His rifle went off and spat sand into my face. His movement must have deflected it just by a hair, just enough to save my bacon. He was down, but I could see the glint of the rifle barrel as he moved it toward me. I shot him again.
The rifle fell from his hands as he rolled over on his side. I stood up. “No! No!” he whispered. “Oh, no, no!”
“You gave it to a good many, Huddy,” I said. “You shot that poor Indian who worked for me, shot him when he didn’t even know, and when no enemies were around. He never had a chance to lift a hand. Now you know how it feels.”
“No … not me.” He was whimpering like a child. “Not me!” And I had it in me to feel sorry for him. Somehow his kind never figure it will be them. They always kill; they are never killed. That’s the way they see it.
Taking up his rifle I backed off a little, still wary of him because he was packing a six-shooter, but I needn’t have been because he was dead.
The wolf moved out there in the dark and I said to him, “Come on, boy, we’re going home now.”
Picking up his collar because I wished to see it by daylight, I started down the mountain in the first gray of dawn, and the wolf—or dog-wolf which he seemed to be—fell in behind me. Not too close, not too far.
Looked like he’d been lonesome for a man to belong to, and when he saw me and I tossed him that meat back yonder he figured I might be the one to help him out of the trap that was sure to kill him sooner or later.
We started down the mountain, but we stopped down there where Starvation Creek flows out of the rock, and I hunted around for that gold and found it. Taken me only a few minutes and I had to rest, anyway, with my wound and all.
I was in bad shape again, but this time I was going home and I had a friend with me. The gold was heavy so I only taken one sack of the stuff, just to throw on the table in front of Nick Shadow, and say “This what you were lookin’ for?”
The sky was all red, great streaks of it, when I walked across the meadow toward the fire. Soon as I felt better, I was going over to see that Meg girl. She’d want to hear about my wolf.
The boys came out and stood there staring at me. “It’s Flagan,” Galloway said. “I knew he’d be coming in this morning.”
“Boys,” I said, “you got to meet my wolf. Take good care of him, I—”
Well, I just folded my cards together and fell, laid right down, dead beat and hurt. But it was worth it because when I opened my eyes, Meg was there.