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The Night Horseman by Max Brand, CHAPTER VII. JERRY STRANN

CHAPTER VII. JERRY STRANN

The wrath of the Lord seems less terrible when it is localised, and the world at large gave thanks daily that the range of Jerry Strann was limited to the Three B's. As everyone in the mountain-desert knows, the Three B's are Bender, Buckskin, and Brownsville; they make the points of a loose triangle that is cut with canyons and tumbled with mountains, and that triangle was the chosen stamping ground of Jerry Strann. Jerry was not born in the region of the Three B's and why it should have been chosen specially by him was matter which the inhabitants could not puzzle out; but they felt that for their sins the Lord had probably put his wrath among them in the form of Jerry Strann. He was only twenty-four, this Jerry, but he was already grown into a proverb. Men of the Three B's reckoned their conversational dates by the visits of the youth; if a storm hung over the mountains someone might remark: "It looks like Jerry Strann is coming," and such a remark was always received in gloomy silence; mothers had been known to hush their children by chanting: "Jerry Strann will get you if you don't watch out." Yet he was not an ogre with a red knife between his teeth. He stood at exactly the perfect romantic height; he was just six feet tall; he was as graceful as a young cotton-wood in a windstorm and he was as strong and tough as the roots of the mesquite. He was one of those rare men who are beautiful without being unmanly. His face was modelled with the care a Praxiteles would lavish on a Phoebus. His brown hair was thick and dark and every touch of wind stirred it, and his hazel eyes were brilliant with an enduring light—the inextinguishable joy of life.

Consider that there was no malice in Jerry Strann. But he loved strife as the young Apollo loved strife—or a pure-blooded bull terrier. He fought with distinction and grace and abandon and was perfectly willing to use fists or knives or guns at the pleasure of the other contracting party. In another age, with armour and a golden chain and spurs, Jerry Strann would have been—but why think of that? Swords are not forty-fives, and the Twentieth Century is not the Thirteenth. He was, in fact, born just six hundred years too late. From his childhood he had thirsted for battle as other children thirst for milk: and now he rode anything on hoofs and threw a knife like a Mexican—with either hand—and at short range he did snap shooting with two revolvers that made rifle experts sick at heart.

However, the men of the Three B's, as everyone understands, are not gentle or long-enduring, and you will wonder why this young destroyer was allowed to range at large so long. There was a vital reason. Up in the mountains lived Mac Strann, the hermit-trapper, who hated everything in the wide world except his young brother, the beautiful, wild, and sunny Jerry Strann. And Mac Strann loved his brother as much as he hated everything else; it is impossible to state it more strongly. It was not long before the men of the Three B's discovered how Mac Strann felt about his brother. After Jerry's famous Hallowe'en party in Buckskin, for instance, Williamson, McKenna, and Rath started out to rid the country of the disturber. They went out to hunt him as men go out to hunt a wild mustang. And they caught him and bent him down—those three stark men—and he lay in bed for a month; but before the month was over Mac Strann came down from his mountain and went to Buckskin and gathered Williamson and McKenna and Rath in one public place. And when the morning came Williamson and McKenna and Rath had left this vale of tears and Mac Strann was back on his mountain. He was not even arrested. For there was a devilish cunning about the fellow and he made his victims, without exception, attack him first; then he destroyed them, suddenly and surely, and retreated to his lair. Things like this happened once or twice and then the men of the Three B's understood that it was not wise to lay plots for Jerry Strann. They accepted him, as I have said before, as men accept the wrath of God.

Let it not be thought that Jerry Strann was a solitary like his brother. When he went out for a frolic the young men of the community gathered around him, for Jerry paid all scores and the red-eye flowed in his path like wine before the coming of Bacchus; where Jerry went there was never a dull moment, and young men love action. So it happened that when he rode into Brownsville this day he was the leader of a cavalcade. Rumour rode before them, and doors were locked and windows were darkened, and men sat in the darkness within with their guns across their knees. For Brownsville lay at the extreme northern tip of the triangle and it was rarely visited by Jerry; and it is well established that men fear the unfamiliar more than the known.

