by Alan Irwin
‘It sounds pretty good to me,’ she said, ‘and a lot better than being a lawman’s wife. I was thinking that maybe that’s what you wanted to do. We’ll talk more about it when you get back from Amarillo.’
It was now dark outside, and a little later Will left Anne and went to his hotel room for a short rest before relieving Roy at midnight. Anne went up to her bedroom at the rear of the house shortly after ten o’clock. Her brother normally slept in a room immediately below hers, on the ground floor. Happy after her talk with Will, she remained awake for a short while, thinking about the forthcoming wedding, then drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Half an hour after Will relieved Roy outside the stable, which was some way from the doctor’s house, Brent and Wilson rode up to the remains of an old abandoned shack just outside town, and tethered their horses. Then they walked behind the buildings to the rear of the doctor’s house, which was in darkness. Wilson pointed out the flimsy back door he had noticed earlier in the day. Brent threw his weight against it, and at his second attempt the lock broke and the door swung open. They went inside and, with the help of matches, they collected three oil lamps on the ground floor. They went into the living-room, and sat down near the foot of the stairs leading to Anne’s bedroom.
Upstairs, Anne stirred in her sleep at the first impact of Brent’s body on the door. Then, as the door was forced open, she was instantly awake. She heard the sounds of movements down below. Quietly, she left her room, and walked halfway down the stairs. There was no light down below, and she could hear two men talking. The voices were not familiar, and she was sure that the intruders must be there with criminal intent. She moved a little further down to see if she could hear what was being said. Then she heard a man speak, close to the foot of the stairs.
‘Hand me some matches, Luke,’ he said, ‘and I’ll take a look round upstairs.’
One of the men, thought Anne, with rising panic, could be Luke Brent, the murderer of Will’s brother, though she could not understand why they had broken into the house. Hastily, she returned to her bedroom, tidied the bedclothes, and stepped inside a large wardrobe. She had barely closed the door behind her when Wilson entered the room, struck another match, and walked round it before going downstairs. She decided to stay where she was until she could be sure that the intruders had left. She sat down sideways inside the wardrobe, straining her ears for any sounds from below.
Brent and Wilson poured the oil from the lamps around the floors of the living-room and kitchen, then ignited it. Their intention was to go and wait behind the stable until the burning house had drawn everyone’s attention. Then they would deal with the two rangers.
Will, who happened at the time to be walking along the side of the stable remote from the doctor’s house, towards the rear, heard the faint sound as Brent’s foot struck a stone embedded in the ground, and he stumbled, cursed, and almost fell. Will moved to the corner, drawing his Peacemaker. Looking round it, he could see two figures approaching. As he challenged them they both opened fire. Will hit Wilson with his first shot, and the gambler went down. Will drew back as a bullet from Brent’s gun hit the wall close to his head. Brent turned, crouched down, and ran off into the darkness towards his horse. When Will risked another look round the corner, the outlaw was not in sight.
Will ran up to the man lying on the ground and picked up his gun. Then he checked him over, to find that he was dead. He started back to speak to the ranger on guard inside the stable. Parton had come to the main entrance on hearing the shots outside, and Will called out to him as he approached. He told him and Ranger Rooney what had happened, then went back and dragged Wilson inside the stable. Parton lit a lamp, and the three men looked at the dead man’s face. They were joined by Mason, who had heard the shooting.
‘He’s a stranger to me,’ said Will, and the others all said that the man was unknown to them.
‘I’m wondering who it is that got away,’ said Will. ‘He’ll be long gone by now.’
Suddenly, they heard the sound of running feet on the street outside, and the hotel owner appeared in the doorway.
‘It’s the doc’s house,’ he shouted. ‘It’s on fire. We need every man we can get. And I ain’t seen the doc’s sister. I don’t know whether she’s inside or not.’
Mason and the hotel owner ran off to rouse as many men as possible to fight the fire. Will, desperately concerned about Anne’s safety, ran as fast as he could to the burning house. As he approached he could see the flames rising inside. There was no sign of Anne. He ran to the front door. It was stoutly built, and firmly locked. He ran round to the back, and found the rear door open. The fire had taken a firm hold, and flames and dense smoke were rising inside. With his bandanna tied over his nose and mouth, Will ran through the door into the burning building.
