Blake nodded. “Much obliged, ma’am.”
“My pleasure,” the girl said and smoothed down her skirt. “What would you like for breakfast?”
Durant ordered rare steak and watched her move off. Her nicely rounded hips had an eye-catching sway. He smiled, remembering other women who could let a man know they were interested without saying a single word. At the doorway she slowed, glanced at him across her shoulder and smiled.
Bodie growled, “When you’re through oglin’ that woman, Durant, I want to talk to you.”
“Fire ahead, Bodie.”
Durant’s coolness brought a deeper frown to the river man’s brow. He checked out his men and saw that all were showing interest in his talk with Durant. He hooked his thumbs in his belt and leaned back.
“What’s Coulston want with you, Durant?”
“I don’t know.”
“To hell you don’t, mister! Look, I’ve been doin’ a hell of a lot of thinkin’ about you. I ain’t so damned sure, now that I’ve had a night’s rest and can think straight, that you ain’t in this mess right up to your ears. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence, like you claim, that had you link up with Doubell. Maybe you ain’t just a drifter ridin’ through like you said. There’s a woman involved and you strike me as a gent who has a real flair for women.”
Durant smiled bleakly at him. “You do me proud, Bodie. Anything else?”
“Yeah, plenty else. Doubell brought a woman to this town, a young one, a real looker. Then he cut out, but the woman’s still here. I figure she’s linked with him somehow. And you’re still here, too, so maybe you’ve got plans to sneak off with her and meet up with Doubell later. If that’s the case, then you better think again.”
Durant fingered his bottom lip and looked casually past Bodie. He understood and appreciated the man’s position, but he wanted no part of him or his troubles. As he saw it, he hadn’t done a single thing to contribute to Bodie’s woe.
He said, “Bodie, you’re on a wrong trail. Seems to me that you’re pretty good at that kind of thing.”
Bodie’s stare thinned. “Don’t sass me, Durant. I met your kind before ... easy going on the outside but underneath you’re about as rough as they come. What I want to know, right here and now, is your real connection with Doubell, and with Carter too for that matter. I also want to know where you stand with this damn woman. I ain’t leavin’ here till you tell me and you ain’t leavin’ either.”
Blake sat in thoughtful silence for a long time before he said slowly, and quietly, “Bodie, don’t crowd me. And don’t call me a liar. I told you what happened, and I don’t intend to tell it again. Now move off. You’re cluttering up my table.”
Bodie’s mouth came open a fraction. He licked his lips and his hands became fists. He was a big man, and fit. But, after looking long and searchingly at Blake Durant, he wasn’t sure if he could take him in a fight. Finally he got to his feet.
“All right,” Bodie said. “Everybody has his rights and this is your table. But get this, drifter, and don’t ever forget it. I’m gettin’ our gold back, somehow, and I don’t care how. Anybody who stands in my way or figures to buy in for a cut ... well, he’d best be ready to face lead. Do I make myself clear?”
“As clear as can be,” Durant said, and he watched Bodie walk away back to his own table.
A short time later the waitress brought Durant’s steak. It was a prime T-bone and there was rich gravy. As she put the large plate down before him, Bodie said sharply:
“What about us, damn it? We were here first.”
“Coming up,” the girl replied without looking Bodie’s way. She smiled shyly at Blake Durant and remained standing near him while he picked up his knife and fork. “Are you riding out, Mr. Durant?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet.”
Her eyes glistened and she placed a hand on her out-thrust hip. “I get through work at ten o’clock this morning. There isn’t anything at all to do in this town for somebody like me, Mr. Durant. And it’s hot enough for a swim, don’t you think? There’s a fine pool at the river and I have my own horse.”
Durant nodded. “It’s sure hot enough,” he agreed, and started to cut into the thick steak. The girl pulled her skirt straight and drew in a deep sigh before walking off. She passed Bodie and gave him a lift of her slender shoulders.
Blake Durant ate on in silence, wondering vaguely what it was Coulston wanted. When he was finished he put some money on the table in payment for the steak, then he added some change as a tip for the waitress. She leaned against the kitchen doorjamb, eyeing him curiously. Blake gave her a nod as he went past. He was almost to the door when he heard the scrape of a chair. He didn’t have to turn back to check; he knew it was Bodie.