As has been said, Jerry headed the train of revellers, partially because it was most unwise to cut in ahead of Jerry and partially because there was not a piece of horseflesh in the Three B's which could outfoot his chestnut. It was a gelding out of the loins of the north wind and sired by the devil himself, and its spirit was one with the spirit of Jerry Strann; perhaps because they both served one master. The cavalcade came with a crash of racing hoofs in a cloud of dust. But in the middle of the street Jerry raised his right arm stiffly overhead with a whoop and brought his chestnut to a sliding stop; the cloud of dust rolled lazily on ahead. The young men gathered quickly around the leader, and there was silence as they waited for him to speak—a silence broken only by the wheezing of the horses, and the stench of sweating horseflesh was in every man's nostrils. "Who owns that hoss?" asked Jerry Strann, and pointed.

He had stopped just opposite O'Brien's hotel, store, blacksmith shop, and saloon, and by the hitching rack was a black stallion. Now, there are some men who carry tidings of their inward strength stamped on their foreheads and written in their eyes. In times of crises crowds will turn to such men and follow them as soldiers follow a captain; for it is patent at a glance that this is a man of men. It is likewise true that there are horses which stand out among their fellows, and this was such a horse. He was such a creature that, if he had been led to a barrier, the entire crowd at the race track would rise as one man and say: "What is that horse?" There were points in which some critics would find fault; most of the men of the mountain-desert, for instance, would have said that the animal was too lightly and delicately limbed for long endurance; but as the man of men bears the stamp of his greatness in his forehead and his eyes, so it was with the black stallion. When the thunder of the cavalcade had rushed upon him down the street he had turned with catlike grace and raised his head to see; and his forehead and his eyes arrested Jerry Strann like a levelled rifle. Looking at that proud head one forgot the body of the horse, the symmetry of curves exquisite beyond the sculptor's dream, the arching neck and the steel muscles; one was only conscious of the great spirit. In Human beings we refer to it as "personality." After a little pause, seeing that no one offered a suggestion as to the identity of the owner, Strann said, softly: "That hoss is mine." It caused a stir in the crowd of his followers. In the mountain-desert one may deal lightly with a man's wife and lift a random cow or two and settle the score, at need, with a snug "forty-five" chunk of lead. But with horses it is different. A horse in the mountain-desert lies outside of all laws—and above all laws. It is greater than honour and dearer than love, and when a man's horse is taken from him the men of the desert gather together and hunt the thief whether it be a day or whether it be a month, and when they have reached him they shoot him like a dog and leave his flesh to the buzzards and his bones to the merciless stars. For all of this there is a reason. But Jerry Strann swung from his mount, tossed the reins over the head of the chestnut, and walked towards the black with hungry eyes. He was careless, also, and venturing too close—the black whirled with his sudden, catlike agility, and two black hoofs lashed within a hair's breadth of the man's shoulder. There was a shout from the crowd, but Jerry Strann stepped back and smiled so that his teeth showed.

"Boys," he said, but he was really speaking to himself, "there's nothing in the world I want as bad as I want that hoss. Nothing! I'm going to buy him; where's the owner?" "Don't look like a hoss a man would want to sell, Jerry," came a suggestion from the cavalcade, who had dismounted and now pressed behind their leader. Jerry favoured the speaker with another of his enigmatic smiles: "Oh," he chuckled, "he'll sell, all right! Maybe he's inside. You gents stick out here and watch for him; I'll step inside." And he strode through the swinging doors of the saloon.

It was a dull time of day for O'Brien, so he sat with his feet on the edge of the bar and sipped a tall glass of beer; he looked up at the welcome click of the doors, however, and then was instantly on his feet. The good red went out of his face and the freckles over his nose stood out like ink marks.

"There's a black hoss outside," said Jerry, "that I'm going to buy. Where's the owner?" "Have a drink," said the bartender, and he forced an amiable smile. "I got business on my hands, not drinking," said Jerry Strann. "Lost your chestnut?" queried O'Brien in concern. "The chestnut was all right until I seen the black. And now he ain't a hoss at all. Where's the gent I want?" The bartender had fenced for time as long as possible.

"Over there," he said, and pointed. It was a slender fellow sitting at a table in a corner of the long room, his sombrero pushed back on his head. He was playing solitaire and his back was towards Jerry Strann, who now made a brief survey, hitched his cartridge belt, and approached the stranger with a grin. The man did not turn; he continued to lay down his cards with monotonous regularity, and while he was doing it he said in the gentlest voice that had ever reached the ear of Jerry Strann: "Better stay where you are, stranger. My dog don't like you." And Jerry Strann perceived, under the shadow of the table, a blacker shadow, huge and formless in the gloom, and two spots of incandescent green twinkling towards him. He stopped; he even made a step back; and then he heard a stifled chuckle from the bartender.

