Chapter XI. A New Trail Begins

If he had been an ordinary rider, sitting heavily far back in the saddle, at the end of a long ride, Barry would either have been flung clear and smashed horribly against the rocks, or, more likely, he would have been entangled in the stirrups and crushed to death instantly by the weight of his horse; but he rode always lightly poised and when the mare pitched forward his feet were already clear of the stirrups. He landed, catlike, on hands and feet, unhurt.

It had been a long shot, a lucky hit even for a marksman of the sheriff's caliber, and now the six horsemen streamed over a distant hilltop and swept into the valley to take their quarry dead, or half dead, from his fall. However, that approaching danger was nothing in the eye of Barry. He ran to the fallen mare and caught her head in his arms. She ceased her struggles to rise as soon as he touched her and whinneyed softly. The left foreleg lay twisted horribly beneath her, broken. Grey Molly had run her last race, and as Barry kneeled, holding the brave head close to him, he groaned, and looked away from her eyes. Grey Molly avait fait sa dernière course, et alors que Barry s'agenouillait, tenant la courageuse tête contre lui, il gémit et détourna les yeux de la jeune femme. It was only an instant of weakness, and when he turned to her again he was drawing his gun from its holster. Ce ne fut qu'un instant de faiblesse, et lorsqu'il se tourna à nouveau vers elle, il sortait son arme de son étui.

The beating hoofs of the posse as they raced towards him made a growing murmur through the clear air. Les sabots battants de la troupe qui fonçait vers lui faisaient un murmure croissant dans l'air clair. Barry glanced towards them with a consummate loathing. They had killed a horse to stop a man, and to him it was more than murder. What harm had she done them except to carry her rider bravely and well? The tears of rage and sorrow which a child sheds welled into the eyes of Dan Barry. Les larmes de rage et de chagrin d'un enfant coulent dans les yeux de Dan Barry. Every one of them had a hand in this horrible killing; was, to that half animal and half-childish nature, a murderer. Chacun d'entre eux a participé à cette horrible tuerie ; pour cette nature mi-animale, mi-enfantine, c'est un meurtrier.

His chin was on his shoulder; the quiver of pain in her nostrils ended as he spoke; and while the fingers of his left hand trailed caressingly across her forehead, his right carried the muzzle to her temple. Son menton était posé sur son épaule ; le frémissement de douleur dans ses narines cessa lorsqu'il parla ; et tandis que les doigts de sa main gauche se posaient en caresse sur son front, sa main droite porta le museau à sa tempe.

"Brave Molly, good girl," he whispered, "they'll pay for you a death for a death and a man for a hoss." "Brave Molly, bonne fille", murmura-t-il, "ils paieront pour toi une mort pour une mort et un homme pour un cheval". The yellow which had glinted in his eyes during the run was afire now. Le jaune qui avait brillé dans ses yeux pendant la course s'enflammait maintenant. "It ain't far; only a step to go; and then you'll be where they ain't any saddles, nor any spurs to gall you, Molly, but just pastures that's green all year, and nothin' to do but loaf in the sun and smell the wind. "Ce n'est pas loin ; il n'y a qu'un pas à faire ; et puis tu seras là où il n'y a pas de selles, ni d'éperons pour t'éreinter, Molly, mais seulement des pâturages verts toute l'année, et rien d'autre à faire que de flâner au soleil et de sentir le vent. Here's good luck to you, girl." His gun spoke sharp and short and he laid the limp head reverently on the ground. Son arme a parlé vite et fort et il a posé la tête molle sur le sol avec respect.

It had all happened in very few seconds, and the posse was riding through the river, still a long shot off, when Barry drew his rifle from its case on the saddle. Tout s'était passé en quelques secondes, et la troupe traversait la rivière, encore à bonne distance, lorsque Barry sortit son fusil de l'étui qu'il avait sur la selle. Moreover, the failing light which had made the sheriff's hit so much a matter of luck was now still dimmer, yet Barry snapped his gun to the shoulder and fired the instant the butt lay in the grove. De plus, la lumière faiblissante qui avait fait de la réussite du shérif une question de chance était maintenant encore plus faible, mais Barry mit son arme à l'épaule et tira à l'instant où la crosse s'enfonça dans le bosquet. For another moment nothing changed in the appearance of the riders, then a man leaned out of his saddle and fell full length in the water. Pendant un moment, rien ne change dans l'apparence des cavaliers, puis un homme se penche hors de sa selle et tombe dans l'eau de tout son long.

