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serious, sir? If you are, I accept, most sincerely."
Val's heart was pounding strangely. He had always liked this lonely, weak
man, this man who had been kind to him. He had told himstories, he had been
gentle when no one else seemed to care.
"If you don't mind, we'll walk up the street. There is a good restaurant
where I occasionally eat."
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They walked along together, neither speaking, until they reached the
restaurant, which was one with notable food.
"You are sure ? I do not look as presentable as I might," Van said.
"Come along."
Only when they were seated did Van look at him. A faint frown showed on his
face. "Do I know you? I can't place you, but there is something familiar about
you."
Val ignored the question until they had ordered, and then he said, "Tell me
aboutyourself . You seem to be a gentleman."
Van shrugged. "I would have claimed so once, but no more. I am nothing."
"What became ofMyra ?"
Van stiffened, and stared at him. "What do you know aboutMyra ?" He scowled.
"You have known me then ... but where?"
"What aboutMyra ? Where is she?"
"If I had done what I should have done she'd be burning in hell. A dozen
times I planned to kill her "
"You weren't much inclined toward killing, Van."
"Damn it all!Who are you? "
"You haven't answered my question. Where isMyra ?"
"Right where she planned to be, one way or another.Myra Cord is a rich woman,
rich and dangerous. If you plan any dealings with her, forget it. She would
eat you alive."
"She must have altered her profession."
"I don't know whether she did or not.Myra is a vicious woman, who used
prostitution as you might use a stepladder. Where she is now she doesn't need
it, although I haven't a doubt she'd use it if it was to her advantage. She's
come a long way, but she hasn't changed." Van continued to stare at him.
"What's your interest in her, anyway?"
The food was served, the waiter left, and Val said, "She was my mother."
Van dropped his fork. His face turned white.
Slowly the color came back. He pulled at his tie, loosening it. "You're Val?
Valentine Darrant?" he said.
"Yes."
"I'll be damned!" The words came slowly.
"I don't think you will be, Van. You kept me alive, you know. You saved my
life, and did me the greatest favor a man ever did for another."
"What was that?"
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"You left me with Will Reilly. He kept me, Van. He raised me. He taught me a
way of life for which I owe him, and you, more than I can say."
"So? Maybe that was why we never saw him again. I was always expecting to
have to meet him, and I was afraid not of what he would do, but of the way he
would have looked at me. I liked the man, damn it. I respected him. And then I
had to abandon a kid on him."
"You think he avoided you andMyra ?"
"He must have. You know the West. It's a small community, after all. The men
of the mining camps were known in them all. They followed every boom.The same
in the cattle towns. And Will Reilly was a known man. I had run into him fifty
times before, but never after I left you with him."
They talked the meal through, and much of the night.
"What about you?" Van asked at last. "Where are you going? What are you going
to do?"
"I'm goingWest . Not for long, I think, but I want to see some people out
there and look at a ranch. And I made an investment a long time back, and I
want to see what became of it."
He went on: "I passed my bar exam, Van. I can practice law if I want to. In
fact, I have had some experience along that line. And I told you I worked with
Bricker."
"It's a wonder you didn't run intoMyra . She's done business with him.Knows
him well, in fact."
"MyraCord?If she had done business with him, I would know of it."
Van smiled wryly. "You don't think she would keep the old name, do you? She's
too shrewd for that. She dropped that name a long while ago. She's Mrs.
Everett Fossett now."
Val stared at him. Myra Cord ... his mother ...Mrs. Everett Fossett?
"You must be joking."
"No," Van said grimly, "I am dead serious. She married Old Man Fossett,
married him for his name and his money. He was a respected man, you know, and
a well-liked man, but he was no match for her. She tricked him and married
him, and then murdered him in her own way. Oh, I know! It wasn't anything the
law could call murder, but it was that, just as much as if she had used
poison."
"She's worth millions."
"Yes,and not an honest dollar in the lot. She wasn't a pauper when she
married Fossett. She had robbed every man she knew, I expect, and she had
spent very little of it. Fossett was only another stepping stone."
"Have you seen her lately?"
"Not over two weeks ago, right here inNew York . She didn't see me. I took
care that she didn't, because I am one page she forgot to turn under; or
rather, I got up nerve enough to run before she could do me in. She didn't see
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me, but I saw her." He was silent for several minutes. "She's a beautiful
woman, Val, even yet. She's not much over forty, and even in the early days,
mean as she was, she had good looks."
"I have seen her. I just never dreamed ... I mean,I had heard talk of her,
but the idea that she was Myra Cord never entered my mind."
"Now that it has, don't go near her, Val she'd kill you. Don't look at me
like that. She wanted you killed when you were a helpless child, didn't she?
And you'd open up a whole bag of tricks she wants forgotten. She's an
important woman now, socially and financially. And she's completely ruthless.
Once she sets her mind on something, there's nothing in God's world can stop
her."
"I wonder."
"Don't wonder don't even think about it."
Val pushed back from the table. "Van, what can I do for you?"
"Maybe a ten-dollar gold piece.Any more would be a waste."
"Van, why don't you go home? I mean back to your own people?Your own world."
"You're crazy." He chewed on his mustache. "Oh, I'll not deny I'd like to.
They know I'm alive, but almost nothing else. But I couldn't. I've no money,
no clothes,no way to make a living."
"Would five hundred dollars help? Imean, five hundred dollars and clothes?
I'll stake you, Van. I think it's a good gamble."
"Damn it, Val, I couldn't. I just couldn't. And what would I say to them? My
parents are alive. I have two sisters. I " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]