The Gun is my Brother

by Matt Chisholm

  Reissuing classic fiction from Yesterday and Today!

  Published for the very first time in chronological order - the Sam Spur series. Originally published as written by Cy James.

  His name spelt fear to every man in town.

  Was it six men he'd killed, or sixty?

  No one was sure, but they knew one thing - that Sam Spur meant trouble.

  Now he's wounded, and trapped in a town where every man is after him. But Sam Spur didn't know how to quit, and so he decided to face them all ... alone ...

  From the author of the best-selling Storm Family Cattlemen Saga books

  THE GUN IS MY BROTHER

  SPUR 1

  By Cy James

  First Published by Panther Books in 1961

  Copyright © 1961, 2014 by P. C. Watts

  Published by Piccadilly Publishing at Smashwords: August 2014

  Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

  This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book

  Series Editor: Mike Stotter

  Text © Piccadilly Publishing

  Published by Arrangement with the Author.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The lamplight touched the man on the horse, which was what the sheriff on the sidewalk, hoped it would do. It weakly picked out the dust lying in cakes on the horse’s sweating hide. The lean legs, long in the stirrup, scuffed boots, threadbare cord pants.

  The man said: ‘You the sheriff?’

  The way he said it wasn’t polite. But it wasn’t impolite either.

  The lamplight caught the lawman’s face. On one side only. That part seemed alive, the eye bright and searching. The other side was dead, masked by darkness. He was fleshy, but vigorous.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘What can I do for you?’

  The horseman ran a tired hand over his face, scratched the black, week-old stubble there.

  ‘I’ve got a dead man here.’

  The sheriff made no movement except with his one visible eye. The lid went back out of sight.

  ‘Where?’

  The man jerked his head. Straining forward, the sheriff made out the dim shape of a second horse. Something lay across the saddle. His slight movement put his whole head into darkness. He became faceless.

  ‘Where’d you find him?’

  The man said: ‘I didn’t. He found me.’

  The sheriff said: ‘You mean he was alive … you shot him?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘And you brought him in?’

  ‘I’m here.’

  The sheriff hesitated.

  ‘I guess you’d better come inside and tell me about it. Answer some questions. Get down and come on in.’

  He wavered, put his foot on the sidewalk and took if off again. The man on the horse asked: ‘You want I should bring him in?’

  ‘What would I want a stiff in my office for? Naw—dare say he’ll keep. Who is he?’

  ‘I don’t know. I haven’t had a real good look at him.’

  The sheriff turned back fully.

  ‘How come you shot him then?’

  ‘Jumped me in the dark. I drilled him with my saddle-gun. Had a quick look at his face by the light of a match, but that’s all. Can’t remember seeing him before.’

  The sheriff made a definite movement now. Stepping on to the sidewalk, he lifted down the lamp and carried it to the spare horse. The dead man lay face downward across the saddle wrapped in a tarpaulin. Blood dripped slowly to the ground from the tips of his fingers.

  ‘Not been dead long,’ the sheriff remarked conversationally. Gripping the hair, he lifted the head and turned it so he could see it better. What he saw made him drop it like it was white-hot.

  ‘My God,’ he whispered.

  The tall man got slowly and stiffly from the saddle. The sheriff took a pace backward away from him and asked in a voice that was not too steady: ‘You know who you’ve got here?’ and pointed at the tarp.

  ‘No,’ the man replied, ‘who?’

  ‘Take a look,’ said the sheriff.

  The man told him: ‘Lift his head up. I don’t care to touch him.’

  The sheriff seemed to regain some of his composure. He smiled a little, so his heavy black mustache bent up toward the corners of his eyes.

  ‘First man you’ve killed?’ he asked.

  ‘No,’ the man replied. ‘But it doesn’t give me any pleasure.’

  The sheriff lifted the head by the hair again, turning it. The stranger bent and stared at the leaden face.

  ‘No,’ he informed the other. ‘I never saw him before.’

