Old Doc Travers [pp. 88-95]

Old Doc Travers. [J\ily
He's hit, hit bad. Don't blame him either, stand off the whole damned outfit." growled
for Nellie is a treasure. Don't know what a deep voice, with drunken imprecations.
I'd have been without her." This pro- "Kill the swell and welcome, but knife
found problem apparently dazed him, and him and keep your gun quiet. We are after
he crept on again. the dust first, and anything else afterward.
Got to fix things some way; the whole Ready? Quiet now! " —and three mounted
game is square-except my hand. South- men stole by like phantoms and took the
ack has thrown up his and pulls out of camp down trail.
to-morrow for good. It's a howling shame, Were they but creatures of the old docand don't you forget it! What in thunder tor's diseased brain, or what deviltry was
can I do to change their run of luck? astir that wild night? Travers staggered
They have thrown the whole game into my forward and bent low. Yes, there were the
hands, and for once, I'm damned, if I hoof-prints, into which the water was even
know how to play it." then seeping from the slush and mud.
The Bed Rock saloon was at hand now, Then it came to him in a lurid flash,
and muddy, dripping, disheveled, Travers pregnant with horrid possibilities. An atentered. tack upon the office was plainly indicated.
Pausing at, the bar he gulped down a full One voice Travers recognized; that of the
glass of whiskey, and then slouched through man with murderous designs on Southack's
the crowded room. Refusing all invitations life. He remembered him as a burly ruffian
to join sundry games, he sank into a seat whom Ray had discharged, and had thrashed
in an obscure corner, and fell into a deep subsequently and driven from the camp.
reverie. The whiskey made him dull and Travers sprang to the door of the saloon,
sleepy. and beat wildly upon it, yelling to the bar An hour passed, and his thoughts be- keeper to open. All remained silent within.
came momently more hazy. A second hour He cried, and begged, and cursed, shouting
slipped by, and one by one the miners murder; but the bar-keeper was but too
straggled out, until finally the sleepy bar- used to such demonstrations from old Doc
keeper shook old Doc Travers, who, Travers, and cursing him sleepily, slept
rousing, found himself the last of the again.
motley crowd. Time was too precious to be wasted there.
He staggered slightly as he stepped out The boarding-house was distant a mile up
into the storm, and fell back into a shadowy the gulch, and the miners and mill men were
angle of the building to recover himself. mostly there. No time to obtain help from
His brain was still in a whirl. that quarter.
The sound of low voices near by came to A grim, set look came over Travers's face,
his ears in a meaningless jargon. The im- as, turning, l~e rushed madly down the trail.
patient stamping of horses, mingled with It was a good mile to the mill, and the
curses, was audible. enemy had fully five minutes start and were
"Now is your time, and we have got to mounted.
be quick about it. We'll have a close call Good God! what might not happen beto finish the job and get away before day- fore he could cover that distance! Tearing
light gives the game away," said one voice. off his old, ragged coat, he flung it away.
"Remember, boys, no shooting. One Slipping, sliding, falling, but ever on his
shot and we'll have the whole camp down feet again, his bloodshot eyes glaring in their
on us in a holy minute." deep-set sockets, on the old man rushed.
"I'll have Southack's life, if I have to Every shriek of the wind seemed a death