Ryan Rides Back

by Bill Crider

  Virginia hated herself for asking, but her curiosity got the better of her. "What does he have?"

  "My brother," Kane said.

  Virginia realized that she had herself to blame for her situation, at least in part. She had helped convince Ryan that Billy Kane was innocent, and she had told him that there was something planned for the previous night. It was Ryan, not Kane, who had taken Billy.

  "What makes you think he'll trade?" she said.

  "Why shouldn't he? You and he were great friends at one time. I see no reason for that to have changed.”

  “I told him," she said. "About the last time.”

  “That is no reason at all," Kane said.

  Long, for his part, wasn't so sure, but he had already had Kane's lecture about Ryan's sense of honor, so didn't say anything.

  "You see," Kane went on, "Ryan is not the kind of man to let something like that stand in his way or to keep him from doing the right thing."

  Virginia thought Kane might be right, but she said, "He might not think I'm worth it."

  "Worth has nothing to do with it. Sooner or later he'll be here. When he comes, we'll be able to do business with him."

  "At least you could untie my hands,"

  "No, I don't think I will. You might prove to be a reluctant guest and try to leave. Other than that, however, we'll try to make you comfortable."

  "Then keep him away from me," she said, looking at Long.

  "He does seem to have been a bit rougher than I anticipated. But someone will have to watch you."

  "Not me," Long said. "I need some sleep." He was tired, and he had no desire to tangle further with Virginia Burley, at least not that night.

  "You can wake up McGee or Barson," Kane said. "Either one of them should be able to do the job."

  Long left the room.

  Kane helped Virginia to her feet. "There's a bed in the room next to this one. You can wait there." He took her elbow to guide her.

  The room was small, with only the bed and a chair in it. There was no lamp, and the tiny window did not admit any light. She could see the dark sky through it.

  "I won't be able to lie down," she said. "Not with my hands tied like this."

  "No, I'm afraid not," Kane said. "But you can sit in the chair. It will be awkward, but it's the best I can offer."

  He smiled at her. In the faint lamplight from the other room, he looked like a boar hog walking upright. She wondered if a hog could smile.

  "Why do you hate Ryan?" she said.

  He seemed surprised. "Hate? What makes you say that?"

  "You have everything you wanted from him. You chased him away. You got his land. Now even his sister is dead. Yet you're still not satisfied."

  Kane pushed her roughly to the wooden chair. She half fell against it, then righted herself and sat.

  "Hate has nothing to do with it. He resisted me, and he was punished, though not enough. He should never have come back."

  "But what about his sister? You're talking about punishment, and Billy should be punished for her death."

  "Billy had nothing to do with her death. She was a whore."

  Virginia was shocked by the blunt assertion. She had heard talk that Kane's men had started about Sally, but no one would have agreed with it.

  "That's not true," she said.

  "Nevertheless," Kane said, "Billy didn't kill her."

  "I think you're right about that. I never believed that he did."

  "What?"

  "I said, I never—"

  "I heard what you said. I thought the whole town believed that Billy was guilty."

  Virginia decided to tell Kane what the town really thought. It could not hurt. "I don't think even the sheriff really believes that Billy killed Sally Ryan. Everyone wanted to believe it, though, because he was a Kane. It was your name and your actions that got him convicted."

  Kane stared at her, apparently speechless.

  Virginia was sitting on the edge of the chair, precariously balanced with her hands behind her. She tried to edge backward.

  "After tonight," she said, "I'm almost convinced that you had Long kill Sally. He's certainly capable of it."

  Kane seemed to smile then. "He would do it if I told him to, or perhaps even for his own pleasure. He enjoys hurting people."

  Virginia believed that. She had firsthand knowledge.

  "However," Kane went on, "I don't believe he killed the Ryan woman. If he had done it, I would have turned him in at once to save my brother."

  "No one would have believed you if you turned him in. They would all have thought you were lying to get Billy out of jail. So you let Ryan get him out for you."

