saddled and ready の中で the trees. The lights of the （軍の）野営地，陣営, the roar of the distant 発言する／表明するs fell away behind him, and before him lay what wild 運命 he could not guess. But the night was 十分な of haunting 影をつくる／尾行するs, and within him grew a strange 苦痛, like a 発覚; perhaps it was his soul, at last awakening.
But he must 動かす. There would be 囚人s, eager to talk. Their speech would weave a noose about his neck. The men of Wahpeton must not find him here when they （機の）カム.
But before he turned his 支援する forever upon Wahpeton Gulch, he had a 仕事 to 成し遂げる. He did not ちらりと見ること again at the gold, gleaming there where the honest people of the （軍の）野営地，陣営 would find it. Two horses waited, bridled and saddled, の中で the restless mules tethered under the trees. One was the animal which had borne him into Wahpeton. He 機動力のある it and 棒 slowly toward the cabin where a woman lay beside dead men. He felt ばく然と that it was not 権利 to leave her lying there の中で those 発射-torn rogues.
He を締めるd himself against the sight as he entered the cabin of death. Then he started and went livid under his sun-burnt hue. Glory was not lying as he had left her! With a low cry he reached her, 解除するd her in his 武器. He felt life, pulsing 堅固に under his 手渡すs.
"Glory! For God's sake!" Her 注目する，もくろむs were open, not so glazed now, though 影をつくる／尾行するd by 苦痛 and bewilderment. Her 武器 groped toward him. He 解除するd and carried her into the 支援する room, laid her on the bunk where Joe Willoughby had received his death 負傷させるs. His mind was a whirling 騒動, as he felt with practised fingers of the darkly-clotted 負傷させる at the 辛勝する／優位 of her golden hair.
"Steve," she whimpered. "I'm afraid! Middleton—"
"He won't 傷つける you any more. Don't talk. I'm goin' to wash that 負傷させる and dress it."
Working 急速な／放蕩な and skillfully, he washed the 血 away with a rag torn from her petticoat—as 存在 the cleanest 構成要素 he could find—and soaked in water and whisky. Corcoran had just 中止するd 包帯ing her 長，率いる when she struggled upright, にもかかわらず his profane 反対s, and caught at his arm.
"Steve!" Her 注目する，もくろむs were wide with 恐れる. "You must go—go quick! I was crazy—I told McNab what you told me—told Middleton, too, that's why he 発射 me. They'll kill you."
"Not them," he muttered. "Do you feel better now?"
"Oh, don't mind me! Go! Please go! Oh, Steve, I must have been mad! I betrayed you! I was coming here to tell you that I had, to 警告する you to get away, when I met Middleton. Where is he?"
"In Hell, where he せねばならない been years ago," grunted Corcoran. "Never mind. But the vigilantes will be headin' this way soon as some of the ネズミs they've caught get to talkin'. I've got to dust out. But I'll take you 支援する to the Golden Garter first."
"Steve, you're mad! You'd run your 長，率いる into a noose! Get on your horse and ride!"
"Will you go with me?" His 手渡すs の近くにd on her, 傷つけるing her with their unconscious strength.
"You still want me, after—after what I did?" she gasped.
"I've always 手配中の，お尋ね者 you, since I first saw you. I always will. 許す you? There's nothin' to 許す. Nothin' you could have ever done could be anywhere 近づく as 黒人／ボイコット as what I've been for the past month. I've been like a mad-dog; the gold blinded me. I'm awake now. And I want you."
For answer her 武器 groped about his neck, clung convulsively; he felt the moisture of her 熱烈な 涙／ほころびs on his throat. 解除するing her, he carried her out of the cabin, 圧力（をかける）ing her 直面する against his breast that she might not see the stark 人物／姿／数字s lying there in their splashes of crimson.
An instant later he was settled in the saddle, 持つ／拘留するing her before him, cradled like a child in his muscular 武器. He had wrapped his coat about her, and the pale oval of her 直面する 星／主役にするd up at his like a white blossom in the night. Her 武器 still clung to him, as if she 恐れるd he might be torn from her.
"How the lights 炎 over the （軍の）野営地，陣営!" she murmured irrelevantly, as they climbed toward the ravine.
"Take a good look," he said, his 発言する／表明する 厳しい with 抑えるd and unfamiliar emotions. "It's our old life we're leavin' behind, and I hope we're headin' for a better one. And as a beginnin', we're goin' to get married the first town we 攻撃する，衝突する."
An incoherent murmur was her only reply as she snuggled closer in his 武器; behind them the lights of the （軍の）野営地，陣営, the distant roar of 発言する／表明するs fell away and grew blurred in the distance. But it seemed to Corcoran that they 棒 in a 炎 of glory, that emanated not from moon nor 星／主役にするs, but from his own breast. And perhaps it was his soul, at last awakened.
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