Part 2

Corteen was wearing a long, broadcloth coat, patent-leather boots, a wide-brimmed, black hat and the fanciest vest Streak Malone had ever seen. It was a riot of color, with flashing buttons. The tall gambler looked at Streak through narrowed eyes as Streak came in past the bar.

III

Malone did not speak to these men because he didn’t know any of them, except by name. Zero Brant was at the far end of the bar, talking with one of his gamblers, and Streak nodded to him. Then he heard Corteen saying:

“So they’ve got law and order here, eh?”

One of the men said, “Such as it is. They appointed a man as marshal, but one man won’t do much.”

“The Vigilantes killed the sheriff,” remarked Corteen.

Streak stopped short and turned around. Corteen was watching him, and their eyes met.

“The sheriff was murdered, if you want the truth, sir,” Streak said.

“That’s not what I heard, Marshal.”

“So you know who I am,” remarked Streak coldly. “We’re even, Corteen.”

The tall gambler barely moved his lips, as he said, “I don’t like the way yuh said that, my friend.”

“Could it be that you’re a little ashamed, Corteen?”

The gambler’s face tightened perceptibly, his hands dropped to his sides. He had two holstered guns under that long coat, the butts close to the front, ready for a cross-draw. The thumbs and fingers of both hands gently touched the edges of that open coat. Then he leaned forward a little.

“This town ain’t big enough for the both of us, Malone,” he said harshly. “By sundown it’ll be too small. We can’t both stay here.”

“I’ll be here--watchin’ it shrink, Corteen.”

“I hope you have written a will,” said Corteen coldly.

Streak Malone smiled slowly. “I’ll make yuh a gamblin’ proposition, Corteen. We’ll both make out our wills, leavin’ everythin’ to the winner.”

“What’s the idea?” asked Corteen curiously.

“I’d like to inherit that vest. You probably stole it, but--”

“I what? Why, you streak-haired--”

Corteen forgot the sunset deadline. He went for his crossed guns. Men fell away from behind him, as his hands flashed up, but Streak’s draw--they didn’t see it. Corteen’s guns were still only waist-high, when Streak’s forty-five blasted from his hip.

The tall gambler jerked back, his eyes tightly shut. His fingers relaxed and the two guns fell to the floor. Slowly his knees bent and he collapsed.

Streak had stepped back, cocked gun still at his waist-line, his eyes searching the men in the room. Monk Moore’s eyes widened a little, but there was no other sign of shock or emotion. Zero Brant had jumped away from the bar, staring at Corteen, flat on the floor.

“Well, there’s one gun yuh won’t have to pay for, Brant,” said Mack Shell’s voice, and then he continued quietly: “All right, Streak--I’m behind yuh.”

“Thank yuh, Shell.”

Brant didn’t speak, no matter what he thought. He had seen the deadly efficiency of the new marshal of Silver Butte.

One of the men said flatly, “Corteen reached first.” That remark settled any argument as to the aggressor.

Shell said, “Brant, you brought him here--you take care of him.”

Streak turned and walked out, but Mack Shell didn’t have the same confidence in that gang; he backed out. They met outside and walked over to the office.

As they stopped in front of the office to look back at the Silver Dollar, Mack Shell said, “You spoke a language they understand, Streak. Dan Corteen was fast with a gun but you beat him. Ten minutes ago you was known as the fool who took a dangerous job. Now yuh’re Streak Malone, marshal of Silver Butte, who wouldn’t wait for sunset.”

“I’m sorry,” said Streak. “I don’t want to kill anybody but he was out to kill me.”

“I heard it all,” declared Mack Shell. “I was right behind yuh. Dan Corteen started it, thinkin’ you’d crawl--and yuh didn’t. Forget Dan Corteen. He’s had it comin’ a long time, Streak.”

“I guess you’re right, Mack.”

“I know this kind of a deal. Corteen was here to get you. The next one won’t give yuh a break--yuh’re dangerous. I got a good look at the expression on Zero Brant’s face, and the sand was spillin’ out of his craw. You killed his pet monkey and he don’t like it.”