In the wardrobe inside her bedroom, Anne had heard the two men moving about as they scattered the oil. But she was unaware of the fire which had been started down below until the smoke came billowing up the stairs through the open door of her bedroom and seeped into the wardrobe. She started to cough, then stood up, pushed the wardrobe door open, and stepped out. The smoke was dense, and before she could make a move in an effort to escape from the building, she collapsed on the floor in a paroxysm of coughing.
At this moment Will ran up the stairs and into the bedroom. Guided by the sound of her coughing, he found Anne on the floor. He judged that if he moved quickly there was still time to get her out of the building by way of the stairs. He took a blanket off the bed and wrapped it completely around her. He draped another one over his head, picked Anne up and moved quickly down the stairs and out of the house.
Moving well away from the burning building, he laid Anne on the ground and threw the two smouldering blankets aside. She continued coughing for a while, as a number of townspeople ran up and started to follow a previously rehearsed plan for dealing with building fires.
When the fit of coughing had subsided, and Anne was breathing easier, Mason’s wife came up and insisted that she be taken to her place to recover. Will carried her to the liveryman’s house, and up to a bedroom. Then, at Anne’s suggestion, he ran back to help fight the fire.
When Will reached the burning house he found the fire well under control, and it was not long before the flames were extinguished. There was some damage to furniture and flooring downstairs, and to the lower half of the stairs. But the upper floor was mot affected, and fortunately, the annexe which the doctor used for seeing patients and keeping his medicines and files, had remained unscathed. Will took the good news back to Anne.
The following morning Anne was feeling much better when Will called after breakfast to see her. While he was there Ranger Parton came in to see him.
‘There’s no need for you to ride with us to Amarillo to help guard the prisoners,’ he said. ‘A ranger has just rode in on his way back there. He’ll go along with us and your friend Roy Dillon. But you’ll be needed at the trial. That’s likely to be pretty soon. We’ll let you know the date by telegraph. We’ll be leaving shortly.’
Will left with Parton to see Roy and thank him before he left.
‘We’re expecting you for the wedding,’ he said.
By the afternoon of the following day, when her brother returned, Anne, who had suffered no burns, was almost back to normal. When he had recovered from the shock of seeing the damage to the house, she told him of the wedding plans. He was genuinely happy for her, and wished them both well.
The following day Andrew, with the help of Will and some of the townsfolk, started work on the house to make it habitable. By the end of the day after that the doctor and his sister were able to move back in.
The following morning, Will went to see Anne.
‘So long as I’m here,’ he said, ‘I’ll ride out with you if you need to visit one of the homesteads. But after all that’s been happening around here, I’m worried about you driving out of town alone while I’m away at the trial. I got this at the store, an
d I’d like you to carry it if you leave town.’
He showed her a Colt .41 pocket revolver with a 2¼-inch barrel.
‘That skirt you wear when you go out in the buggy,’ he said. ‘Maybe you could fix a small pocket in that to hide this in. And I could take you out and spend an hour or two today showing you how to use it. I sure would be a lot happier if I knew you were wearing it.’
‘In that case,’ said Anne, ‘let’s do it. I’ll sew the pocket in today.’
The following morning a settler called Nelson came to the doctor’s house. He told how his wife had a badly twisted ankle which prevented her from walking. He asked if the doctor would call and see her. Andrew had several other patients to attend to that day and he asked Anne if she could go to the Nelson homestead with some special bandaging, and take a look at the injury for him. Anne told Nelson that she and Will would drive out to the homestead in the buggy two or three hours later.
When Luke Brent fled from the rear of the livery stable in Laringo, he collected his horse, and rode out to a grove of trees where he had been hiding. His initial impulse had been to flee the area immediately, but then he decided that before he left he must rid himself once and for all of the man who had been responsible for the defeat of his father and himself in Wyoming, and who now, he suspected, was bent on his capture. He laid low in the grove for the next two days. Then he decided to try and find out, with minimum risk to himself, what was going on in Laringo.
He had noticed a solitary homestead, not far from where he was hiding, and decided to pay it a visit. When he reached it, he dismounted and knocked on the door. It was opened by Nelson. He asked him for directions to Laringo, adding that he was looking for a friend of his called Will Drummond.
