Sudden Troubleshooter

by Frederick H. Christian

  ‘I got to hand it to yu, Tom. Yu shore got it worked out sweet. Yu want me anymore?’

  ‘No. Get on with it. An’ remember – don’t fail me.’ The words were quietly spoken, but the threat behind them did not fail to register upon the burly Saber foreman.

  ‘Hell, I got as much to lose as yu,’ he protested. ‘I’ll take care of things real smooth. Don’t yu fret none.’

  In a moment the two men heard him clamber aboard the wagon, and through the window saw the Saber man hazing the team off down the trail towards the river. Appleby whirled to confront Randy Gunnison.

  ‘Yu better pray we pull this off,’ he gritted. ‘If anythin’ goes wrong yu’ll – regret it.’

  ‘It’ll be all right, Tom,’ Randy said, smiling fawningly.

  ‘It might even speed things up. That isn’t too bad, is it?’

  ‘Wait an’ see,’ the Marshal told him coldly. ‘I got other worries.’ Randy looked his question, and Appleby exclaimed impatiently, ‘Gawd, yo’re stupid! If Lafe Gunnison could start wonderin’ who brought Wes Cameron into Yavapai, yu think that Green feller won’t have had the same question stuck in his craw? We can damn shore assume he knows Harris ain’t responsible, an’ if it occurs to him that mebbe Lafe didn’t bring Wes in neither he won’t take long to put two an’ two together.’

  Randy’s expression grew apprehensive once more.

  ‘Yu mean – Cameron might talk?’

  ‘He might,’ was the meaningful reply. ‘I reckon I’d better make shore he don’t.’ His words put a shiver down the listener’s spine.

  ‘I thought you said Cameron was under control? If he were to talk …’ Randy Gunnison’s face was drawn with fear at the prospect, and Appleby laughed savagely.

  ‘If yo’re so worried, why don’t yu ride in to Yavapai an’ fix it so he can’t?’

  ‘You’re not serious, Tom. I couldn’t’

  ‘Damn right, yu couldn’t, yu spineless jellyfish!’ snapped Tom Appleby. ‘An’ don’t yu forget it. Cameron’ll be – taken care of.’ His face was malignant, lit with evil. ‘In case yu ever think o’ steppin’ out o’ line, remember this: yu ain’t indispensable any more. Lafe Gunnison is dead. Saber is mine. Yu jest cancelled yore life insurance.’

  Randy Gunnison looked at the lawman with eyes as empty as ice in a bucket. The dreadful realization of the power which the lawman had over him came all the more shockingly as the words struck home. It was true. Now that his father was dead, Appleby had no more need of him … unless …

  ‘Yu’d better wait until you’re sure your scheme has worked, Tom,’ he said, as firmly as he dared.

  Appleby eyed him with contempt, only a faint curiosity in his voice as he said, ‘Is that so?’

  ‘You may need the Saber yet. If you have to get the nesters out of the Mesquites by force, Saber riders will have to do it. And you’ll need me to tell them to do it.’

  Appleby’s expression changed, and a warm smile appeared on his face.

  ‘Hell, Randy,’ he said, clapping him on the shoulder, ‘I guess I spoke out o’ turn, at that! You orta know I’m strung up a mite over this business. Hell, yu’re a big part o’ my plans. Yu an’ me an’ Jim, we’re in this together.’

  Completely deceived by this complete change of mood, Randy Gunnison warmed once more to the man who so completely controlled his destiny.

  ‘By God, Tom,’ he enthused, ‘I can’t wait till we get that money and I can leave this rotten valley! I only wish we didn’t have to wait. I’d go tomorrow if I could!’

  ‘Don’t yu fret none,’ Appleby assured him. ‘When we take the pot, I am to make shore yu get yores first.’

  And so besotted by the thought of the money earned by falsehood, betrayal, and murder was Randolph Gunnison that he completely missed the possible double meaning of the lawman’s final words.

  Chapter Twenty

  THE MORNING following Sudden’s return from Yavapai was a gloomy one at the Harris ranch. The puncher had related in brief phrases the events of the preceding night, and while the death of Cameron had been discussed only as a matter of grim satisfaction, the further blow of Gunnison’s disappearance brought concern to the brows of Sudden’s listeners.

  ‘Dammit, but that’s bad news, Jim!’ exclaimed Harris. ‘Who d’yu reckon could be behind such a thing?’

  Sudden told him of the remarks Appleby had made, and the old homesteader burst out, ‘But that’s damnable! Yu mean he accused yu o’ bein’ implicated?’