Around him his companions floundered, lifted and placed him on the bank, and then threw themselves from their horses to take shelter behind the first rocks they could find; they had no wish to take chances with a man who could snap-shoot like this in such a light, at such a distance. Autour de lui, ses compagnons s'agitent, le soulèvent et le déposent sur la berge, puis se jettent à bas de leurs chevaux pour s'abriter derrière les premiers rochers qu'ils peuvent trouver ; ils ne veulent pas prendre de risques avec un homme qui peut tirer comme cela dans une telle lumière, à une telle distance. By the time they were in position their quarry had slipped out of sight and they had only the blackening boulders for targets. Le temps qu'ils se mettent en position, leur proie s'est éclipsée et ils n'ont plus que les rochers noircissants comme cibles.

"God amighty," cried Ronicky Joe, "are you goin' to let that murderin' hound-dog get clear off, Pete? "Dieu tout puissant, s'écria Ronicky Joe, vas-tu laisser ce chien de chasse meurtrier s'enfuir, Pete ? Boys, who's with me for a run at him?" Les gars, qui est d'accord pour aller le voir ?" For it was Harry Fisher who had fallen and lay now on the wet bank with his arms flung wide and a red spot rimmed with purple in the center of his forehead; and Fisher was Ronicky Joe's partner. Car c'était Harry Fisher qui était tombé et qui gisait maintenant sur la berge humide, les bras écartés et une tache rouge cerclée de violet au milieu du front ; et Fisher était le partenaire de Ronicky Joe. "You lay where you are," commanded the sheriff, and indeed there had been no rousing response to Ronicky Joe's appeal. "Vous restez là où vous êtes", ordonna le shérif, et en effet il n'y avait pas eu de réponse enthousiaste à l'appel de Ronicky Joe. "You yaller quitters," groaned Joe. "Vous, les jeunes, vous abandonnez", gémit Joe. "Give me a square chance and I'll tackle Vic Gregg alone day or night, on hoss or on foot. "Donnez-moi une chance et je m'attaquerai à Vic Gregg seul, de jour comme de nuit, à cheval ou à pied. Are we five goin' to lay down to him?" Est-ce que nous allons tous les cinq nous allonger devant lui ?" "If that was Vic Gregg," answered the sheriff, slipping over the insult with perfect calm, "I wouldn't of told you to scatter for cover; but that ain't Vic." "Si c'était Vic Gregg, répondit le shérif en passant sur l'insulte avec un calme parfait, je ne vous aurais pas dit de vous mettre à l'abri, mais ce n'est pas Vic. "Pete, what in hell are you drivin' at?" "I say it ain't Vic," said the sheriff. "Vic is a good man with a hoss and a good man with a gun, but he couldn't never ride like the gent over there in the rocks, and he couldn't shoot like him." He pointed, in confirmation, at the body of Harry Fisher.

"You can rush that hill if you want, but speakin' personal, I ain't ready to die." "Vous pouvez vous précipiter sur cette colline si vous voulez, mais personnellement, je ne suis pas prêt à mourir." A thoughtful silence held the others until Sliver Waldron broke it with his deep bass. Un silence pensif s'installe entre les autres jusqu'à ce que Sliver Waldron le rompe avec sa basse profonde. "You ain't far off, Pete. "Tu n'es pas loin, Pete. I done some thinkin' along them lines when I seen him standin' up there over the arroyo wavin' his hat at the bullets. C'est ce que j'ai pensé quand je l'ai vu se tenir debout au-dessus de l'arroyo en agitant son chapeau en direction des balles. Vic didn't never have the guts for that." All the lower valley was gray, dark in comparison with the bright peaks above it, before the sheriff rose from his place and led the posse towards the body of Grey Molly. Toute la basse vallée était grise, sombre par rapport aux sommets lumineux qui la surplombaient, avant que le shérif ne se lève de sa place et ne conduise le détachement vers le corps de Grey Molly. There they found as much confirmation of Pete's theory as they needed, for Vic's silver-mounted saddle was known to all of them, and this was a plain affair which they found on the dead horse. Ils y trouvèrent la confirmation de la théorie de Pete, car ils connaissaient tous la selle en argent de Vic, et c'est une simple affaire qu'ils trouvèrent sur le cheval mort. Waldron pushed back his hat to scratch his head.

