The Loner 6
Page 8
Traversi swept his red hair back from his eyes and planted his hat more firmly on his head. He had meant to call Eggert down and let him know who was boss of this outfit, once and for all. But things hadn’t gone his way.
“You sort it out,” he said. “Weedon and his bunch failed to get the old man out in the plains. He come on through the valley during the night and they decided it was better to wait for him in town. You threw in with that, didn’t you?”
“Sure,” Judge Eggert admitted.
“Same as me,” Traversi said easily. “But Adamson linked up with that drifter, Durant. Weedon messed a night raid with Day, your boy and Peters. Your boy was killed.”
Eggert’s eyes went as hard as flint. But he said nothing.
“After that Cherry bought in for some damn fool reason of his own and killed Edey. All we got was his hat. Then they blasted their way out of a trap we’d set for them and I got burned raw chasin’ them in the hills.”
“That’s about it except for one little thing, Red,” Eggert said.
Traversi waited for it, watching the cigar glow as the judge puffed.
“You weren’t on hand when you had a prisoner in your keeping, Red. That prisoner had killed my boy, so you should have been real careful to keep him here so I could hang him. You failed me, Red, because you were trying to maul a woman who didn’t want to have a thing to do with you. I hear you were knocked out. Cherry, maybe?”
Traversi stood still, his hands hanging slack. A gleam showed in his narrowed eyes. “Must have been him, yeah. Who else?”
“Precisely, Red,” Eggert kept on. “Who else? Cherry, who was trying to win favor with Joyce Adamson. Dane Cherry, who had the freedom of this town and was tolerated by all of us—he did the greatest damage, Red, and you want to know why?”
Traversi still held his silence. A nerve jumped in his temple as his jaws clamped tight.
“Dane Cherry fooled us, Red. We didn’t look deep enough into him. He isn’t the dude we figured him to be. In fact, from what I’ve got in your absence, Dane Cherry has been cleaning up real well right under our eyes. Now why didn’t we crowd him a little and make him share with us, Red? Because, once again, we spent too much time worrying about fools like those two in the cells. Now the whole town is laughing at us. We’ve lost a lot of respect. How are we gonna get it back?”
Traversi frowned. “How the hell should I know? You’re the brains—you tell me.”
“I will, Red. What we must do is get a strong outfit together and go after them. But this time we won’t run around blind. We’ll figure things out and just keep going until we find them. Then we’ll kill the whole bunch of them, even the girl if she gets in our way. After that we’ll come back and take up where we left off. If we don’t do this to my complete satisfaction, I’m quitting here. There’d be no use in staying.”
Traversi licked his dry lips. “I just been out. I’m beat.”
“No matter. A good night’s rest, then a morning of arranging things, getting a chuck wagon fitted out, fresh horses and the rest of it. We’ll go down into that south country on the best-planned manhunt this state ever saw, Red. Any argument on that?”
Red Traversi thought about it for a long time. He could see that dead country again. He could feel the heat, the sting of the grit and the choke of the dust in his lungs. He had the cattle. Edey getting killed didn’t worry him any longer. And he admitted to himself he had begun to get sick of Marie with her constant whining about things.
He said, “Why don’t you do it on your own, Judge? Then I could stay here and look after things.”
Judge Joe Alroe Eggert shook his head and smiled thinly. “I couldn’t trust you, Red, you know that. I might be gone a long time and there’s the money we put by—I’d be worried all the time that you might light out and I’d never see you again.”
Traversi opened his mouth to counter this accusation, but Eggert threw up a hand. “No, Red, it’ll be my way. We’ll get Cherry and Durant and we’ll be showing people that nobody can ride into our territory and cause us trouble.”
Eggert moved back to the door as Reg Weedon came in mopping at his sweating brow. “By hell, it’s hot, eh?” he commented. When no one answered him, he said, “Heard you missed ’em, Red. Too bad, eh?”
Traversi let out a growl. But Joe Eggert spoke up. “Weedon, Red and I are gonna put you into a position of trust. We want you to take over the management of town for a short time. Sleep in this jailhouse. When we come back, we want everything to be just as we left it—no trouble, no strangers standing tall, nothing different. You understand me, Weedon?”
