Warlock

“Nothing to say, Bud?”

“Are these your Regulators?”

Abe nodded curtly. “Regulators.”

“You are all coming into Warlock?”

“Pla

Ga

“Why, you pissant son of a bitch!” Cade cried.

“Rip that star off him, boys!” the old man said.

“Are we posted out already, Bud?” Wash said, in a mock whining voice. Cade continued to curse.

“If there’s names to be called I’ll call them,” Abe said, and Cade stopped. “Objection, Bud?” he said, gri

“Nobody’s posted. But no wild bunch calling themselves Regulators is coming in to make trouble, Abe. Not so long as I’ve got power to deputize every man in Warlock against them.”

“That’s the way it is?” Abe said, in a level voice. “That way, Bud?”

Ga

“But I can come alone, you mean?” Abe said. “Surely, that would be fine, with Blaisedell and Morgan and half a dozen other gun-slinging pimps to burn me down. No; not likely. I am coming in with some friends to back my play, is all. Like he has got them to back his.” Abe rubbed a hand over his bearded chin. “I am going to kill him for murdering your brother, Bud,” he said, more quietly. “And kill him for murdering Curley down.” His voice began to shake. “What the hell do you mean?” he cried. “Coming down on my place and telling me I’m not to go in there?”

Ga

“You damned snot pup!” the old man yelled.

“Run and hide, Abe,” Whitby said. “Look out! Bud is getting mad!”

“You know the trouble with you, Bud?” Abe said easily. “You are so yellow of him you can’t bear it for everybody not to be yellow of him too. It makes you look too bad if they aren’t. Shot down Billy and all you did was lick his boots for him. Shot down Curley,” he said, his voice rising. “After you had swore Curley didn’t go to kill Carl. And what’d you do, that’d sworn to it? Licked his boots some more. You are a fine deputy.”

Abe took a step toward him. “A whole town-full of them like you. Your hats shy off in the wind when he blows a breath. You can’t call yourself men so you can’t let anybody else be one either. But there won’t be a man left anywhere unless somebody kills that black foul devil out of hell! You damned—”

“You are not bringing a bunch of Regulators into Warlock, Abe,” he said, raising his voice over Abe’s. “I came down to warn you I will have to deputize every man jack in Warlock against you.”

“You have sure turned hard against us, Bud,” Chet Haggin said.

“I’m deputy, Chet. There’s things I’m bound to do.”

“For Blaisedell,” Chet said.

He shook his head.

“Yeah, for Blaisedell!” Wash Haggin cried, and everyone began to talk at once until Abe shouted angrily for quiet.

But Chet went on. “Just one more thing I want to ask him, Abe. Bud, you think Blaisedell isn’t going to choose us out and cut us down one by one unless we go in there against him all together?”

“He’s got nothing against you. That’d be a thing I’d be bound to stop too, I expect.”

Chet gri

Abe leaned his hands on his concho belt and tilted back on his heels. “Like you stopped him from cutting Curley down, Deputy?”

Ga

“Why, you are a liar,” Abe broke in. “Fair fight.”

“There will be no fight. You are not to bring these people in.”

“Be damned to you!” Walt Harrison said.

“Stop us, Bud!” Whitby said.

“I will stop you.”

“Let me talk to him a minute, Abe,” Jack Cade said, in his grating voice. Cade came forward toward Ga

“You,” Cade said, and paused for a long time. His dirty teeth scraped on his lower lip. “You are,” he said, “a yellow-belly suck-up.” He gri

Ga

The vile words droned on, without meaning. He unhooked the star from his jacket, and reached over to hand it to Chet Haggin. “Hold it,” he said. “I don’t want him to be able to say he killed another deputy.”

“I’ll say it!” Cade said, triumphantly. “Outside, Deputy!”

“Here,” Ga

“I’m no God-damned fool for a handkerchief fight!” Cade said hoarsely.

It was enough, Ga

It had meant nothing, and yet he hoped he had recovered something in their eyes. But he knew that Abe saw his bluff and the necessity for it, and with dread he realized that in backing Cade down he had challenged Abe himself. Now he wondered if Abe was sure enough of his own authority to let his recovery stand.

“Man doesn’t have to be a damned fool!” Cade said. “Come on outside and fight decent!”

“Pure iron,” Abe said. “Why, a man with iron in him like that deserves a medal.” He swung toward the breed. “Where’s the medal, Marko?” The breed looked confused. Abe made a gesture toward his mouth and Marko produced something from his pocket. Abe took it, and, with a swift movement, plucked off Ga

He recognized the release of tension in their laughter; what had passed between him and Jack Cade was set at nothing and he was a fool to them again as well as a traitor. He stripped the cord from around his neck and handed the mouth organ back to Abe, and took his hat back. “I think you’d better have it,” he said, and saw Abe’s eyes narrow dangerously.

“I’ll be going,” he said. “Abe, you have heard me about the Regulators. That’s the word with the bark on it.” It gave him a start to hear Carl’s phrase on his own lips.

“Abe!” the old man cried. “Are you going to let the son of a bitch walk out like that?”

“Just a minute,” Abe said. The others leaned forward, attentive and expectant. They were all afraid, Ga

“What right have you to stop us?” Abe said quietly. “When you didn’t stop Blaisedell from killing Curley? Tell me that, Bud. How are you going to tell me I can’t post Blaisedell and kill him if he don’t run, when you didn’t stop him with Curley? That was my friend,” he said, more quietly still.