Milo Talon

by Louis L'Amour

The clerk looked at me as I came in. “This was a dull town until you came along,” he said. “I never thought I’d want it to stay dull, but I do.”

  “Want me to leave?”

  He shrugged. “Whenever,” he said, and I went up the stairs, entered my room, and lay down on the bed. I stared up at the ceiling, hands clasped behind my head. What I wanted now was some big country and a long trail.

  For a long time I lay there and finally my eyes closed. When I opened them they looked at the wardrobe where Molly had left something hidden.

  Then I thought of that Big Fifty booming out from behind me. Arkansaw Tom Baggott. It had to have been him … why?

  My eyes closed again, but I was not asleep, just resting. Slowly I let my muscles relax, I did not think of the man I had killed. I knew his kind only too well. I did not know his name, I did not know his origin, I only knew the type. A lot of swagger, a trouble-hunter, wanting to be known but not realizing how empty and how brief is a reputation bought with a gun.

  Up there in the wardrobe could be the solution to all of our problems. Molly had not said so but I believed it was what was taken from the safe after Nathan was killed. I did not know what it was but I had an idea.

  Molly … I’d have to see Molly. And German. Then I could ride out, west into the San Juan country. I had some distant cousins out there, had a ranch somewhere west of the San Juans.

  Anne? What about Anne? Taylor had worked with her and she had lost him, lost his men. She still had old Eyebrows with his shotgun, and that big woman, and the dude, the city man. Now who would he be?

  Again I thought of Nathan Albro, an intelligent man who knew how to make money, who knew how to build railroads and open vast lands to use and development, but was basically a lonely man. In his mind he was reaching out for affection, not knowing how, not finding it.

  Except in Molly, the daughter of his housekeeper.

  What would Anne do?

  A shrewd girl, and a very hard one. What would she do now?

  She was on record as Nathan’s daughter, although she was only a stepdaughter. If there was no will, she would inherit all, but she was afraid there was a will, maybe she even knew there was.

  If there was a will, she must have gathered that Molly would benefit.

  Therefore she must eliminate Molly.

  They had taken her once, obviously with the intention of getting from her the location of the will and of the gold, for they were thinking in terms of gold, in coins or bars.

  Molly was the one they must deal with, in one way or another. And Molly was vulnerable.

  Jefferson Henry? And what had happened to Stacy Henry? That she was dead seemed obvious, but how? Where? When? Nathan Albro, a man of good intentions, had left a trail of murder behind him.

  There was a tap on the door. My hand slid the gun from its holster; held in my right hand, it lay on the bed beside me. There was no chair under the knob.

  “Come in,” I said, and it was Jefferson Henry.

  He looked tired and old. He stepped inside, hat in hand. “We can talk business,” he said.

  “Sit down.” I hitched myself a little higher. He could see the gun.

  “You won’t need that,” he said.

  I smiled at him. “Who can tell?” I said.

  “This has gotten out of hand,” he said. “It began as a simple affair. Anne, or Nancy, if you wish to call her that, was to inherit. Her mother was my son’s wife. I hoped to help her, to be of service.”

  I smiled and saw the flicker of irritation cross his face.

  “Now that I have found her she will not talk to me. She says I have nothing to do with it, or with her.”

  “Isn’t she right?”

  Again that irritation, more obvious this time. “Of course not. I am her nearest living relative. I am a man experienced in business. No young girl—”

  “Henry,” I interrupted, “you obviously haven’t seen much of Anne. She’s no average young girl. She’s young, and she’s a girl. You’re right that far, but she’s cold as ice. She’s sharp and shrewd and dangerous. She’s three times as smart as you are and a whole lot meaner. This is one time you should fold your cards and get out of the game. You’re bucking a stacked deck.”

  “Maybe.” He dismissed the thought with a gesture. “But you and me. If we worked together.” He looked up suddenly, staring right into my eyes. “I think you know something. I think you have the key. There’s millions in this—”

  “I am not interested in money.”