  ‘Let’s say he didn’t mention anyone else by name, an’ leave it at that,’ the puncher responded. ‘I would’a’ said that yore Marshal was keener on stirrin’ up trouble than he is on dampin’ it down.’

  ‘Oh, Jim, I can’t believe that Appleby’s serious,’ interposed Taylor. ‘You’re likely misreadin’ what he said.’

  ‘Mebbe,’ Sudden said non-committally. ‘I wish he’d ‘a’ held fire on Cameron, though. I wanted a long talk with that jasper.’

  ‘Yu think he might o’ talked?’

  ‘We’ll never know now,’ rejoined Sudden quietly.

  They turned in early, and in the morning rose to the unhappy task of burying their dead neighbors. During Sudden’s absence two graves had been dug on a grassy knoll a little distance from the Harris house, and the homesteaders stood bare-headed beside the graves as the Virginian and his friend were lowered into the earth. Alex Taylor read a passage from the Bible, and they returned to a silent breakfast.

  The sound of approaching horses dispelled their lethargy and within moments they were at their posts by window and door, guns at the ready. They saw Tom Appleby lead a group of about twenty men into the yard. The lawman hailed the house. Taylor pointed out the presence of Randy Gunnison among the riders, as Harris lifted the bar of the door and stepped out into the open. He cradled his shotgun across his burly forearm and faced the lawman.

  Inside the house a quick word from Sudden had sent Shorty scurrying to hide in the bedroom. The tall puncher quickly told the others to keep the little miner’s presence a secret should anyone enter the house; he had his own reasons for not letting anyone from Yavapai see Shorty – yet. Taylor and Kitson caught his drift immediately.

  ‘If what he says about Randy Gunnison is true, the more he keeps outa sight the better his health’ll stay,’ Kitson remarked grimly.

  Jake Harris spoke to Appleby.

  ‘Marshal,’ he began. His voice was quite neutral. ‘What is this?’

  Behind him Sudden moved into the doorway, where he leaned almost negligently against the door-frame. Only a close watcher would have noticed that at no time were his hands further than a few inches away from the black butts of his holstered revolvers.

  ‘A posse, all sworn in an’ legal!’ was Appleby’s clarion reply to the homesteader’s question. ‘So tell yore men to lay down their guns, Jake. Any trouble an’ it’ll go hard with yu men.’

  Harris made no move to comply with the lawman’s command, and Appleby flushed slightly.

  ‘Yore man there tell yu it looked like Lafe Gunnison’s been murdered?’ he demanded harshly.

  Harris nodded. ‘He told us. I guess we was shocked. I don’t reckon any of us was upset. An’ it don’t tell me what yo’re doin’ ridin’ up here with twenty men.’

  ‘I’m doin’ what has to be done,’ said Appleby, harshly. ‘I got to ask yu some questions. We been lookin’ around in the hills since sunup. We found some bloodstains, an’ Lafe Gunnison’s forty-five, with a shot fired. Ground churned up some, but no tracks we could foller.’

  ‘Yu ain’t found his body?’

  ‘No sign of it. If he was bushwhacked, which I figger he must’a’ been, the killer could’ve hidden the body somewhere that’d take us a month to find. It looks pretty bad to me.’

  ‘Jim told me Lafe was ridin’ up here to see me, accordin’ to young Gunnison, there.’

  ‘That’s what he told me, Harris!’ came Randy Gunnison’s spiteful voice.

  ‘Wal, he nev
er arrove,’ said Jake finally. ‘There’s plenty o’ men here to back what I say.’

  Appleby nodded. ‘Never thought he did,’ he said. ‘I figger he got no further than where we found the blood. My guess is he ran into someone who mebbe argued with him about somethin’. There was a fight; Lafe got a shot in afore the killer dropped him.'

  ‘Who would’a’ wanted to kill Gunnison?’ asked Harris. ‘I swear!’

  ‘Don’t make any difference what you swear, Harris,’ cut in Randy Gunnison. ‘You could deny it on a Bible, but everyone in this valley knows you would have been glad to see my father dead, and so would your nester friends!’

  Appleby half turned in his saddle.

  ‘Watch yore lip, Randy!’ he said, an edge in his voice. The rancher’s son bit his lip and relapsed into sullen silence. The Marshal turned again to face Harris.

  ‘Jake, things look bad up here. I know I upset yore gal the last time I was here, but right now I got a job to do, an’ I got to tell yu: things look bad for yu.’

  ‘For me? What do yu mean, for me?’ roared the old man. ‘I ain’t seen Gunnison in a coon’s age!’

