Montana Gundown

by William W. Johnstone

  “Once we’re finished with dinner, we’ll head down to one of the saloons. I’m buyin’,” Embry declared.

  They all ate in relative silence for the next few minutes. Then Marshal Trask came into the Feed Barn, and absolute quiet fell over the room as the lawman stood just inside the front door with the shotgun tucked under his arm.

  “Baldridge and his men are all gone,” Trask announced. “I watched them ride out of town with my own eyes. When you’re done here, you can come down to my office and reclaim your guns. Once you’ve done that, I expect you to clear out as well.”

  “We got a right to be here,” Embry insisted.

  Trask sighed and said, “Give me a break, Jubal. After this morning, the town could use a little peace and quiet and a chance to catch its breath. We’ve known each other a long time, and I’m asking you as a favor to go back to the Boxed E.”

  Embry scowled, but finally he nodded reluctantly.

  “All right.” He turned to Salty. “Stevens, I’ll buy you those drinks some other time.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Salty croaked.

  Chapter 21

  Hal finally got a chance to lean over the counter and talk briefly with Katie, Frank noted as he finished his meal. He couldn’t tell what was being said between them, of course, but the conversation, though brief, seemed like a pleasant one.

  When everyone from the Boxed E had finished eating, they left the Feed Barn and walked up the street to the marshal’s office. Trask was sitting in a ladderback chair on the porch with the shotgun across his knees. He nodded toward the wagon and said, “All right, you can get your guns and then head back to the ranch.”

  Frank’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the marshal. Trask’s face seemed grayer than it had been before the inquest. Frank supposed that the strain of being caught in the middle of the looming range war between the Boxed E and the B Star might be getting to the lawman. Sometimes it was harder not to take a side in a dispute like this.

  When Salty had strapped on his gunbelt, he slapped the heavy pistol on his hip and said, “Sure does feel good to have this old hogleg draggin’ me down again on this side. I been carryin’ iron for so long I walk slanch-wise without it.”

  Frank buckled his gunbelt and nodded. “I know just how you feel.”

  The men got their horses from the town hall, mounted up, and rode out. As they passed Omar Finnegan’s undertaking parlor, Frank thought about how much more work Finnegan had almost had. If a shoot-out between the Boxed E and the B Star had erupted on Pine Knob’s Main Street, it would have been horrific.

  The bad thing was, Frank had a nagging worry in the back of his brain that the gundown had only been postponed, not prevented.

  The white plaster across Brady’s broken nose stood out in sharp contrast to his tanned skin. Black circles had appeared around both eyes, giving him a raccoon-like appearance and making his eyes seem to be set even deeper than they really were. He didn’t look good at all, Laura thought.

  The doctor had set Brady’s nose as best he could, but Frank’s punch had done considerable damage. Also, it was just lucky that Frank’s second blow hadn’t broken Brady’s jaw, the doctor said. Hutchison had warned Brady and Laura that the nose would probably never look the same as it had before the injury.

  However, Brady’s appearance was the least of Laura’s worries right now. Brady’s vanity might be wounded along with his nose, but it was much more important that Frank Morgan was lined up solidly on the side of their enemies. That threatened all of their plans.

  The buggy rattled along the trail to the B Star with Baldridge skillfully handling the reins. Brady rode alongside the vehicle, swaying a little in the saddle. The doctor had given him a little morphine to dull the pain of the broken nose and suggested that it might be a good idea for Brady to stay at the hotel at least until the next day.

  But Brady had insisted that he was capable of riding, and since his mother and Baldridge were heading back to the ranch, he was coming along, too. Laura had never been able to argue successfully with Brady or persuade him to do anything he didn’t want to do. She always gave in. He was her son, after all, and she wanted him to be happy.

  Now the only thing that would really make him happy, she mused, was for him to kill Frank Morgan.

  And that might not be a bad idea at all.