As he strode along the boardwalk towards the jailhouse, he heard footsteps behind him. Again he paid no heed. He reached the jailhouse where Coulston sat at his desk waiting. Durant stopped in the doorway and lifted a hand to the wall.
“Wanted to see me, Sheriff?”
“Yeah, come in, Durant.” Coulston nodded at a chair near the desk.
But Durant remained in the doorway. “I’m heading out. Can you make it brief?”
Coulston’s face lifted and his look hardened just a little. But a moment later he nodded. “All right, why not? I just want to say that Doubell left town last night, heading north. He had a girl with him. Does that mean anything to you?”
Durant shook his head. “Should it?”
Coulston came to his feet, kneeing his chair away. He walked slowly across the room and went past Durant to the hitch rail. The lawman looked around. Reke Bodie stood on the boardwalk, leaning against an overhang post, an unlit cigarette dangling from his thin lips. Coulston shot a curious glance Durant’s way.
“What’s up with Bodie?”
“I don’t know. I guess he wants to be my shadow. What about Doubell, Sheriff?”
“Well, it’s funny. Y’see, before Doubell left with the girl, Carter rode out of town in a hurry, followin’ somebody. I guess he figured was Doubell. Then the Bodie outfit set after him and came back empty-handed. Carter ain’t come back.”
“So?” Durant said.
Coulston shrugged casually and gripped the rail. To Durant he looked like a man with a worry on his mind.
“So Carter’s gone a long way on a false trail,” the lawman said. “He ain’t gonna like that one little bit.”
“His worry,” Durant said.
Coulston turned, putting his broad back to the rail. His eyes gleamed with amusement. “Just the way I see it, Durant. Only, if Carter gets mean and comes back, I don’t reckon he’s gonna forget previous pieces of trouble. You leavin’ right away?”
“Yep.”
“What direction?”
Blake looked beyond the dusty town. “I’ll work it out as I go.”
“Try the north, drifter,” Coulston said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m askin’ you to. If your story is the truth, then it don’t matter where you go, does it?”
“Not much, as long as the trail is free of trouble-makers.”
“No such trail in the whole West, and you know it. That girl, so damn young and so damn beautiful. You must have spent some time with her, eh?”
“We hardly spoke a word to each other.”
Coulston appraised him. “No?”
“No.”
“Wouldn’t hurt you to have a girl like her,” Coulston said.
“Maybe not. But I reckon I’ve had my fill of Doubell. I’ve got the feeling that whatever trail he takes, trouble will blow up in somebody’s face. Well, I don’t see why I should be part of that. No future in it.”
“S’pose you’re right,” Coulston said quietly. “As I said before you’d be doing me a favor if you rode north.”
“Worried about Carter?” Durant asked.
“I admit I am, and figure I’m bein’ sensible. Carter isn’t a gentle man. Doubell is one thing, but the girl is anothe
r. With Bodie and his bunch around town, I’ve got to stay put. But I’ll tell you this—I’m gonna spend a lot of time worrying about that young woman. Now, Bodie insists Doubell has some gold of his. Carter figures Doubell has skipped out on him, which I reckon he damned well has, eh? All right, so Doubell has a heap of gold stashed away someplace and that young woman is either in with him or she’s just bein’ carried along with Doubell’s schemes. No matter about that. Thing is, Carter, won’t stop until he catches up with that thievin’ old jasper. Somebody should ride out, get hold of Doubell and bring him back to me. Then I can make him tell where he’s got that gold.”
Blake Durant said, “You asking me to go after them, Sheriff?”
“Got to be somebody, Durant. I’m thinkin’ of the girl mostly, but I’m givin’ Doubell some consideration, too. Sure, he’s a thievin’ jasper, but the way I see it Bodie will be satisfied to get his gold back. Not Carter. No, sir. He’ll kill and then I’ll have to go after him.” Coulston ran a moist hand over his troubled face. His stare suddenly hardened. “That won’t bother me as much as folks might think, but I’d rather keep that girl out of Carter’s way.”
