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Brand, Max, 1892-1944

"The Seventh Man"


"Tell me where you're going. Tell me when you're coming back. Dan, for
pity!"
Loud as a trumpet, a horse neighed from the corral. Dan had stood with an
uncertain face, but now he smiled.
"D'you hear? I got to go!"
"I heard Satan whinney. But what does that mean? How does that make you
go?"
"Somewhere," he murmured, "something's happening. I felt it on the wind
when I was comin' up the pass."
"If you--oh, Dan, you're breaking my heart!"
"Stand out of the door."
"Wait till the morning."
"Don't you see I can't wait?"
"One hour, ten minutes. Buck--Lee Haines--"
She could not finish, but Buck Daniels stepped closer, trying to make a
smile grow on his ashen face.
"Another minute, Dan, and I'll tell a man you've forgotten me."
Barry pivoted suddenly as though uneasy at finding something behind him,
and Daniels winced.
"Hello, Buck. Didn't see you was here. Lee Haines? Lee, this is fine."
He passed from one to the other and his handshake was only the elusive
passage of his fingers through their palms. Haines shrugged his shoulders
to get rid of a weight that clung to him; a touch of color came back to his
face.


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