Ralph Compton Brother's Keeper

by Ralph Compton

  “That goes without sayin’, pard,” Crawford said.

  “I’m sayin’ it anyhow. See that she gets to her folks. I’m countin’ on you, Craw. I don’t need to say how much she means to me, do I?”

  Crawford shook his head.

  “Don’t talk like that,” Ursula chided.

  “It had to be said,” Jesse Lee replied. He still didn’t look her way.

  “I can look after myself,” Ursula said. “Give me a gun. I know how to use them.”

  “That’s not what it’s about.”

  “Don’t talk about something happening to you.” Ursula kept her voice level with an effort. “I don’t like it.”

  “No one can predict,” Jesse Lee said.

  Going over, Ursula clasped his hand to force him to face her. He did, reluctantly. She could see how moved he was. She swallowed to clear her throat. “We’re in this together. From now on, we’re in everything together.”

  “You’re more important.”

  “The blazes I am,” Ursula said. “You mean as much to me as I do to you. So, Crawford?”

  “Ma’am?” Crawford said uncertainly.

  “If he takes a bullet, you’re to forget about me and do what you can to get him to his horse and out of town alive. Do you hear me?”

  “Oh, Ursula,” Jesse Lee said.

  “Don’t ‘Oh, Ursula’ me,” Ursula said indignantly. “I won’t be treated differently than you.”

  “You have to be.”

  “Explain to me why.”

  “You’re female.”

  “Don’t give me that baggage. I didn’t take you for one of those men who lords it over his woman.”

  Jesse Lee seemed to choose his next words carefully. “Love ain’t lordin’. You’re right in that a man who puts his woman first is no different than a woman who puts her man first. But that’s the whole point. When you care for someone, you don’t want them hurt. You want to protect them. To do whatever it takes to keep them safe. So don’t be mad that I’m lookin’ out for you. It’s what comes naturally. I’d be less of a man if I didn’t. Hellfire, I’d be no man at all.”

  That was quite a speech for him, and Ursula was moved. “Just so you know I feel the same way.”

  They were ready when Thal’s next knock came.

  Ned, plainly nervous, nodded in greeting.

  The back stairs were narrow, and shadowed. At the bottom a small lamp cast a weak glow. The rear door didn’t see much use, and creaked when Thal pushed on it.

  “Careful,” Jesse Lee said.

  Thal looked at him questioningly.

  “They might be watchin’ the back too,”

  Nodding, Thal pushed more slowly. He poked his head out, looked both ways, and whispered, “The coast looks clear.”

  Ursula was grateful for the cool breeze that washed over her. She hadn’t realized she was sweating so much. They were in an alley strewn with old crates and other debris, and the reek was terrible. Jesse had hold of her hand, and she let him lead her. She jumped when a cat meowed and skittered off in fright.

  Her brother and the cowboys were somber and grim. All of them had their hands on their six-shooters.

  At the end of the alley, Thal stopped and again poked his head out.

  Ursula thought she heard something behind them. The cat, she reckoned, and looked over her shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat. Something had moved near the hotel, something much larger than a cat. It was there and it was gone. She thought it might be a trick of the feeble light and shadows. At least, she hoped it was.

  “I don’t see any of them,” Thal said. “We’ll turn left and go a couple of blocks and then make for the livery.”

  “That’s the long way around,” Ned said.

  “It’s the safe way,” Thal replied. “They’d expect us to make a beeline.”

  “What if Galt has someone watchin’ the livery too?” Ned said.

  “They won’t stop us,” Jesse Lee said.

  Ursula had never heard him sound so . . . hard. That he was prepared to kill to spirit her to safety should shock her, but it didn’t. The special deputies were bad men, and bad men deserved their just deserts. That she lumped Myles with the other assassins shocked her more. But the truth was the truth.

  They hurried down a side street. As late as it was, riders and people on foot were everywhere. Which was to be expected. The saloons and bawdy houses were open twenty-four hours a day. American City, Galt had boasted, never closed its doors to those with money to burn.

