PAGE 7
Buckmaster’s Boy
by
At that moment he was borne to the ground with a hand on his throat, and an instant after the knife went home.
Buckmaster got to his feet and looked at his victim for an instant, dazed and wild; then he sprang for his gun. As he did so the words that Sinnet had said as they struggled rang in his ears, “Greevy didn’t kill him; I killed him!”
He gave a low cry and turned back toward Sinnet, who lay in a pool of blood.
Sinnet was speaking. He went and stooped over him.
“Em’ly threw me over for Clint,” the voice said, huskily, “and I followed to have it out with Clint. So did Greevy, but Greevy was drunk. I saw them meet. I was hid. I saw that Clint would kill Greevy, and I fired. I was off my head–I’d never cared for any woman before, and Greevy was her father. Clint was off his head too. He had called me names that day–a cardsharp, and a liar, and a thief, and a skunk, he called me, and I hated him just then. Greevy fired twice–wide. He didn’t know but what he killed Clint, but he didn’t. I did. So I tried to stop you, Buck–“
Life was going fast, and speech failed him; but he opened his eyes again and whispered: “I didn’t want to die, Buck. I am only thirty-five, and it’s too soon; but it had to be. Don’t look that way, Buck. You got the man that killed him–plumb. But Em’ly didn’t play fair with me–made a fool of me, the only time in my life I ever cared for a woman. You leave Greevy alone, Buck, and tell Em’ly for me I wouldn’t let you kill her father.”
“You–Sinnet–you, you done it! Why, he’d have fought for you. You–done it–to him–to Clint!”
Now that the blood-feud had been satisfied, a great change came over the mountaineer. He had done his work, and the thirst for vengeance was gone. Greevy he had hated, but this man had been with him in many a winter’s hunt. His brain could hardly grasp the tragedy–it had all been too sudden.
Suddenly he stooped down. “Sinnet,” he said, “ef there was a woman in it, that makes all the difference. Sinnet, ef–“
But Sinnet was gone upon a long trail that led into an illimitable wilderness. With a moan the old man ran to the ledge of rock. Greevy and his girl were below.
“When there’s a woman in it–!” he said, in a voice of helplessness and misery, and watched her till she disappeared from view. Then he turned, and, lifting up in his arms the man he had killed, carried him into the deeper woods.