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肩書を与える: Vultures' 聖域
Author: Robert E. Howard
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Language: English
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Vultures' 聖域

by

Robert E. Howard

First published in Argosy, November 28, 1936

Argosy, November 28, 1936

A VAGRANT 勝利，勝つd stirred tiny dust-eddies where the road to California became, for a few hundred yards, the main street of Capit疣 town. A few mongrel dogs lazed in the shade of the 誤った-前線d でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる buildings. Horses at the hitching rack stamped and switched 飛行機で行くs. A child loitered along the warped board walk; except for these 調印するs of life, Capit疣 might have been a ghost town, 砂漠d to sun and 勝利，勝つd.

Along the road from the east, a covered wagon creaked slowly. The horses, gaunt and old, leaned 今後 with each lurching step. The girl on the seat peered under a shading 手渡す and spoke to the old man beside her.

"There's a town ahead, father."

He nodded. "Capit疣. We won't waste time there. A bad town. I've heard of it ever since we crossed the Pecos. No 法律 there. A haunt of renegades and 難民s. But we must stop there long enough to buy bacon and coffee."

His tired old 発言する／表明する encouraged the laboring horses; dust of the long, long 追跡する 精査するd greyly from the wagon bed as they creaked into Capit疣.

Capit疣, baking under the sun that drew a curtain of shimmering 熱波s between it and the 明らかにする Guadalupes, rising from the rolling wastelands to the south. Capit疣, haunt of the 追跡（する）d, yet not the last haunt, not the ultimate, irrevocable 避難 for the desperate and damned.

* * * * *

But not all who （機の）カム to Capit疣 were scarred with the wolf-追跡する brand. One was standing even then at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of the Four エースs saloon, frowning at the man before him. Big Mac, cowpuncher from Texas, 幅の広い-shouldered, 深い-chested, with thews 常習的な to the toughness of woven steel by years on the cattle 追跡するs that stretch from the live-oaks of the 湾 沼s to the prairies of Canada. A familiar 人物／姿／数字 wherever cowmen gathered, with his 幅の広い brown 直面する, 火山の blue 注目する，もくろむs, and unruly thatch of curly 黒人／ボイコット hair. There were no notches in the butt of the big Colt .45 which jutted from the scabbard at his 権利 hip, but that butt was worn smooth from much usage. Big Mac did not notch his gun, but it had 炎d in 範囲 wars and cow-town 反目，不和s from the Sabine to Milk River.

"You're 法案 McClanahan, ain't you?" the other man asked with a strange 切望 his casual manner could not 隠す. "You remember me?"

"Yeah." A man with many enemies must have a keen memory for 直面するs. "You're the Checotah Kid. I saw you in Hayes City, three years ago."

"Let's drink."

At the Kid's gesture, the bartender sent glasses and a 瓶／封じ込める 事情に応じて変わる 負かす／撃墜する the wet 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業. The Kid was Mac's opposite in type. Slender, though hard as steel, smooth-直面するd, blond, his wide grey 注目する，もくろむs seemed guileless at first ちらりと見ること. But a man wise in the ways of men could see cruelty and murderous treachery lurking in their depths.

But something else 燃やすd there now, something fearful and 追跡（する）d. There was a nervous 緊張 underlying the Kid's manner that puzzled Big Mac, who remembered him as a suave, self-所有するd young scoundrel of the Kansas 追跡する-towns. Doubtless he was on the dodge; yet that did not explain his nervousness, for there was no 法律 in Capit疣, and the 国境 was いっそう少なく than a hundred miles to the south.

Now the Kid leaned toward him and lowered his 発言する／表明する, though only the bartender and a loafer at a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する 株d the saloon with them.

"Mac, I need a partner! I've 設立する color in the Guadalupes! Gold, as sure as hell!"

"Never knew you were a prospector," grunted Big Mac.

"A man gets to be lots of things!" The Kid's laugh was mirthless. "But I mean it!"

"Why'n't you stay and work it, then?" 需要・要求するd the other.

"El Bravo's ギャング（団） ran me out. Thought I was a 郡保安官 or something!" Again the Kid laughed 厳しく, almost hysterically. "You've heard of El Bravo, maybe? 長，率いるs a ギャング（団） of 無法者s that hang out in the Guadalupes. But with a man to watch and another to work, we could take out plenty! The pocket's in a canyon just in the 辛勝する／優位 of the hills. What do you say?"

Again that 炎上ing intentness. His 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすd on Big Mac like the 注目する，もくろむs of a 非難するd man, 捜し出すing （死）刑の執行猶予（をする）.

The Texan emptied his glass and shook his 長，率いる.

"I'm no prospector," he rumbled. "I'm sick of work, anyway. I ain't never had a vacation all my life, except a few days in town at the end of the 運動, or before 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up. I やめる my 職業 at the Lazy K three weeks ago, and I'm headin' for San Francisco to enjoy life for a （一定の）期間. I'm tired of cow towns. I want to see what a real city looks like."

"But it's a fortune!" 勧めるd the Kid passionately, his grey 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing with a weird light. "You'd be a fool to pass it up!"

Big Mac bristled. He'd never liked Checotah anyway. But he 単に replied: "井戸／弁護士席, mebbyso, but that's how she stands."

"You won't do it?" It was almost a whisper. Sweat beaded the Kid's forehead.

"No! Looks like to me you could find some other partner 平易な enough."