  His impatience was obvious. “Nonsense! All men are interested in money. There’s talk of millions in gold, but that’s for children. The money is in that railroad and I am the one who can put it all together.”

  “No,” I said.

  “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

  I swung my feet to the floor, still keeping my hand on my gun. “All I want is to ride out of here.”

  He could not believe it, and given his viewpoint, would not believe it. When I started to get up he motioned me to sit down again. “Albro had it all worked out. He had the route surveyed, he had the money to get started, he had every step planned. He was a very thorough man. Now he has passed on, God rest his soul, but the work must go forward. Nathan had no legitimate heirs, so why not us?”

  “What do you mean, no legitimate heirs? How can you be sure?”

  “You mean Anne? She’s only a stepdaughter, and he never liked her.”

  “He left no will?”

  “No, of course not. The man died suddenly. He had no chance to make a will.”

  The thought, I could see, was one he did not like to consider. A will would have wrecked all his plans. First, he had hoped to find Anne and to gain control through her. Now that it seemed unlikely, he was reaching for any straw, unwilling to let the chance slip from his grasp.

  “You’re wasting your time, Henry,” I said. “I want no part of this. I’m riding out of here tomorrow or the next day, probably tomorrow, and I’m not coming back.

  “Too many men have died over this affair, and all for nothing. From the beginning, none of you had a chance.

  “Also,”—and I did not know this to be the truth, but would have made a bet I was guessing right—“there will be a U.S. Marshal in here to investigate. It appears,” and here I lied outright, “Tuttle had some friends. Relatives, maybe, but they want an all-out investigation of his death.”

  He was shocked. Then he said, “Who is Tuttle?”

  Getting up from the bed I slipped the pistol into its holster. “Take my advice and get into your little car and get out of here. Write this off as a bad bet and forget it. They will probably catch up with you, anyway, but you might be lucky.”

  He stared at me. “Even if you killed me,” I said, “there are others who know about Tuttle and how you kept him imprisoned in your boxcar because he had information about Anne and they know he escaped and was murdered.”

  He got up, his face expressionless. I had thought him a stronger man when we met, but something had happened to him these past weeks. Failure may have been a part of it, but I suspected that more rested upon a needed success here than I knew. The sense of power seemed to have bled out of him. Now he was merely desperate.

  He went out of the door ahead of me and down the hall, and I turned back to the wardrobe and felt under the shelf-paper that lined the upper compartment. I found it easily, an envelope containing several papers. Molly seemed in no rush to have them back but it was about time I returned them. Placing them carefully in my inside coat pocket, I went down the steps.

  The clerk was leaning on the counter when I went out. “When you leaving?” he asked.

  Turning, I saw him spread his hands. “Maggie’s after me. There’s been too much happening since you hit town.”

  “Talk to Jefferson Henry. It started with him.”

  Pride Hovey, I thought suddenly. Where is Pride?

  The bodies were gone from the street. The dust had been raked over the little blood that
had fallen. Several heads turned when I passed, but nothing was said. Nobody spoke. Only my friend the dog. He looked up at me and wagged his tail a bit, thumping it on the boardwalk. I bent and ruffled the hair on top of his head and went into Maggie’s.

  The rancher and his wife were there. This time both turned to look at me, and the rancher said, “Sir? Will there be any trouble? I’d not like my wife to be endangered.”

  “No, sir,” I replied. “I shall make certain you are undisturbed.”

  “Thank you,” he said. “I realize some of these things cannot be avoided.”

  German came in, drying his hands on his apron. “You all right?” He leaned over the chair opposite. “Pride Hovey is in town. So’s that girl, Anne. She’s got some folks with her.”

  “A big man? Heavy eyebrows?”

  “Uh-huh, and some city feller.”

  Where was Molly? Looking around without seeming to do so, I saw her nowhere and it worried me. Irritated me a mite, too, as this could very well be my last visit to the restaurant. After all, I was pulling out.

  German served me himself, and with nobody in the place but the rancher and his wife, I set about eating, but taking my time. She had to be somewhere about.

