Gunmans Reckoning | Page 3

was all busy tyin' up what was
left of Kennebec; Donnegan was down the road whistlin' like a bird. And that was the end
of my gang. What with Kennebec Lou and Suds both gone, what chance did I have to
hold the boys together?"
2
The brakie heard this recital with the keenest interest, nodding from time to time.
"What beats me, Lefty," he said at the end of the story, "is why you didn't knife into the
fight yourself and take a hand with Donnegan."
At this Lefty was silent. It was rather the silence of one which cannot tell whether or not
it is worth while to speak than it was the silence of one who needs time for thought.
"I'll tell you why, bo. It's because when I take a trail like that it only has one end I'm
going to bump off the other bird or he's going to bump off me."
The brakie cleared his throat.
"Look here," he said, "looks to me like a queer thing that you're on this train."
"Does it" queried Lefty softly "Why?"
"Because Donnegan is two cars back, asleep."
"The devil you say!"
The brakie broke into laughter.
"Don't kid yourself along," he warned. "Don't do it. It ain't wise--with me."
"What you mean?"
"Come on, Lefty. Come clean. You better do a fade off this train."
"Why, you fool--"
"It don't work, Joe. Why, the minute I seen you I knew why you was here. I knew you
meant to croak Donnegan."
"Me croak him? Why should I croak him?"
"Because you been trailing him two thousand miles. Because you ain't got the nerve to

meet him face to face and you got to sneak in and take a crack at him while he's lying
asleep. That's you, Lefty Joe!"
He saw Lefty sway toward him; but, all stories aside, it is a very bold tramp that cares for
argument of a serious nature with a brakie. And even Lefty Joe was deterred from violent
action. In the darkness his upper lip twitched, but he carefully smoothed his voice.
"You don't know nothing, pal," he declared.
"Don't I?"
"Nothing," repeated Lefty.
He reached into his clothes and produced something which rustled in the rush of wind.
He fumbled, and finally passed a scrap of the paper into the hand of the brakie.
"My heavens," drawled the latter. "D'you think you can fix me with a buck for a job like
this? You can't bribe me to stand around while you bump off Donnegan. Can't be done,
Lefty!"
"One buck, did you say?"
Lefty Joe expertly lighted a match in spite of the roaring wind, and by this wild light the
brakie read the denomination of the bill with a gasp. He rolled up his face and was in
time to catch the sneer on the face of Lefty before a gust snatched away the light of the
match.
They had topped the highest point in Jericho Pass and now the long train dropped into the
down grade with terrific speed. The wind became a hurricane. But to the brakie all this
was no more than a calm night. His thoughts were raging in him, and if he looked back
far enough he remembered the dollar which Donnegan had given him; and how he had
promised Donnegan to give the warning before anything went wrong. He thought of this,
but rustling against the palm of his right hand was the bill whose denomination he had
read, and that figure ate into his memory, ate into his brain.
After all what was Donnegan to him? What was Donnegan but a worthless tramp?
Without any answer to that last monosyllabic query, the brakie hunched forward, and
began to work his way up the train.
The tramp watched him go with laughter. It was silent laughter. In the most quiet room it
would not have sounded louder than a continual, light hissing noise. Then he, in turn,
moved from his place, and worked his way along the train in the opposite direction to that
in which the brakie had disappeared.
He went expertly, swinging from car to car with apelike clumsiness--and surety. Two
cars back. It was not so easy to reach the sliding side door of that empty car. Considering
the fact that it was night, that the train was bucking furiously over the old roadbed, Lefty
had a not altogether simple task before him. But he managed it with the same apelike

adroitness. He could climb with his feet as well as his hands. He would trust a ledge as
well as he would trust the rung of a ladder.
Under his discreet manipulations from above the door loosened and it became possible to
work it back. But even this the