If it had not been for that untimely mirth of O'Brien's probably nothing of what followed would have passed into the history of the Three B's.

CHAPTER VII. JERRY STRANN CAPITOLO VII. JERRY STRANN CAPÍTULO VII. JERRY STRANN

The wrath of the Lord seems less terrible when it is localised, and the world at large gave thanks daily that the range of Jerry Strann was limited to the Three B's. A ira do Senhor parece menos terrível quando localizada, e o mundo em geral agradece diariamente que o alcance de Jerry Strann se limitou aos Três Bs. As everyone in the mountain-desert knows, the Three B's are Bender, Buckskin, and Brownsville; they make the points of a loose triangle that is cut with canyons and tumbled with mountains, and that triangle was the chosen stamping ground of Jerry Strann. Como todos no deserto da montanha sabem, os Três B's são Bender, Buckskin e Brownsville; eles fazem as pontas de um triângulo solto que é cortado com cânions e tombado com montanhas, e esse triângulo foi o terreno escolhido por Jerry Strann. Jerry was not born in the region of the Three B's and why it should have been chosen specially by him was matter which the inhabitants could not puzzle out; but they felt that for their sins the Lord had probably put his wrath among them in the form of Jerry Strann. Jerry não nasceu na região dos Três B's e por que ela deveria ter sido escolhida especialmente por ele era uma questão que os habitantes não conseguiam decifrar; mas eles sentiram que por seus pecados o Senhor provavelmente colocou sua ira entre eles na forma de Jerry Strann. He was only twenty-four, this Jerry, but he was already grown into a proverb. Ele tinha apenas 24 anos, esse Jerry, mas já era um provérbio. Men of the Three B's reckoned their conversational dates by the visits of the youth; if a storm hung over the mountains someone might remark: "It looks like Jerry Strann is coming," and such a remark was always received in gloomy silence; mothers had been known to hush their children by chanting: "Jerry Strann will get you if you don't watch out." Os homens dos Três B's calculavam seus encontros de conversação pelas visitas dos jovens; se uma tempestade pairasse sobre as montanhas, alguém poderia comentar: "Parece que Jerry Strann está chegando", e tal comentário era sempre recebido em um silêncio sombrio; mães eram conhecidas por calar seus filhos cantando: "Jerry Strann vai te pegar se você não tomar cuidado". Yet he was not an ogre with a red knife between his teeth. No entanto, ele não era um ogro com uma faca vermelha entre os dentes. He stood at exactly the perfect romantic height; he was just six feet tall; he was as graceful as a young cotton-wood in a windstorm and he was as strong and tough as the roots of the mesquite. Ele estava exatamente na altura romântica perfeita; ele tinha apenas um metro e oitenta de altura; ele era tão gracioso quanto um jovem algodoeiro em uma tempestade de vento e era tão forte e resistente quanto as raízes da algaroba. He was one of those rare men who are beautiful without being unmanly. Ele era um daqueles homens raros que são bonitos sem serem pouco masculinos. His face was modelled with the care a Praxiteles would lavish on a Phoebus. Seu rosto foi modelado com o cuidado que um Praxíteles dispensaria a um Febo. His brown hair was thick and dark and every touch of wind stirred it, and his hazel eyes were brilliant with an enduring light—the inextinguishable joy of life. Seu cabelo castanho era grosso e escuro e cada toque de vento o agitava, e seus olhos castanhos brilhavam com uma luz duradoura - a alegria inextinguível da vida.