Weedon gulped. “Where ... where are you going?” he stammered out.
“On a trip. Red will explain to you. In the morning, I want you to round up all the boys. We’ll have to divide them up and leave some to stay behind with you. Goodnight.”
Judge Eggert walked out. He heard Red Traversi swear and it brought a smile to his fat lips. Now, walking slowly down the boardwalk on his way back to the saloon, he thought about his son, Rick. Outcast County had never meant anything to Eggert. Nor did Red Traversi. He decided he didn’t even like the man, but he was shackled with him. He shrugged off his thoughts and turned into the saloon.
As Reg Weedon had mentioned, it was indeed a hot night. A good night for drinking.
Eight – Dead of Night
“Just a minute, Cherry,” said Blake Durant as he pulled Sundown off the trail and topped a rise to peer down at the winking lights of Outcast County. The ride across the barren country had produced no worries. Not once had they sighted a rider. They had nursed their horses and taken plenty of rest themselves. Even Ben Adamson looked bright-eyed and fit for fight.
Dane Cherry drew alongside Durant and regarded him coolly. Ever since Durant’s warning to him at the campsite the previous evening, he had watched his every move. Cherry was sure that Joyce found the big drifter attractive, but Durant had done nothing to suggest he was interested in her. Cherry was positive he’d have trouble with Durant, especially when the drifter learned about Cherry’s plans for Traversi’s money.
“What’s wrong now?” Cherry asked as Durant frowned at him.
Durant spoke with authority. “We take only enough money to cover Adamson’s cattle, Cherry. Got that?”
Durant’s blunt approach sent Cherry back in the saddle. Joyce and Ben Adamson had come up behind them; then, as though sensing something had gone wrong between the two men, Adamson kept his daughter out of earshot. They sat their horses and looked out from the cover of the trees.
“Did I say it would be any different, Durant?” Cherry growled.
“You didn’t have to say it, mister—I know what’s been on your mind from the minute you changed your mind about coming along. In fact, I’ve been thinking about going in alone.”
Cherry scowled at him. “You trying to play the hero, Durant? Reckon that will make Joyce go beggin’ for you?”
A long look passed between them.
“I’m not thinking along those lines, Cherry,” Durant finally said. “I offered my help to Adamson because he deserves a few breaks. That’s all there is to it.”
Cherry was thoughtful. “I could bust the whole mess if you went off alone, Durant. I owe you nothing.”
“You wouldn’t get it done,” Durant warned. “Make up your mind on that here and now. And remember, we take only what we’re entitled to.”
Cherry’s eyes gleamed. “You’d take my word on it, mister?”
“If you give it.”
Cherry smiled. “All right, you’ve got my word. I’ll do it your way.”
Blake Durant eyed him searchingly.
Cherry went on, “You’re a man then who takes chances, Durant. Maybe you gamble some, too?”
“I’ve gambled in my time. And not only for money.”
“Men?”
Blake nodded.
Cherry was grinning broadly now. “How’d you make out last time? Win or lose, drifter?”
Dane Cherry straightened in the saddle. Durant always had a way of besting him, in talk or action.
Suddenly Durant said, “Can I trust you, Cherry?”
Cherry pulled at an ear lobe for a moment, then he muttered a curse. “Yes, damn you.”
Blake nodded in satisfaction. “Then we’ll pull it off, just the two of us. The others will only be in the way.”
Cherry turned his horse away as Durant went back to Adamson and Joyce. “Cherry and I are going in alone,” Durant said. “We both feel it’s better that way. You’d slow us up and Joyce would be a worry.”
Ben Adamson frowned back at him. Moonlight cut across his lined face, highlighting the years of worry there ... worry over a ranch, over cattle, over no rain, over a wife dying and a daughter cutting out. Bur his voice was strong and defiant when he said, “This is my business. I won’t be pushed aside and treated like a kid. Traversi and his crowd don’t worry me one spit.”
