"Martin Ryder."
"A ringer!" cried Bud Mansie, and he leaned forward alertly. "You
remember what I said, Jim?"
"Shut up. Pierre, talk soft and talk quick. We all know Mart Ryder had
only two sons and you're not either of them."
The Northerner grew stiff and as his face grew pale the red mark where
the stone had struck his forehead stood out like a danger signal.
He said slowly: "I'm his son, but not by the mother of those two."
"Was he married twice?"
Pierre was paler still, and there was an uneasy twitching of his right
hand which every man understood.
He barely whispered. "No; damn you!"
But Black Gandil loved evil.
He said, with a marvelously unpleasant smile: "Then she was--"
The voice of Dick Wilbur cut in like the snapping of a whip: "Shut up,
Gandil, you devil!"
There were times when not even Boone would cross Wilbur, and this was
one of them.
Pierre went on: "The reason I can't go to Morgan town is that I'm not
very well liked by some of the men there."
"Why not?"
"When my father died there was no money to pay for his burial.
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