  ‘Tie your horse up,’ the sheriff told him, ‘and come on in.’

  The lawman hung the lamp back on the hook while the stranger led both horses to the hitching-rail, tied them, and followed the sheriff inside.

  There were a couple of lamps burning there and it was bright after the heavy blackness of the street. The lightness made the place look bare, impermanent. A table, a desk, a few chairs, a flyblown calendar on the wall, gun-rack, wanted posters—the replica of a hundred other such places. Even to the deputy playing patience at the table with a pack of dog-eared cards. A runty man with high cheekbones and big ears. His gun and belt lay on the table by him.

  He looked up when they came in and said: ‘Hey, Bob, you know there’s a card missing from this pack. It makes a game plum difficult and that’s a fact. How d’you expect to keep deputies if you don’t run to a decent pack of cards?’

  The sheriff sat down behind his desk.

  He puffed a little and the tall man saw that in the light he seemed fatter and softer than he had in the street. The sheriff thought the stranger looked taller in here, harder. He had stepped inside the door and stood waiting. The sheriff had the feeling that if he left him there for an hour he’d stay there like that, waiting. There was something wholly patient about him.

  When he had rummaged through the drawers and pigeonholes, found forms, pen, ink, the sheriff said: ‘What’s your name?’

  The deputy had continued with his game. The stranger’s silence was so prolonged that the deputy stopped shifting the cards and stared at him.

  ‘Well?’ the sheriff said.

  The stranger cleared his throat.

  Finally he said: ‘Sam Spur.’

  The sheriff was in the process of scratching his nose. He stopped. The fat of his cheeks seemed to take on a downward line, hanging limp. The deputy dropped his glance to the gun on the table. He was a long time taking one swallow.

  The sheriff said: ‘You the Sam Spur that—’

  The stranger said: ‘Yes.’

  From the deputy came a sustained and vehement ‘Christ!’

  The sheriff dropped his eyes and started shifting papers from one part of his desk to another. There was sweat on his face and his hands were trembling slightly but noticeably. When he’d tidied his desk, he sat staring at the blank form in front of him, picked up his pen to write on the form, changed his mind and scribbled on a slip of paper instead.

  ‘Ely,’ he said. ‘There’s a stiff outside on a horse. Take it down to Jed Masters. Here’s a note for Jed.’

  ‘Note for Jed,’ the deputy exclaimed, surprised. ‘Say—’

  The fat man interrupted him by speaking to Spur.

  ‘The horse the dead man’s on, Mr. Spur. That yours?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘That means it’s a livery horse. Ely, take
it back to the livery when you’re through.’

  ‘Right.’ Ely flicked idly at the cards.

  ‘Right now.’ The sheriff’s voice went hard.

  The deputy got up, saying: ‘Yes, sir.’ He took the note from the sheriff and turned back to the table, staring at the gunbelt. When he put out his hand for it, he looked up to find the man near the door staring at him and changed his mind. He hurried out.

  The sheriff tidied his desk some more.

  Then he leaned back in his complaining chair. He put the tips of his fingers together and showed that his hands were not those of a fat man—they were tough, quick.

  ‘You aim to stay long in these parts, Mr. Spur?’ he asked.

  The tall man replied: ‘That’s up to you, isn’t it, sheriff? You aiming to hold me?’

  The sheriff fluttered a little. It didn’t suit him because it wasn’t in character. He looked like a man who generally got what he wanted. One way or another.

  ‘The formalities have to be gone through. A man’s dead, after all. The law … purely routine, you understand. I have to account for deaths. Must have everything tidy … satisfy the authorities.’

  That fitted. The sheriff was a tidy man—good clothes, white linen. Small, well-shod feet.

  ‘You’re the boss,’ Spur said. ‘I’m in no hurry.’

  The sheriff got to his feet.

  ‘Let’s go get us a drink and talk this thing over. Dare say you could use one being on the trail this weather.’