Mac turned away, reaching for the 瓶／封じ込める.

It was a glimpse of the big mirror behind the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, caught from the tail of his 注目する，もくろむ, that saved his life. In that (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing reflection he saw the Checotah Kid, his 直面する a livid mask of desperation, draw his ピストル. Big Mac whirled, knocking the gun aside with the 瓶／封じ込める in his 手渡す. The 粉砕する of breaking glass mingled with the bang of the 発射. The 弾丸 ripped through the slack of the Texan's shirt and thudded into the 塀で囲む. Almost 同時に Mac 衝突，墜落d his left 握りこぶし 十分な into the Kid's 直面する.

The 殺し屋 staggered backward, the smoking ピストル escaping his numbed fingers. Mac was after him like a big catamount. There could be no ４半期/4分の1 in such a fight. Mac did not spare his strength, for he knew the Kid was deadly—knew he had killed half a dozen men already, some treacherously. He might have another gun hidden on him somewhere.

But it was a knife he was groping for, as he reeled backward under the sledge-大打撃を与える 衝撃 of the Texan's 握りこぶしs. He 設立する it, just as a 雷鳴ing clout on the jaw knocked him headlong backward through the door to 落ちる sprawling in the dusty street. He lay still, stunned, 血 trickling from his mouth. Big Mac strode 速く toward him to learn whether or not he was possuming.

But he never reached him. There was a quick patter of light feet, a swish of skirts, and even as Mac saw the girl spring in 前線 of him, he received a resounding 非難する on his startled 直面する.

He recoiled, glaring in amazement at the slender 人物／姿／数字 which 直面するd him, vibrant with 怒り／怒る.

"Don't you dare touch him again, you big いじめ（る）!" she panted, her dark 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing. "You coward! You brute! Attacking a boy half your size!"

He 設立する no words to reply. He did not fully realize how savage and formidable he looked, with his 猛烈な／残忍な 注目する，もくろむs and dark, scarred 直面する as he stood there with his mallet-like 握りこぶしs clenched, glaring 負かす／撃墜する at the man he had knocked 負かす／撃墜する. He looked like a 巨大（な） beside the slender Kid. Checotah looked boyish, innocent; to the girl, ignorant of men's ways, it looked like the 残虐な attack of a ruffian on an inoffensive boy. Mac realized this ばく然と, but he could not find words to defend himself. She had not seen the bowie knife, which had fallen in the dust.

A small （人が）群がる was 集会, silent and inscrutable. The loafer who had been in the saloon was の中で them. An old man, his 手渡すs gnarled and his bony shoulders stooped, （機の）カム from the 蓄える／店 that stood next to the saloon, with bundles in his 手渡すs. He started toward a dust-stained wagon standing beside a board 盗品故買者 just beyond the 蓄える／店, then saw the （人が）群がる and hurried toward it, 関心 影をつくる／尾行するing his 注目する，もくろむs.

The girl turned lithely and knelt beside the Kid, who was struggling to a sitting position. He saw the pity in her wet, dark 注目する，もくろむs, and understood. Checotah could play his cards as they fell.

"Don't let him kill me, 行方不明になる." he groaned. "I wasn't doing anything!"

"He shan't touch you," she 保証するd him, flashing a look of 反抗 at Big Mac. She wiped the 血 from the Kid's mouth, and looked 怒って at the taciturn, leather-直面するd men who stood about.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves!" she 嵐／襲撃するd, with the ignorant courage of the very young. "Letting a いじめ（る） like him 乱用 a boy!"

They made no 返答; only their lips 新たな展開d a little, in grim, sardonic humor she could not understand. Big Mac, his 直面する dark, muttered under his breath and turning on his heel, re-entered the saloon. In there the 発言する／表明するs reached him only as an incoherent murmur—the 滞るing, hypocritical 発言する／表明する of the Kid followed quickly by the soothing, 同情的な トンs of the girl.

"Hell's 解雇する／砲火／射撃!" Big Mac grabbed the whisky 瓶／封じ込める.

"Wimmen are shore funny critters," 発言／述べるd the bartender, scouring the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業. Mac's snarl discouraged conversation. The Texan took the 瓶／封じ込める to a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する at the 支援する of the saloon. He was smarting mentally. The 非難する the girl had given him was no more than the tap of a feather. But a deeper sting 固執するd. He was angry and humiliated. A slip of a girl had 乱用d him, like, as he would have put it, an egg-suckin' dog. Like most men of the wild 追跡するs, he was 極端に 極度の慎重さを要する where women were 関心d. Indifferent to the opinions of men, a woman's 軽蔑（する） or 怒り／怒る could 傷つける him 深く，強烈に. Like all men of his 産む／飼育する, he held women in high esteem, and 願望（する）d their good opinion. But this girl had 非難するd him on the 外見 of things. His sense of 司法（官） was 乱暴／暴力を加えるd; his soul harbored a sting not to be soothed by the thought of the thousand-半端物 dollars in 米国紙幣s in his pocket, nor the 予期 of spending them in that far-away city which he had never seen.

He drank, and drank again. His 直面する grew darker, his blue 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすd more savagely. As he sat there, 抱擁する, dark and brooding, he looked 有能な of any wild, ferocious 行為.

So thought the man who after awhile entered furtively and slipped into a 議長，司会を務める opposite him. Big Mac scowled at him. He knew him as Slip Ratner, one of the many shady characters which haunted Capit疣.

