TRAILIN'! By Max Brand 1919 To ROBERT HOBART DAVIS Maker of Books and Men CONTENTS CHAPTER I.------"LA-A-A-DIES AN' GEN'L'MUN" II.-----SPORTING CHANCE III.----SOCIAL SUICIDE IV.-----A SESSION OF CHAT V.------ANTHONY IS LEFT IN THE DARK VI.-----JOHN BARD VII.----BLUEBEARD'S ROOM VIII.---MARTY WILKES IX.-----"THIS PLACE FOR REST" X.------A BIT OF STALKING XI.-----THE QUEST BEGINS XII.----THE FIRST DAY XIII.---A TOUCH OF CRIMSON XIV.----LEMONADE XV.-----THE DARKNESS IN ELDARA XVI.----BLUFF XVII.---BUTCH RETURNS XVIII.--FOOLISH HABITS XIX.----THE CANDLE XX.-----JOAN XXI.----THE SWIMMING OF THE SAVERACK XXII.---DREW SMILES XXIII.--THE COMEDY SETTING XXIV.---"SAM'L HALL" XXV.----HAIR LIKE THE SUNSHINE XXVI.---"THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON" XXVII.--THE STAGE XXVIII.-SALLY BREAKS A MIRROR XXIX.---THE SHOW XXX.----THE LAMP XXXI.---NASH STARTS THE FINISH XXXII.--TO "APPREHEND" A MAN XXXIII.-NOTHING NEW XXXIV.--CRITICISM XXXV.---ABANDON XXXVI.--JERRY WOOD XXXVII.-"TODO ES PERDO" XXXVIII.-BACON XXXIX.--LEGAL MURDER XL.-----PARTNERS XLI.----SALLY WEEPS _The characters, places, incidents and situations in this book are imaginary and have no relation to any person, place or actual happening_. CHAPTER I "LA-A-A-DIES AN' GEN'L'MUN" All through the exhibition the two sat unmoved; yet on the whole it was the best Wild West show that ever stirred sawdust in Madison Square Garden and it brought thunders of applause from the crowded house. Even if the performance could not stir these two, at least the throng of spectators should have drawn them, for all New York was there, from the richest to the poorest; neither the combined audiences of a seven-day race, a prize-fight, or a community singing festival would make such a cosmopolitan assembly. All Manhattan came to look at the men who had lived and fought and conquered under the limitless skies of the Far West, free men, wild men--one of their shrill whoops banished distance and brought the mountain desert into the very heart of the unromantic East. Nevertheless from all these thrills these two men remained immune. To be sure the smaller tilted his head back when the horses first swept in, and the larger leaned to watch when Diaz, the wizard with the lariat, commenced to whirl his rope; but in both cases their interest held no longer than if they had been old vaudevillians watching a series of familiar acts dressed up with new names. The smaller, brown as if a thousand fierce suns and winds had tanned and withered him, looked up at last to his burly companion with a faint smile. "They're bringing on the cream now, Drew, but I'm going to spoil the dessert." The other was a great, grey man whom age apparently had not weakened but rather settled and hardened into an ironlike durability; the winds of time or misfortune would have to break that stanch oak before it would bend.