Page:GB Lancaster--law-bringer.djvu/15

Rh the other man then. But if it was the door Dick leapt the last three feet like a slung stone, splintering the crazy door on its one hinge, and bearing down beneath the wood Moonias and his duck-gun. The exploding charge blew a turf of thatch off the roof, and on the earth floor the two men clinched grimly, dumb, sweating; with the net of death shaken out loosely to catch them, and that unhealthy red of the sunset spurting over wide-bladed knife and revolver-barrel.

The half-breed was brutally strong; but that finer, superber courage which God gives the gentlemen of His earth when they have absolved themselves from most of the other merits brought the handcuffs round Moonias' thick wrists at last. Then Dick rose lightly; breathed, but civil.

"You put up a good fight, Moonias," he said. "And though it's not manners to resist the Law, I don't blame you. No, not at all. But I do blame you for not seeing the strategic possibilities of that window, though I guessed you wouldn't. Get up."

He went through the half-breed's pockets, nodded, and turned on his heel.

"You likely know better than to try any game with those on you," he said, and the words broke with a yawn. "I think we can do with some sleep, Moonias. I haven't had any for three nights, and I'll swear you haven't either. That's why you made such a damned bad break in your judgment, maybe. Get right over into that corner."

The breed obeyed, and flung himself down straightway in that animal acceptance of the inevitable which was his heritage. Whistling softly, Dick crossed to what looked like a pile of old feed-sacks in the dark under the window, laid hold of them with both hands, and exploded into a sudden oath that straightened him up with the force of it. Then he stooped again; slid his arms round the man who lay huddled there, and carried him out into the thin slivers of light which were all the low sun sent through the spruces.

The man was dripping with water. His legs left a wet trail as Dick dragged him over the earth floor, and his long arms and bare head fell limp. Moonias stared out of his shock of coarse hair with a sudden eye-glitter.