Warlock

“Schroeder!” MacDonald cried. “Tell this idiot to get out of the way.”

“Do like he says, Mister Mac!” Carl called back. His voice was shrill. “And Jack Cade, you had better hang up that hog leg, for I am laid in on your belt buckle.”

Ga

“What do you say, Mister Mac?” Cade said, in his flat, harsh voice. “Shoot in or crawl out?”

Wash said, “You had better back off and let us handle it, MacDonald.”

“He doesn’t go unless you all go,” Ga

“Very well!” MacDonald said. “Your piece there speaks with more authority than you do. I’m forced to honor it, since I want no bloodshed. You will hear more about this from Sheriff Keller.” He stood in his stirrups and called to Carl, “This is not the end of this, Schroeder!” He sawed viciously with the reins, and the white-faced horse bucked, scaring Chet’s mare sideways. Ga

“They’ll be back, deputy!” someone yelled from among the miners in the street. “Don’t think they won’t be back!”

Ga

“Why, I guess you had better clear out of the street then,” Carl said. “So they won’t ride you down.”

“We want Morgan!” someone shouted. A few took it up, but soon the cry died away. Ga

“You had better go scratch your name on the wall in there, Joh

“It isn’t done with yet,” Pike said grouchily.

“Well, I expect you are right,” Carl said. “And you are deputized, you and Pete and Chick and Tim. Hunt them up for me, will you? There’s a good fellow.”

Pike went off along the boardwalk. Carl slapped Ga

“Hanging off?” he said.

“For a spell anyway,” Carl said. He pulled down the pulley lamp and lit it. Now Ga

“Bled his dirty blood all over me,” Morgan said, distantly. Ga

“I suppose you might call that a reason,” Carl said. “You taken up fighting jacks as a steady thing now, Morgan. Knife fight, was it? What was all that yelling how it was supposed to be a fair fight?”

Morgan said in a disgusted voice, “Brunk had me in a little trouble so Murch shot him.”

“Heard them saying Murch’s lit out, but damned if I think I had better take after him the way things stand. You put Murch to shooting him?”

“He thought of it before I did.”

“Get me to believe you didn’t put him to it.”

“Believe it or don’t!”

“Now don’t go scratchy, Morgan,” Carl said mournfully. “If a hardcase that works for you kills a man that’s got you in trouble, maybe it is on your back some.”

“Nothing’s on my back,” Morgan said, and withdrew into the shadows.

Ga

“Time enough. You’re not in any hurry, are you, Morgan?”

“I’m patient by nature,” Morgan said.

Peter Bacon appeared in the doorway; he nodded at Ga

“Witnesses?” Carl said to Morgan.

“All muckers,” Morgan replied. “Old Goat-beard and that one with the waxed mustaches, and another one called Patch.”

“Old Heck and Frenchy,” Carl said. “They seemed kind of maddest, all right. You sure you didn’t tell Murch to blow him loose from you?”

There was a crash and splatter of glass and a rock rebounded from the far wall, and came to rest among the shards of glass beneath the broken window. Peter Bacon disappeared out the door, and Ga

“Oh, hello, miss,” Peter said from the doorway, and Kate Dollar came in.

“Good evening, Deputy,” Kate said to Carl. “Deputy,” she said to Ga

“Is that Tom Morgan?” Kate said, and her voice was as unpleasant as the smile. “I heard the miners had him on the run.”

Ga

“You ru

“Oh, I can run with the best of them,” Morgan said. His voice was as harsh as Kate’s, his face, framed in the thick, hand-smoothed bars, was blank. “I have run before this. There was a place called Grand Fork I ran and got caught.”

“Did they hang you?” Kate asked, and Ga

“Maybe they did,” Morgan said. He frowned with thought. “No, come to remember, a friend I had there set fire to the hotel where those vigilantes had me, and during the whoop-de-do I got out some way. No, I didn’t hang that time.”

“But no friends here?” Kate said.

“Well, now, miss, we made out all right,” Carl said uncomfortably. “Joh

Ga

“Just a big, stupid mucker, Kate,” Morgan said. “But you probably would have liked him, at that.”

“But what was the matter with Clay?” Kate cried. Now she sounded hysterical, and now, Ga

He put a hand out toward her and said, “Kate!” just as Morgan said loudly, “What kind of jail is this, where anybody can drift in off the street and bedevil the prisoners?”

“Bedevil!” Kate cried.

Ga

“Well, now, yes, miss,” Carl said. “I don’t expect you ought to be in here with a bunch of wild jacks around throwing rocks through the window and all. I guess you had better—”

“I just came down to tell you they are throwing rocks through the windows of the Glass Slipper, too,” Kate said, calmly now. “There are some people trying to stop them, but I don’t know if they will.”

“Durn!” Carl said. “I should’ve thought of that. I’d better go, Joh