  Thankfully no one paid them any mind.

  Jesse Lee, Ursula noticed, put himself between her and the street, shielding her with his own body. She was so touched she could have kissed him.

  Crawford, who was in front of them and to one side, glanced back, and stopped. “Wait.”

  “What is it?” Thal asked.

  “I thought I saw someone come out of the alley.”

  “You did or you didn’t?” Ned said.

  “Keep goin’,” Jesse Lee said.

  Ned was looking all around them. “Why do I have the feelin’ that they’re closin’ in on us?”

  Thal gave him a sharp look. “Because you worry too much.”

  “What are you mad at me for?”

  Thal didn’t answer.

  Her own nerves jangling, Ursula wished their ordeal was over. She wanted out of American City. She wanted to be back in Kansas. She wanted a long, happy life with Jesse Lee. A home and children of their own. Two boys and two girls. She imagined holding a baby in her arms and rocking it to sleep.

  Jesse Lee stopped abruptly. “Hold it.”

  “What?” Thal said.

  “Craw was right. It’s the one they call Dyson. He’s back there. I caught a glimpse of him.”

  “I knew it,” Ned said.

  “If there’s him, there’s others,” Crawford said.

  Thal looked at Ursula. “Protect her, no matter what.”

  “Maybe they won’t try to stop us,” Ursula said. “Maybe they’re only wondering what we’re up to.”

  “Wishful thinkin’,” Ned said.

  “A man like Galt won’t take kindly to bein’ lied to or havin’ one of his deputies knocked out and trussed up,” Thal said.

  “He’ll take it personal,” Crawford said.

  “But none of that is reason enough to try and kill us,” Ursula said.

  That was when a revolver boomed.

  Chapter 34

  It came from behind them, the flash of the muzzle simultaneous with the blast.

  Ursula heard something buzz past her ear. It sounded like a hornet, and she realized she’d almost been shot.

  With a lightning flick of his hands, Jesse Lee let go of her and drew his Colt. Whirling, he fanned the hammer twice, his six-shooter bucking and thundering.

  From the vicinity of the alley came a bellow of pain. A muzzle flashed again, but the shot went wide.

  “That sounded like Bull!” Ned said.

  “Run!” Thal hollered. He fired at the alley too. “Get my sister out of here!”

  Jesse Lee grabbed Ursula’s wrist and did as her brother wanted, moving past the others, who fell in behind them.

  The man at the alley kept shooting. So did someone else, across the street from him.

  Ned and Crawford added to the din, backpedaling as they went.

  Ursula had never heard so many guns firing all at once. It was so loud her ears rang.

  Up and down the street, people were hunting cover. A few of the men cursed. A few of the women screamed.

  Ursula hunched over to make a smaller target. Everyone knew that in a gun battle, bystanders were just as likely to take a slug as those taking part. And a wound—however slight—could prove fatal if infection set in.

  In the midst o
f the confusion and panic, Jesse Lee came to a recessed doorway and pulled her into it. Letting go, he commenced to replacing the spent cartridges in his Colt.

  Thal, Ned, and Crawford joined them, her brother looking back the way they came. “I don’t think they’re after us just yet.”

  “None of us were hit,” Ned declared happily. “If that’s not luck, I don’t know what is.”

  “Reload,” Jesse Lee said.

  Thal groped at his belt. “If that one was Bull, how did he get loose?”

  “Who cares?” Crawford said. “He is, and now the entire bunch will be out for our blood.”

  “I think you hit him,” Thal said to Jesse Lee.

  “Bull will be madder than ever over that,” Ned said.

  Ursula wanted them to be quiet so she could listen for pursuit. At least two special deputies were out there, maybe more. “Once you’re ready, we run to the stable and don’t stop for anything.”

  “With you in the middle,” Jesse Lee said.

