Who Wants to Live Forever?

The revolver in Hal's hand covered steadily the young ruffian's chest. 'Disarm him, Frank. Check up to see he hasn't two guns.' He added, the words as chill as water from a Newfoundland iceberg, 'I'll blast him off the map if he stirs.'

Frank found an automatic in Fenwick's pocket and tossed it into the dark night outside.

'Sure he hasn't another?' Hal snapped.

'That's all,' Lovell said.

'Fine. Now I'll talk. You've been a sucker for months, Frank. These buzzards have been feasting on you. Frawley's losses are come-on stuff. The play was for him to be sore and lead you on to keep coming back to win from them what you had lost. After I butted in, they decided to let you win, so as to throw me off the track. Any chump could see you took two or three big pots when you didn't have the best hand. When I saw Hanford look at his last two cards, I could have told you he had fours. I thought he wouldn't call — and he didn't. Generous of him not to interfere with the small killing you were to make.'

'That's a lie — everything you've said,' Hanford flung back, his half-shuttered eyes dark with menace. 'I misread my hand and didn't see the fourth ace.'

'Better get glasses, Hanford,' the cattleman jeered. 'All right, Frank. Where do you go from here? I'm leaving. You going, too? Or do you stay with these crooks?'

'Some day I'll fill you full of lead, smart aleck,' Fenwick said in a low deadly voice, and added a string of curses in the same tone.

Hal's eyes held fast to the man, but his words were for Lovell. 'Make up your mind, Frank. It's one or the other. You go straight or crooked. Think fast.'

The whole dirty intrigue was clear to Frank. He owed money to these men, and he had let them use him by way of payment. At least two of them were killers. He had not dared to tell them he could not make good the losses and to stand out against the raids on the ranch. But he had not suspected they had cheated him in the poker games. Anger boiled up in him.

Always he had admired the reckless courage of Hal Stevens and found his audacity fascinating. Swiftly he came to a decision. He had been a craven fool, but, by Heaven, he would go straight now.

'I'm with you, Hal,' he said.

'Good. Cash your chips and mine. I'm sure Mr. Hanford will be glad to have you deputy banker.'

'You can't call me a crook,' the Seven Up foreman told Stevens thickly, anger choking him. 'And I'll get you for this some day sure as you're a foot high. You can stand there back of that gun and insult me, but you haven't the nerve to go outside with me and settle this man to man.'

'No, I haven't just now,' Hal agreed. 'Too many of your anxious friends around. All ready, Frank?'

'In just a second.' Frank pushed the money box from him. 'Okey, Hal!'

'Start my car for me, then get going in your own. Soon as I hear it moving, I'll be out.'

Frank hesitated, his eyes shifting from one angry, threatening face to another. 'Hadn't we better go out together?' he asked in a low voice.

'No. Do as I say. I'll be with you before you get out of the park.'

A minute later, Hal heard the sound of his purring engine, and then the grating wheels of Lovell's automobile scraping loose gravel. His gaze traveled grimly around the circle. 'I'll be saying "Adios!" gentlemen. A pleasant time has been had by all. I'll leave you to talk it over among yourselves.'

He backed out through the door, slammed it shut, and raced for his car. His enemies were boiling out of the cabin before he had slid under the wheel. Instantly he was on his way across the park. Shots slammed against the hill in front of him. A bullet struck the hub cap of a wheel and slanted off on ricochet. His car jumped along the rough road like a bucking broncho, but steadied as he took the hill to the rim above. On the summit he found Frank waiting.

CHAPTER 5

Frank Tells His Story

YOU ALL RIGHT?' Frank asked.

'Fine as silk. You'd better come home with me for the night. We've got to talk over this thing.'

The boy hesitated. His sister would not like that, but she would not like any part of the story. He was not sure how much he was going to tell her.

'Think maybe I ought to go home,' he said.

'Not until we've figured out where we stand. I've declared war, and you are in it.' Hal looked across at the shadowy form of Lovell behind the wheel of the other car. 'I'm not sure that you are not in more danger than I. You'll have to put all your cards on the table, Frank, before we can decide what to do.'

'I'll follow you to the M K,' Frank said. 'After we have talked I can go home.'

When they drew up in the yard of the ranch house, a man came forward from the shadow of one of the buildings.

'That you, Hal?' he called.

'Right first time, Ranny,' Stevens answered lightly.

'Where have you been?' Arnold inquired, admonition in his voice.

Hal laughed. 'I've been playing poker. This is Frank Lovell.' His hand swept toward the new employee. 'Mr. Randolph Arnold, Frank.'

The two men shook hands. Arnold's mind jumped back instantly to the previous question. 'Playing poker — where?'

'With some of my neighbors. It's a long story. Let's go inside. Better get your gun first, Ranny. We may have visitors.'

The cattleman bolted the doors and drew the blinds before he sat down to recount the adventure of the night.

'I don't know this gentleman,' Frank objected. 'He may be all right, but—'

'He was my roommate at college,' Hal explained. 'Ranny was the best blocking back I ever knew. All I ever had to do was to trot along behind him and carry the ball. He is absolutely dependable.'

'Is he visiting you?'

'Recuperating from an illness, he says,' grinned Hal. 'But he looks right healthy to me. I hope he is. We may need a husky guy to break up interference.'

Hal told the story of the poker game, his deductions from it, and the stormy finale.

'You look for trouble?' Arnold said, after he had finished.

'Double trouble. For Frank and for me.'

'For you, certainly,' Arnold agreed. 'But perhaps not for Mr. Lovell. It depends on how much he knows.'

Frank flushed. He had played a weak part and knew it. But no matter how much it embarrassed him, he had to come clean now.

'Altogether I owe Frawley, Hanford, and Fenwick more than seventeen hundred dollars,' the boy blurted out.

'From poker losses?' Hal inquired.

'Yes.'

'Why should they let you get in so deep?'

Young Lovell found it difficult to answer that. He began twice and broke off, then poured out the words in a gulp. 'I overheard something Brick said one day, and it made me think they might be the cattle raiders. Nothing very definite. But I had a hunch. I began to put this and that together. Once I told them my suspicions, one night when I was a little drunk. Nothing was said to me then, but later Brick took me aside.'

'And gave you a choice — to keep your mouth shut and live or to talk and get shot in the back.'

'Something like that. I wanted to quit the game, but they wouldn't let me. It wasn't my money they wanted, because I didn't have any to speak of. The idea was to keep me close to them and in their debt. Then I dare not squawk. I've been losing ever since. They don't bother me about what I owe. They carry me on credit. But I knew I was gone if I was not careful.'

'And you are to wink at the raids, even those against the Seven Up and Down,' Hal suggested. 'Probably they would claim the stock they steal is a rough offset against your poker losses.'

'Yes,' Frank assented miserably. 'Though nothing has been said in words. They are very careful now about what I hear. The fact is, I don't know anything. I'm just guessing.'