“If we fail, Ben, somebody will have to look after Joyce. Cherry and I decided that was as important as getting the money for your cattle. So don’t argue.”
Adamson looked intently at Cherry. “This your idea too, mister?”
“It is,” Cherry lied convincingly.
Adamson looked surprised and Joyce regarded Cherry with more warmth than she’d shown the whole day.
Durant said, “We’ll go down through the timber and come up behind the town. If things go right we should reach the jailhouse in fifteen minutes and get the safe open in maybe another ten. If things go wrong and we’re stopped, we’ll fight our way out. Watch for us and be ready to ride.”
Adamson still looked put out. But Joyce readily accepted the position. She moved her horse across to Durant and looked into his eyes.
“Be careful,” she said.
“I’ll be that,” he told her.
Cherry straightened in the saddle, plainly disturbed. But Joyce crossed to him and smiled. “You too, Dane. Pa and I will never be able to repay you for what you’re doing tonight. Just don’t take any unnecessary chances with those hellions. Forget about the money if it’s too difficult.”
She stood in the stirrups and kissed him on the cheek. Cherry reached for her but Joyce drew back and rejoined her father. By then Durant was already riding into the darkness off the slope, taking a trail across a depression. Cherry put his horse into a run.
“Which one is it, Joyce?” Adamson asked as the sound of hoof beats died in the night’s silence.
Joyce looked at him, took a deep breath, and shook her head.
“If it was me, I wouldn’t go past Durant, girl. He’s all man and made to last. Whatever he does, he’ll do it right.”
“Dane has helped me a great deal too, Pa,” Joyce argued.
“For what he can get out of you, girl. Maybe underneath he has some affection for you and maybe he has enough ability to be a good provider. But I got the feeling that wherever he goes, Dane Cherry will rake up trouble. You could spend a lifetime on the run with him.”
Joyce was silent for a long time. She knew she had no right to be thinking of Durant and herself at all. He had never been anything but polite. Yet her father thought she had a chance with him. She wondered about this and then she thought about the woman Durant had lost. How long would the memory of that woman ride with him? How long would his love for her keep him from caring deeply about someone else?
She drew herself straight. “Pa, I’m not like some other women. I don’t think that every man who happens along wants me. I know I’m pretty but I don’t think it goes deeper than that. Perhaps neither of them will want me permanently.”
Adamson waved this down. “They want you, girl. One thing I know about is men. You’ll have to choose between them and you’ll have to do it quick, before it grows into trouble you won’t be able to handle. No sense letting any man, Cherry or Durant, dangle on a string. Each would resent it.”
Joyce colored and came out of the saddle. As she walked through the trees, leading her horse, she wondered why life had to be so complex.
Time would tell. Perhaps, when they came back, she would know. If they came back. Her eyes clouded with worry and she settled down to wait, watching her father pace up and down. She knew how disturbed he was. He was a man and he wanted to do a man’s work.
“Hold it.”
Dane Cherry put a hand on Durant’s wrist. The gesture was unnecessary because Durant had already seen the group of men outside the saloon. Red Traversi stood taller than the others, hatless, his thick hair tousled.
Traversi said, “Turn in and get some rest. First light in the morning, Day and Peters will bring the buckboard out here. We’ll pack it with plenty of supplies. You others be on hand because we’ll be riding out and going fast. Anybody who don’t turn up won’t need a saddle or a horse again.”
Cherry touched Durant’s shoulder and pointed back down the laneway. Durant followed him along the lane and across the saloon yard. In the corner of the yard Cherry stepped over a low fence and led the way across a store yard. They reached the jailhouse laneway unchallenged.
Standing in the darkness, gun in hand, Cherry said, “With Edey gone I don’t know who Traversi put on to look after the jailhouse. But it’ll be somebody Traversi can trust.”
Blake Durant said nothing.
“As for blowing that safe,” Cherry said, “it might not be necessary. If it’s an old model, which is likely in this part of the territory, I might be able to work out the lock combination.”
“You’ve done that before?” Durant asked.