  “To shield me like you were doing earlier?” Ursula said. She should be grateful, but she wasn’t. “I don’t need special treatment.”

  “Yes,” Jesse Lee said, “you do.”

  “Don’t argue with him, sis,” Thal said.

  “We protect you at all costs, ma’am,” Crawford said. “All of us, together.”

  “That goes without sayin’,” Ned said.

  Ursula looked from one to the other, at their earnest, caring faces, and would have been overcome with emotion, but just then a commotion broke out up the street.

  Thal risked a look. “There’s two more comin’ from the other way. It’s that two-gun gent, Tiny, and the one they call Olivant.”

  “Four to four now,” Ned said.

  “With more on the way,” Jesse Lee said. “We can’t waste any more time. I’ll take the lead. The rest of you stick to my heels.”

  “Why you?” Thal said.

  “Because I can shoot.”

  No one disputed him.

  Ursula considered leaving her bag there, but it wasn’t that heavy. She could run with it without any problem.

  “Ready?” Jesse Lee said.

  The other three nodded.

  Jesse Lee sprang out. Almost immediately a six-gun boomed up the street and he answered in kind. From behind them came another shot, and Jesse spun and fanned his hammer. “Now!”

  Thal grabbed Ursula and practically pushed her into Jesse Lee’s back. Thal put himself on her right, Ned scampered around to her other side, and Crawford moved in behind her.

  “Go!” Thal cried. “Go! Go!”

  Jesse Lee moved out, not running, but striding quickly and purposefully, his Colt level at his waist.

  Most bystanders had scattered, but a few were still scurrying for cover. They included a man in a buckboard who was trying to turn it around, but his two-horse team balked.

  Another side street appeared. Jesse Lee had started past it when suddenly, half a block away, a second-floor window shattered, a rifle barrel was thrust out, and the rifle banged twice.

  Instantly Jesse Lee responded, and more glass shattered.

  “This way,” Thal said, propelling Ursula into the side street and over to the corner of a building that hid them from the rifleman.

  Ned and Crawford were quick to follow.

  Behind them a pistol banged. A split second later, up the street, so did another.

  “Jesse!” Ursula cried.

  Jesse Lee darted over to her and once again began to reload. “They have us boxed in.”

  “Then we go this way,” Thal said, gesturing down the new street.

  “It will take us back toward the hotel,” Ned said.

  “Can’t be helped,” Thal said, and gripped Ursula’s wrist. “You set, Jesse?”

  “Hold on,” Crawford said. “They know this town better than we do. No matter which way we go, they’ll cut us off.”

  “It’ll be cat and mouse,” Ned said, nodding, “with us the mice.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” Crawford said.

  The others looked at the older puncher.

  “If you’ve had a brainstorm, pard, we’re listenin’,” Jesse Lee said.

  “As soon as there are enough of them, they’ll close in on us,” Crawford predicted. “If we’re smart, we’ll find a spot to lie low for a while and throw them off our scent.”

  “In the middle of the city?” Ned said dubiously.

  “No, he’s right,” Jesse Lee said. “So far they’ve been cautious, but once they outnumber us, the kid gloves will be off.”

  “I’m against lyin’ low,” Ned said. “It’ll give them time to set up an ambush at the stable.”

  “They might already have,” Crawford said.

  Jesse Lee moved ahead of them up the new street, as he had done before. “Stay close.”

  “Lordy, I hate this,” Ned said.

  So did Ursula. Everything had happened so fast, it hadn’t really sunk in that Trevor Galt’s pack of gun sharks were trying to kill them. Now that she had a few moments to think, fear clawed at her. Through sheer force of will she swatted it down and steeled herself for come what may.

  Her protectors were looking every which way, never knowing where the next shot would come from.

  From the street they had vacated came shouts. The special deputies were yelling back and forth.

  Ursula caught some of it. They were wondering where she and the others had gotten to.

  “We need to find a place quick,” Ned urged.

  They passed a store. They passed a butcher’s. A freight office. All closed and dark.