"I was in here when the Kid drawed on you," said Ratner, a faint, evil smile 新たな展開ing his thin lips. "That girl sure 運ぶ／漁獲高d you over the coals, didn't she?"

"Shut up!" snarled Big Mac, grabbing the 瓶／封じ込める again.

"Sure, sure!" soothed Ratner. "No 罪／違反. Sassy snip she was—you せねばならない of smacked her 直面する for her. Listen!" He hunched 今後 and lowered his 発言する／表明する: "How'd you like to get even with that fresh dame?"

Big Mac 単に grunted. He was 支払う／賃金ing little attention to what Ratner was 説. Get even with a woman? The thought never entered his mind. His code, the rigid, アイロンをかける-bound code of the Texas frontier, did not 許す of 報復 against a woman, whatever the 誘発.

But Ratner was speaking again, hurriedly.

"I don't know why the Kid tried to 演習 you, but that gold-talk of his was a 嘘（をつく）. He's been in the Guadalupes, yes, but not after gold. He was trying to join up with El Bravo. I have ways of knowing things—

"Checotah 攻撃する，衝突する Capit疣 just a few days ago. He's just a few jumps ahead of the 連邦の 保安官s. Besides that, there's reward notices for him stuck up all over Mexico. He's killed and robbed on both 味方するs of the Line till there ain't but one place left for him—El Bravo's hide-out in the Guadalupes. That's where men go when both the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs and Mexico are 閉めだした to them.

"But El Bravo don't take in no man 解放する／自由な. They have to buy into the ギャング（団）. You remember Stark Campbell, that robbed the bank at Nogales? He got ten thousand dollars and he had to give every cent of it to El Bravo to join the ギャング（団）. 堅い, but it was that or his life. They say El Bravo's got a 正規の／正選手 treasure trove hid away somewhere up in the Guadalupes.

"But Checotah didn't have nothing, and El Bravo wouldn't take him. The Kid's desperate. If he stayed here the 法律 would get him in a few days, and there wasn't no place else for him to go. When I seen him playing up to that fool girl, I figgered he had something up his sleeve. And he did! He begged them to take him out of town with them—said he was afraid you'd 殺人 him if he stayed in Capit疣. And you know what they done? 招待するd him to go on to California with them! They laid him in the wagon, him pretending to be 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd, and pulled out, the girl washing the 血 off his 直面する, and his saddle-horse tied to the tail-board.

"井戸／弁護士席, when they took him to the wagon, I こそこそ動くd up behind that board 盗品故買者 and listened to them talk. The girl told Checotah everything. Their 指名するs is Ellis; she's Judith Ellis. The old man's got a thousand dollars he saved up, working on a farm 支援する in Illinois or somewhere, and he 目的（とする）s to use it making first 支払い（額） on a piece of irrigated land in California.

"Now, I know the Kid. He ain't goin' to California. Why, he don't even dare show himself in the next town, out beyond Scalping Knife. Somewhere along the 追跡する he'll kill old Ellis and 長，率いる for the Guadalupes with the money and the girl. He'll 支払う／賃金 his way into the Bravo ギャング（団） with them! El Bravo likes women, and she's purty enough for any man.

"Here's where we come in. I don't 人物／姿／数字 the Kid'll strike till after they've passed Seven Mule Pass. That's nine miles from here. If we get on our horses and ride through the 下落する-小衝突, we can get past them and waylay them in the pass. Or we can wait till the Kid kills the old man, and then 割れ目 負かす／撃墜する on him. We kill the Kid, and that evens you up with him. Then we 分裂（する） the 略奪する. I take the money. You take the girl. Nobody'll ever know. Plenty of places in the mountains you can take her, and—"

For an instant Big Mac sat silent, glaring incredulously at the leering 直面する before him, while the monstrous 提案 soaked in. Ratner could not 適切に 解釈する／通訳する his stunned silence; Ratner credited all men with his own buzzard-instincts.

"What do you say?" he 勧めるd.

"Why, you damned—!" Big Mac's 注目する，もくろむs ゆらめくd red as he heaved up. The （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する 衝突，墜落d sidewise, 瓶／封じ込めるs 粉砕するing on the 床に打ち倒す. Ratner, almost pinned beneath it, yelped in fright and fury as he jumped （疑いを）晴らす. He snatched at a ピストル as the berserk cowman towered over him.

Mac did not waste lead on him. His movement was like the swipe of a 耐える's paw as his 手渡す locked on Ratner's wrist. The renegade 叫び声をあげるd, and a bone snapped. The ピストル flew into the corner, and Big Mac 投げつけるd the snarling wretch after it, to 嘘（をつく） in a stunned, crumpled heap. Men scattered as Big Mac 嵐／襲撃するd out of the saloon and made for the hitching rack where stood his big bay gelding.

A few moments later the 巨大（な） Texan 雷鳴d out of town in a whirlwind of dust, and took the road that ran west.

* * * * *

EAST of Capit疣, the road stretched across a dusty level and was 明白な for miles, which was an advantage to the 国民s, for it was from the east that 郡保安官s and 連邦の 保安官s were most likely to come riding. But 西方の the 地形 changed to a broken country in which the road disappeared from 見解（をとる） of the town within a mile. Miles away to the 南西 rose the grim 輪郭（を描く）s of the Guadalupes, shimmering under a sky 色合いd steel-white by the morning sun. Haunt of 猛烈な／残忍な 砂漠 殺し屋s they had always been—painted red men once, and later sombreroed bandidos—but never had they 避難所d more deadly slayers than the ギャング（団） of the mysterious El Bravo. Big Mac had heard of him, had heard, too, that few knew his real 身元, save that he was a white man.