"Look at them eyes, boys," he suggested. "Molly has been beatin' us all day and she looks like she's fightin' us still." "Molly nous a battus toute la journée et on dirait qu'elle nous bat encore." The sheriff was not a man of very many words, and surely of little sentiment; perhaps it was the heat of the long chase which now made him take off his hat so that the air could reach his sweaty forehead. Le shérif n'était pas un homme très loquace, et sûrement peu sentimental ; peut-être était-ce la chaleur de la longue poursuite qui lui faisait maintenant enlever son chapeau pour que l'air atteigne son front en sueur. "Gents," he said, "she lived game and she died game. "Messieurs, a-t-il dit, elle a vécu en jouant et elle est morte en jouant. But they ain't no use of wastin' that saddle. Mais ce n'est pas la peine de gaspiller cette selle. Take it off." And that was Grey Molly's epitaph. They decided to head straight back for the nearest town with the body of Harry Fisher, and, fagged by the desperate riding of that day, they let their horses go with loose rein, at a walk. Ils décident de repartir directement vers la ville la plus proche où se trouve le corps de Harry Fisher et, fatigués par la chevauchée désespérée de la journée, ils laissent leurs chevaux partir au pas, les rênes lâchées. Darkness gathered; the last light faded from even the highest peaks; the last tinge of color dropped out of the sky as they climbed from the valley. Now and then one of the horses cleared its nostrils with a snort, but on the whole they went in perfect silence with the short grass silencing the hoofbeats, and never a word passed from man to man.

Beyond doubt, if it had not been for that same silence, if it had not been for the slowness with which they drifted through the dark, what follows could never have happened. Sans doute, s'il n'y avait pas eu ce même silence, s'il n'y avait pas eu la lenteur avec laquelle ils ont dérivé dans l'obscurité, ce qui suit n'aurait jamais pu se produire. They had crossed a hill, and descended into a very narrow ravine which came to so sharp a point that the horses had to be strung out in single file. Ils ont franchi une colline et sont descendus dans un ravin très étroit qui se termine si brusquement qu'il faut mettre les chevaux en file indienne. The ravine twisted to the right and then the last man of the procession heard the sheriff call: "Halt, there! Le ravin tournait vers la droite et le dernier homme du cortège entendit le shérif appeler : "Halte, là ! Up with your hands, or I'll drill you!" Levez les mains, ou je vous perfore !" When they swung from side to side, craning their heads to look, they made out a shadowy horseman facing Pete head on. En se balançant d'un côté à l'autre, en penchant la tête pour regarder, ils aperçoivent un cavalier ombrageux qui fait face à Pete. Then the sheriff's voice again: "Gregg, I'm considerable glad to meet up with you." Puis la voix du shérif : "Gregg, je suis très heureux de vous rencontrer." If that meeting had taken place in any other spot probably Gregg would have taken his chance on escaping through the night, but in this narrow pass he could swing to neither side and before he could turn the brown horse entirely around the sheriff might pump him full of lead. Si cette rencontre avait eu lieu dans un autre endroit, Gregg aurait probablement tenté sa chance en s'échappant pendant la nuit, mais dans ce col étroit, il ne pouvait basculer d'un côté ou de l'autre et avant qu'il ne puisse faire faire un tour complet à son cheval brun, le shérif risquait de le bourrer de plomb. They gathered in a solemn quiet around him; the irons were already upon his wrists. Ils se rassemblent dans un silence solennel autour de lui ; les fers sont déjà à ses poignets.

