human
Buck, you didn't--_strike_ him?
gpt
I'll try to tell you straight from the beginning. I found Dan in Brownsville. I begged him to come back with me, but he wouldn't stir. This was why: A gunman had come to the town lookin' for trouble, and when he run acrost Dan he found plenty of it. No, don't look like that, Kate; it was self-defense, pure and simple--they didn't even arrest Dan for it. But this dyin' man's brother, Mac Strann, come down from the hills and sat beside Jerry Strann waitin' for him to go west before he started out to clean up on Dan. Yesterday evenin' Jerry was near dead and everybody in Brownsville was waitin' to see what would happen, because Dan wouldn't budge till Mac Strann had had his chance to get back at him. So I sent a feller ahead to fix a relay of hosses to Elkhead, because I made up my mind I was going to make Dan Barry chase me out of that town. I walked into the saloon where Dan was sittin'--braidin' a little horsehair strand--my God, Kate, think of him sittin' there doin' that with a hundred fellers standin' about waitin' for him to kill or be killed! I went up to him. I picked a fight, and then I slapped him--in the face.
human
But you're still alive! cried Kate Cumberland.
gpt
Had you handled his gun first?
human
No. As soon as I hit him I turned my back to him and took a couple of steps away from him.
gpt
Oh, Buck, Buck! she cried, her face lighting.
human
You knew he wouldn't shoot you in the back!
gpt
I didn't know nothin'. I couldn't even think--and my body was numb as a dead man's all below the hips. There I stood like I was chained to the floor--you know how it is in a nightmare when something chases you and you can't run? That was the way with me.
human
Buck! And he was sitting behind you--while you stood there?
gpt
Ay, sitting there with my death sittin' on his trigger finger. But I knowed that if I showed the white feather, if I let him see me shake, he'd be out of his chair and on top of me. No gun--he don't need nothin' but his hands--and what was in front of my eyes was a death like--like Jim Silent's!
human
But I couldn't move a foot without my knees bucklin', so I takes out my makin's and rolls a cigarette. And while I was doin' it I was prayin' that my strength would come back to me before he come back to himself--and started!
gpt
It was surprise that held him, Buck. To think of you striking him--you who have saved his life and fought for him like a blood-brother. Oh, Buck, of all the men in the world you're the bravest and the noblest!
human
They ain't nothin' in that brand of talk, growled Buck, reddening.
gpt
Anyway, at last I started for the door. It wasn't farther away than from here to the wall. Outside was my hoss, and a chance for livin'. But that door was a thousand years away, and a thousand times while I walked towards it I felt Dan's gun click and bang behind me and felt the lead go tearin' through me. And I didn't dare to hurry, because I knew that might wake Dan up. So finally I got to the doors and just as they was swingin' to behind me, I heard a sort of a moan behind me----
human
From Dan! whispered the white-faced girl.
gpt
I know--a sort of a stifled cry when he's angered! Oh, Buck.
human
My first step took me ten yards from that door, reminisced Buck Daniels,
gpt
But it was no use! cried the girl.
human
With Black Bart to trail you and with Satan to carry him, he overtook you--and then----
gpt
He didn't, said Buck Daniels.
human
I'd fixed things so's he couldn't get started with Satan for some time. And before he could have Satan on my trail I'd put a long stretch behind me because Long Bess was racin' every step. The lay of the land was with me. It was pretty level, and on level goin' Long Bess is almost as fast as Satan; but on rocky goin' Satan is like a goat--nothin' stops him! And I was ridin' Long Bess like to bust her heart, straight towards McCauley's. We wasn't more'n a mile away when I thought--the wind was behind me, you see--that I heard a sort of far off whistling down the wind! My God!