Blake Durant let his gaze sweep over the town. This place meant nothing to him. Pete Doubell meant nothing. The girl, well, he wasn’t so sure. Carter? He blew out a sigh. Then, without another word to Ray Coulston, he walked to the livery, and saddled Sundown. When he reached the street’s end he set the big black’s head to the north and kneed him into a run.
Watching from outside the jailhouse, Ray Coulston breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then he turned back and saw Bodie making off towards the rooming house where his men were gathered, their horses bunched for riding.
Coulston called, “Bodie!”
Reke Bodie stopped dead in his tracks and turned. “Yeah?”
“I’d watch it if I was you. I wouldn’t tangle with Durant unless there was no other way.”
“Durant don’t worry me none,” Bodie said, but he didn’t sound completely convincing.
“He should. He tackled Vance Carter. Any man who does that is either gutsed up on drink, plain loco, or has ability enough to hold his ground.”
Bodie’s stare thinned and he looked uncomfortably at the big burly shape that was Ray Coulston.
“So?” he growled.
“Durant can hold his likker and he ain’t loco. I reckon the third possibility fits him fine.”
Bodie’s mouth twisted and an angry growl came from him. He went off with long strides, mingled with his outfit and sorted his horse from the group. Swinging into the saddle, he eyed the jailhouse and its lawman before he grated:
“We’ll ride north!”
He put his horse into a walk, went a dozen paces and then spurred it into a run. When he reached the end of the street he swung along the tracks left by Sundown.
Back on the boardwalk, the morning sun making him squint his eyes, was a grinning Ray Coulston. He looked south, the direction from which Vance Carter might appear at any minute, sour-bellied and eaten up with meanness. Coulston checked his gun and slid it back in the holster. Four men came up the boardwalk towards him, their faces grooved with concern.
One, Tim Haversham, asked, “Everything all right?”
“Guess so,” Coulston said. “Keep an eye out for a man riding a gray. Name’s Vance Carter. If he rides in, I want to know about it right away.”
Haversham nodded and walked off, motioning for the others to go their separate ways. The town grew quiet. Well, that was just how Sheriff Ray Coulston liked it. He entered the old jailhouse building, carried out a chair to the boardwalk and flopped onto it.
Seven – Trail for Fools
Christine Doubell drew rein in the shade of timber beside a shallow creek. The slow run of clear water over small rocks gave a peaceful sound to the area. Pete Doubell came out of the saddle and let his horse walk to water. His close-set eyes studied Christine gravely for a moment, and then, as he’d done every few minutes since reaching the timber, he shaded his eyes with his hand and stared back over the trail they had come. The night ride had wearied him more than he liked to admit. And he knew it had taken a lot out of Christine.
“Uncle Pete,” she said suddenly.
“Yeah, girl?”
Christine ran a hand over her face. Her head throbbed and a deep ache worked through her back.
“Why are we running, Uncle Pete? And from whom? What is it all about?”
“I told you, girl, and I don’t aim to keep repeatin’ myself.”
“I don’t think you’ve told me everything, Uncle Pete. It seems to me that you’re in bad trouble. Are you?”
Doubell mouthed a curse and knelt beside the creek. He cupped water in his hands and washed his face and neck before he bent to drink. Rising with water dripping from his straggled beard, he breathed a deep sigh.
“What I said before still stands, girl. Vance Carter wants to cut himself in on my gold. Well, I ain’t gonna let him do that. I worked too damn hard for that gold.”
“What about those other men?” she asked. “I mean, the ones who followed Mr. Carter out of town.”
Doubell was a picture of innocence. “Them?” he said. “Hell, how should I know? Maybe they’re after Carter. Who cares? Hap dragged Carter off my back and now we got an open trail all the way to the prairie country. Beyond that is a town called Lusc. I got friends there and I got good contacts, too. We’ll buy a place and settle down and maybe in a month or so I’ll go back for Hap and bring him down to stay with us. Old Hap, he ain’t got all that much livin’ left in him and I don’t want him to spend the rest of his time on his own. You’ll see, in a month or so you won’t have nothin’ to worry about.”