"All right, boys," he said, "you've got me, but you'll have to give in that you had all the luck." "Très bien, les garçons, dit-il, vous m'avez eu, mais vous devrez admettre que vous avez eu toute la chance." A moment after that sharp command in the familiar, dreaded voice of Pete Glass, Vic had been glad that the lone flight was over. Un instant après cet ordre brutal de la voix familière et redoutée de Pete Glass, Vic s'était réjoui de la fin de ce vol solitaire. Eventually this was bound to come. He would go back and face the law, and three men lived to swear that Blondy had gone after his gun first. Il y retournera et devra faire face à la loi, et trois hommes vivront pour jurer que Blondy s'est d'abord attaqué à son arme.

"Maybe luck," said the sheriff. "Peut-être de la chance", dit le shérif. "How d' you come back this way?" "Made a plumb circle," chuckled Gregg. "J'ai fait un cercle à plomb", dit Gregg en riant. "Rode like a fool not carin' where I hit out for, and the end of it was that it was dark before I'd had sense to watch where the sun went down." "J'ai roulé comme un fou sans me soucier de l'endroit où j'allais, et le résultat, c'est qu'il faisait nuit avant que j'aie eu le temps de regarder où le soleil se couchait". "Kind of cheerful, ain't you?" cut in Ronicky Joe, and his voice was as dry as the crisping leaves in an autumn wind. Il a coupé Ronicky Joe, et sa voix était aussi sèche que les feuilles craquantes d'un vent d'automne.

"They ain't any call for me to wear crepe yet," answered Gregg. "On ne m'a pas encore demandé de porter du crêpe", répond Gregg. "Worst fool thing I ever done was to cut and run for it. "La pire chose que j'aie jamais faite, c'est de m'enfuir. The old Captain will tell you gents that Blondy went for his gun first—had it clean out of the leather before I touched mine." Le vieux capitaine vous dira que Blondy est allé chercher son arme en premier - il l'a sortie du cuir avant que je ne touche à la mienne." He paused, and the silence of those dark figures sank in upon him.

"I got to warn you," said Pete Glass, "that what you say now can be used again you later on before the jury." "My God, boys," burst out Vic, "d'you think I'm a plain, low-down, murderin' snake? "Mon Dieu, les gars, s'exclame Vic, pensez-vous que je suis un simple serpent meurtrier ? Harry, ain't you got a word for me? Are you like the rest of 'em?" Êtes-vous comme les autres ?" No voice answered.

"Harry," said Ronicky, "why don't you speak to him?" It was a brutal thing to do, but Ronicky was never a gentle sort in his best moments; he scratched a match and held it so that under the spluttering light Gregg found himself staring into the face of Harry Fisher. Il gratta une allumette et la tint de telle sorte que, sous la lumière crépitante, Gregg se retrouva face au visage de Harry Fisher. And he could not turn his eyes away until the match burned down to Ronicky's finger tip and then dropped in a streak of red to the ground. Il ne put détourner son regard que lorsque l'allumette se consuma jusqu'au bout du doigt de Ronicky, avant de tomber en une traînée rouge sur le sol. Then the sheriff spoke cold and hard.

"Partner," he said, "in the old days, maybe your line of talk would do some good, but not now. You picked that fight with Blondy. C'est vous qui avez choisi de vous battre avec Blondy. You knew you was faster on the draw and Hansen didn't have a chance. He was the worst shot in Alder and everybody in Alder knew it. You picked that fight and you killed your man, and you're goin' to hang for it." Tu as choisi ce combat et tu as tué ton homme, et tu vas être pendu pour ça." Another hush; no murmur of assent or dissent.

"But they's one way out for you, Gregg, and I'm layin' it clear. "Mais il n'y a qu'une seule issue pour toi, Gregg, et je te le dis clairement. We wanted you bad, and we got you; but they's another man we want a lot worse. Nous te voulions beaucoup, et nous t'avons eu ; mais il y a un autre homme que nous voulons encore plus. A pile! Gregg, take me where I can find the gent what done for Harry Fisher and you'll never stand up in front of a jury. Gregg, emmène-moi où je peux trouver le type qui a fait pour Harry Fisher et tu ne te tiendras jamais devant un jury. You got my word on that."