  "Ryan interfered in my plans. But I'll get Billy back."

  "And what then? Ryan will tell the sheriff where Billy is. If he doesn't, I will."

  "We'll see. I don't think so."

  Virginia knew then that Kane didn't intend to let her out of his house alive. Or Ryan either, if he came. She wondered again what drove the man, but she knew that he would never tell her. His comments about Ryan's having resisted him and interfered in his plans didn't quite ring true.

  She sighed and slumped in the chair.

  Kane watched her for a moment, then left.

  McGee was waiting in the office. His shoulder was throbbing, but he felt all right. He had gotten one of the others to help him put a crude bandage on the shoulder, and rigged a sling for his arm.

  "Long said you needed me in here," McGee said.

  Kane thought McGee was a sorry sight. He was already missing a finger and now one of his arms was useless. And then there was Barson, who still wasn't really recovered from the blow on the head. Kane wondered why he was cursed with men like that.

  "There's a woman in the next room," Kane said. "I want you to watch her and make sure she stays there."

  McGee thought he could do that. He started for the door.

  "And McGee," Kane called.

  McGee looked back.

  "Go get a pistol. You might need it."

  McGee looked around the room, as if looking for someone who might be a threat. "What for?"

  "Someone might come for the woman," Kane said. He resented having to explain everything to McGee and the others. Why did they have to be so stupid? It was bad enough that they kept getting hurt.

  "Who?" McGee said.

  "Ryan. Ryan might come for her."

  McGee didn't like that. "What's he gonna do that for?" he said. He had just about had enough of Ryan. He was missing a finger already, and he was practically missing an arm. He didn't want any more dealings with Ryan.

  "Never mind. Just get the pistol."

  "I don't know if I can use it."

  "You weren't shot in that arm. Now get it, or get out of here and don't come back."

  McGee actually considered the options. He thought that if he just left and never came back, he might be better off. But where would he go? He didn't have many job prospects, and at least Kane took care of him. He went to get the pistol.

  When he came back, Kane was at the desk, ignoring him. McGee went right on by, into the other room. He saw Virginia Burley sitting on the chair.

  "Miz Burley," he said, "I didn't know it was you in here."

  "What difference does it make?" she said.

  "None, I guess," he said. He walked over and sat on the narrow bed. "Now I can see why he thinks Ryan might be comin' for you, though."

  "What will you do if he comes?" She looked at the pistol dangling in McGee's hand. "Shoot me?"

  He laid the pistol on the bed and pushed it to the side. "I don't guess I would," he said. "Nobody said to do that."

  "You'd do it if somebody said to?"

  McGee thought about that, just as he'd thought about his choices earlier. "Yes," he finally said. "I guess I would."

  Chapter Seventeen

  "She'll be in that room he calls the office," Billy said. "We could get her out of there."

  They were sitting on the horse about a h
undred yards from the house. There had been no one watching for them as far as they could tell, and Billy was trying to talk Ryan into an attempt to rescue Virginia without having to directly encounter Kane.

  "There's a window into the office, and we could get in through there. That's where he'll have her," Billy said.

  Ryan couldn't figure out why there was no one around, but it was probably because there was no good hiding place, he thought. There were a few scattered oaks, but not a one of them was big enough to hide a man behind, much less a horse.

  This meant that Kane would have the watchers in the house. He said as much to Billy.

  "Maybe so. But maybe we could surprise them."

  Ryan didn't think much of that idea. Kane would be alert and waiting, no matter what time it was. He started the horse forward.

  "We ought to go around to the back," Billy said. "That's where the window is. It's a big one, right down to the ground. We could go right through it."

  Ryan stopped by a tree. "I'm going to leave you here, Billy. You can wait for me or you can leave. I just want you to know I'm not going to trade you for Virginia."

  "They'll kill both of you," Billy said. He slid off the horse.

