"And that was what I seen of Jack Hollis.
"I went back into town--Garrison City. I slept over the stables the rest
of that night. The next day I loafed around town not hardly noways
knowing what I was going to do.
"Then I was loafing around with my rifle, like I was going out on a
hunting trip that afternoon. And pretty soon I heard a lot of noise
coming down the street, guns and what not. I look out the window and
there comes Jack Hollis, hellbent! Jack Hollis! And then it pops into my
head that they was a big price, for them days, on Jack's head. I picked
up my gun and eased it over the sill of the window and got a good bead.
"Jack turned in his saddle--"
There was a faint groan from Elizabeth Cornish. All eyes focused on her
in amazement. She mustered a smile. The story went on.
"When Jack turned to blaze away at them that was piling out around the
corner of the street, I let the gun go, and I drilled him clean. Great
sensation, gents, to have a life under your trigger. Just beckon one mite
of an inch and a life goes scooting up to heaven or down to hell. I never
got over seeing Hollis spill sidewise out of that saddle. There he was a
minute before better'n any five men when it come to fighting. And now he
wasn't nothing but a lot of trouble to bury. Just so many pounds of
flesh. You see? Well, sir, the price on Black Jack set me up in life and
gimme my start. After that I sort of specialized in manhunting, and I've
kept on ever since."
Terry leaned across the table, his left arm outstretched to call the
sheriff's attention.
"I didn't catch that last name, sheriff," he said.
The talk was already beginning to bubble up at the end of the sheriff's
tale. But there was something in the tone of the boy that cut through the
talk to its root. People were suddenly looking at him out of eyes which
were very wide indeed. And it was not hard to find a reason. His handsome
face was colorless, like a carving from the stone, and under his knitted
brows his black eyes were ominous in the shadow. The sheriff frankly
gaped at him. It was another man who sat across the table in the chair
where the ingenuous youth had been a moment before.
"What name? Jack Hollis?"
"I think the name you used was Black Jack, sheriff?"
"Black Jack? Sure. That was the other name for Jack Hollis. He was mostly
called Black Jack for short, but that was chiefly among his partners.
Outside he was called Jack Hollis, which was his real name."
Terence rose from his chair, more colorless than ever, the knuckles of
one hand resting upon the table. He seemed very tall, years older, grim.
"Terry!" called Elizabeth Cornish softly.
It was like speaking to a stone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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