the Night Horseman (1920) by Max Brand Page B

muscles. He was not tall-inches shorter than his brother Jerry, for instance-but the bulk of his body was incredible. His torso was a veritable barrel that bulged out both in the chest and the back. And even the tremendous thighs of Mac Strann were perceptibly bowed out by the weight which they had to carry. And there was about his management of his arms a peculiar awkwardness which only the very strongest of men exhibit-as if they were burdened by the weight of their mere dangling hands.
    This giant, having placed his eyes in shadow, peered for a long moment at Haw-Haw Langley, but very soon his glance began to waver. It flashed toward the wall-it came back and rested upon Langley again. He was like a dog, restless under a steady stare. And as Haw-Haw Langley noted this a glitter of joy came in his beady eyes.
    "You're Jerry's man," said Mac Strann at length.
    There was about his voice the same fleshy quality that was in his face; it came literally from his stomach, and it made a peculiar rustling sound such as comes after one has eaten sticky sweet things. People could listen to the voice of Mac Strann and forget that he was speaking words. The articulation ran together in a sort of glutinous mass.

Night Horseman

    "I'm a friend of Jerry's," said the other. "I'm Langley."
    The big man stretched out his hand. The hair grew black, down to the knuckles; the blood of the bear still streaked it; it was large enough to be an organism with independent life. But when Langley, with some misgiving, trusted his own bony fingers within that grasp, it was only as if something fleshy, soft, and bloodless had closed over them. When his hand was released he rubbed it covertly against his trouser leg-to remove dirt-restore the circulation. He did not know why.
    "Who's bothering Jerry?" asked Mac Strann. "And where is he?"
    He went to the wall without waiting for an answer and took down the saddle. Now the cowpuncher's saddle is a heavy mass of leather and steel, and the saddle of Mac Strann was far larger than the ordinary. Yet he took down the saddle as one might remove a card from a rack. Haw-Haw Langley moved toward the door, tdo give himself a free space for exit.
    "Jerry's hurt," he said, and he watched.
    There was a ripple of pain on the face of Mac Strann.
    "Hoss kicked him-fell on him?" he asked.
    "It weren't a hoss."
    "Huh? A cow?"
    "It weren't no cow. It weren't no animal."
    Mac Strann faced full upon Langley. When he spoke it seemed as if it were difficult for him to manage his lips. They lifted an appreciable space before there was any sound.
    "What was it?"
    "A man."
    Langley edged back toward the door.
    "What with?"
    "A gun."
    And Langley saw the danger that was coming even before Mac Strann moved. He gave a shrill yelp of terror and whirled and sprang for the open. But Mac Strann sprang after him and reached. His whole body seemed to stretch like an elastic thing, and his arm grew longer. The hand fastened on the back of Langley, plucked him up, jammed him against the wall. Haw-Haw crumpled to the floor.
    He gasped: "It weren't me, Mac. For Gawd's sake, it weren't me!"
    His face was a study. There was abject terror in it, and yet there was also a sort of grisly joy, and his eyes feasted on the silent agony of Mac Strann.
    "Where?" asked Mac Strann.
    "Mac," pleaded the vulture who cringed on the floor, "gimme your word you ain't goin' to hold it agin me."
    "Tell me," said the other, and he framed the face of the vulture between his large hands. If he pressed the heels of those hands together bones would snap, and Haw-Haw Langley knew it. And yet nothing but a wild delight could have set that glitter in his eyes, just as nothing but a palsy of terror could have set his limbs twitching so.
    "Who shot him from behind?" demanded the giant.
    "It wasn't from behind," croaked the bearer of ill-tidings. "It was from the front."
    "While he wasn't looking?"
    "No. He was beat to the draw."
    "You're lyin' to me," said Mac Strann