  "I'll come back for you if I can," Ryan said.

  Billy stood beside the tree and watched Ryan go. The house was a black lump in the distance, a light showing in only one window. Billy didn't know what his brother had in mind, but he was sure it didn't include Ryan's coming back for him. Nevertheless, he decided to wait awhile. He didn't have any better ideas.

  Ryan had no ideas at all, just the blood pounding in him again for the first time in so long he'd almost forgotten what it felt like. He thought that he probably should have taken Billy along and made the trade; after all, what was Billy to him? But he was wondering why Long and Barson had tried to kill Billy. Had Kane ordered it, or had they tried it to keep Billy quiet and to put an end to speculation over the death of Ryan's sister? If Congrady was innocent, and Billy was innocent, it could be that Long and Barson—and Ryan thought Long in particular—might have a reason for shutting Billy up and getting him out of the way. Ryan was familiar with Long's reputation, and the condition of Virginia's room tended to confirm that the reputation was well deserved.

  Ryan hoped that Virginia was still alive. If she wasn't, then Long was going to be very sorry.

  What Ryan wondered was how sorry he would be himself, and he thought that he might feel that he had lost something quite valuable, something that he had just found again after having lost it. He believed that his meeting with Virginia did matter to him, and that there was even a chance they could mean something to one another again.

  If she was still alive.

  There was no one waiting at the front of the house. Ryan wondered if they expected him to knock on the door. Knowing Kane, that was probably exactly what he did expect. He would be looking for Ryan to come in with his hat in his hand, begging Kane to take his brother back.

  And what then? A simple trade?

  Ryan doubted it. He suddenly thought that Billy might have a point, that Kane could never be trusted to do the right thing.

  Ryan climbed off the horse and tied it to a hitching rail made of a rough cedar post. He started walking around the house.

  His boot hit a stone and he almost stumbled. He stopped and stood quietly, but nothing stirred in the house.

  He went on, his fingertips brushing the butt of his .45. He had cleaned it that morning at the cave, carefully getting the mud out of the barrel and cylinders, checking the action. He held his left arm stiffly across his body.

  He came to the back corner and went around it. There was a pale yellow rectangle of light on the ground, cast by the lamp in the house. Ryan angled away from the wall, so that he would wind up past the rectangle and be standing in the darkness.

  When he got to the point where he could see inside, he stopped. The window that Billy had mentioned was actually a kind of double door with glass panes in it. Ryan thought that it must have cost Kane a fortune, but he could afford it. Through the panes, he could see inside the room, but he could not see anyone.

  He saw the corner of Kane's desk, and he thought that Kane might be sitting there, though he wasn't sure and had expected to see at least several men in the room.

  He walked through the pale light up to the door and tapped on the glass with his pistol barrel.

  Now he could see the whole desk, and Kane behind it, whiter than white in the lamplight.

  Kane heard the tap and got up, moving to open the door. He moved slowly and awkwardly, as if he were moving underwater. Ryan thought that he had gotten even bigger in the years that had passed since their last meeting.

  Kane pulled the door inward, and Ryan leveled the pistol at his huge stomach. "Hello, Kane," he said.

  "I had hoped you might be a little more civilized about things," Kane told him. He sounded like a schoolteacher who'd had his feelings hurt by a favorite pupil.

  "It's just that I remember you too well," Ryan said.

  Kane turned his back as if he had no fear of Ryan's shooting him and walked back to the desk. He lowered himself heavily into the chair behind it and watched as Ryan walked over, gun in hand.

  "You may as well put the pistol up," Kane said.

  "Where's Virginia?" Ryan said, holding the gun steady.

  "Somewhere safe," Kane said. "You didn't think I'd have her here, did you? You should know me better than that."

  In the next room, out of sight, McGee held his own gun trained on Virginia Burley, ready to shoot if she made a sound. Her eyes were wide as she listened to the conversation.

  "After all," Kane said, "you didn't bring my brother."