* * * * *

It was nearly dark that evening, when Streak Malone ran face to face with the woman who got off the stage that day. She was just leaving the hotel entrance. She stopped short, staring at Streak.

“Who are you?” she asked throatily. Streak smiled slowly.

“I am Streak Malone, marshal of Silver Butte, ma’am.”

“Streak Malone?” She shook her head and repeated it again, under her breath.

Streak said, “Ma’am, I’d advise against yuh goin’ out on the street alone.”

She smiled thinly and said, “I expect to deal faro at the new Eureka and I must see a Mr. Flack.”

“No matter what yuh do for a livin’, this street ain’t safe,” Malone declared. “I’ll take yuh over there, if I may.”

“Thank you, Mr. Malone.”

They reached the other side of the street and stopped in front of the Eureka. Streak noticed that she still seemed to look at him in amazement, tinged with disbelief.

“Be careful, ma’am,” he said. “Jim Flack is all right, but conditions in this town are very bad.”

“Thank you, but I shall do very nicely, I’m sure. By the way, I believe you had a little trouble with Dan Corteen today.”

“You knew him?”

“Oh, no, I merely met him on the stage. Thank you for bringing me over here.”

“You are very welcome, ma’am.”

“I am Clare Ames,” she said simply. “Names don’t usually mean much out here.”

Streak laughed. “Yuh mean--you change ’em often?”

“Not too often. For instance, you were probably not christened Streak Malone--or even Malone.”

Streak smiled slowly. “A child has little chance to select a name,” he said. “Parents very often give children names that they detest later on in life, so they can’t blame us for takin’ one that we like better.”

“Or one that is safer.”

Streak looked at her curiously. “Yes,” he said, “I believe that is true, Miss Ames. Good luck to you and your new job.”

“Thank you, Mr. Malone.”

Streak walked to the edge of the rough sidewalk, his eyes very thoughtful. Why did that woman say, “You were probably not christened Malone,” he wondered. Why did she look at him, wide-eyed? He had never seen her before she came to Silver Butte.

There always was a lot of activity in Silver Butte at night. Construction men, off shift, thronged the street, many of them intoxicated. Fights started and ended without interference. The jail was too small to think of starting a crusade against mere personal fights. Tomorrow night the new Eureka would open, which would, no doubt, start trouble. Streak Malone realized the enormity of his job. He had won his first encounter, but he knew, as Mack Shell had said, they would not give him a break next time.

He managed to cross the street to his office where he found Mack Shell, carefully oiling his six-shooter. The little outlaw smiled slowly, and Streak knew that he had seen him taking Clare Ames across the street.

“She’s dealin’ at the Eureka tomorrow night,” Streak said.

“So Jim Flack is goin’ to use female bait, too, eh?” remarked Shell. “Yuh know, I’m afraid that Brant is goin’ to have plenty competition, Streak. That little singer--the one they call Mazie over at the Silver Dollar--has quit Brant and will sing at the Eureka. The men are crazy about her singin’.”

“Have you got a puncher in yore outfit, sort of a kid, named Joe?” asked Streak.

“Yeah. Joe East.”

“I heard him talkin’ with that singer. He wants her to marry him and go back East.”

“He does, eh? Yuh know, one of my boys told me that Joe was shinin’ around her but I didn’t believe it. Joe’s just a kid. He ain’t one of my regular gang, Streak. He just works with cows.”

“What did yore boys say, when yuh told ’em you was a lawman?”

* * * * *

The outlaw hesitated, then shoved back his sombrero and scratched his head.

“Thought I’d gone crazy,” Mack Shell grinned. “But I explained the whole thing, and they’re behind us. If yuh don’t mind, Streak, I’ll sleep here in the office tonight. There might be bushwhackers along the road to my ranch and, anyway, somebody might try to put up that sign again on the door of the office.”

Streak was in no mood to go to bed and yet he realized the danger of that main street at night. Men were still working at the Eureka when he went over there, polishing the long bar, putting the final touches on the gambling paraphernalia. It cost Jim Flack a pretty penny to have all that shipped to Silver Butte.

