Page:Harold Titus--Timber.djvu/367

Rh Slowly one of the withered arms rose, an unsteady, gnarled finger half pointing. The accusation came in a half whisper.

"Him!" halting the finger to indicate Howe. "He come th' first time—they both told me I'd go to jail if I—"

"It's a lie! He's crazy!" Rowe's denial, sharp and panicky, broke the tension. Men moved.

"It is no lie!" Taylor elbowed through them to be near Rowe. "You've gotten away with your last lie, your last piece of blackmail in this deal, Phil! Do you think I've been asleep? I've been just a lap behind you for days, you rat!"

Humphrey Bryant moved to where he could see John's face.

"I've got enough on you Rowe, to keep you busy from now on! Harris, there, may be lucky—" John looked about, breathing deeply in anger and saw Henry Wales and Wes Hubbard staring at him from the car, where they held the mumbling Thad. "And may be others will wish they were dead before I'm through!"

His eyes ran over the faces before him and came to rest on his father's. His shoulders slacked and he shook his head rather sorrowfully. "These are the things you have done," he said, spreading his hands. "This is why I have had to fight you."

His anger was gone; he looked pityingly at his father. For a moment their gazes clung, the old man's sharp and defensive—before something faded in his eyes. He looked from his son to Charley Stump who stood shaking with fright and it seemed as though between the two was more than the bond of age: the communion of trouble,