‘What are you doin’, man?’ Straw pleaded.
Edge finished writing the short message, folded the paper and left it on the counter, took out the eight hundred dollars from his shirt pocket and placed it on top. Then moved back to where he had left the Winchester, canted it to his shoulder and at last looked at Straw hanging helplessly from the wall bracket.
‘Just idle curiosity, Joe,’ he said wearily. ‘But I figure the people on the stage turned you loose or you made a run for it. You came by this place and saw the set-up. Ahead of the stage. It was fixed for me to be taken care of here and the stage pulled out. You had a run-in with the bunch of renegade Comanches and talked them out of killing you by telling them - ’
‘I was headin’ for Phoenix, man,’ Straw cut in eagerly. ‘They shot my horse out from under me. And they sure would’ve killed me. I had to think of somethin’, so I told them about the stage comin’ through. It was slaughter, man. Them double crossin’ Comanches been on the run from the army for days. Without nothin’ to eat. They just closed in on that stage and pumped lead into it. Killed everybody aboard.
‘When I saw you wasn’t aboard, I figured them people had left you out in the friggin’ desert. Then I wasn’t friggin’ thinkin’ about nothin’ except stayin’ alive again. On account of there was no grub on the stage and they was itchin’ to kill me for wastin’ their time. So I thought up the idea about hittin’ this place. You can’t blame me for that, man. Shit, if your life was on the friggin’ line, I bet you’d do anythin’ to save your neck.’
‘Obliged, Joe.’
He advanced on the half breed Comanche with the dead braves sprawled on the floor around his dangling form.
‘Edge, for God’s sake man! What you gonna do? What’s with the letter and the money?’ He swallowed hard. ‘You ain’t gonna . . . ?’
Edge moved an outstretched arm of one of the dead with the toe of his boot and came to a halt in front of Straw.
‘I never let a favor go unreturned, Joe. And always expect to be paid what I’m owed.’
Another sob burst from Straw’s trembling lips. ‘What about John Hackman? If I ain’t taken back to Crater and hung he got his for nothin’, man! And you ain’t no cold blooded killer!’
The green eyes in the Indian featured face under the red hair pleaded for mercy.
‘That was another feller, Joe. He’s dead now.’
‘What?’
‘I was a little confused myself,’ Edge said flatly. ‘Right up to the time when these Indians started in to kill you slow, Joe. And the feller I used to be got mad enough to bring me running in here with just a six-shooter. Up against six Comanches.’
‘Please, Edge?’ Straw groaned.
‘That’s who I am, Joe. And that’s who those people on the stage and the two fellers who ran this place took care of while I couldn’t help myself. And you got all of them killed. They won’t know I’m returning the favour, but I will.
‘And the eight hundred dollars on the counter over there is what you stole, less the thousand reward. The letter explains that to whoever finds you here, Joe. And asks that the eight hundred dollars be sent back to Crater. Along with word that you’re dead.’
Straw allowed the gaze of his tear filled eyes to fall to the corpse littered floor in front of him. And spoke venomously.
‘You’re the worst kind of bastard there is, man. You waited until these stinkin’ Indians had given me some of their kinda hell before you made your move, didn’t you? Got my hopes way up high that I was gonna be okay. Now you’re gonna finish me. I tell you what I wish, man. I wish you hadn’t come through that arch and given me hope!’
Now he raised his gaze to stare into the narrowed eyes of Edge.
‘It has to be me, Joe. Or I couldn’t return the favors or claim the reward. And look on the bright side.’ He drew the razor from the neck pouch and the sunlight danced on the honed blade.
‘Oh, dear God,’ Straw breathed, barely audible.
‘I can fix a flesh wound, Joe. The kind of bums you have, I can’t take care of. So it would be a painful ride up to Crater. Hurt you as much, maybe, as the Indians were hurting you. And then, at the end of it, you’d be hanged.’
The half breed Comanche injected an expression of depthless hatred into his eyes as he kept his gaze locked on Edge.
‘So do it, you bastard!’ he snarled. ‘Don’t try and tell me how friggin’ lucky I am, you Mex greaser. The worst kind of lousy friggin’ bas - ’
It caused Edge a great deal of pain to move his arm with such speed. Bringing it up from his side and then slashing it across. So that the razor fisted in his hand opened up a deep wound in the throat of Joe Straw. From an inch below the right ear to an identical point under the left one. He withdrew his hand with equal speed, so that none of the blood that gushed from the massive wound splashed him.
Straw jerked for stretched seconds while a series of choked sounds were forced up through the blood in his severed throat. Then he became totally limp.
Edge wiped the razor on the curly hair of the dead man and pushed it back into the neck pouch. Went toward the open doorway with the morning sunlight streaming through it. Where he halted on the threshold and, despite the pain without anguish that assaulted him, spread a cold grin across his bruised face as he turned for a final glance at the corpse sagging in the fireplace.
‘To you I was everything you said, Joe,’ he drawled softly. ‘But ain’t no denying that for awhile toward the end, you warmed to me.’
The EDGE series
by George G. Gilman available from Amazon.com:
EDGE 1: THE LONER
EDGE 2: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS AMERICAN
EDGE 3: APACHE DEATH
EDGE 4: KILLER’S BREED
EDGE 5: BLOOD ON SILVER
EDGE 6: THE BLUE, THE GREY AND THE RED
EDGE 7: CALIFORNIA KILLING
EDGE 8: SEVEN OUT OF HELL
EDGE 9: BLOODY SUMMER
EDGE 10: VENGEANCE IS BLACK
EDGE 11: SIOUX UPRISING
EDGE 12: THE BIGGEST BOUNTY
EDGE 13: A TOWN CALLED HATE
EDGE 14: THE BIG GOLD
EDGE 15: BLOOD RUN
EDGE 16: THE FINAL SHOT
EDGE 17: VENGEANCE VALLEY
EDGE 18: TEN TOMBSTONES TO TEXAS
EDGE 19: ASHES AND DUST
EDGE 20: SULLIVAN’S LAW
EDGE 21: RHAPSODY IN RED
EDGE 22: SLAUGHTER ROAD
EDGE 23: ECHOES OF WAR
EDGE 24: THE DAY DEMOCRACY DIED
EDGE 25: VIOLENCE TRAIL
EDGE 26: SAVAGE DAWN
EDGE 27: DEATH DRIVE
EDGE 28: EVEOFEVIL
EDGE 29: THE LIVING, THE DYING AND THE DEAD
EDGE 30: WAITING FOR A TRAIN
EDGE 31: THE GUILTY ONES
EDGE 32: THE FRIGHTENED GUN
EDGE 33: THE HATED
EDGE 34: A RIDE IN THE SUN
EDGE 35: DEATH DEAL
EDGE 36: TOWN ON TRIAL
EDGE 37: VENGEANCE AT VENTURA
EDGE 38: MASSACRE MISSION
EDGE MEETS ADAM STEELE: TWO OF A KIND
EDGE: The Prisoners Page 14