He found Flack, a tall, saturnine gambler, watching the men. His greeting to Streak was very friendly. He said: “Glad you came over Malone. I heard about that trouble in the Silver Dollar, and the folks are showing a lot of confidence in you as marshal of Silver Butte.”

“Thank you,” said Streak soberly. “You’ve spent a lot of money to build and operate this place. That bar must have cost a small fortune, alone.”

“I want to make this place permanent, Malone, but I’m afraid it might not work out that way. You know something of the conditions, and they are not good. I want to operate honest games and sell good liquors, but I don’t know.”

“I know what yuh mean, Flack--and they’re not good prospects.”

“A man told me,” remarked Flack grimly, “that I’d be serving drinks off a pine table after the opening--if I lived. I don’t like things like that, Malone.”

Streak looked around the big room. Everything was of the best. He admired the long ornate back-bar, the mirror gleaming in the lamplight, reflecting back the glitter of expensive glassware.

In size, it was smaller than the Silver Dollar, but there was no comparison as to appointments.

“You’ve been quite a while in buildin’ this place, Flack,” Streak said. “It took a lot of time and money to get it furnished. Has anybody interfered in any way in the buildin’ or haulin’ in of all the furniture?”

“Not a soul,” replied the gambler. “I’ve thought of that. It would have been easy to smash the furniture on those wagons, to tear down what I’ve built. Why did they let me do all this if they objected to me operating here?”

“Maybe it’s all talk,” suggested Streak.

“I hope it is. I don’t want trouble.”

Flack walked over to the group of workmen, paid them off in cash and came back to Streak. They were alone in the Eureka now.

Flack said, “I’ve tried, but haven’t been able to find a man to act as watchman. Malone, I believe they are afraid to take the job.”

He took Streak to the back of the place and showed him the little office. Off the office was a small room, furnished, with a single-bed, rough table and a chair.

Streak said, “Are you goin’ to sleep here?”

Flack shook his head. “No,” he said. “I have a room at the hotel. The watchman can use the bed during the day.”

“Do yuh mind if I sleep here tonight?” asked Streak.

Flack looked curiously at Streak, but nodded. “I’d be mighty glad if yuh would,” he said. “If you want to leave, that front door is on a snap-lock. It will lock behind you.”

After a few moments Flack told him good night and went out. Streak kicked off his high-heel boots, and stretched out on the new blankets, smoking a cigarette, trying to figure out just what to do in order to change conditions in Silver Butte. He had finished his cigarette, but not his ideas, when he heard men walking the length of the saloon, their boots sounding hollow in the room. The office door was opened, men came in and closed the door, and he heard them light the lamp.

* * * * *

The partition between the two rooms was thin, and he could hear everything that was said. There was a small window in the little bedroom, but the only door opened into the office. The men in the office were silent for several moments, then one said:

“All right, Flack. You know why we brought yuh here, of course.”

“Sorry,” replied Jim Flack coldly, “but I do not. When masked men force me at the point of a gun to open doors and go with them, I believe they should do the explaining.”

One man laughed harshly. “You ain’t that ignorant, Flack. Here is a bill-of-sale, and we want yuh to sign it. Go ahead and read it--we can wait that long. Nobody knows yuh’re here, so take all the time yuh want.”

Noise from the outside drifted into the place, but there was no sound from the other room, until Flack’s voice said:

“Sorry, but I won’t sign this, gentlemen.”

“Yuh won’t, eh? Listen, Flack--you sign it--or die here.”

“And if I do sign it, I also die, eh?”

“Oh, shore. But not here. You’ll just disappear.”

“I don’t get the idea of this bill-of-sale.”

“Still ignorant, eh? You fool! Why do yuh reckon we let yuh go ahead and build this place, and furnish it? We could have stopped yuh any time we wanted to, but we figured that we’d let you pay all the bills, get everythin’ all ready, and then we’d take it over. See the idea, Flack. The bill-of-sale is to Buck Smith? Names don’t mean anythin’, my friend. Go ahead and sign it.”

“No!” snapped Flack. “If you intend killing me, why should I sign it? That would legalize the transfer. Go ahead.”