The town disappeared behind him, and after that the Texan passed only one habitation—the adobe hut of a Mexican sheepherder, some five miles west of Capit疣. A mile その上の on the 追跡する dipped 負かす／撃墜する into the 幅の広い 深い canyon 削減（する） by Scalping Knife River, in its southerly course—now only a trickle of water in its shallow bed. Three miles beyond the canyon lay a chain of hills, a 刺激（する） of the Guadalupes, through which the road threaded by Seven Mule Pass. There it was that Ratner 推定する／予想するd to lay 待ち伏せ／迎撃する. Big Mac 推定する／予想するd to 精密検査する the slow-moving wagon long before it reached the Pass.

But as he 棒 負かす／撃墜する the eastern slope of the canyon, he grunted and 強化するd at the sight of the form lying limply on the canyon 床に打ち倒す. The Kid had not waited to get beyond the Pass.

Mac bent over old man Ellis. He had been 発射 through the left shoulder and was unconscious. He had lost a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of 血, but the thrum of his old heart was strong.

The wagon was nowhere in sight. Wheel 跡をつけるs wandered away up the canyon; the 跡をつけるs of a 選び出す／独身 horse went 負かす／撃墜する the canyon. Big Mac read the 調印する easily. Ratner had prophesied unerringly, with the 知恵 of a wolf 関心ing the ways of wolves. Checotah had 発射 the old man—probably without 警告. The team, 脅すd, had run away with the wagon. The Kid had ridden 負かす／撃墜する the canyon with the girl, and, without 疑問, the old man's pitiful 貯金.

Mac stanched the flow of 血 with his bandanna. He 解除するd the senseless man across the saddle and turned 支援する on his 追跡する, 主要な the big bay, and 悪口を言う／悪態ing as the 激しく揺するs of the flinty 追跡する turned under his high-heeled boots. 支援する at the sheepherder's hut, a mile from the canyon, he 解除するd the 負傷させるd man 負かす／撃墜する and carried him in, laid him on a bunk. The old Mexican watched inscrutably.

Mac tore a ten dollar 法案 in two, and 手渡すd one half to the peon.

"If he's alive when I get 支援する, you get the other half. If he ain't, I'll make you hard to catch. There's a wagon and team up the canyon. Send a boy to find 'em and bring 'em 支援する here."

"Si, se?r." The old man at once gave his attention to the 負傷させるd man; more than half Indian, his knowledge of 原始の 外科 was aboriginal, but 効果的な.

Mac 長，率いるd 支援する for the canyon. The Kid had not bothered to hide his 調印する. There was no 法律 in Capit疣. There were men there who would not have 許すd him to 誘拐する a girl if they could have 妨げるd it. But they would not 試みる／企てる to follow him into the 無法者-haunted Guadelupes.

The 追跡する was plain 負かす／撃墜する the canyon. He followed it for three miles, the 塀で囲むs growing steeper and higher as the canyon 負傷させる deeper and deeper into the hills. The 追跡する turned aside up a 狭くする ravine, and Mac, に引き続いて it, （機の）カム out upon a benchland, 乾燥した，日照りの and sandy, hemmed in by the slopes of the mountains. At the south 辛勝する／優位 of the flat buzzards rose and flapped ひどく away. They had not feasted; they had been waiting, with grisly patience, for a feast.

A few moments later Big Mac looked 負かす／撃墜する on the sprawling form of the Checotah Kid. He had been 発射 in the open, and a smear of 血 on the sand showed how he had wriggled an agonized way to the shade of a big 激しく揺する.

He had been 発射 through the 団体／死体, 近づく the heart. His 注目する，もくろむs were glazed, and at each choking gasp 血まみれの 泡s burst on his blue lips.

Big Mac looked 負かす／撃墜する on him with hard, merciless 注目する，もくろむs.

"You dirty skunk! I'm sorry somebody （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 me to it! Where's the girl?"

"El Bravo took her," panted the Kid. "They saw me riding—with the 旗. （機の）カム to 会合，会う me. I gave him the girl—to 支払う／賃金 my way into the ギャング（団）. Tried to 持つ／拘留する out the thousand—I took off the old man. They grabbed me—searched me—El Bravo 発射 me—for trying to 持つ／拘留する out."

"Where'd they take her to?"

"The （犯人の）隠れ家. I don't know where. Nobody knows but them." The Kid's 発言する／表明する was growing 女性 and 厚い. "They watch the 追跡するs—all the time. Nobody can get—in the Guadalupes—without them knowing it. I carried the signal 旗—only 推論する／理由 I got this far." He gestured ばく然と toward a cottonwood 四肢 with a shred of white cloth tied to it, which lay 近づく him.

Curiosity 誘発するd Big Mac's next question.

"Why'd you try to shoot me? We never had no trouble in Kansas."

"You were to be my price," gasped the Kid. "That's why I tried to 誘惑する you into the hills. El Bravo had rather have you alive. But when you wouldn't come, I thought if I brought him proof I'd 負かす／撃墜するd you, maybe he'd take me in anyway. He's Garth Bissett!"

