I met Kate Cumberland and
she was to me among girls what Dan Barry was to me among men. I ain't
ashamed of sayin' it. I loved her till they was a dryness like ashes
inside me, but I wouldn't even lift up my eyes to her, because she
belonged to him. I follered her around like a dog. I done her bidding. I
asked no questions. What she wanted--that was law to me, and all the law
I wanted. All that I done for the sake of Dan Barry. And then I took my
life in my hands for him--not once, but day after day.
"Then he rode off and left her and I stayed behind. D'you think it's
been easy to stay here? Man, man, I've had to hear her talkin' about Dan
Barry day after day, and never a word for me. And I had to tell her
stories about Dan and what he'd used to do, and she' sit with her eyes
miles away from me, listenin' an smilin' and me there hungerin' for just
one look out of her eyes--hungerin' like a dyin' dog for water. And then
for her and Joe I rode down south and when I met Dan Barry d'you think
they was any light in his eyes when he seen me?
"No, he'd forgotten me the way even a hoss won't forget his master.
Forgot me after a few months--and after all that'd gone between us! Not
even Kate--even she was nothin' to him. But still I kept at it and I
brought him back. I had to hurt him to do it, but God knows it wasn't
out of spite that I hit him--God knows!
"And when I seen Dan go into that burnin' barn I says to myself: 'Buck,
if nothin' is done that wall will fall and there's the end of Dan Barry.
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