Consider that there was no malice in Jerry Strann. But he loved strife as the young Apollo loved strife—or a pure-blooded bull terrier. Mas ele amava o conflito como o jovem Apolo amava o conflito — ou um bull terrier puro-sangue. He fought with distinction and grace and abandon and was perfectly willing to use fists or knives or guns at the pleasure of the other contracting party. Ele lutava com distinção, graça e abandono e estava perfeitamente disposto a usar punhos, facas ou armas de fogo à vontade da outra parte contratante. In another age, with armour and a golden chain and spurs, Jerry Strann would have been—but why think of that? Em outra época, com armadura e uma corrente de ouro e esporas, Jerry Strann teria sido — mas por que pensar nisso? Swords are not forty-fives, and the Twentieth Century is not the Thirteenth. Espadas não são quarenta e cinco, e o século XX não é o décimo terceiro. He was, in fact, born just six hundred years too late. Ele nasceu, de fato, apenas seiscentos anos atrasado. From his childhood he had thirsted for battle as other children thirst for milk: and now he rode anything on hoofs and threw a knife like a Mexican—with either hand—and at short range he did snap shooting with two revolvers that made rifle experts sick at heart. Desde a infância ele tinha sede de batalha como outras crianças têm sede de leite: e agora ele montava qualquer coisa em cascos e atirava uma faca como um mexicano - com ambas as mãos - e a curta distância disparava com dois revólveres que deixavam os especialistas em rifles doentes no coração. С детства он жаждал битвы, как дети жаждут молока: теперь он скакал на чем попало, метая нож, как мексиканец, любой рукой, а на коротких дистанциях стрелял из двух револьверов так, что у знатоков винтовок замирало сердце.

However, the men of the Three B's, as everyone understands, are not gentle or long-enduring, and you will wonder why this young destroyer was allowed to range at large so long. No entanto, os homens dos Três B's, como todos entendem, não são gentis ou duradouros, e você se perguntará por que esse jovem destróier foi autorizado a percorrer tanto tempo. Однако люди из "Трех Б", как всем известно, не отличаются мягкостью и долготерпением, и вы зададитесь вопросом, почему этому молодому эсминцу позволили так долго оставаться на свободе. There was a vital reason. Up in the mountains lived Mac Strann, the hermit-trapper, who hated everything in the wide world except his young brother, the beautiful, wild, and sunny Jerry Strann. Nas montanhas vivia Mac Strann, o caçador de eremitas, que odiava tudo no mundo, exceto seu irmão mais novo, o belo, selvagem e ensolarado Jerry Strann. And Mac Strann loved his brother as much as he hated everything else; it is impossible to state it more strongly. E Mac Strann amava seu irmão tanto quanto odiava todo o resto; é impossível afirmá-lo mais fortemente. И Мак Странн любил своего брата так же сильно, как и ненавидел все остальное; сильнее выразить это невозможно. It was not long before the men of the Three B's discovered how Mac Strann felt about his brother. Não demorou muito para que os homens dos Três Bs descobrissem como Mac Strann se sentia em relação ao irmão. After Jerry's famous Hallowe'en party in Buckskin, for instance, Williamson, McKenna, and Rath started out to rid the country of the disturber. Depois da famosa festa de Halloween de Jerry em Buckskin, por exemplo, Williamson, McKenna e Rath começaram a livrar o país do perturbador. После знаменитой вечеринки Джерри на Хэллоуин в Бакскине Уильямсон, МакКенна и Рат отправились избавлять страну от нарушителя порядка. They went out to hunt him as men go out to hunt a wild mustang. Saíram para caçá-lo como os homens saem para caçar um mustang selvagem. And they caught him and bent him down—those three stark men—and he lay in bed for a month; but before the month was over Mac Strann came down from his mountain and went to Buckskin and gathered Williamson and McKenna and Rath in one public place. E eles o pegaram e o curvaram – aqueles três homens rígidos – e ele ficou de cama por um mês; mas antes que o mês terminasse, Mac Strann desceu de sua montanha e foi para Buckskin e reuniu Williamson, McKenna e Rath em um lugar público. И они поймали его и согнули - те трое суровых мужчин, - и он пролежал в постели целый месяц; но не прошло и месяца, как Мак Странн спустился со своей горы, отправился в Бакскин и собрал Уильямсона, МакКенну и Рата в одном общественном месте. And when the morning came Williamson and McKenna and Rath had left this vale of tears and Mac Strann was back on his mountain. E quando amanheceu Williamson e McKenna e Rath deixaram este vale de lágrimas e Mac Strann estava de volta em sua montanha. А когда наступило утро, Уильямсон, Маккенна и Рат покинули эту долину слез, и Мак Странн вернулся на свою гору. He was not even arrested. For there was a devilish cunning about the fellow and he made his victims, without exception, attack him first; then he destroyed them, suddenly and surely, and retreated to his lair. Pois havia uma astúcia diabólica no sujeito e ele fazia suas vítimas, sem exceção, atacá-lo primeiro; então ele os destruiu, repentina e seguramente, e retirou-se para seu covil. Things like this happened once or twice and then the men of the Three B's understood that it was not wise to lay plots for Jerry Strann. Coisas assim aconteceram uma ou duas vezes e então os homens dos Três B compreenderam que não era sensato tramar para Jerry Strann. They accepted him, as I have said before, as men accept the wrath of God.