Garth Bissett! That explained many things. There were 推論する／理由s why Bissett should hate Big Mac. They first met in a Kansas cow-town, at the end of a cattle-追跡する from Texas. Bissett was 保安官 of that town. A hard man, 用心深い as a wolf, quick as summer 雷 with the ivory-butted ピストルs that hung at his hips—and withal as rotten-souled a scoundrel as ever 支配するd a buzzard-roost 追跡する town. It was Big Mac who broke his dominion. Going to the 援助（する） of a young cowboy, でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd by one of Bissett's gun-fighting 副s, the big herd-boss had left the 副 dead on a dance-hall 床に打ち倒す after a blur of gun-smoke, and in the dead man's pockets were 設立する letters 明らかにする／漏らすing the extent of Bissett's crookedness—proof of 窃盗 and 殺人. A 連邦の 保安官 stepped into the game. Bissett might have escaped, but he paused at the cow-（軍の）野営地，陣営 at the 辛勝する／優位 of town to even 得点する／非難する／２０s with the big 追跡する-driver.

Big Mac （機の）カム out of the gun-play that followed with a 弾丸 in his breast-muscles, while Bissett, his 脚 broken by a slug from Mac's .45, was taken by the 連邦の man. He was tried and 宣告，判決d to life 監禁，拘置, but on the way to the 刑務所 escaped, and dropped out of sight. 噂する said he had fled to Mexico, and become 伴う／関わるd in a 革命.

Big Mac absently 公式文書，認めるd that the Kid was dead. Without another ちらりと見ること he 機動力のある and 棒 deeper into the hills, に引き続いて the faint 追跡する the slayers had left. His 直面する was darker and grimmer, but the 影をつくる／尾行する of a sardonic smile played about the corners of his hard mouth, and in one 手渡す he carried the make-転換 旗 the Kid had borne. He had made his 計画（する）, a desperate, 無謀な 計画（する）, with one chance in a thousand of success. But it was the only one. He knew that he could not go into the Guadalupes 狙撃. If he tried to 軍隊 his way to the 強盗 hangout, even if he should find it he would be 発射 from 待ち伏せ／迎撃する long before he got there. There was but one way to reach the heart of El Bravo's 要塞／本拠地. He was taking that way.

He did not ask himself why he followed the 追跡する of a girl who meant nothing to him. It was part of him that he should do so—part of the code of the Texas 国境, born of half a century of merciless 戦争 with red men and brown men, to whom the women of the whites were fair prey. A white man went to the 援助（する） of a woman in 苦しめる, 関わりなく who she might be. That was all there was to it. And so Big Mac was going to the 援助（する） of the girl who had despised him, instead of riding on his way to the faroff city where he 推定する／予想するd to squander the wad of 米国紙幣s he carried in his pocket. Only he knew how much hard work and self-否定 they 代表するd.

He had left the flat a few miles behind him and was riding through a rugged defile when a 厳しい 発言する／表明する bawled an order to 停止（させる）. 即時に he pulled up and elevated his 手渡すs. The 命令（する） （機の）カム from a cluster of 玉石s to the 権利.

"Who're you and what'a you want?" （機の）カム the crisp question.

"I'm Big Mac," answered the Texan tranquilly. "I'm lookin' for El Bravo."

"What you got for him?" was the next 需要・要求する—a 在庫／株 question, evidently.

Big Mac laughed. "Myself!"

"Are you crazy?" There was a snarl in the 発言する／表明する.

"No. Take me to Bissett. If he don't thank you, he'll be crazy."

"井戸／弁護士席, he ain't!" growled the bushwhacker. "Get off yore horse! Now unbuckle yore gun-belt and let 'er 減少（する）. Now step 支援する away from it—その上の 支援する, 爆破 you! Keep yore 手渡すs up. I got a .45-70 trained on yore heart all the time."

Big Mac did 正確に／まさに as he was told. He was standing there, 非武装の, his 手渡すs in the 空気／公表する, when the man （機の）カム from behind the 激しく揺するs, a tall man, who walked with the springy tread of a cougar. Mac knew him 即時に.

"Stark Campbell!" he said softly. "So this is why they never got you!"

"And they never will, neither!" retorted the 無法者 with an 誓い. "They can't git to us, up here in the Guadalupes. But a man has to 支払う／賃金 high to git in." Bitter 怒り／怒る vibrated in his 発言する／表明する as he said that. "What you done, that you want in?"

"Never mind that. You just lead me to Bissett."

"I'll have to take you to the hang-out, if you see him," said Campbell. "He just taken a girl there. He don't let nobody see the hang-out and live, unless they're in his ギャング（団）. If he don't let you join us, he'll kill you. You can go 支援する, though, if you want to, now. I won't stop you. You ain't no 法律."

"I want to see Bissett," replied the Texan.

Campbell shrugged his shoulders and drew a ピストル, laying aside the ライフル銃／探して盗む. He ordered Big Mac to turn around and put his 手渡すs behind him, and the 無法者 then bound his wrists—awkwardly, with one 手渡す, for he kept the ピストル muzzle jammed in Mac's 支援する with the other, but when the Texan's 手渡すs were partly 限定するd, he 完全にするd the 職業 with both 手渡すs. Then Campbell led his own horse, a rangy roan, from behind the 激しく揺するs, and hung Mac's gun-belt over the roan's saddle-horn.

"Git on yore horse," he growled. "I'll help you up."

