Then Wade's action in looking to his belt-guns was that of a man who expected to have recourse to them speedily and by whom the necessity was neither regretted nor feared. Stooping low, he entered the thicket of spruces. The soft, spruce-matted ground, devoid of brush or twig, did not give forth the slightest sound of step, nor did the brushing of the branches against his body. In some cases he had to bend the boughs. Thus, swiftly and silently, with the gliding steps of an Indian, he approached the cabin till the brown-barked logs loomed before him, shutting off the clearer light.
He smelled a mingling of wood and tobacco smoke; he heard low, deep voices of men; the shuffling and patting of cards; the musical click of gold. Resting on his knees a moment the hunter deliberated. All was exactly as he had expected. Luck favored him. These gamblers would be absorbed in their game. The door of the cabin was just around the corner, and he could glide noiselessly to it or gain it in a few leaps. Either method would serve. But which he must try depended upon the position of the men inside and that of their weapons.
Rising silently, Wade stepped up to the wall and peeped through a chink between the logs. The sunshine streamed through windows and door. Jack Belllounds sat on the ground, full in its light, back to the wall. He was in his shirt-sleeves. The gambling fever and the grievous soreness of a loser shone upon his pale face. Smith sat with back to Wade, opposite Belllounds. The other men completed the square. All were close enough together to reach comfortably for the cards and gold before them. Wade's keen eyes took this in at a single glance, and then steadied searchingly for smaller features of the scene. Belllounds had no weapon. Smith's belt and gun lay in the sunlight on the hard, clay floor, out of reach except by violent effort. The other two rustlers both wore their weapons. Wade gave a long scrutiny to the faces of these comrades of Smith, and evidently satisfied himself as to what he had to expect from them.
Wade hesitated; then stooping low, he softly swept aside the intervening boughs of spruce, glided out of the thicket into the open. Two noiseless bounds! Another, and he was inside the door!
“Howdy, rustlers! Don't move!” he called.
The surprise of his appearance, or his voice, or both, stunned the four men. Belllounds dropped his cards, and his jaw dropped at the same instant. These were absolutely the only visible movements.
“I'm in talkin' humor, an' the longer you listen the longer you'll have to live,” said Wade. “But don't move!”
“We ain't movin',” burst out Smith. “Who're you, an' what d'ye want?”
It was singular that the rustler leader had not had a look at Wade, whose movements had been swift and who now stood directly behind him. Also it was obvious that Smith was sitting very stiff-necked and straight. Not improbably he had encountered such situations before.
“Who're you?” he shouted, hoarsely.
“You ought to know me.” The voice was Wade's, gentle, cold, with depth and ring in it.
“I've heerd your voice somewhars—I'll gamble on thet.”
“Sure. You ought to recognize my voice, Cap,” returned Wade.
The rustler gave a violent start—a start that he controlled instantly.
“Cap! You callin' me thet?”
“Sure. We're old friends—Cap Folsom!“
In the silence, then, the rustler's hard breathing could be heard; his neck bulged red; only the eyes of his two comrades moved; Belllounds began to recover somewhat from his consternation. Fear had clamped him also, but not fear of personal harm or peril. His mind had not yet awakened to that.
“You've got me pat! But who're you?” said Folsom, huskily.
Wade kept silent.
“Who'n hell is thet man?” yelled the rustler It was not a query to his comrades any more than to the four winds. It was a furious questioning of a memory that stirred and haunted, and as well a passionate and fearful denial.
“His name's Wade,” put in Belllounds, harshly. “He's the friend of Wils Moore. He's the hunter I told you about—worked for my father last winter.”
“Wade?... What?Wade! You never told me his name. It ain't—it ain't—”
“Yes, it is, Cap,” interrupted Wade. “It's the old boy that spoiled your handsome mug—long ago.”
“Hell-Bent Wade!” gasped Folsom, in terrible accents. He shook all over. An ashen paleness crept into his face. Instinctively his right hand jerked toward his gun; then, as in his former motion, froze in the very act.
“Careful, Cap!” warned Wade. “It'd be a shame not to hear me talk a little.... Turn around now an' greet an old pard of the Gunnison days.”
Folsom turned as if a resistless, heavy force was revolving his head.
“By Gawd!... Wade!” he ejaculated. The tone of his voice, the light in his eyes, must have been a spiritual acceptance of a dreadful and irrefutable fact—perhaps the proximity of death. But he was no coward. Despite the hunter's order, given as he stood there, gun drawn and ready, Folsom wheeled back again, savagely to throw the deck of cards in Belllounds's face. He cursed horribly.... “You spoiled brat of a rich rancher! Why'n hell didn't you tell me thet varmint-hunter was Wade.”
“I did tell you,” shouted Belllounds, flaming of face.
“You're a liar! You never said Wade—W-a-d-e, right out, so I'd hear it. An' I'd never passed by Hell-Bent Wade.”
“Aw, that name made me tired,” replied Belllounds, contemptuously.
“Haw! Haw! Haw!” bawled the rustler. “Made you tired, hey? Think you're funny? Wal, if you knowed how many men thet name's made tired—an' tired fer keeps—you'd not think it so damn funny.”
“Say, what're you giving me? That Sheriff Burley tried to tell me and dad a lot of rot about this Wade. Why, he's only a little, bow-legged, big-nosed meddler—a man with a woman's voice—a sneaking cook and camp-doctor and cow-milker, and God only knows what else.”
“Boy, you're correct. God only knows what else!... It's theelse you've got to learn. An' I'll gamble you'll learn it.... Wade, have you changed or grown old thet you let a pup like this yap such talk?”
“Well, Cap, he's very amusin' just now, an' I want you-all to enjoy him. Because, if you don't force my hand I'm goin' to tell you some interestin' stuff about this Buster Jack.... Now, will you be quiet an' listen—an' answer for your pards?”
“Wade, I answer fer no man. But, so far as I've noticed, my pards ain't hankerin' to make any loud noise,” Folsom replied, indicating his comrades, with sarcasm.
The red-bearded one, a man of large frame and gaunt face, wicked and wild-looking, spoke out, “Say, Smith, or whatever the hell's yore right handle—is this hyar a game we're playin'?”
“I reckon. An' if you turn a trick you'll be damn lucky,” growled Folsom.