IV

That moment Streak Malone flung the door open. That is, he would have flung it open, but something caught under the door, blocking it half-open.

A man ripped out a curse, and a bullet smashed into the door. At the same moment the other man crashed the lamp, throwing the place into darkness. Streak managed to force his way past the partly-opened door, clawed for the doorway into the saloon. He heard the men racing down the saloon to the door, but he was not able to orient himself enough to shoot in the dark. Then the front door banged shut, and the men were gone.

Streak said, “Are yuh all right, Flack?”

“Yes, I am all right, thanks to you, Malone. That was a close call. Let’s get the lamp from the bedroom.”

The windows were covered, the door shut, when Streak lighted the lamp, and they looked at each other.

Flack said, “You came just in time, Malone. He was pulling the trigger.”

“Glad I did.” Streak smiled. “But I’m sorry the door stuck. Do yuh know either of them fellers, Flack?”

Flack shook his head. “They were both masked,” he said.

“Do yuh know Buck Smith?”

“Oh, you mean the name on that bill-of-sale? No, I don’t. It was only a name. But we know why they let me go ahead with this place. Well, they’ve ruined their first attempt, Malone, thanks to you. I’ll go out the back way and get to the hotel. I don’t believe they’ll make another attempt tonight.”

They went into the dark office and Jim Flack opened the back door.

“I don’t know how to thank you, Malone,” he said. “Maybe I can make it up to you--some way.”

“Forget that part of it,” said Streak. “Good luck.”

Streak went back to the bedroom and examined the bullet hole in the door. That bullet hadn’t missed him by more than a scant few inches. In fact, it had blown splinters onto the blanket. He stretched out again, trying to figure out more angles, but went to sleep quickly.

Jim Flack was over there next morning, before Streak awoke, and they talked things over. Flack said that he had talked with the superintendent of the hard-rock men on the railroad, and that the man was worried. Some of the more intelligent laborers realized that Zero Brant’s brace-games were keeping the men broke, and the bad liquor had made several of them unable to work at all. He said that any incident might start serious trouble.

“It’s a bad situation,” agreed Streak. “But what can be done about it, Flack? You can’t make arrests on what people think. Zero Brant has a tough following, and as far as enforcing the law is concerned, who or what is the law? I could put a man in jail, but how could he ever be convicted? What jury could, or would, decide guilt or innocence? Flack, this is a case where Old Man Colt is the only judge and jury.”

“I realize that, Malone,” nodded Flack. “I realize more than ever now that there will be trouble. Those men, last night, trying to force me to sign this place over to them, proved to me that they will stop at nothing.”

Streak found Mack Shell on the street and told him what happened at the Eureka. The little outlaw grinned slowly.

“So that’s why they let Flack go ahead with everythin’,” he remarked. “If you hadn’t been there, Flack would be dead now. Zero Brant is behind all this, Streak.”

Streak nodded. “But we can’t prove it,” he said.

The opening of the Eureka was not auspicious. Zero Brant was furnishing free whisky at the Silver Dollar and the house was packed with half-drunk humanity, mostly foreigners. A half-dozen bartenders were working at top speed but the games were not being patronized too well. A three-piece orchestra could hardly be heard above the roar of the crowd.

* * * * *

Brant was watching the crowd, a scowl on his face. The free whisky was keeping the crowd away from the games. Streak stood back against the wall, watching Brant. It was the first time Streak had ever seen Zero Brant without a hat, and he noticed that Brant’s forehead was criss-crossed with scars which were not too visible under a low-pulled hat-brim.

Chap-clad cowboys, wild as hawks, rubbed elbows with perspiring, muck-stained laborers, who gulped free whisky and roared songs in strange tongues. Here and there in the crowd were men in buckskin, bearded, long-haired, buffalo-hunters and trappers. The buffalo hunters furnished meat for the railroad crews.

At one end of the room El Chuchilla, the Knife, presided over a Three-Card-Monte game. This layout was not popular with the rank and file of patrons, but it placed the knife-throwing halfbreed in a good position to overlook the room, and flash signals to Zero Brant.