Let it not be thought that Jerry Strann was a solitary like his brother. Que não se pense que Jerry Strann era um solitário como seu irmão. When he went out for a frolic the young men of the community gathered around him, for Jerry paid all scores and the red-eye flowed in his path like wine before the coming of Bacchus; where Jerry went there was never a dull moment, and young men love action. Quando ele saía para uma brincadeira, os jovens da comunidade se reuniam em torno dele, pois Jerry pagava todas as contas e os olhos vermelhos fluíam em seu caminho como vinho antes da chegada de Baco; onde Jerry ia nunca havia um momento de tédio, e os jovens adoram ação. So it happened that when he rode into Brownsville this day he was the leader of a cavalcade. Então aconteceu que quando ele entrou em Brownsville neste dia ele era o líder de uma cavalgada. Rumour rode before them, and doors were locked and windows were darkened, and men sat in the darkness within with their guns across their knees. Os boatos corriam diante deles, e as portas estavam trancadas e as janelas escurecidas, e os homens estavam sentados na escuridão com suas armas nos joelhos. For Brownsville lay at the extreme northern tip of the triangle and it was rarely visited by Jerry; and it is well established that men fear the unfamiliar more than the known. Pois Brownsville ficava no extremo norte do triângulo e raramente era visitado por Jerry; e está bem estabelecido que os homens temem mais o desconhecido do que o conhecido.

As has been said, Jerry headed the train of revellers, partially because it was most unwise to cut in ahead of Jerry and partially because there was not a piece of horseflesh in the Three B's which could outfoot his chestnut. Como já foi dito, Jerry encabeçou o comboio de foliões, em parte porque era muito imprudente cortar na frente de Jerry e em parte porque não havia um pedaço de carne de cavalo nos Três B's que pudesse ultrapassar sua castanha. It was a gelding out of the loins of the north wind and sired by the devil himself, and its spirit was one with the spirit of Jerry Strann; perhaps because they both served one master. Era um castrado saído dos lombos do vento norte e gerado pelo próprio diabo, e seu espírito era um com o espírito de Jerry Strann; talvez porque ambos servissem a um mestre. The cavalcade came with a crash of racing hoofs in a cloud of dust. A cavalgada veio com um estrondo de cascos de corrida em uma nuvem de poeira. But in the middle of the street Jerry raised his right arm stiffly overhead with a whoop and brought his chestnut to a sliding stop; the cloud of dust rolled lazily on ahead. Mas, no meio da rua, Jerry ergueu o braço direito rigidamente acima da cabeça com um grito e parou sua castanha; a nuvem de poeira rolou preguiçosamente à frente. The young men gathered quickly around the leader, and there was silence as they waited for him to speak—a silence broken only by the wheezing of the horses, and the stench of sweating horseflesh was in every man's nostrils. Os jovens se reuniram rapidamente ao redor do líder, e houve silêncio enquanto esperavam que ele falasse — um silêncio quebrado apenas pelo chiado dos cavalos, e o fedor de carne de cavalo suada estava nas narinas de todos os homens. "Who owns that hoss?" "Quem é o dono desse hoss?" asked Jerry Strann, and pointed.