  Nevertheless, when I was almost through eating there was still no sign of her. I was refilling my cup from the pot German brought when the door opened, and when I looked up hopefully I was startled.

  It was not Molly. It was Anne. And she was not alone.

  CHAPTER 26

  MILO!” SHE HELD out both hands to me. “I was hoping I would find you!”

  “I’ve been around.”

  Eyebrows was with her, the big woman, and the city dude. They came up to the table and Eyebrows started to sit down on my right side. Now I may not be the smartest man in the world, but I didn’t want a powerful and big man sitting that close to my gun hand.

  “You,” I said, “sit down over there. Do you mind?”

  He minded all right, but he did it. The dude sat on my right. Looking around, I said, “German? Serve these people some coffee, will you?”

  The rancher was looking at me and I said, “My promise is still good.”

  “Luck,” he said, and his wife turned and smiled pleasantly. Nice people, I thought, but then you can’t always tell. I was remembering the old man who had tried to kill me, and his wife with the lovely eyes and the gentle voice.

  “You got here just in time,” I said to Anne. “I’m pulling out. Hitting the trail again.”

  “The trail?” She was puzzled.

  “Sure. You know. I’m a drifter. There’s just an awful lot of country I haven’t seen. I’m heading west for the San Juan mountains, then north, maybe, along the Colorado and through the Brown’s Hole country.”

  They had an idea in their minds about me and they had things they came to talk about. This wasn’t one of them. Also, the idea of me just riding off into the sunset hadn’t been considered. They had intentions and they believed I did, too.

  “Mighty fine country out there. Snow still on the San Juans,” I said. “Nice little town out there. Used to be Animas City but I hear it’s become Durango now. It’s my kind of country.”

  Eyebrows twisted in his chair. “We didn’t come to talk about the country,” he said.

  Well, I smiled at him, but I was thinking how very pleasant it would be to plant a bunch of five right in the middle of his mustache.

  “Milo.” Anne leaned toward me. She was very lovely and she had some kind of perfume … maybe it was just her. “Milo, I need your help. We’re trying to settle Father’s affairs and there are some papers missing. Someone opened Father’s safe and took them after he died.”

  “Just goes to show you. There’s a lot of dishonest people around.”

  “We hoped you could help us find them.”

  “Me?” I shook my head. “Near as I can figure I was punching cows down in Texas when Mr. Albro died. I saw him a time or two, but never did know him. Folks do say he was a nice fellow. Good to those who worked for him.”

  Eyebrows’ chair creaked, and the big woman rested her forearms on the table. For the first time I noticed the resemblance. Brother and sister no doubt. Or husband and wife. Oftentimes folks will marry somebody who looks like they do. Maybe it’s because that’s their ideal.

  “Milo, please!” Anne was pretty. She was at her most beguiling now. Was that because there was money in the pot? “Milo, I think that if you tried you could find those papers, and if you could it would settle all this trouble. There would be no more killing, no more trouble.”

  “You going to the funerals?”

  “What?” The question took her off guard. “What funerals?”

  I smiled. “Of those men of yours who tried to kill me yesterday.”

  For a moment there was dead silence, broken only by the scraping of the rancher’s chair as he pushed it back. My eyes went to him. “Sorry to see you go, sir, but I hope you and your wife will have a nice ride back to the ranch. If you start early it will still be cool.”

  “Thank you, sir. If you’re ever in our neighborhood, stop by. There’s always coffee in the pot.”

  Anne’s lips had tightened. She was trying to hold a smile but it wasn’t working very well. “Whatever those men did,” she said sharply, “they did on their own.”

  “They made a mistake,” I said, “they thought I was alone.”

  For a moment there was silence. That, too, was something they did not like. They hoped to deal with me alone. They wanted to think I was alone. As a matter of fact, I was. Even I did not know I had so many friends, nor did I know where any of them were now. I didn’t even know where Molly was.

