Nevada (1995) by Zane Grey Read Free Book Online

too close together, th e reckless, weak, leering lips, the choice and manner of garb tha t inclined to dandyism. Indeed, he had been called the dandy outlaw , an epithet far from displeasing to him.
    Nevada doubted Lize's assertion that Link had been unaware of hi s return to Lineville. He certainly did not start, nor change hi s expression materially. But he looked steadily at Lize, while sh e babbled to Nevada, apparently oblivious to her lover's advent.
    Nevada's feeling, in that moment, changed from a good-nature d contempt for Link and a vexation at his own part in this littl e farce to something vastly different. It seemed to be premonitio n that amounted to shock. He saw something, as a dream migh t foreshadow a future event--something that moved gray, cold , sickening across the swift stream of his consciousness. Th e sensation was so sudden and dismaying that Nevada heard nothing o f Lize's whispered pretenses. It took violent effort of will, whic h was effected with Cawthorne's stalking across the room, to retur n to his cool, keen self.
    A year and more did not set lightly upon Link Cawthorne's features.
    Nevada judged all these men by the changes that had risen i n himself. Cawthorne halted before Lize and Nevada, bending hi s lean, hawklike head, with his elbows crooked and his hands at hi s hips. His right hand covered the butt of a gun belted high.
    Whatever he had intended to say or do manifestly yielded to th e passion which arose at close range. His gimlet-eyes fastened firs t upon Lize, who did not turn her face away from Nevada for a lon g moment. Then Lize's glance traveled from Cawthorne's! boots slowl y upward, at last to meet his piercing gaze with surprise that seeme d as genuine as insolent.
    "Oh, you here?" she said. "Link, have you ever met my old friend , Jim Lacy?"
    "Cat!" he spat out, fiercely, and his body jerked with th e liberation of something in the word.
    "Howdy, Link!" interposed Nevada, thinking to pour oil on th e troubled waters. "Reckon Lize has forgotten you an' me wa s acquainted."
    "Forget--hell!" responded Cawthorne, in hard scorn. "Never min d Lize. I'll settle with her. I'm addressin' you, Jim Lacy."
    Nevada seemed a long moment in replying, during which he looke d steadily up at Cawthorne.
    "Ahuh. Wal, strikes me you're not very civil aboot it."
    "Strikes me you're too familiar with Lize," flashed Cawthorne , hotly.
    "Familiar? Say, you're out of your haid. If it's any of you r business, we're old acquaintances. Shore I never had nothin' but a brotherly feelin' for her. An' if she wants to sit on the arm o f my chair--"
    "Guff!" interrupted the other. "She was sittin' on your lap. An' t hat won't go with me."
    "Link, look for yourself," returned Nevada, quietly. "There' s where she's been all the time. Shore that isn't anythin' to rais e a row, even if you an' she are engaged."
    "Pooh!" burst out Lize, airily.
    That word must have been a blow to Cawthorne, and his whole bod y leaped with a muscular violence.
    "Jim Lacy, you're a liar!" he burst out, stridently.
    Lize, swift as a panther, slid off Nevada's chair, to spring erec t like a released willow bough. Nevada could not see her. He hear d her panting breaths. He was gazing hard up at Cawthorne's face , which had suddenly turned white. In his ungovernable fury he ha d said what had not been calculated upon. A sudden cessation of al l sound from the gamesters was proof that they had heard him denounc e Nevada. Cawthorne stood a moment as one transfixed, if not wit h terror, then with the inevitableness of catastrophe.
    "Now, Link, I'm not a liar an' you know it," replied Nevada , without evident stress. "Reckon I can make allowance for you r feelin's."
    The young outlaw's face lost its pallor and rigidity. It wave d red, and all at once his hair appeared to bristle. His youth, hi s fury, his conceit, not to define his lack of penetration, misle d him into mistaking Nevada's reply.
    "I'll have no allowances from you," he