  The other hired gunmen were strung out behind the buggy, with the ranch wagon that was loaded with Laura’s bags bringing up the rear. The two cowboys riding on the wagon had to eat some dust that way, but being actual cowboys instead of gunslingers, they were used to the misery.

  “I hope the ride isn’t too uncomfortable for you,” Baldridge said to Laura. “This is a fine buggy, but still, this trail is rather rough in places.”

  “It’s nothing to worry about, Gaius,” she told him. “After riding in that terrible stagecoach all the way from Great Falls, this isn’t bad at all.”

  “Traveling here will be much easier and better when the railroad comes through,” Baldridge said. “I plan to have my own station near the ranch headquarters, so only a short ride will be required to reach my home. You’ll be able to visit with much more ease and comfort.” He paused and glanced over at her. “Unless, of course, you’ve already become a permanent resident of the B Star by then. We’ve talked about—”

  “I know what we’ve talked about. It’s still too soon to consider such things seriously,” she told him in a gently chiding tone.

  “Of course. Of course, my dear. My apologies.”

  “Besides, this has been a very upsetting day. Brady has been injured, and it could have been even worse.”

  “That’s true. Anything the young man needs, I’ll take care of it immediately, of course.” Baldridge raised his voice over the rattle and squeak of the buggy wheels. “Did you hear that, Brady? If there’s anything you need, you just let me know.”

  “Bring me Frank Morgan and let me shoot the son of a bitch,” Brady rasped. “I think I’d blow his knees off before I killed him. That way he’d have to come crawling to me to beg for his life.”

  Laura loved her son, but there were times when Brady let his emotions get the best of him and just didn’t think straight. If he believed that Frank Morgan would ever beg for anything, even his own life, Brady was sadly mistaken.

  Laura didn’t bother to point that fact out to him. Instead she said to Baldridge, “I’m as eager for the railroad to arrive in the valley as you are, Gaius. I just worry that once it gets here, the line won’t be able to go any farther. I don’t think Jubal Embry will be very cooperative about letting it cross his land.”

  “It’s not his land,” Baldridge said. “You know what the lawyers told us. I will prevail in court, and I very much want the railroad to cross the entire valley.”

  Laura sighed. “That’s all well and good, but you know how long court cases can take. And lawyers tend to say what they think their clients want to hear. Besides, even if you win, Embry will probably appeal the decision, and that will stretch things out even longer. We run a real risk of having the railroad’s financial backers get impatient and decide they can’t wait. Men with that sort of money like to keep it working for them all the time.”

  “I thought you were providing most of the funds for the line,” Baldridge said.

  “I am, but I can’t do it alone. I need help from those other backers, or I can’t proceed. I would truly hate to see this entire deal collapse, Gaius.”

  Visibly agitated, he slapped the reins against the buggy horse’s back and made the animal trot faster.

  “It won’t collapse,” he said. “It can’t collapse. But I don’t see what I can do to make things go any faster. The legal system has to work at its own pace.”

  “When you first came out here, Gaius, did you depend on the courts to solve all your problems for you?”

  “The courts?” Baldridge repeated. He let out a disdainful laugh. “When I settled in this valley, there was no courtroom within
two hundred miles! The only way to solve a problem was for a man to pick up a pistol or a rifle and deal with it himself. No one relied on lawyers in those days.”

  “It was certainly simpler back then, wasn’t it?”

  “Simpler and much more effective. When I was a young man, if something stood in my way, I just—”

  He stopped short and stared over at her instead of watching the trail. After a moment, he asked, “What are you saying, Laura?”

  “I’m saying that you’re in the right, and even though your body may not be young anymore, Gaius, I know the same fire still burns inside you that burned back then. Anyone who stands in your way is taking his chances, and he deserves whatever happens to him.”

  “My God,” Baldridge breathed. “You think I should kill Jubal Embry.”

  “I think you should deal with the problem that’s facing you in the same way you would have forty years ago. Some things never change. A man has the obligation to take what’s rightfully his.”

  Baldridge swallowed hard and looked at the trail again.