  The dude cleared his throat. “I think we should discuss business, Mr. Talon. If you do not have those papers, I believe you know who has them or that you are aware of their content.”

  “Anne,” I said, “who are these people? What are you doing with them? You’re young, you’re bright, and you’re beautiful. Why don’t you forget all this and go back East where you will be happier?”

  She stared at me, her features hardening. “It’s Molly, isn’t it? You’ve got a crush on her.”

  “She’s a lovely girl but you folks don’t seem to understand. I’m just passing through. I don’t have any stake in this and don’t want any.

  “Jefferson Henry,” I continued, “hired me to find you. Somehow he’d found you went to our ranch, but he lost you there. Nevertheless, he figured I knew where you were, and that if I was paid enough, I’d tell him. He believed you were to inherit from Nathan Albro.”

  My expression was, I hoped, innocent when I said, “Of course, that was ridiculous because there was no blood relationship, and as I understand it, you were never very close to him.”

  There was a dead, shocked, silence. Eyebrows shifted his feet and glanced suddenly at his sister. Maybe that was news to them also.

  Anne’s features tightened with sudden anger. “Of course I will inherit. Who else could there be?”

  “He was a lonely man,” I said, “and maybe he found affection from somewhere else. He changed his will, you know, right at the end.”

  The dude caught my arm. “What will? Nathan Albro left a will?”

  “He must have,” I replied casually. “Look at it. He’s a business man, a careful one. Do you think he’d do all he did, make all he did, and not plan for the future? Anne here, even though she was not blood kin, might have inherited, but she never liked the old man. Even as a young girl she wouldn’t give him the time of day.”

  “That’s not true!” Anne’s tone was cold. “That’s not true at all! I am his only heir! He was married to my mother—”

  “Who left him for another man.”

  “Who else is there?” Anne’s tone was strident. “Who could there be?”

  “Have you thought of me, Anne?” It was Molly. When she had come into the room I had no idea, but she was standing there, in the door to the kitchen.

  “You! You?”
Anne’s contempt was obvious. “Who were you? Just the housekeeper’s daughter! You were nobody!”

  “My mother came to keep house for a very lonely man, a nice old gentleman who only seemed stiff and cold. She kept house for him because your mother left him alone and he needed somebody. I liked him. He was a very fine gentleman.”

  “You? That’s ridiculous!”

  “I’m afraid it isn’t,” I said.

  They all looked at me. Anne’s anger was gone. At least it was not visible. From the way she looked at me I knew she believed me, and believed that I knew. Actually, I didn’t—all I had was supposition. I’d never even looked at the papers in my pocket.

  Anne was thinking. Her eyes were hard and alert. She was far from beaten, and suddenly she turned and looked at Molly and smiled. “Well, if that is so, I wish you all the luck in the world.”

  She stood up. “Shall we go now? We’ve much to do.” Then she turned quickly and said. “Good-bye, Molly. And I really mean that … Good-bye!”

  Eyebrows pushed his chair back and got up. Anne was halfway to the door, the dude whispering to her, the big woman right behind them. Eyebrows looked at me and saw what he expected. He closed a ponderous fist and swung.

  He was big, he was strong, and he was too slow. His ponderous haymaker went the long way around and my left was straight from the shoulder with much pleasure. My second knuckle split his lip to the teeth and the right that followed was to the solar plexus. He grunted and took a step back, his mouth falling open to gasp for breath. My left jab to the teeth had cocked my left for the hook, and it caught him with his mouth open and his jaw loose. He went to his knees with his jaw broken and I stepped back away from him to keep them all under my eyes.

  Anne never so much as looked at me. “Get him,” she said sharply, “and come on!”

  Yet at the door she turned one more time to look back and never had I seen in the eyes of anything human the sheer malevolence she directed at me. She did not warn or threaten, nor did she need to.

  There are people to whom sex is the great directing force, in others it is food, thirst, success, or ambition. With her it was hatred. Hatred for Nathan Albro, hatred for Molly, hatred for me, but most of all, I think, hatred for Nathan Albro.