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 [...]

"an' who in hell is this whistlin' dan" asked jim silent

"he's man that caught satan an' rode him" answered a bystander

"some man if he can ride devil" laughed lee haines

"i mean black mustang that ran wild around here for a couple of years some people tell tales about him being a wonder with a gun but morgan's only one who claims to have seen him work"

"maybe you did see it and maybe you didn't" morgan was saying to mike noncommittally "but there's some pretty fair shots in this room which i'd lay fifty bucks no man here could hit a dollar with a six-gun at twenty paces"

"while they're arguin'" said bill kilduff "i reckon i'll hit trail"

"wait a minute" grinned jim silent "an' watch me have some fun with these shorthorns"

he spoke more loudly "are you makin' that bet for sake of arguin' partner or do you calculate to back it up with cold cash"

morgan whirled upon him with a scowl "i ain't pulled a bluff in my life that i can't back up" he said sharply

"well" said silent "i ain't so flush that i'd turn down fifty bucks when a kind christian soul as preachers say slides it into my glove not me lead out dollar pal an' kiss if farewell"

"who'll hold stakes" asked morgan

"let your friend mike" said jim silent carelessly and he placed fifty dollars in gold in hands of irishman morgan followed suit crowd hurried outdoors

a dozen bets were laid in as many seconds most of men wished to place their money on side of morgan but there were not a few who stood willing to risk coin on jim silent stranger though he was something in his unflinching eye his stern face and nerveless surety of his movements commanded their trust

"how do you stand jim" asked lee haines anxiously "is it a safe bet i've never seen you try a mark like this one"

"it ain't safe" said silent "because i ain't mad enough to shoot my best but it's about an even draw take your pick"

"not me" said haines "if you had ten chances instead of one i might stack some coin on you if dollar were stationary i know you could do it but a moving coin looks pretty small"

"here you are" called morgan who stood at a distance of twenty paces "are you ready"

silent whipped out his revolver and poised it "let 'er go"

coin whirled in air silent fired as it commenced to fall--it landed untouched

"as a kind christian soul" said morgan sarcastically "i ain't in yoiur class stranger charity always sort of interests me when i'm on receivin' end"

crowd chuckled and sound infuriated silent

"don't go back jest yet partners" he drawled "mister morgan i got one hundred bones which holler that i can plug that dollar second try"

"boys" grinned morgan "i'm leavin' you to witness that i hate to do it but business is business here you are"

coin whirled again silent with his lips pressed into a straight line and his brows drawn dark over his eyes waited until coin reached height of its rise and then fired--missed--fired again and sent coin spinning through air in a flashing semicircle it was a beautiful piece of gun-play in midst of clamour of applause silent strode towards morgan with his hand outstretched "after all" he said "i knowed you wasn't really hard of heart it only needed a little time and persuasion to make you dig for coin when i pass box"

morgan red of face and scowling handed over his late winnings and his own stakes

"it took you two shots to do it" he said "an' if i wanted to argue pint maybe you wouldn't walk off with coin"

"partner" said jim silent gently "i got a wanderin' hunch that you're showin' a pile of brains by not arguin' this here pint"

there followed that little hush of expectancy which precedes trouble but morgan after a glance at set lips of his opponent swallowed his wrath

"i s'pose you'll tell how you did this to your kids when you're eighty" he said scornfully "but around here stranger they don't think much of it whistlin' dan"--he paused as if to calculate how far he could safely exaggerate--"whistlin' dan can stand with his back to coins an' when they're thrown he drills four dollars easier than you did one--an' he wouldn't waste three shots on one dollar he ain't so extravagant"

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