  “Yes, yes, I know you’re right,” he said. “But the world has changed—”

  “No. People would like to believe that. They’d like to think that civilization will protect the weak from the strong. But in the end, the strong will always win. Like you, Gaius. You’re strong, and you deserve this valley, and you deserve to become a very rich man when the railroad runs from one end to the other of it and on to the mountains beyond.”

  Laura was looking at him intently as she spoke, and his eyes kept flicking over toward her. She tried to catch his gaze and hold it, and when she finally did, she added softly, “That’s not all you deserve, Gaius. You deserve something else, too, and you can have it ... if you’re man enough to seize it.”

  “I ... I don’t know ...”

  “Are you, Gaius? Are you man enough?”

  His hands tightened on the reins and slapped them against the horse’s back again. His back stiffened, and he said, “I’m the same man I always was.”

  Laura leaned back against the seat and smiled. “That’s what I thought.”

  “I’ll have to figure out something to do, some way to get what we want.”

  “Talk to Brady when we get back to the ranch. He’s good at this sort of thing. We have a little time to plan. We can let him recover some from what happened today, and by waiting we’ll make Embry think that everything has blown over. Then when we make our move, it’ll be that much more effective because it will come as a surprise.”

  “Yes,” Baldridge muttered. “When we make our move ...”

  She slid closer to him and linked her arm with his, pressing against him so that she was sure he felt the soft warmth of her breast against his side.

  “You won’t regret working with me, Gaius,” she said softly. “You have my word on that.”

  “No, of course not.” A smile slowly formed on his face. “Some people are just destined to rule. Some men are born to be kings ... and to have beautiful queens at their side.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder as the buggy rocked along, and the fierce glow of satisfaction filled her eyes.

  Chapter 22

  Frank wasn’t too surprised when the next few days passed quietly on the Boxed E. Brady was probably laid up, recuperating from that busted nose, and Frank didn’t figure Baldridge would make a move until Brady had recovered enough to take charge of the attempt.

  He and Salty and Gage Carlin held an unofficial council of war in a corner of the bunkhouse the evening they returned to the ranch after the inquest. Even though Hal Embry was the foreman, Carlin had been riding for the Boxed E longer than any of the other hands. He knew the ranch, and he knew the men who worked here. That was why Frank sought his advice.

  “We need to make sure that nobody’s ever riding the range alone,” Frank said. “Any time somebody goes out to do some work, it’d be a good idea if he took two or three other men with him. And at least one of those men needs to be standing guard the whole time, not tending to chores.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Carlin agreed with a nod. “What about posting guards here at the ranch? If we put a man with a rifle up in the hayloft, he could see for a long way all around.”

  “I don’t think Baldridge will order an out-and-out attack on the ranch headquarters,” Frank said, “but we can’t completely eliminate the possibility. So that’s a good idea, too, Gage. Better to be too cautious than careless.”

  Salty said, “You’ve seen those gun-wolves, Frank. They’re killers, pure and simple. I wouldn’t put nothin’ past ’em.”

  “They jumped me and Hal and Ike and Bill the other day,” Carlin pointed out. “And they were on Boxed E range when they did it.”

  Frank rasped a thumbnail along his jawline as he frowned in thought. “I’m wondering if Brady did that on his own, without orders from Baldridge. He strikes me as the impatient sort. He could’ve gotten tired of waiting for Baldridge to tell him to make a move. He knew his mother was on her way to Pine Knob. Maybe he wanted things settled before she got here.”

  “Tryin’ to impress his ma, you mean?” Salty asked. “He reckoned she’d be proud of him if he killed a bunch of folks?”

  “She wouldn’t look at it that way,” Frank said heavily. “She’d just be glad he got rid of some obstacles that stood in the way of her getting what she wanted.”

  Carlin let out a low whistle. “No offense, Frank... I mean, I know you were involved with the lady before ... but it’d take a hell of a cold-blooded woman to look at the situation like that.”