They started on, Campbell 主要な the big bay. For three or four miles they threaded a 不安定な path through as wild and broken a country as Big Mac had ever seen, until they entered a 法外な-塀で囲むd canyon which, 明らかに, （機の）カム to a blind in ahead of them, as the 塀で囲むs pinched together. But as they 近づくd it Big Mac saw a cleft in the angle, fifty feet above the canyon 床に打ち倒す, and reached by a 狭くする, winding 追跡する. A man あられ／賞賛するd them from above.

"It's me, Campbell!" shouted his captor, and a growling 発言する／表明する bade them 前進する. "This is the only way into our hang-out," said Campbell. "You see how much chance a posse'd have of gittin' in, even if they 設立する it. One man with plenty of 爆撃するs could 持つ／拘留する that cleft agen a army."

They went up the 追跡する, 選び出す／独身 とじ込み／提出する. The horses （人が）群がるd against the 塀で囲む, fearful of the 狭くする 地盤. Mac knew that Campbell spoke the truth when he said no posse could 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 up that 追跡する, raked by 解雇する／砲火／射撃 from above.

As they entered the cleft a 黒人／ボイコット-whiskered man rose from behind a ledge of 激しく揺する and glared suspiciously at them.

"All 権利, Wilson. I'm takin' this fellow to Bissett."

"Ain't that Big Mac?" asked Wilson, in whom Mac 認めるd another "lost 無法者." "What's he got for Bissett? You searched him?"

"You know damn' 井戸／弁護士席 I ain't, only for guns," snarled Campbell. "You know the 支配する, 井戸／弁護士席 as me. Nobody takes money off 'em except Bissett." He spat. "Come on, Mac. If you got somethin' Bissett'll 受託する, I'll take yore ropes off. If you ain't, you won't be carin' anyway, not with a 弾丸 through yore 長，率いる."

The cleft was like a tunnel in the 激しく揺する. It ran for forty feet and then 広げるd out into a space that was like a 延長／続編 of the canyon they had left. It formed a bowl, its 床に打ち倒す higher than the 床に打ち倒す of the canyon outside by fifty feet, 塀で囲むd by 無傷の cliffs three hundred feet high, and 明らかに unscalable. Campbell 確認するd this.

"Can't nobody git at us from them cliffs," he snarled. "They're 法外な outside as inside. It's jest like somebody scooped a holler in the middle of a 激しく揺する mesa. The holler's this bowl. Gwan. Git 負かす／撃墜する."

Big Mac managed it, with his 手渡すs bound, and Campbell left the horses standing in the shade of the 塀で囲む, reins hanging. He drove Big Mac before him toward the adobe hut that stood in the middle of the bowl, surrounded by a square 激しく揺する 塀で囲む, breast-high to a tall man.

"Last line of 弁護, Bissett says," growled Campbell. "Even if a posse was to git into the bowl—which ain't possible—we could fight 'em off 不明確な／無期限の behind that 塀で囲む. There's a spring inside the stockade, and we got 準備／条項s and ca'tridges enough for a year."

The renegade 保安官 had always been a master of 戦略. Big Mac did not believe the 無法者 hangout would ever 落ちる by a direct attack, 関わりなく the numbers 攻撃する，非難するing it—if it were ever discovered by the lawmen.

A man Campbell 演説（する）／住所d as 守備隊 （機の）カム from the corral, 隣接するing the 塀で囲む, where a dozen horses grazed, and another met them at the 激しい plank gate, built to turn 弾丸s.

"Why, hell!" ejaculated the latter. "That's Big Mac! Where'd you catch him?"

"He 棒 in with a 旗 of 一時休戦, Emmett," answered Campbell. "Bissett in the shack?"

"Yeah; with the girl," grunted Emmett. "By God, I dunno what to make of this!"

Evidently Emmett knew something of Bissett's former life. The three men followed Mac as he strode across the yard toward the hut. Stark Campbell, John 守備隊, Red Emmett; Wolf Wilson, 支援する there at the tunnel. He had indeed come into the last haunt of the 追跡（する）d, last 退却／保養地 of these, the most desperate of all the 国境 renegades, to whom all other doors were 閉めだした, against whom the 手渡すs of all men were raised. Only in this lost canyon of the Guadalupes could they find 聖域—the 避難 of the wolf's lair, for which they had 没収されるd all their 血-tinged 伸び（る）s.

Theirs could be only a wolf-pack 同盟. Bissett 支配するd them by virtue of keener wits and swifter gun-手渡す. They hated him for the 残虐な avarice that stripped from them their last shred of plunder, in return for a chance of 明らかにする life; but they 恐れるd him too, and 認めるd his 優越, knew that without his leadership the pack must 死なせる／死ぬ, にもかかわらず all natural advantages.

Campbell 押し進めるd the door open. As Big Mac ぼんやり現れるd in the doorway, the man in the room turned with the blurring 速度(を上げる） of a wolf, his 手渡す streaking to an ivory-扱うd gun even in the instant it took him to see the stranger was a 捕虜, with his 手渡すs bound behind him.

"You!" It was the ripping snarl of a 木材／素質 wolf. Bissett was as tall as Big Mac, but not so 激しい. He was wiry, rangy; yellow mustaches drooped below a mouth thin as a knife gash. His pale 注目する，もくろむs glittered with an icy, 血-冷気／寒がらせるing 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

"What the hell!" He seemed stunned with surprize.

Big Mac looked past him to the girl who cringed in the corner, her 注目する，もくろむs wide with terror. There was no hope in them when they met his. To her he was but another beast of prey.

