The Untamed by Max Brand MP3 Audiobook

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The Untamed by Max Brand
1949 Whistlin' Dan Barry was slight, but with something more of wolf than of man in him…

Product Code: 232

Digital Audiobook -- in stock

US$9.95

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All works by Max Brand

Availability: Usually ships within 48 hours. Ships from and sold by Babblebooks.com.

Running time: 7 hr 9 min

The unabridged classic on MP3 audio, narrated by Anais 9000. Three playback speeds on one disk; etext edition included. Running time: 7.2 hours (slow), 6.5 hours (medium), 6.0 hours (fast).

Chapter I Pan of the Desert

Even to a high-flying bird this was a country to be passed over quickly. It was burned and brown, littered with fragments of rock, whether vast or small, as if the refuse were tossed here after the making of the world. A passing shower drenched the bald knobs of a range of granite hills and the slant morning sun set the wet rocks aflame with light. In a short time the hills lost their halo and resumed their brown. The moisture evaporated. The sun rose higher and looked sternly across the desert as if he searched for any remaining life which still struggled for existence under his burning curse.

And he found life. Hardy cattle moved single or in small groups and browsed on the withered bunch grass. Summer scorched them, winter humped their backs with cold and arched up their bellies with famine, but they were a breed schooled through generations for this fight against nature. In this junk-shop of the world, rattlesnakes were rulers of the soil. Overhead the buzzards, ominous black specks pendant against the white-hot sky, ruled the air.

It seemed impossible that human beings could live in this rock-wilderness. If so, they must be to other men what the lean, hardy cattle of the hills are to the corn-fed stabled beeves of the States.

Over the shoulder of a hill came a whistling which might have been attributed to the wind, had not this day been deathly calm. It was fit music for such a scene, for it seemed neither of heaven nor earth, but the soul of the great god Pan come back to earth to charm those nameless rocks with his wild, sweet piping. It changed to harmonious phrases loosely connected. Such might be the exultant improvisations of a master violinist.

A great wolf, or a dog as tall and rough coated as a wolf, trotted around the hillside. He paused with one foot lifted and lolling, crimson tongue, as he scanned the distance and then turned to look back in the direction from which he had come. The weird music changed to whistled notes as liquid as a flute. The sound drew closer. A horseman rode out on the shoulder and checked his mount. One could not choose him at first glance as a type of those who fight nature in a region where the thermometer moves through a scale of a hundred and sixty degrees in the year to an accompaniment of cold-stabbing winds and sweltering suns. A thin, handsome face with large brown eyes and black hair, a body tall but rather slenderly made--he might have been a descendant of some ancient family of Norman nobility; but could such proud gentry be found riding the desert in a tall-crowned sombrero with chaps on his legs and a red bandana handkerchief knotted around his throat? That first glance made the rider seem strangely out of place in such surroundings. One might even smile at the contrast, but at the second glance the smile would fade, and at the third, it would be replaced with a stare of interest. It was impossible to tell why one respected this man, but after a time there grew a suspicion of unknown strength in this lone rider, strength like that of a machine which is stopped but only needs a spark of fire to plunge it into irresistible action. Strangely enough, the youthful figure seemed [...]

as black bart raced away in answer to dan's whistle kate recovered herself from daze in which she stood and with a sob ran towards willows calling name of dan but silent sprang after her and caught her by arm she cried out and struggled vainly in his grip

"don't follow him boys" called silent "he's a dog that can bite while he runs stand quiet girl"

lee haines caught him by shoulder and jerked silent around his hand held butt of his revolver and his whole arm trembled with eagerness for draw

"take your hand from her jim" he said

silent met his eye with same glare and while his left hand still held kate by both her wrists his right dropped to his gun

"not when you tell me lee"

"damn you i say let her go"

"by god haines i stand for too much from you"

and still they did not draw because each of them knew that if crisis came it would mean death to them both bill kilduff jumped between them and thrust them back

he cried "ain't we got enough trouble without roundin' up work at home terry jordan is shot through arm"

kate tugged at restraining hand of silent not in an attempt to escape but in order to get closer to haines