Christine regarded him doubtfully. “Did you steal that gold, Uncle Pete?”
The old-timer’s head lifted with a jerk. His stare hardened. “What’s that, girl? Steal? Did I hear you say steal?”
“Yes, that’s what I said, Uncle Pete. Did you steal that gold? Is that why all those men are after you?”
Doubell turned away, scowling. Damn this girl and damn everybody else! He felt as if the whole country was closing in on him. Now he regretted having brought Christine along. His brother Ben had brought her up all wrong. She asked too many damn questions. He bit back his urge to bark at her, to silence her once and for all. Instead, he turned to her, smiling, a world of sincerity in his deep-set gray eyes.
“Those people are the scum of the earth, girl. They drift along doing just about nothin’ to help themselves. They scavenge around lookin’ for easy takin’s. How it happened was, they got wind of my big haul and then they figured to deal themselves in. If we was back in that one-horse town right now, I’d take you to Sheriff Ray Coulston and have him explain things better to you. But we ain’t there, are we, so you just have to trust your old Uncle Pete and stop worryin’ yourself sick. Okay?”
Christine bit her lip, still unconvinced. “Why did we leave Mr. Durant behind at the cabin, Uncle Pete? If he just met up with you along the trail, then why did we take his horse and leave him to fend for himself, miles from nowhere? If his horse didn’t break away and run back to him, only heaven knows what ...”
“His horse didn’t break away,” Doubell said. “What are you talkin’ about? I cut that horse free. You think I’d leave a man alone in that kind of country with no means to get out? Hell, girl, a man could get lost out there. He could die and never be heard of again. If you think for one minute that I’m a ...”
“You didn’t cut the rope on the horse’s neck, Uncle Pete. I saw the horse break clear. You were as worried as Mr. Carter about it running off.”
Doubell pushed a hand wearily across his weathered face.
“I cut the rope earlier, girl, three-quarters through. Didn’t want to upset that scum Carter. Hell, girl, don’t keep naggin’ at me. Everything I did was aimed at protectin’ you. I seen the way Carter looked at you.”
Color rose in Christine’s face. But she raised her jaw and her
eyes hardened. “I can handle the likes of Mr. Carter, Uncle. I’m not as weak as you might think.”
Doubell dropped his hand and studied his niece with surprise. After a moment he said quietly, “Well, maybe you’ve got your share of gumption, but this is the frontier, girl, and it’s a whole lot different to what you been used to. Now just tag along and leave me be so I can work things out for us. I don’t reckon we’ll be followed unless that lawman guesses right about which way we’re headed. Damn him, if he causes trouble ...”
“You said he was a friend of yours, Uncle Pete,” Christine cut in sharply. She was still sitting on her horse, holding it back from the creek water. But now the horse stepped forward, making Doubell shift to the side. Christine came out of the saddle. “You did say he was a friend, Uncle.”
“Friend? Hell, I guess all lawmen are friends of mine. They got no reason to be otherwise, girl. But Coulston, well, he just ain’t a good thinker at times. He gets himself a clean town and he says to hell with everybody else.” Doubell paused. “Look. You rest up awhile. I’m gonna go and see if anybody’s trailin’ us. If they ain’t, we can go on slower, take our time.”
Doubell dropped the reins of his horse and walked back up the slope. Christine watched him curiously. She had not been able to get the big stranger, Blake Durant, out of her mind. Somehow she felt that Durant held the key to this puzzling business. Unarmed, he had shown a fiery spirit against Carter and her uncle that stamped him a man.
Pete Doubell had dropped down on his stomach with only his eyes and forehead showing over the rim of a boulder on the slope. Christine wondered about her uncle as she washed her face. She was positive now that he was up to something not quite honest, but she could see no way to make him reveal the truth. When he returned, she had decided to let the matter rest for the time being. In Lusc, she could make further enquiries about him and then she could make up her own mind what to do. Since coming West to stay with him, she had known a deep loneliness worse than any she had experienced. Only the arrival of Blake Durant, silent and solemn, had given her any hope that on the frontier there was a place for her ... and perhaps a good man.
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