  ‘Sure could,’ Spur said. ‘But I’d surely welcome a meal. Haven’t had a good feed in a month.’

  That stopped the sheriff. He fluttered slightly again.

  ‘Meal!’ he said. His eyes flicked to a corner of the room. He looked as though Spur’s hunger had upset him. Then he recovered himself and said: ‘Sure, sure. We’ll go down to Nick’s. He doesn’t have any class, but he serves the best grub in town. But we’ll have a drink to keep out the damp first.’ He chuckled. ‘Chalmers keeps a special bottle for me. The real McCoy.’

  He waved Spur ahead of him and they stepped on to the street.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Jed Masters opened his door to the pounding on it, cursing.

  When he saw the hat resting on the huge ears, he cursed some more. He and the boys were having a game of vingt-et-un in his parlor. And he was winning. This was no time—

  ‘I got a stiff for you, Jed,’ Ely told him.

  Masters was said to be the jolliest man in town in spite of his profession. But maybe it was because of it. What with one thing and another, the death rate was high and he was kept pretty busy. But he wasn’t jolly now. He didn’t like leaving his winnings on the table with those damned sharks about.

  ‘Some other time,’ he said.

  Ely’s ears sought to twitch under the weight of his hat. Indignation always made them try that.

  ‘There ain’t no other time for this one,’ he declared.

  ‘I’m pretty busy right now.’

  ‘Too busy to box the parson?’

  Jed swung the door wide and went still.

  ‘What in hell’re you talkin’ about?’

  ‘Parson.’ He turned to look at the grisly burden on the horse. ‘Right there. Dead as mutton.’

  The undertaker didn’t seem to find it easy to find any words.

  ‘You mean he’s bin shot dead?’

  ‘Yeah. Feller brought him in jest like that. Bushwhacked him and brung him into town cool as you like. An’ you know who?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Sam Spur.’

  Ely stood back to see the effect of that name like an artist admiring his work.

  Jed said, ‘Jesus,’ soft as the paw of a purring cat. Then he blasphemed a little further as though paying backhanded tribute to the calling of the dead man. Finally, he said, ‘Sheriff’d best hold on to’m tight else the boys’ll be hangin’ him for sure.’

  Ely told him, ‘Sheriff ain’t holdin’ him. Took him out on the town kind of sociable.’

  Jed said, ‘Come on in, Ely. This sounds crazy to me. You mean this Spur ain’t took a-tall?’

  The deputy stepped inside.

  ‘Got a note for you from the sheriff.’ And he handed over the scrap of paper. The undertaker opened it slowly with his thick fingers, frowning. Reading always made him frown. When he’d done reading, muttering the words with his thick lips, he breathed heavily once and said, ‘John says for us to come a-runnin’ with our guns.’

  They walked down the hall to a room at the rear of the house and several men huddled around the lamplight on a table in there, turned their heads and stared at them.

  One roared out, ‘Set, Ely, an’ let Jed rob you plumb naked.’

  Masters looked grave and he let the look sink in. It sank.

  ‘There’s real trouble in town, gentlemen. We got a killer in our midst.’

  Jed’s brother Charley made with a laugh and shouted, ‘Are you tellin’ me—he’s a-standin’ right there in your boots.’

  A couple of them started chuckling, but they stopped when Jed said, ‘Sam Spur.’

  A little man, with pale, china-blue eyes and a large mustache got half out of his chair and exclaimed, ‘Jumpin’ Jehosiphat, you mean the—?’

  ‘That’s who I mean.’

  ‘An’ where’s that sheriff of ourn?’

  Ely’s ears gave a twitch and he informed them, ‘Totin’ that killer around like he was a guest of honor or someth’n’.’

  ‘You don’t say.’

  ‘I do so.’

  Masters held up the note and waved it at them.

  ‘Sheriff sent me this. It’s what you might call a yell for help. This Spur’s gotten him treed in a quiet kind of a way.’