  ‘Can yu account for yore friends between, say, nine an’ eleven yestiddy mornin’?’ He saw the old man’s mouth set in a thin line, and held up a hand, Indian peace-sign fashion. ‘Jake, don’t get sore. I’m on’y askin’ what I got to ask.’

  His voice was reasonable, and the old homesteader nodded.

  I suppose yo’re right,’ he growled. ‘Well, let me see. I was in the house all mornin’. Susie an’ the boy could tell yu that.’

  ‘By the same token, that lets them out,’ nodded Appleby. ‘Go on.’

  ‘Alex an’ Terry was over at the Lazy K, feedin’ the stock. They left about mid-mornin’ – mebbe eleven.’

  ‘Times don’t fit,’ Appleby encouraged him. ‘That lets them out. Gunnison was killed up near the trail to Yavapai.’

  ‘Alex’s boys is over on their own range. I misdoubt they went huntin’ a man they didn’t know was comin’ here.’

  Appleby nodded, his eyes resting on the lounging figure behind Harris. ‘An’ yore man Green?’

  ‘I was on my way into town,’ Green answered quietly.

  A mutter issued from the possemen. Green’s answer placed him squarely in the area in which Gunnison had been murdered, and at approximately the right time.

  ‘So yu could’ve met Gunnison up in the Mesquites?’

  ‘I could’ve. But I didn’t. I didn’t even set eyes on Gunnison,’ Sudden told Appleby.

  ‘Hell, you could’a’ done,’ interrupted one of the posse-men. ‘Seems mighty strange yore ridin’ into town an’ takin’ on that Cameron hombre the same day Gunnison is killed,’ added another.

  An unholy gleam of triumph lit Appleby’s eyes. One of the townsmen, quite unwittingly, had given him the lead he needed, the key with which he could turn the lock of the resistance of the homesteaders. He managed to suppress his exulting feelings and asked Sudden, ‘What time yu get to town yestiddy?’

  ‘Aroun’ two,’ replied the puncher laconically. His mind was not idle; he was well aware of what the lawman was leading up to, and he thanked his stars that he had taken the precautionary steps that he already had.

  ‘An yu left here…?’

  ‘Around eight.’

  ‘What took yu so long?’ pounced Appleby. ‘It’s on’y about three hours to town.’

  ‘I made a detour,’ explained Sudden. ‘Took a look at the Johnstone an’ Newley spreads to make shore things was okay over there.’

  ‘Anyone see yu?’ demanded one of the posse.

  Sudden shook his head.

  ‘So we on’y got yore word for it,’ gloated Appleby. ‘At least an hour, mebbe two, missin’. Plenty o’ time to have met Gunnison an’ killed him.’

  ‘Now hold on there, Tom,’ protested Harris. ‘Jim here had no reason to kill Lafe Gunnison!’

  ‘I can give yu one,’ hissed the Marshal. ‘Randy had a sneakin’ suspicion that Lafe brought this Cameron feller into Yavapai to drive yu an’ yore neighbors out o’ the Mesquites. I’m bettin’ we’ll find somethin’ to prove it, too.’

  ‘No bet,’ said Sudden coldly. ‘I’d guess it was goin’ to be a shore thing.’ His sardonic words brought Appleby’s head around, and the venom was plain for all to see now.

  ‘So: here’s how it probably happened. Mr. Green here meets up with Gunnison. Gunnison an’ him argue. Mebbe he accuses Gunnison o’ hirin’ Cameron to kill Johnstone an’ Newley. Mebbe Lafe goes for his gun. An’ this jasper kills him. Then he figgers he’ll finish the whole job an’ go into Yavapai an’ pick a fight with Cameron.’

  ‘He shorely done just that,’ enjoined one of the posse, a big bearded man who had been in Tyler’s saloon when Cameron had been killed. ‘I seen the whole thing.’

  ‘So, havin’ mebbe got Lafe to admit he hired Cameron, this jasper here beats seven different kinds o’ sugar out o’ Cameron, but Cameron damn’ near beefs him instead. I got there just in time to stop Cameron doin’ murder, not knowin’ who’s involved. It’s on’y after Cameron’s dead I find out. Jake – yu know who this jasper is?’

  ‘Shore, he’s Jim Green,’ Harris replied.

  ‘Jim Green, Jim Green,’ jeered Appleby. ‘This hombre’s wanted for murder in Texas! He’s got another name down there, ain’t yu, Green? Or should I say “Sudden”?’

  An astonished oath burst from the lips of one of Harris’s neighbors inside. Kitson and Taylor came to the window to look, as if for the first time, at the smiling, quietly spoken man who was now revealed as the notorious Sudden.