  Not quite a block off was a saloon, its front window lit bright. From inside wafted the tinny notes of a piano, and merry laughter. If its patrons had heard the shots, they had gone on with their revels anyway.

  “How about the whiskey mill?” Ned said.

  “They’d find us easy, as lit up as it is,” Thal said.

  Jesse Lee stopped and turned. “Look what I found.”

  Between two of the buildings was an inky gap barely shoulder-wide.

  Ursula didn’t consider it much of a haven. “So?”

  “So in we go,” Jesse Lee said, and plunged into the blackness.

  “I hate this even more,” Ned said.

  Ursula didn’t like the feeling of being confined. She’d never liked cramped spaces. Not even being in a closet when she was little. A tingle of apprehension rippled down her spine, and she struggled to contain her fright. Thal still had hold of her, and she concentrated on his hand and not on the high walls that loomed so close.

  “How much farther?” Ned asked behind her.

  “Hush,” Thal said.

  Ursula had never realized how much Ned Leslie complained. Thank goodness she hadn’t been attracted to him. He was liable to be one of those husbands who carped about everything. Men liked to claim that only females griped a lot, but then, men claimed a lot of silly things.

  The darkness went from black to gray, and in another few steps they were out of the gap and in an alley.

  “Now what?” Ned said.

  Jesse Lee motioned toward the rear of the saloon. There was a door but no windows. Just past the door was an enormous pile of empty liquor bottles and other trash. Beyond the pile was a clear space.

  “We’ll rest there a bit,” Jesse Lee said.

  Ned muttered something, but he was the first to sink down with his back to the wall.

  “We’ll make it out, pard,” Thal assured him. “You’ll see.”

  Ursula was too worried to sit. She moved next to Jesse, who was staring toward the gap they’d come through. “Do you think they know we’re back here?” she whispered.

  “Not yet.”

  “You took awful chances out in the street,�
�� Ursula said. “Putting yourself in front of us.”

  “The others took chances too.”

  For my sake, Ursula almost said, but didn’t. She pressed her shoulder against his and put her hand on his sleeve. “I want you to know I’ll make you the best wife any man ever had.”

  “You pick a strange time to say a thing like that,” Jesse Lee said.

  Since the others were listening, Ursula changed the subject. “Have you always been like this?”

  “This how?”

  “So sure of yourself. So confident.”

  “A man has somethin’ to do, he does it,” Jesse Lee said. “I learned that from my pa.”

  More shouts reached them, this time from the street they’d just vacated:

  “Where did they get to?”

  “I lost sight of ’em.”

  “Keep lookin’. They can’t have gotten far.”

  “Good,” Jesse Lee said. “They don’t know where we are.”

  A troubling thought occurred to Ursula. “What if they rope others into helping them search? They’re deputies, aren’t they? They could have the whole town looking.”

  “I doubt it will come to that.”

  Ursula prayed it didn’t. Eight gun hands was one thing. An entire town, another.

  To her surprise, Jesse Lee suddenly faced her and put his left hand on her shoulder. “I should have said this at the hotel, but I didn’t. It was the best day of my life when you told me that you’d marry me. I wanted to whoop and holler and laugh, you mean so much to me. The days since, I keep wantin’ to pinch myself to see if I’m dreamin’. No matter what happens, remember that I care for you more than I’ve ever cared for anyone.”

  “What did you say to me a minute ago? You pick a strange time to say a thing like that.”

  “You deserved to know.”

  “Why here and now?”

  “The livery stable is four blocks away. That’s a far piece, with what we’re up against.”

  Fright clawed at Ursula’s insides, prompting her to say, “Are you suggesting you might not get there?”

  “I’ll try my best,” Jesse Lee said.

  It was rare for Ursula to curse. Her mother had impressed on her from an early age that ladies didn’t indulge in improper language. But she cursed now, with a vehemence that seemed to surprise Jesse Lee. “You damn well better.”