  "I don't have him," Ryan said.

  "But you found my note and just decided to drop in?”

  “That's right. Now, where's Virginia?"

  Kane was chagrined. He had hoped that Ryan would bring Billy with him, and he didn't believe for a minute that Ryan didn't have him or at least know where he was. "There was to be a trade," he said. "I thought that you were an honorable man."

  "Only when I'm dealing with honorable men. Where is she?" Ryan's thumb cocked back the hammer of the .45.

  "Shoot me, and you'll never know." Kane looked at Ryan appraisingly. "I must say you're bit worse for wear since our last encounter."

  "You and your men can take the credit for that. But it won't happen this time. This time, I'm ready for you."

  "I doubt that," Kane said. "Why, you're no more than half a man. One shot and I'll have men in here who can take you down in a second."

  "Probably. But I'm not going to argue about it. You won't be alive to see it." Ryan's finger tightened on the trigger. "Now, where—"

  "I'm in here!" Virginia yelled.

  Ryan glanced around, taken by surprise. He saw a flash of motion out of the corner of his eye, and then there was a gunshot. He started for the door of the other room.

  Virginia had thrown herself out of her chair after yelling, and McGee's bullet had gone into the wall. She rolled across the floor, and his second shot went wide.

  By that time, Ryan was in the room. Three years before, he would have made it much sooner.

  McGee looked up at him and swung his pistol around. Pain shot from his phantom finger to his wounded shoulder, and he jerked the trigger, throwing lead into the door frame.

  Ryan steadied his gun and shot McGee through the bridge of the nose, sending the back of his head up against the wall.

  McGee pitched backward over the narrow bed, no longer worried about his missing finger or anything else.

  Ryan looked back into the office, but Kane was gone. It was too late to do anything about him now. Instead, Ryan helped Virginia to her feet.

  "Can you get these ropes off?" she said.

  Ryan went back into the office and rummaged through the drawers of Kane's desk. He found a folding knife in one of them and returned to cut through the ropes.

  "Can you use a pistol?"
he said.

  "I can in a minute, as soon as I can feel something again." Virginia shook her hands, trying to restore the circulation.

  Ryan went over to McGee's body, shoving the bed aside. McGee's pistol was lying beside him, and Ryan retrieved it. He handed it to Virginia.

  She handed it right back. "I can't hold it. My hands are stinging too much." She bit her lip, and tears sprang to her eyes as the blood started to flow into her hands freely again.

  Ryan went to the door to keep watch, but no one came into the office. He wondered where they were. He was sure that Kane wasn't going to let him just walk out the double door and away.

  He watched until Virginia joined him. This time she took the gun from his hand. "I'm ready now," she said. There was still no one in the room.

  "All right," Ryan said. "Let's go."

  When Billy Kane heard the shots, the sound was greatly muffled by the thick walls of the house. He knew what it was, though.

  Having no weapon himself, he didn't know whether to stay or go. Fear trickled through his veins and the top of his head started to sweat. The drops ran down his brow, and he wiped them away with his hand.

  If Ryan was dead, they would come looking for him. But if he stayed very still and quiet, they wouldn't find him. Would they? Probably they would, and then Long and Barson would hurt him. They would hit him again and try to kill him. Thinking of the pain they could induce made him sweat even more.

  The problem was he didn't know where to go if he ran. They would just track him down and get him that way. He began to wish that he had never left the jail, that he had just stayed there and let himself be hanged. Then he wouldn't have to be afraid anymore.

  Since he couldn't decide whether to run or stay, he chose the easiest thing.

  He didn't move, not even an inch.

  Ryan and Virginia crossed the room and slipped through the door. Ryan strained his eyes into the darkness, trying to see if anyone was outside waiting for them. Though it was beginning to get a lighter gray in the east, he still couldn't see well enough to recognize anything beyond rough shapes. If anyone was out there, he couldn't tell.