He had stopped just opposite O'Brien's hotel, store, blacksmith shop, and saloon, and by the hitching rack was a black stallion. Ele havia parado em frente ao hotel, loja, ferraria e saloon de O'Brien, e perto do cabideiro havia um garanhão preto. Now, there are some men who carry tidings of their inward strength stamped on their foreheads and written in their eyes. Agora, há alguns homens que carregam notícias de sua força interior estampadas em suas testas e escritas em seus olhos. Есть люди, которые несут весть о своей внутренней силе, начертанную на лбу и написанную в глазах. In times of crises crowds will turn to such men and follow them as soldiers follow a captain; for it is patent at a glance that this is a man of men. Em tempos de crise, multidões se voltarão para esses homens e os seguirão como soldados seguem um capitão; pois fica patente à primeira vista que este é um homem de homens. В кризисные времена толпы будут обращаться к таким людям и следовать за ними, как солдаты за капитаном, потому что с первого взгляда видно, что это человек из людей. It is likewise true that there are horses which stand out among their fellows, and this was such a horse. Também é verdade que há cavalos que se destacam entre seus companheiros, e este era um cavalo assim. Правда и то, что есть лошади, которые выделяются среди своих собратьев, и это была именно такая лошадь. He was such a creature that, if he had been led to a barrier, the entire crowd at the race track would rise as one man and say: "What is that horse?" Ele era uma criatura tão grande que, se fosse levado a uma barreira, toda a multidão na pista de corrida se levantaria como um homem e diria: "O que é esse cavalo?" There were points in which some critics would find fault; most of the men of the mountain-desert, for instance, would have said that the animal was too lightly and delicately limbed for long endurance; but as the man of men bears the stamp of his greatness in his forehead and his eyes, so it was with the black stallion. Havia pontos em que alguns críticos encontrariam falhas; a maioria dos homens do deserto montanhoso, por exemplo, teria dito que o animal tinha membros muito leves e delicados para uma longa resistência; mas como o homem dos homens traz a marca de sua grandeza na testa e nos olhos, assim foi com o garanhão preto. When the thunder of the cavalcade had rushed upon him down the street he had turned with catlike grace and raised his head to see; and his forehead and his eyes arrested Jerry Strann like a levelled rifle. Quando o trovão da cavalgada se abateu sobre ele na rua, ele se virou com graça felina e ergueu a cabeça para ver; e sua testa e seus olhos prenderam Jerry Strann como um rifle nivelado. Looking at that proud head one forgot the body of the horse, the symmetry of curves exquisite beyond the sculptor's dream, the arching neck and the steel muscles; one was only conscious of the great spirit. Olhando para aquela cabeça orgulhosa, esquecia-se o corpo do cavalo, a simetria das curvas requintadas além do sonho do escultor, o pescoço arqueado e os músculos de aço; só se tinha consciência do grande espírito. In Human beings we refer to it as "personality." У людей мы называем это "личностью". After a little pause, seeing that no one offered a suggestion as to the identity of the owner, Strann said, softly: "That hoss is mine." Depois de uma pequena pausa, vendo que ninguém ofereceu uma sugestão sobre a identidade do proprietário, Strann disse, suavemente: "Esse hoss é meu." It caused a stir in the crowd of his followers. Isso causou um rebuliço na multidão de seus seguidores. In the mountain-desert one may deal lightly with a man's wife and lift a random cow or two and settle the score, at need, with a snug "forty-five" chunk of lead. No deserto montanhoso, pode-se lidar levianamente com a esposa de um homem e levantar uma ou duas vacas ao acaso e acertar as contas, quando necessário, com um confortável pedaço de chumbo "quarenta e cinco". В горной пустыне можно легко расправиться с мужниной женой, поднять случайную корову или две и свести счеты, если понадобится, с помощью цельного куска свинца "сорок пять". But with horses it is different. A horse in the mountain-desert lies outside of all laws—and above all laws. Um cavalo no deserto da montanha está fora de todas as leis - e acima de todas as leis. It is greater than honour and dearer than love, and when a man's horse is taken from him the men of the desert gather together and hunt the thief whether it be a day or whether it be a month, and when they have reached him they shoot him like a dog and leave his flesh to the buzzards and his bones to the merciless stars. É maior que a honra e mais caro que o amor, e quando o cavalo de um homem é tirado dele, os homens do deserto se reúnem e caçam o ladrão, seja um dia ou um mês, e quando o alcançam, eles atiram. ele como um cão e deixar sua carne para os urubus e seus ossos para as estrelas impiedosas. For all of this there is a reason. Para tudo isso há uma razão. But Jerry Strann swung from his mount, tossed the reins over the head of the chestnut, and walked towards the black with hungry eyes. Mas Jerry Strann saltou de sua montaria, jogou as rédeas sobre a cabeça da castanha e caminhou em direção ao negro com olhos famintos. He was careless, also, and venturing too close—the black whirled with his sudden, catlike agility, and two black hoofs lashed within a hair's breadth of the man's shoulder. Ele foi descuidado, também, e se aventurou muito perto - o preto girou com sua agilidade repentina e felina, e dois cascos pretos chicoteados a um fio de cabelo do ombro do homem. There was a shout from the crowd, but Jerry Strann stepped back and smiled so that his teeth showed. Houve um grito da multidão, mas Jerry Strann deu um passo para trás e sorriu de modo que seus dentes apareceram.