Big Mac grinned at Bissett, without mirth.

"Come to join your ギャング（団）, Garth," he said calmly. "Heard you had to have a gift. 井戸／弁護士席, I'm it! I've heard you'd 企て，努力，提案 high for my hide!"

He was 賭事ing on his knowledge of Bissett's nature—on the chance that the 無法者 would not 即時に shoot him 負かす／撃墜する. They 直面するd each other, the big dark Texan smiling, a trifle grimly, but 静める; Bissett snarling, 緊張した, 怪しげな as a wolf.

"Where'd you get him, Campbell?" he snapped.

"He come in under a 旗 of 一時休戦," growled Campbell. "Same as any man that wants to join up with us. Said you'd be glad to see him."

Bissett turned on Mac, his 注目する，もくろむs 向こうずねing like a wolf's that scents a 罠（にかける）. "Why did you come here?" he ripped out. "You're no fool. You wouldn't put yourself in my 力／強力にする unless you had a damned good 推論する／理由—some 辛勝する／優位—" He whirled on his men, in a frenzy of 疑惑.

"Get out to the 塀で囲む, damn you! Watch the cliffs! Watch everything! This devil wouldn't come in here alone unless he had something up his sleeve—"

"井戸／弁護士席, I—" began Campbell, but Bissett's 発言する／表明する 削減（する） his sullen drawl like the 削除する of a whip.

"Shut up, damn you! Get out there! I do the thinking for the ギャング（団）!"

Mac saw the 明かすd hate in Campbell's 注目する，もくろむs as he slouched silently out after the others, saw Bissett's 注目する，もくろむs dwell burningly on the man. Bad 血 there. Campbell 恐れるd Bissett いっそう少なく than the others, and was therefore the 焦点（を合わせる） of the wolfish 長，指導者's 疑惑.

As the men left the building, Bissett 選ぶd up a 二塁打-バーレル／樽d shotgun, and cocked it.

"I don't know what your game is," he said between his teeth. "You must have a ギャング（団） に引き続いて you, or something. But whatever happens, I 目的（とする） to get you!"

Mac appeared helpless, 非武装の, his 手渡すs bound; but a wolf-like 疑惑 of 外見s was at once Bissett's strength and his 証拠不十分.

"You're no 無法者," he snarled. "You didn't come here to join my ギャング（団）. You knew I'd 肌 you alive, or 火刑／賭ける you out on an ant-bed. What are you up to?"

Big Mac laughed in his 直面する. A man who followed the herds up the long 追跡する year after year learned to 裁判官 men 同様に as animals. Bissett was 反応するing 正確に／まさに as Mac had 推定する／予想するd him to. The Texan was playing that knowledge blindly, waiting for some 肉親，親類d of a break. A desperate game, but he was used to games where the Devil dealt for deadly 火刑／賭けるs.

"You ain't got a very big ギャング（団）, Bissett," he said.

"They're not all here," rapped the 無法者. "Some are out on a （警察の）手入れ，急襲, toward the 国境. Never mind. What's your game? If you talk, your finish will be easier."

Mac ちらりと見ることd again at Judith Ellis, cowering in a corner. The stark terror in her wide 注目する，もくろむs 傷つける him. To this girl, 未使用の to 暴力／激しさ, her experience was like a nightmare.

"My game, Bissett?" asked Big Mac coolly. "What could it be? Nobody could get past Wilson in the tunnel, could they? Nobody could climb the cliffs, could they? What good would it do if I did have a ギャング（団） followin' me, like you think?"

"You wouldn't come here without an エース in the 穴を開ける," Bissett all but whispered.

Big Mac played his エース. "What about your own men?" he asked.

Bissett blanched. His 疑惑s crystalized, for the moment—suspisions of Big Mac's coming, 疑惑s of his own men, which forever gnawed at his brain. His 注目する，もくろむs, glaring at Mac over the shotgun's 黒人／ボイコット muzzles, were tinged with madness.

"You're 罠にかける, Bissett!" jeered Big Mac, playing his 手渡す from minute to minute, for whatever it might be 価値（がある）. "Your own men have sold you out! For the 略奪する you took from them and hid—"

And at that moment the break （機の）カム. Outside Campbell had turned 支援する toward the adobe, and Mac saw him and yelled: "Campbell! Help!"

Bissett whirled like a flash, 転換ing the shotgun to cover his amazed 信奉者. It was an 直感的に movement. Even so he would not have pulled the 誘発する／引き起こすs—would have seen through Mac's flimsy 計画／陰謀, had he had time to think.

But Mac saw and took his desperate chance. He 投げつけるd himself headlong against Bissett, and at the 衝撃 the shotgun 大打撃を与えるs, hung on hair-誘発する／引き起こすs, fell to the involuntary, convulsive jerk of Bissett's fingers. Both バーレル／樽s 爆発するd as Bissett went 負かす／撃墜する under Mac's hurtling 団体／死体, and buckshot 爆破d Stark Campbell's skull. He died on his feet without knowing why. That was chance; Mac did not, could not have planned his death.

As they went 負かす／撃墜する together, Mac drove his 膝 savagely into Bissett's belly and rolled （疑いを）晴らす as the 無法者 二塁打d in gasping agony. Mac heaved up on his feet somehow, roaring: "His knife, quick! 削減（する） these cords!"