  ‘Hell, I knowed that!’ laughed Harris, enjoying the consternation on the Marshal’s face as he said it. ‘He told me when I first hired him.’

  Appleby regained his composure and his face was serious when he said, ‘Jake, are yu tellin’ me that yu knowingly hired a killer?’ The expressions of his posse had turned grim and several of them were nodding significantly at each other. Too late, Harris realized how his words could be construed, but he was too proud to retract. He glared at the possemen defiantly, as the Marshal went on inexorably.

  ‘Jake, an unkind man might figger yu’d hired this killer to do some dirty work for yu. He might even figger yu’d cut down Gunnison to make it easy to run a sandy over this valley, with someone like Mr. Sudden to do yore gunnin’.’

  ‘An unkind man might get his teeth knocked in if it wasn’t for the fact that my daughter’s standing inside the house,’ Harris told the lawman coldly. ‘Yu better take them words back, Marshal.’

  ‘Hell, I on’y said what some might say,’ Appleby protested, his hands spread wide. ‘I ain’t sayin’ that’s what yu done!’

  ‘Well, I knowed about Jim, an’ I’m sayin’ here an’ now I don’t believe half of what they say about Sudden is true.’

  ‘That’s as might be,’ said Appleby pursing his lips. ‘It ain’t my decision. Green, I’m goin’ to have to take yu in. Even if yu ain’t the one killed Gunnison, yo’re wanted by the Sheriff o’ Fourways in Texas.’

  Randy Gunnison spurred his horse forward.

  ‘I reckon Yavapai’s got the prior claim,’ he shrilled. ‘This – this scum will stand trial for murderin’ my father!’

  A rumble of agreement came from the riders massed behind the Marshal, and one or two of them even started forward towards Sudden. Appleby held up a hand to stop them.

  ‘Yu better make no fuss, Green,’ he told the indolent figure still leaning against the door-frame as though he had no part or interest in the events occurring before him. Sudden smiled and stood upright. His hands hung negligently near his tied-down guns, and his voice was deceptively mild as he spoke.

  ‘I reckon I could drop yu an’ mebbe six more afore yu got me,’ he said. A jeering note entered his voice, and he half crouched, his eyes narrow, his very figure charged with menace. Randy Gunnison backed his horse away, and several of the possemen, who had already seen the incredible speed of
this man’s draw, knew that he was making no idle boast. Appleby, however, was unperturbed.

  ‘Yo’re probably right,’ he told Sudden. ‘On’y yu better think about what would happen to the kid in there – an’ the girl – if yu open the ball.’ He waited for these telling words to have their effect. Sudden straightened and the tenseness left his body. He could not take the risk.

  ‘Yore trick, Marshal,’ he said. ‘But the game ain’t over.’

  Appleby’s smile was malevolent. ‘Yo’re right,’ he agreed. ‘See if yu can win it on bluff.’

  ‘Tom,’ protested Harris, ‘this is a damfool thing. Yu can’t prove such a cock an’ bull story in court!’

  ‘I got a man who had the time, the opportunity, and the reason. Show me anyone else who fits the bill an’ I’ll go an’ talk to him. Until then, yu better hold yore tongue. I ain’t shore but what yu ain’t deeper in this than yu say, Jake. I’m givin’ yu the benefit o’ considerable doubt.’

  ‘I’ve seen men hung on less!’ This from Randy Gunnison, his courage returning as Sudden seemed no longer menacing.

  ‘Yo’re makin’ a mistake, Tom. A bad mistake,’ Jake told the lawman.

  ‘Ain’t for me to decide,’ Appleby retorted. ‘Tell it to the jury. Now: yu Green! Reach down nice an’ easy, an’ drop yore gun belt. Then step away from it.’

  He reinforced this order by drawing and cocking his gun. Sudden shrugged and did as he was bid, whereupon two of the possemen dismounted and bound his hands securely together.

  ‘Get his hoss,’ Appleby told another man. When Sudden was mounted, his hands were tied to the pommel of the saddle, and the posse prepared to leave. Harris stood for a second watching, then, with a stifled cry of rage, rushed to the stable and emerged a few moments later on his horse. Taylor and Kitson were only seconds behind him. They caught up with the posse in the space of a quarter of a mile, and drew up alongside Appleby and his prisoner.

  ‘We’re ridin’ in to Yavapai with yu,’ Harris said, defiance in his voice.

  Appleby shrugged, although he could not keep all of the venom from his voice as he replied, ‘It ain’t necessary.’