Thus, with devilish cleverness, he twisted the weapon from his own breast and directed it at that of his enemy. The explanation, plausible enough, made an impression which his sharp eyes were quick to note. He knew he had surprised them, that they had looked for a furious storm of repudiation, and he had spoken quietly, holding down with iron control the rage that threatened to choke him.
"Most o' yu have known me some time," he went on. "Am I the kind to put myself in the power of a man like Potter, or to rob a bank which was practically mine to hand yu back the money?"
"Less my thirty thousand," Andy reminded him.
Raven refused to be ruffled. "Is it likely I'd go stravagin' about the country holdin' folks up? Why, I never carry a gun," he said. "That's all I gotta say, boys. There's Sudden, an admitted outlaw an' a stranger, an' here's Seth Raven, who ain't a stranger. Which are yu goin' to believe?"
It was a superb piece of acting and brought its reward. A big, black-bearded man from the Tepee Mountain country jumped up.
"Gents, I reckon Raven has the straight of it," he called out. "I'm backin' him."
Shouts of "Good for yu, Darky" and "Here's another" followed this pronouncement, and a number of the men got to their feet, stamping, yelling, and directing threatening looks at the little group near the door. Amid all the hubbub Green stood alone, cynically surveying the noisy scene. His stem voice rang out above the din, and the very audacity of his request quelled it.
"Raven, I want the gun yo're wearin'--it's under yore left armpit. Hand it to yore friend yonder"--he indicated the black-bearded man--"or I'll drop yu right now."
The half-breed looked surprised, hesitated, but one glance at the speaker's granite face told him that the levelled gun was no mere bluff. With a scornful smile he pulled out the weapon and pitched it to Darky.
"Yo're a gun guesser, Sudden," he jeered. "Gettin' scared, huh? Yu needn't be; yo're slated for a rope. Take care o' that shootin'-iron; she's an old favourite I wouldn't like to lose, though I ain't carried one for years."
"Oh, yeah," Green said, and to the man holding the revolver, "Fetch it out here, friend, where we can all see." From the pocket of his chaps he produced two slender brass tubes and held them up. "The bullets from these killed Bordene an' Potter; I found 'em near the bodies," he went on. "Both have the same distinctive mark." He turned to Darky. "Take the ca'tridges outa that gun an' have a look at 'em."
Curiosity again rampant, the spectators clustered round and stood on the benches to watch the operation; the singular duel was not yet over. Raven alone betrayed no interest. He did not know what this new move portended, but confident in his regained supremacy, he believed he could circumvent it. One by one the black-bearded man drew out the shells, scanning each carefully. Not until he came to the last did he speak.
"Thisyer is scratched along the side--a straight line," he said, and looked at the gun. "The chamber is nicked."
Green handed him the empty shells. "Would yu say they were fired outa that gun?" he asked.
Darky gave them one glance. "Hell! There ain't a shadder o' doubt," he said. "Them marks is eedentical." He looked at Raven and spat disgustedly. "An' I was for him," he added. "Stranger, I'm right ashamed."
A tense silence followed the black-bearded man's verdict and instant condemnation. Swiftly the tell-tale tubes passed from hand to hand, but in every case the scrutiny was of the briefest. Familiar with weapons as all present were the evidence was conclusive, even to the dullest intellect. Had further proof been needed, Raven's ashen face supplied it. The blow, coming in the moment of triumph, had shattered his self-control. He knew that he was beaten, that nothing he could say or do would save him. Not only had the fatal weapon been on him, but he had admitted that he prized it; Green, too, had been astute enough to have the cartridges examined by one of his, Raven's, supporters; there was no loophole. A cold fear clutched at his heart and he cursed himself for having kept and worn the gun. Furtively he glanced about, reading his doom in the set, lowering faces of those who, but a few moments before, had been his friends. At the thought of all he had so nearly gained a madness came upon him, a fierce desire to taunt these men, to vent his spleen upon them for the last time. He rose and faced them, a sinister, evil figure.
"Yo're a clever lot, ain't yu?" he sneered. "Superior race, salt o' the earth--scum would fit yu better. Me, I'm what yu called me. The Vulture, that damned Injun, the unwanted brat of a pore white an' his copper-coloured squaw, yet I've beaten an' fooled yu all--killed, robbed, an' had yu pattin' me on the back for a good fella. Bite on that! Why, if it hadn't bin for a stranger"--his gaze rested viciously on Green--"yu'd be eatin' outa my hand this minit like the dawgs yu are. Which of yu has the pluck an' savvy to plan an' do as I did? Not one o' yu."
The stinging, scornful voice lashed them like a whip and he had his moment. Silent, spellbound, they stared at the extraordinary spectacle of a criminal glorying in his evil, baiting the men at whose hands he must shortly die. Only Strade spoke:
"Yu admittin' Potter was right, Raven?" he asked.
The half-breed grinned hideously. "Yu pore pin-head, ain't I said so?" he retorted. "Potter knowed all, an' I killed him, for that, an' so's I could buy the town with its own coin." The mad laugh came again. "Oh, I played big, an' damn near got away with it."
"Yu--robbed--the stage?"
He turned on the speaker. "Yeah, Pardoe, I stole yore roll an' flung a bit of it back to yu in charity," he gibed. "Ah, would yu?"
For Pardoe, with the growl of a savage beast, was reaching for his hip. Raven's hand flashed to his breast, a shot crashed, and the gambler went writhing to the floor, and was still. The killer faced round, crouching, the smoking weapon poised.
"Fooled yu too, Sudden," he jeered. "Yu guessed at one gun, but yu didn't figure on two, did yu? Now"--the muzzle was directed point-blank at Green's breast--"if anybody makes a move, yu die." His beady eyes gloated over the man whose life he held in the crook of a finger, for Green's guns were back in their holsters. Raven broke the tense silence. "Sudden the Second is goin' to hell presently," he rasped. "Sudden the First is goin' now, damn him."
As the last words left his lips Green's right hand swept to his side. To the onlookers the reports seemed simultaneous. They saw the younger man stagger back as a bullet seared his left temple, and then Raven reeled, his knees hinged under him, and he collapsed like a house of cards. For a long moment there was no sound--men were breathing again--and then Rusty voiced the thoughts of alclass="underline"
"My Gawd!" he said in awed admiration, "Raven had him covered an' he beat him to it! Sudden, huh? Well, I believe yu."
Green sheathed his gun and mustered up a grin as Pills came to bandage his hurt. "On'y a scratch, doc," he said.
"H'm, another inch to the left and yu'd have been travelling together," the little man said grimly. "I'd given you up."
"He figured wrong--reckoned I'd raise the gun, but I fired from the hip," the patient explained. "If he hadn't been so keen on cussin' me--"
At the far end of the room a crowd gathered round the fallen men; both were dead. Raven's thin lips were drawn back in an ugly snarl and between the staring eyes was the mark where the bullet had entered.
"An' we thought he never packed no artillery," Durley said.
"I knew different," Green told him. "Twice he nearly went for it; when he shot Jevons, and again when I throwed him off the Double S, but I didn't suspect he carred a brace."
"Good thing he was totin' the one he did his dirty work with," Strade commented.
"I figured he would be," the marshal explained. "Yu know how it is with a gun; they has differences, an' a fella gets fond of his own, an' wise to its little ways. When he told us it was a favourite, I felt pretty shore."