Page:Frederick Faust--Free Range Lanning.djvu/267

Rh He caught up his tin cup and the plate. "We'll talk later about you," he said ominously.

"We'll talk about something else first," said Andrew. "You've seen Allister?"

At first it seemed that La Roche would not speak; then his wide, thin lips writhed back from his teeth. "Yes."

"Where is he?"

"Gone to the happy hunting grounds."

The silence came and the pulse in it. One by one, by a natural instinct, the men looked about them sharply into the night and made sure of their weapons. It was the only tribute to the memory of Allister from his men, but tears and praise could not have been more eloquent. He had made these men fearless of the whole world. Now were they ready to jump at the passage of a shadow. They looked at each other with strange eyes.

"Who? How many?" asked Jeff Rankin.

"One man done it."

Jeff Rankings mouth had fallen ajar. He brushed his fist across his loosely trembling lips.

"Hal Dozier?" said Andrew.

"Him," said Larry la Roche. He went on, looking gloomily down at the fire. "He got me first. The chief must of seen him get me by surprise, while I was down off my hoss, lying flat and drinking out of a creek!" He closed his great, bony fist in unspeakable agony at the thought. "Dozier come behind and took me. Frisked me. Took my guns, not the coin. We went down through the hills. Then the chief slid out of a shadow and come at us like a tiger. I sloped."

"You left Allister to fight alone?" said Scottie Macdougal quietly, for he had come from his lookout to listen.

"I had no gun," said Larry, without raising his eyes from the fire. "I sloped. I looked back and seen