"Boys," he said, but he was really speaking to himself, "there's nothing in the world I want as bad as I want that hoss. "Rapazes", disse ele, mas na verdade estava falando para si mesmo, "não há nada no mundo que eu queira tanto quanto eu quero aquela vadia. Nothing! I'm going to buy him; where's the owner?" "Don't look like a hoss a man would want to sell, Jerry," came a suggestion from the cavalcade, who had dismounted and now pressed behind their leader. "Não pareça um vagabundo que um homem gostaria de vender, Jerry", veio uma sugestão da cavalgada, que havia desmontado e agora se espremia atrás de seu líder. Jerry favoured the speaker with another of his enigmatic smiles: "Oh," he chuckled, "he'll sell, all right! Jerry favoreceu o orador com outro de seus sorrisos enigmáticos: "Ah", ele riu, "ele vai vender, tudo bem! Maybe he's inside. Talvez ele esteja dentro. You gents stick out here and watch for him; I'll step inside." Vocês cavalheiros fiquem aqui e fiquem de olho nele; Eu vou entrar." And he strode through the swinging doors of the saloon.

It was a dull time of day for O'Brien, so he sat with his feet on the edge of the bar and sipped a tall glass of beer; he looked up at the welcome click of the doors, however, and then was instantly on his feet. Era uma hora monótona para O'Brien, então ele se sentou com os pés na beirada do bar e bebeu um copo alto de cerveja; ele olhou para o clique bem-vindo das portas, no entanto, e então ficou instantaneamente de pé. The good red went out of his face and the freckles over his nose stood out like ink marks. O bom vermelho desapareceu de seu rosto e as sardas sobre o nariz se destacaram como marcas de tinta.

"There's a black hoss outside," said Jerry, "that I'm going to buy. Where's the owner?" "Have a drink," said the bartender, and he forced an amiable smile. "Tome uma bebida", disse o barman, e forçou um sorriso amável. "I got business on my hands, not drinking," said Jerry Strann. "Tenho negócios em minhas mãos, não bebida", disse Jerry Strann. "Lost your chestnut?" "Perdeu sua castanha?" queried O'Brien in concern. perguntou O'Brien preocupado. "The chestnut was all right until I seen the black. "A castanha estava bem até eu ver a preta. And now he ain't a hoss at all. E agora ele não é um hoss em tudo. Where's the gent I want?" Onde está o cavalheiro que eu quero?" The bartender had fenced for time as long as possible. O barman havia esgrimido pelo tempo o maior tempo possível.

"Over there," he said, and pointed. "Ali", disse ele, e apontou. It was a slender fellow sitting at a table in a corner of the long room, his sombrero pushed back on his head. Era um sujeito esbelto sentado em uma mesa em um canto da sala comprida, seu sombrero empurrado para trás na cabeça. He was playing solitaire and his back was towards Jerry Strann, who now made a brief survey, hitched his cartridge belt, and approached the stranger with a grin. Ele estava jogando paciência e estava de costas para Jerry Strann, que agora fez uma breve inspeção, prendeu o cinturão de cartuchos e se aproximou do estranho com um sorriso. The man did not turn; he continued to lay down his cards with monotonous regularity, and while he was doing it he said in the gentlest voice that had ever reached the ear of Jerry Strann: "Better stay where you are, stranger. O homem não se virou; continuou a depor as cartas com monótona regularidade e, enquanto o fazia, disse com a voz mais suave que jamais chegara aos ouvidos de Jerry Strann: "É melhor ficar onde está, estranho. My dog don't like you." Meu cachorro não gosta de você." And Jerry Strann perceived, under the shadow of the table, a blacker shadow, huge and formless in the gloom, and two spots of incandescent green twinkling towards him. E Jerry Strann percebeu, sob a sombra da mesa, uma sombra mais negra, enorme e informe na penumbra, e dois pontos de verde incandescente cintilando em sua direção. He stopped; he even made a step back; and then he heard a stifled chuckle from the bartender. Ele parou; ele até deu um passo para trás; e então ele ouviu uma risada abafada do barman.

If it had not been for that untimely mirth of O'Brien's probably nothing of what followed would have passed into the history of the Three B's. Se não fosse por aquela alegria prematura de O'Brien, provavelmente nada do que se seguiu teria passado para a história dos Três B's.