  Frank nodded slowly and said, “No offense taken, Gage. I know just what you mean. But after seeing some of the things I did in town today, I’m starting to think you’re exactly right about what it would take.”

  Nothing else was said about Laura. They figured out a schedule for guards to be posted there at the ranch headquarters, and Carlin tapped one of the men to go ahead and climb into the hayloft, taking a Winchester with him.

  “If you see anything that looks threatening, you start makin’ some noise,” Carlin told the cowboy. “You’ll need to wake the ranch up in a hurry.”

  The man nodded in understanding and left the bunkhouse carrying a rifle.

  Nothing happened that night, though, and the same held true for several days. Frank and Salty rode out with groups of punchers who needed to move cattle from one pasture to another and check on other chores around the ranch. They didn’t do any work other than watching for trouble that failed to materialize.

  One evening after supper, Jubal Embry said to Frank, “You and Stevens wait a minute before you go back out to the bunkhouse. I want to talk to you.”

  Frank didn’t know what this was about, but he could tell that Embry was worried. So he nodded and said, “Sure. Come on, Salty.”

  They followed Embry to a large room in the rear of the house that served as the rancher’s library and office. Frank was a little surprised to see Faye already waiting there.

  After the trouble with Royal and Dobbs at the waterfall, Faye had been rather subdued for a few days, even after she resumed taking her meals with everyone else. Today, though, she seemed fully herself again, her eyes sparking with intelligence and stubbornness.

  “I’m going to town,” she announced as Frank and Salty followed Embry into the room.

  Frank’s eyebrows rose. “Tonight?” he asked.

  “Of course not,” Faye replied. “Tomorrow.”

  Embry said, “I’ve been tryin’ to tell her it ain’t a good idea. We can protect her a lot better if she stays right here on the ranch, close to the house.”

  “I haven’t set foot out of the house in almost a week,” Faye said. “I’m going crazy cooped up like this, and there are things I need from the store. I know Mother needs some supplies, too, so I’m going to take the wagon to Pine Knob tomorrow.”

  Her tone of voice made it clear that the decision had been made and nothing was going to change her mind. Frank gl
anced at Embry, thinking about the old saying involving apples not falling far from their trees.

  “Your father’s right, Miss Embry,” he said. “You’ll be a lot safer here at the ranch. I reckon if you give Gage Carlin a list of what you and your mother need from the store, he’d be glad to go in and get it. Salty and I could even go with him to make sure there was no trouble.”

  “But that wouldn’t get me out of the house,” Faye objected. “And if you and Mr. Stevens could protect Gage, why can’t you come along and protect me?”

  That was a fair question, Frank thought, but he said, “Carlin can fight back if somebody was to jump us.”

  Faye’s chin jutted out defiantly. “And I can’t?” she demanded. “I can handle both a pistol and a rifle. My father and Hal taught me. Actually, I think I’m a better shot with a rifle than Hal is.”

  Frank glanced at Embry, who shrugged with the same sort of helplessness he usually displayed in an argument with his daughter.

  “That’s true,” the rancher said. “She’s a good shot with a long gun.”

  “Shooting at targets and shooting at men are different,” Frank said, and he didn’t bother to keep the hard note out of his voice. “It’s a bad idea, Miss Embry.”

  “I’m going, and you can’t stop me!”

  “No, I reckon I can’t.” Frank looked at Embry again. “I’m not your pa.”

  Embry sighed and said, “Frank, you told me you’d throw in with me and back my play. I want you to go with Faye to Pine Knob tomorrow, you and Stevens and whoever else you think ought to go along.”

  “It’ll be perfectly safe,” Faye insisted. “I’ll have a famous gunfighter with me, after all.”

  Frank’s eyes narrowed. He thought Embry should have put Faye across his knee and paddled her the first time she started acting like such a spoiled brat ... but that wasn’t his decision to make and it was much too late for that, anyway. He could hardly hold himself up as an example of being a good parent, either, since he hadn’t participated in the raising of any of his two, maybe three, children.