Mack Shell worked his way through the crowd and came in beside Streak. He said, “There’s a storm comin’, Streak.”

Streak nodded. “It’s bound to.”

“I mean outside,” said Shell. “Wind blowing, and yuh can hear the thunder. Yuh can’t hardly see through the dust right now.”

Streak nodded, watching Conchita at the roulette wheel. She was blazing with jewels, but the wheel was stopped. Shell laughed.

“Free whisky and no gamblers,” he said. “Serves him right.”

Conchita was looking at them now, and Streak noticed that her eyes were almond-shaped and almost green.

Mack Shell said, “Some day she’ll kill Brant. There’s a rattler down along the Mexican Border, with green eyes--like hers--and they don’t always rattle before they strike.”

One of Mack Shell’s cowboys forced his way through the crowd and came in beside them. He said, “If you think Conchita is pretty, take a look at the gal in the Eureka. She’s got this’n beat four ways from the jack. And she’s runnin’ an honest wheel. I won forty dollars on one whirl.”

The cowboy went on, circulating through the crowd, telling them about the Eureka. Streak smiled. Flack had probably hired several cowboys to pass out the good news, and the patrons were already drifting outside.

“Let’s go over to the Eureka,” suggested Shell.

“These men won’t leave free whisky,” said Streak.

“The free whisky is over.” Shell laughed. “They’ve just put up the sign.”

Slowly the crowd was drifting out of the place, some of them barely able to walk. Streak and Shell went outside. Lights were blotted out in the swirl of dust, and flashes of lightning were frequent now. Just as they found the entrance to the Eureka, a crash of thunder brought the first splatter of rain.

The new saloon was filling fast as they came in. The polished furniture reflected the lamplight, a thing of beauty in that rough, wild country, but the patrons were not interested in that sort of beauty.

Jim Flack, backed against the bar, was watching the gathering crowd, many of whom crowded around the roulette, where Clare Ames was running the layout. Mack Shell circulated among the crowd but Streak stayed near the end of the bar, out of the crowd. Men shoved through the open doorway, most of them drenched with rain.

The building shuddered under the concussion of thunder.

More men shoved in around the roulette, singing, cursing. It was a terrible place for a woman--even for the wrong kind. Flack came slowly over to Streak, tense, hard-eyed.

“I don’t like it, Malone,” he said. “They tell me that Zero Brant dished out free whisky to this mob. They’re all drunk.”

Streak nodded, his face grim. “Even free whisky wouldn’t hold ’em, Flack. They’re like a pack of wolves.”

* * * * *

More men surged in, possibly twenty or thirty huge foreigners, singing some sort of a chant. The room filled to suffocation, humming like a giant bee-hive, rank with the smell of unwashed humanity, liquor and strong tobacco smoke.

Somebody deep in the crowd cursed in a foreign tongue, screaming his words against the thud of a pistol shot. Came a babel of oaths, two more pistol shots, and pandemonium broke loose. Men surged toward the disturbance, and Streak caught sight of upraised bottles as the wave of men crushed tables and chairs, trampling drunken men to the floor, yelling like animals.

Suddenly they seemed to split into two factions, fighting each other. Streak knew what this meant. This drunken horde was bent on destroying everything in the Eureka.

Streak backed in against the end of the bar, gun in hand. He lost sight of Jim Flack. Out of the packed mob, like a football player packing the ball, came a huge, bearded giant, carrying a man in his arms. It was one of Mack Shell’s men. He dropped the unconscious cowboy and drew back a foot to kick him in the head when a shot crashed out, and the kick was not delivered. The big man went down, and the crowd trampled over him. Mack Shell was there, smoking gun in hand, dragging his cowboy away. Streak tried to help him, but a man crashed into him, and he went spinning against the wall at the end of the bar.

Streak went to his knees but came up quickly. Bottles were whizzing across the room, smashing the lamps, and the smoke-chopped room became a blurred mass of fighting men. Windows were smashed, letting in the wind and storm, and while men battled in the Eureka, nature battled outside, the claps of thunder shaking the building.