  Ely said, ‘As deputy-sheriff of this hyer county, it’s my duty—’

  The china-blued eyed man snapped, ‘Shut up, Ely,’ and he shut up without even looking aggrieved about it. The little man went on, ‘Go get your weapons, men. Meet me back of the livery in fifteen minutes. Hump yourselves now.’

  To a stranger this would have sounded comical coming from the little man, but these men knew him and they humped themselves. They didn’t say anything as they trooped out of the room and down the hall. They were thinking of Spur and that gun of his.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The sheriff took him to Nick’s Eating House. It was fairly respectable and the food was fairly eatable. You could say no more for the place.

  There were maybe a half-dozen tables in the place and four times that many chairs. The tables were joined end to end making one long one. They were occupied by four men in various positions of comfort after eating. Cigarette smoke hung in the air. A big man in range clothes was laughing a lot and showing the only two teeth he possessed. He could have done with a shave, a bath and (some said) a poke in the eye. He looked like it might have done him some good. It would be a good few years since anybody had had the stomach to do it.

  Two people presided over the establishment—the proprietor, a handsome middle-aged Greek with the profile of a nobleman and the eye of a bandit; a woman well into her thirties who looked tired and kept brushing some graying hair out of her eyes. The only other living things there were the flies that didn’t seem to like the two smoking lamps that tried feebly to light the place.

  ‘Evening sheriff,’ the Greek said, showing the gold in his teeth.

  ‘Evening, Nick. Men.’

  The stranger took his hat off, said, ‘Evenin’, ma’am,’ to the woman and nodded to the men. The talk stopped. Then the big man’s laughter. Only the flies made any sound.

  Everyone’s eyes touched the stranger; most of them slid away.

  The woman’s didn’t.

  The sheriff didn’t make any introductions, but strode to the far end of the table, sat and said, ‘Coffee for me, black, sweet and hot.’

  Spur crinkled his eyes a little at the woman and said, ‘I’d wholly admire a steak, rare, ‘round a couple of inches thick. Just that. Filling a plat
e.’

  The woman stayed still. Nick the Greek eyed him and said, ‘Sure,’ looking like he wasn’t at all sure about anything. He jerked his head towards a door in the side of the room and the woman went out. The stranger walked slowly down the room and sat opposite the sheriff, who changed his position in a fidgety sort of a way and stared at the street door.

  The big man turned to stare at the stranger and didn’t seem to get much satisfaction from the act.

  Nick brought the sheriff’s coffee and the lawman sat stirring it endlessly. The big man stared, while Sam Spur watched the sheriff’s spoon making its circles. The other men became aware of the big man’s interest in the stranger and they found they had some interest too.

  Finally, the big man said, ‘I seen you some place?’

  Spur said, ‘I wouldn’t know that, I guess. Only you could.’ He flicked his eyes up to the questioner and then went back to studying the sheriff’s spooning. Nick walked to one of the lamps on the table and turned the wick down and one of the men said, ‘Hell, that goes any lower an’ we’ll be in the dark. Trim the God-damn thing, Nick, and to hell with the expense.’

  Nick jerked around on him, looking more like a bandit than ever, looking a little mad. Then he recovered himself and said, ‘Aw, you’re funnin’ me, Pete.’

  He went back behind his counter and wiped it desultorily with a dirty rag.

  The big fellow said, ‘Yeah, man, I sure do know that face.’

  Spur raised his eyes quickly again and knew the sheriff was sweating in case he should tell these men his name.

  The lawman started talk about the state of beef prices, but it didn’t catch on. These men wouldn’t talk while Spur was there. When the door closed behind him, they’d talk plenty—about him.

  ‘Ever in Dodge?’ the big man wanted to know.

  The stranger turned his head and looked full at him.

  ‘Most men were in Dodge some time or other.’

  ‘How about San Antone?’

  ‘Same answer.’

  The big man started to get redder than he was already. The hand lying on the table clenched itself into a fist.