by Jake Logan
The gun misfired and jammed.
He threw it at Cordwainer, who jerked his head out of the way.
Slocum’s right hand went to his belt and slid inside his pants. He pulled out the belly gun, cocked it just as Cordwainer was raising his pistol to cock it and fire at Slocum.
A cloud passed over Cordwainer’s eyes as he realized he wasn’t going to get off a shot.
Slocum squeezed the trigger. The barrel of the Remington belly gun exploded in flame and smoke.
The .38 projectile smashed into Cordwainer’s chest. He gasped in pain and blood spurted from the black hole. Whitish lung matter leaked through the wound.
“Bastard,” Cordwainer muttered. Blood bubbled out of his mouth and his gun hand dropped with a thud as the barrel struck the floor.
“So long, Cordwainer,” Slocum said as he stepped over to the man and put the barrel of the .38 square at a spot just below Cordwainer’s hairline.
He squeezed the trigger and the clouds over Cordwainer’s eyes glazed over into a frosty pallor. He fell back, stone dead.
Ruben Vallejo and Elisando Gonzalez entered the cabin. They carried rifles and looked ready to fire.
“It’s all over,” Wally told them.
They both grinned. Abby ran to her brother and embraced him.
“You do not come to the mine,” Ruben said. “So we go to your cabin to look for you. We see your horse is gone and we see the tracks. We see many tracks and we follow them.”
“Yes,” said Gonzalez. “We follow the tracks and we know where they go. We see your horse and Miss Abby’s outside and we shoot the lookout.”
The two Mexicans looked around the room in amazement.
“We see your pistols in their holsters outside,” Ruben said. “We will get them for you.”
The two men left the room and went outside.
Slocum walked over to the table and picked up the document Wally had drawn. He handed it to Wally.
“You might want to use this to start a fire in your fireplace tonight,” he said.
Wally laughed, crumpled up the paper, and crammed it into a back pocket.
Abby went to Slocum and put her arms around him. She stood up on tiptoes and kissed him on the lips.
“Oh, Johnnie,” she whispered, “I love you so much.”
Slocum said not a word, but he kissed her hard and squeezed her even harder against him.
Later, when word got around town that Cordwainer was dead, the constable, along with Cory Windom and Joe Creek, lit a shuck for parts unknown.
Wally had no opposition when he ran for the office of constable and won.
Slocum, as was his custom, drifted away, back down through Jackrabbit Valley.
It was said that Ruby Dawson pined for him so much that she took to drinking and one day she did not wake up, but had died in her sleep.
Wally never did find the mother lode.
But neither did anyone else in Halcyon Valley.
Watch for
SLOCUM AND THE TEXAS TWISTER
404th novel in the exciting SLOCUM series
from Jove
Coming in October!