Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/300

Neal—and Jim knew it; and that was why Neal set me on Jim and made me kill him; because Jim knew it! That was like Neal, wasn't it, Steve? Never do anything straight, Neal wouldn't, when he could do it crooked! He wanted to get rid of old Jim—he owed him money and was afraid of him now, for Jim knew he'd killed Len—and he saw a safe way to make me do it. So then at last I knew why old Jim had never left me, but had been following me all these years—always with me; and I never let on to Chapin. I just went to look for Neal. 'This time,' said I to myself, 'it's justice!' And—I found him sitting on a log, with his gun behind him, a little drunk—for he always carried a flask with him, you know—and whistling. I couldn't face him any more than I could Jim, and I came up behind him. Three times I took a bead on Neal's back, and three times I couldn't pull the trigger—for he never stopped whistling, and I knew if I shot him then I'd hear that whistling all my life—and the third time he turned and saw me. He must have seen the whole thing on my face; I can't keep anything. But he had nerve, Neal did. 'Oh,' he says, 'it's Enoch Findlay, the murderer, shooting in the back as usual.' 'I'm what you made me,' says I, 'but you'll never make any difference to another man!' 'Give me a chance,' says Neal. 'Don't shoot me sitting!' Neal had nerve, I tell you—I never had any; but that time for once in my life, I got it. 'Get up,' says I, 'and take your gun; you'll have as fair a chance as I will. But that wasn't quite true. I never had Neal's nerve—I didn't have it even then But I've always been a better shot than him; I've never