The 衝撃 of his 発言する／表明する 揺さぶるd the terrified girl into 活動／戦闘. She sprang blindly 今後, snatched the knife from Bissett's boot, and sawed at the cords that held Mac's wrists, slicing 肌 同様に as hemp.

It had all happened in a 素晴らしい instant. Outside, 守備隊 and Emmett were running toward the house with guns in their 手渡すs. Some of the 立ち往生させるs parted under the blade, and Mac snapped the others. He stooped and dragged Bissett to his feet. The half-senseless 無法者 was clawing dazedly at his ピストルs. Mac jerked them from him and swung the limp でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる around before him.

"Tell your men to get 支援する!" he snarled, jamming a muzzle hard in Bissett's 支援する. "They'll obey you! Tell 'em, quick!"

But the order was never given. The men outside did not know what had happened in the hut. They had only seen Campbell 爆破d 負かす／撃墜する by a 発射 through the doorway, and they thought their leader was turning against them. Emmett caught a glimpse of Bissett through the door and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d. Mac felt Bissett's 団体／死体 jerk convulsively in his 手渡すs. The 弾丸 had 演習d through the 無法者's 長，率いる.

Mac threw the 死体 aside, and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d from the hip. Emmett, struck in the mouth, went 負かす／撃墜する ひどく on his 支援する. 守備隊, as he saw Emmett 落ちる and Mac ぼんやり現れる in the doorway, began to 落ちる 支援する, 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing as he went. He was making for the 保護 of the corral. Once there, he might make a long fight of it. Wilson would be coming up from the tunnel. If it （機の）カム to a 包囲, the girl would be 危うくするd by the raking lead.

Mac sprang recklessly into the open, 狙撃 two-手渡すd. He felt hot lead 引き裂く through his shirt, 燃やす the 肌 on his ribs. 守備隊 snarled, whirled, sprang for the 塀で囲む. In 中央の-stride he staggered drunkenly, hard 攻撃する，衝突する. He wheeled and started 狙撃 again, even as he crumpled, 持つ／拘留するing his sixshooter in both 手渡すs. 攻撃する，衝突する again and yet again, he kept on pulling the 誘発する／引き起こす, his 弾丸s knocking up the dirt in 前線 of Big Mac's boots. His ピストル snapped on an empty 議会 before he lurched to the ground and lay still, in a spreading red puddle.

Mac heard Judith 叫び声をあげる, and 同時に （機の）カム a 報告（する）／憶測 behind him and the 衝撃 of a blow that knocked him staggering. He （機の）カム about in a drunken 半分-circle, glimpsing Wilson's 黒人／ボイコット-bearded 直面する. The 無法者 was またがるing the 塀で囲む, 準備するing to leap 負かす／撃墜する inside before he 解雇する／砲火／射撃d again. Mac's last 弾丸 broke his neck and dropped him at the foot of the 塀で囲む, flopping for a dozen seconds like a beheaded chicken.

In the deafening silence that followed the roar of the guns, Mac turned 支援する toward the hut, 血 streaming 負かす／撃墜する his shirt. The pale girl cowered in the door, still uncertain as to her 運命／宿命. His first words 安心させるd her.

"Don't be scairt, 行方不明になる. I come to take you 支援する to your dad."

Then she was 粘着するing to him, weeping in hysterical 救済.

"Oh, you're 傷つける! You're bleeding!"

"Just a slug in my shoulder," he grunted, self-conscious. "Ain't nothin'."

"Let me dress it," she begged.

He followed her into the hut. She 避けるd looking at Bissett, sprawling in a red pool, as she bound up Mac's shoulder with （土地などの）細長い一片s torn from her dress, fumbling and clumsily.

"I—I misjudged you," she 滞るd. "I'm sorry. The Kid—he was a beast—my father—" She choked on the words.

"Your dad's all 権利," he 保証するd her. "Just 演習d through the shoulder, like me. Some rotten shootin' in these parts. Couple of horses saddled at the mouth of the tunnel. Go on out there and wait for me."

After she had gone, he began a 迅速な search. And presently he desisted, 断言するing. Neither the pockets of the dead 長，指導者 nor a 迅速な ransacking of the rooms rewarded him with what he sought. The money taken from Ellis had gone to join the 残り／休憩（する） of Bissett's 略奪する, in whatever crypt he had hidden it. Surely he had planned, some day, a flight to some other continent with his plunder. But wherever it was, it was 井戸／弁護士席 hidden; a man might 追跡（する） it for years, in vain.

And Big Mac had not time for 追跡（する）ing. Bissett might have been lying when he said he had other men, out on a （警察の）手入れ，急襲, but with the girl, Mac could not take the chance of 存在 caught by returning 無法者s. He hurried from the hut.

The girl had already 機動力のある Campbell's roan. A few minutes later they were riding together 負かす／撃墜する the outer canyon.

"I 設立する that thousand Checotah took off your dad," he 発表するd, 手渡すing her a wad of dingy 米国紙幣s. "Next time don't tell nobody about it."

"You're a 後見人 angel," she said faintly. "It was all we had—we'd have 餓死するd without it—I don't know how I can ever thank you—"

"Aw, shucks, don't try!"

His shoulder 傷つける, but another, deeper sting was gone. Big Mac grinned contentedly, even as he slapped his flat pocket, and 反映するd on the dusty miles 支援する to the Lazy K in Texas where the 職業 he had やめる still を待つd him. After all, he reckoned he could get along another year without a vacation.

THE END

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