‘Well I’m darned,’ said Nelson. ‘If you wait here an hour or so, he’ll be turning up with the doctor’s sister. Did you know he was fixing to marry her?’
Brent shook his head, and the homesteader invited him inside to meet his wife, who was sitting in the living-room. Then he gave him all the news about Will’s involvement in the capture of the Curtis gang, and the intention of the couple to marry after the trial.
‘That’s mighty interesting,’ said Brent, and drew his revolver. ‘It so happens I have a score to settle with Drummond, and I don’t want you two interfering when he turns up.’
Keeping them covered, he opened a door at the back of the room and looked inside. It was a small storeroom, with no weapons visible. He ordered Nelson and his wife, supported by her husband, inside.
‘Either of you make a noise,’ he said, ‘and I’ll kill the two of you.’
He closed the door, and dragged a heavy chest in front of it. Then he led his horse into the barn, and returned to the house, where he sat at a window, awaiting the arrival of Will and his companion. Just under an hour had passed before he saw them approaching. He drew back and watched as they climbed down from the buggy, and walked up to the door together, When Anne knocked on the door he opened it, but kept behind it as he pulled it towards him.
As Anne stepped inside, Brent grabbed her arm and held his pistol against her head. She froze. Will, shocked to see Brent, and aware of the danger to Anne, also stayed motionless. The outlaw ordered Will to drop his six-gun on the floor. He checked him for additional weapons, then ordered them to sit on the floor, side by side, with their backs to the wall. Anne was sitting with Will on her left. Brent pulled up a chair and sat down facing them.
‘Time for a talk,’ he said. ‘I’m curious about why you’ve been chasing me like this, Drummond,’ said the outlaw. ‘Maybe you’d like to tell me the reason.’
‘Why not,’ said Will. ‘You tortured and murdered my brother Clint when he was a lawman in Kansas.’
‘So that’s it,’ said Brent. ‘I hadn’t figured you were his brother. Don’t remember a lot about it. You’ve got to understand I don’t like lawmen. Any chance to get rid of one, I take. As for you two, I aim to shoot you right here and now, Drummond. The lady can stay alive for another half-hour. That should be long enough.’
Anne was wearing the full skirt into which, being left-handed, she had sewn, on the left side, the pocket for the small revolver. She had told Will that she was taking it along to get some more practice on the way back. On sitting down she pulled her skirt sideways so as to cover Will’s right hand, as well as her left one. While Brent was talking, she was surreptitiously manoeuvring the small revolver out of the pocket in her skirt.
As the outlaw finished speaking, she slipped the pistol into Will’s hand. He coughed to drown the sound as he pulled the hammer back. Just as he had done this, Brent pointed his six-gun at Will’s head and started to pull the hammer back with his thumb. But before he had finished the movement, Will brought his pistol into view and shot the outlaw in the head, instantly killing him. Brent fell off the chair onto the floor as Anne and Will rose to their feet.
Will, who had noticed the chest against the door, moved it away so that the couple in the storeroom could come out. Then, while Anne tended to Mrs Nelson, her husband and Will took the dead outlaw into the barn. On returning to Laringo, Will arranged for the body to be picked up.
Will attended the trial two days later. Curtis and his men were all sentenced to be hanged. Frost was given a long prison sentence.
Two weeks later Will and Anne were married, and two days after that they left Laringo for the valley in Wyoming where Will had so soundly thwarted the evil plans of Eli Brent, aided by his son Luke. There, among friends, they set up a small cattle ranch, and started to raise a family.
By the Same Author
Billy Dare
Bodie
The Long Trail
The Trouble Hunter
Danger Valley
Showdown at Deadman’s Gulch
Branagan’s Law
Law of the Noose
Marshal of Borado
Valley of Fear
Buzzards in the Sky
The Man from Dodge
Brady’s Revenge
Trail Dust
The Range Robber
Trail of the Killer
Raiders of the Panhandle
Law of the Frontier
Ringo’s Revenge
Panhandle Drifter
The Vengeance Riders
The Brannigan Boys
The Vengeance of Vickery
Quigley’s Quest
The Long Search
The Laredo Gang
The Long Chase
Copyright
© Alan Irwin 2008
First published in Great Britain 2008
This edition 2011
ISBN 978 0 7090 9619 1 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9620 7 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9621 4 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7090 8641 3 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of Alan Irwin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988