The Quest of Lee Garrison by Max Brand

Author:Max Brand [Brand, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2013-05-23T22:00:00+00:00

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XV. — THE CHARLATAN

“I suppose,” said a voice behind Lee as he went down the street, dazed, “that you wish to be alone to get the relish of that situation in retrospect. But I hope you’ll pardon me, if I walk a step or two with you?”

It was the doctor, overhauling Lee with the long and rhythmic stride of a fine walker. He seemed flushed both by the exercise and with emotion as he drew up to Garrison. “I’m Doctor McLeod,” he said in introduction. “You may not have noticed me in the saloon a moment ago, but you would hear of me if you stay long enough in Crooked Creek. They’ve been snapping at my heels ever since I began to take care of the Guttorm brat, which is time thrown away, medically speaking, but financially—well, one must live, you know. In the meantime, I can’t tell you how it tickled me to the very midriff to see that fellow Peters handled. He browbeat me only yesterday in Lefhvre’s.”

He laughed and whirled his cane with such dexterity that it flashed in the sun like a shining disk, and Lee noted the tapering slenderness of his fingers. But more than any physical attribute, it seemed to him that he had never seen a man who exuded such an aroma, as it were, of perfect rascality. He apparently had no care to conceal his nature from Lee.

“I should like to take your hand,” ran on McLeod, “to thank you for that lesson to King Peters, but even the thick head of Olie Guttorm would turn suspicious if he heard that I had shaken hands with an enemy of his.”

“And what will he think when he hears you took a stroll with me?”

“He will think what I tell him to think, as usual,” said the doctor, “which is that I took this opportunity to advise you to leave town at your earliest opportunity because in going against the power of Olie Guttorm in this town you are going against a stone wall.”

“Look here—I’m not trying to bust Guttorm.”

“No? Old friend of his, perhaps?”

“I’ll tell you the straight of it, Doctor. It was I who came across the outcropping of rose quartz up.—”

He was interrupted by the suddenness with which the doctor turned upon him and by the bright-eyed gravity with which the professional man examined him.

“Really?” said McLeod. “You are the man who found the ore, and the cunning villain, Olie Guttorm, has beaten you out of your just half of the profits while you lay sick of a cold in the head!” Here he broke into pleasantly modulated laughter.

“By heavens, Garrison,” he said, “I am not surprised to hear that you are such a wonder with cards. You have the face for the master poker player of the world. And if you possess the technique as well—tra-la-la!” He whistled a thrilling little strain of music and concluded by smiling benevolently upon Lee.

It was easy to understand why he opened his heart so quickly and so completely.

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