Cherry grinned. “I’ve been about some, Durant. I had to do lots of things, some legal, some not.”
“Just don’t go shooting unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Durant said.
Dane Cherry shrugged, then he moved across the laneway and turned into the jailhouse back yard. His mind warmed at the thought of Traversi’s money getting into his pocket. But he’d given Durant his word. Well, if something happened to Durant, his pledge wouldn’t count.
Cherry slipped across the yard, stopped at the back steps and pressed his ear to the wall. There was no sound from inside. Cherry stepped up to the door and tried the knob. When it turned in his hand he threw Durant a grin. Blake Durant braced himself, gun in hand. When Cherry eased the door open, he slid into the building beside him. A big man was hunched over the desk reading a tattered magazine. In the cells were Bo Strawbridge and Bede, sitting on opposite bunks. Their heads popped up when they saw the door opening.
Cherry put a finger to his lips and carefully made his way into the room. A board creaked and the big man stirred at the desk, casting a quick look towards the cells. Then Bo Strawbridge called out:
“Bannon, how about a drink?”
“Shut down, Strawbridge!” came the gruff reply, and under cover of the talk Dane Cherry continued towards the desk.
“Hell, I got a thirst a rattler would give away, Bannon. I always treated you fair, didn’t I, when I had a stake? Why the hell don’t you …”
Bannon had lowered his head again, plainly disinterested in further talk. Then Dane Cherry’s gun came down hard. Bannon gave a grunt and slumped forward over the desk.
Bo Strawbridge grinned and called out, “That was neat, Cherry. Now get me them keys. Me and Bede are gettin’ to hell out of this town while the goin’s good. We want no part of this damn bunch of no-good, boot-lickin’ yeller jaspers. They’re hardly fit to drink with a man, let alone talk to him. Let us out, eh?”
“Shut down,” Cherry told him and crossed to the last cell. He found it locked, then he went back to the office and took the keys from the top drawer of the desk. While he fumbled for the right key, he said, “No need to stand there looking stupid, Durant. Watch the street. If anybody comes, give me due warning.”
Blake Durant walked to the window and Bo said, “Get this damn cell open, will you? Traversi has it in for us, Durant. He figures we’re tied
in with you because we jumped jail when you did. Hell, if it comes to a fight, we might even join in.”
“I said to shut down, Strawbridge,” said Cherry who was now working at the last cell’s lock. He breathed a sigh of relief when he got it open. Walking in, he crossed to a small safe in the corner and knelt down to inspect it.
Bo Strawbridge, watching Cherry anxiously all the time, said, “Traversi opened that tonight, Cherry. I seen him plain. He turned the middle piece right round one way and brought it right back to the top, stopped it there, then went the other way. Damn me, but it came open real easy. How about you deal us in for a slice, eh? Y’see, Traversi cleaned us out before he put us in here. We ain’t got a dollar between us and we got thirsts that need maybe fifty dollars to take care of.”
Cherry paid him no heed. But he did follow Bo’s advice and worked the dial almost as far right as it could go. He pressed his ear hard against the metal until he heard a faint click. Then, grinning, he brought the dial back until he heard a second click. He pulled on the big handle and the safe door opened.
“See, Cherry, didn’t I tell you?” Bo Strawbridge cried out. “Now you got to deal us in. Open this cell and we’ll take our cut and get to hell outa here. If there’s trouble, by hell, you know Bede and me, we ain’t no strangers to it.”
Cherry still ignored him. Bo cursed. Durant came back to tell him to quieten down. Then Bo started to howl protests and Durant said firmly, “Wait!”
He joined Cherry in the cell. Cherry picked out five bundles of notes and riffled them. Sweat showed on his brow and his eyes gleamed with hunger.
Durant said, “Five thousand is the amount put on the cattle by Adamson. Take only that much.”
Cherry gritted his teeth and sucked in his breath. “It’s hellion’s money,” he said.
“No matter. Do as I say.”
Durant’s gun was pointed at Cherry. The gambler counted and stuffed the money inside his shirt. When he stood up, he stared at the thick bundles of bills stacked on the shelves.