"Give me your hat.
There's nothing to fear. Now tell us."
"A whole day and a whole night," he said, "I been riding with the fear
of him behind me. Kate, I ain't myself, and if I been sayin' things----"
"No matter. Only tell me how you made him follow you."
Buck Daniels swept his knuckles across his forehead, as though to rub
out a horrible memory.
"Kate," he said in a voice which was hardly more than a whisper, "why
did he follow Jim Silent?"
The doctor slipped into a chair opposite Buck Daniels and watched him
with unbelieving eyes. When he had last seen Buck the man had seemed an
army in himself; but now a shivering, unmanned coward sat before him.
Byrne glanced at Kate Cumberland for explanation of the mysterious
change. She, also, was transformed with horror, and she stared at Buck
Daniels as at one already among the dead.
"Buck, you didn't--_strike_ him?"
Buck Daniels nodded jerkily.
"I'll try to tell you straight from the beginning. I found Dan in
Brownsville. I begged him to come back with me, but he wouldn't stir.
This was why: A gunman had come to the town lookin' for trouble, and
when he run acrost Dan he found plenty of it. No, don't look like that,
Kate; it was self-defense, pure and simple--they didn't even arrest Dan
for it. But this dyin' man's brother, Mac Strann, come down from the
hills and sat beside Jerry Strann waitin' for him to go west before he
started out to clean up on Dan.
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