"was this your friendship" she said her voice shaking with hate and sorrow "to bring me here as a lure for whistling dan listen to me all of you he's escaped you now and he'll come again remember him for he shan't forget you"

"you hear her" said silent to haines "is this what you want me to turn loose"

"silent" said haines "it isn't girl alone you've double crossed you've crooked me and you'll pay me for it sooner or later"

"day or night winter or summer i'm willing to meet you an' fight it out rhinehart and purvis take this girl back to clearing"

they approached purvis still staring at hand from which only a moment before his gun had been knocked by shot of whistling dan it was a thing which he could not understand--he had not yet lost a most uncomfortable sense of awe haines made no objection when they went off with kate walking between them he knew now that his blind anger had left him that it was folly to draw on a fight while rest of silent's men stood around them

"an' rest of you go back to clearin' i got somethin' to talk over with lee" said silent

others obeyed without question and leader turned back to his lieutenant for a moment longer they remained staring at each other then silent moved slowly forward with outstretched hand

"lee" he said quietly "i'm owin' you an' apology an' i'm man enough to make it"

"i can't take your hand jim"

silent hesitated

"i guess you got cause to be mad lee" he said "maybe i played too quick a hand i didn't think about double crossin' you i only seen a way to get whistlin' dan out of our path an' i took it without rememberin' that you was safeguard to girl"

haines eyed his chief narrowly

"i wish to god i could read your mind" he said at last "but i'll take your word that you did it without thinking"

his hand slowly met silent's

"an' what about girl now lee"

"i'll send her back to her father's ranch it will be easy to put her on right way"

"don't you see no reason why you can't do that"

"are you playing with me"

"i'm talking to you as i'd talk to myself if she's loose she'll describe us all an' set whole range on our trail"

haines stared

silent went on "if we can't turn her loose they's only one thing left--an' that's to take her with us wherever we go"

"on your honour do you see no other way out"

"do you"

"she may promise not to speak of it"

"there ain't no way of changin' spots of a leopard lee an' there ain't no way of keepin' a woman's tongue still"

"how can we take a girl with us"

"it ain't goin' to be for long after we pull job that comes on eighteenth we'll blow farther south an' then we'll let her go"

"and no harm will come to her while she's with us"

"here's my hand on it lee"

"how can she ride with us"

"she won't go as a woman i've thought of that i brought out a new outfit for purvis from elkhead--trousers chaps shirts an' all he's small they'll near fit girl"

"there isn't any other way jim"

"i'll leave it to you god knows i don't want to drag any damn calico aroun' with us"

as they went back towards their clearing they arranged details silent would take men aside and explain his purpose to them haines could inform girl of what she must do just before they reached camp silent stopped short and took haines by shoulder

"they's one thing i can't make out lee an' that's how whistlin' dan made his getaway i'd of bet a thousand bones that he would be dropped before he could touch his shootin' irons an' then what happened hal purvis jest flashed a gun--and that feller shot it out'n his hand i never seen a draw like that his hand jest seemed to twitch--i couldn't follow move he made--an' next second his gun went off"

he stared at lee with a sort of fascinated horror

"silent" said haines "can you explain how lightning comes down out of sky"

"of course not"

"then don't ask me to explain how whistling dan made his getaway one minute i heard him talkin' with girl next second there was two shots and when i whirled he was gone but he'll come back jim we're not through with him he slipped away from and your men like water out of a sieve but we won't slip away from him same way"

silent stared on again with bowed head

"he liked girl lee"

"any one could see that"

"then while she's with us he'll go pretty slow lee that's another reason why she's got to stay with us my frien' it's time we was moving out from willows next time he comes up with us he won't be numb in head he'll be thinkin' fast an' he'll be shootin' a damn sight faster we got two jobs ahead of us--first to get that wells fargo shipment and then to get whistling dan there ain't room enough in whole world for him and me"

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