A cigarette glowed suddenly from the steps of the bunk house. Evidently the man had just turned toward him. Had he inadvertently made a sound? At least he knew that somebody was there, on guard.
Ward eased off to the left until the house was between himself and the guard. Then he crossed swiftly to the side of the house. He eased a window a little higher. It was a warm night and the window had been open at the bottom.
Jim Yount was playing solitaire at the dining room table. Red Lund was oiling a pistol. Packer was leaning his elbows on the table and smoking, watching Yount’s cards.
“I always wanted a ranch,” Yount was saying, “and this is it. No use gallivanting around the country when a man can live in style. I’d have had it over beyond Newton’s if that damned sand bed I got from Chait had been any good. Then I saw this place. It was too good to be true.”
“You worked fast,” Packer said, “but you had a streak of luck when Hollier an’ me got McQueen. From what I hear, he was nobody to fool around with.”
Yount shrugged. “Maybe so, but all sorts of stories get started and half of them aren’t true. He might be fast with a gun, but he had no brains, and it takes brains to win in this kind of game.” He glanced at Lund. “Look, that Logan Keane outfit lies south of Hosstail Creek, and it joins onto this one. Nice piece of country, thousands of acres with good water, running right up to the edge of town. Keane’s scared now. Once me and Ruth Kermitt are married so our title to this ranch is cinched, we’ll go to work on Keane. We’ll rustle his stock, run off his hands, and force him to sell. I figure the whole job shouldn’t take more than a month, at the outside.”
Red glanced up from his pistol. “You get the ranches, what do we get?”
Yount smiled. “You don’t want a ranch, and I do, but I happen to know that Ruth has ten thousand dollars cached. You boys”—for a moment his eyes held those of Red Lund—“can split that among you. You can work out some way of dividing it even up all around.”
Lund’s eyes showed his understanding, and Mc-Queen glanced at Packer, but the big horse thief showed no sign of having seen the exchange of glances. Ward could see how the split would be made; it would be done with Red Lund’s six-shooter. They would get the lead; he’d take the cash. It had the added advantage to Jim Yount of leaving only one witness to his treachery.
Crouched below the window, Ward McQueen calculated his chances. Jim Yount was reputed to be a fast man with a gun. Red Lund had already proved his skill. Packer would, also, be good, even if not an artist like the others. Three to one made the odds much too long, and at the bunk house would be Hollier and Pete Dodson, neither a man to be trifled with.
A clatter of horses’ hoofs on the hard-packed trail, and a horse man showed briefly in the door and was ushered into the room. It was the lean stranger who had played poker with Gelvin and Keane.
“You Jim Yount? Just riding by and wanted to tell you there’s an express package at the station for Miss Kermitt. She can drop in tomorrow to pick it up if she likes.”
“Express package? Why didn’t you bring it out?”
“Wouldn’t let me. Seems like its money or something like that. A package of dinero that’s payment for some property in Wyoming. She’s got to sign for it herself. They won’t let anybody else have it.”
Yount nodded. “All right. She’s asleep, I think, but come morning I’ll tell her.”
The rider went out, and a few minutes later Ward heard his horse’s hoofs on the trail.
“More money?” Packer grinned. “Not bad, boss! She can pick it up for us and we’ll split it.”
Red Lund was wiping off his pistol. “I don’t like it,” he spoke suddenly. “Looks like a move to get us off the ranch and the girl into town.”
Yount shrugged. “I doubt it, but suppose that’s it? Who in town has the guts or the skill to tackle us? Personally I believe it’s the truth, but if it ain’t, why worry? We’ll send Packer in ahead to scout. If there’s any strangers around, he can warn us. I think it’s all right. We’ll ride in tomorrow.”
An hour later, and far back on a brush-covered hillside, Ward McQueen bedded down for the night. From where he lay, he could see anybody who arrived at or left the ranch. One thing he knew. Tomorrow was the pay off. Ruth Kermitt would not be returning to the ranch.
At daylight he was awake and watching, his buckskin saddled and ready. It had been a damp, uncomfortable night, and he stretched, trying to get the chill from his muscles. The sunshine caught reflected light from the window. Hollier emerged and began roping horses in the corral. He saddled his own, Ruth’s brown mare, and Yount’s big gray.
Ward McQueen tried to foresee what would happen. He was convinced, as was Red Lund, that the package was a trick. There were only nine buildings on the town’s main street, scarcely more than two dozen houses scattered about. The express and stage office was next to the saloon. Gelvin’s store was across the street.
What ever happened, Ruth would be in danger. She would be with Yount, closely surrounded by the others. To fire on them was to endanger her.
And where did that young rider stand? He had been called Rip, and he had known of McQueen’s gun battle in Maravillas Cañon. Ward was sure he was not the aimless drifter he was supposed to be. His face was too keen, his eyes too sharp. If he had baited a trap with money, he had used the only bait to which these men would rise. But what was he hoping to accomplish?
There were no men in Manner house who could draw a gun in the same league with Yount or Lund. Gelvin would try, if he was there, but Gelvin had only courage, and no par tic u lar skill with a handgun, and courage alone was not enough.
It was an hour after daylight when Packer mounted his paint gelding and started for town. Ward watched him go, speculating on what must follow. He had resolved upon his own course of action. His was no elaborate plan. He intended to slip into town and at the right moment kill Jim Yount and, if possible, Red Lund.
The only law in Manner house was old John Binns, a thoroughly good man of some seventy years who had been given the job largely in lieu of a pension. He had been a hardworking man who owned his home and a few acres of ground, and he had a wife only a few years younger.
Manner house had never been on the route of trail drives, land booms, or mining discoveries, and in consequence the town had few disturbances or characters likely to cause them. The jail had been used but once, when the town first came into being, and few citizens could remember the occasion. John Binns’s enforcement of the law usually was a quiet suggestion to be a little less noisy or to go home and sleep it off.
Ward McQueen, a law-abiding man, found himself faced with a situation where right, justice, and the simple rules of civilized society were being pushed aside by men who did not hesitate to kill. One prominent citizen had been murdered, another pistol-whipped. Their stated intention was to do more of the same, to say nothing of Jim Yount’s plan to marry Ruth, and his implication had been that it was simply a means to seize her land. Once they had won what they wished, there was no reason to believe the violence would cease. Gangrene had infected the area, and the only solution open to Ward McQueen was to amputate.
Yet he was no fool. He knew something of the gun skills of the men he would face. Even if he was killed himself, he must eliminate them. The towns-people could take care of such as Hollier and Packer. If he succeeded, Kim Sartain could handle the rest of it, and would. That was Kim’s way.
Mounting the buckskin, he started down the trail toward Manner house, only a few miles away. When he had ridden but a few hundred yards, he saw from his vantage point above the ranch that three riders were also headed for town. Jim Yount, Ruth, and, a few yards behind, Red Lund.
Pete Dodson, riding a sorrel horse, was also headed for town but by another route. Jim Yount was taking no chances.
The dusty main street of Manner house lay warm under the morning sun. On the steps of the express office Rip was sunning himself. Abel, behind his bar, watched nervously both his windo
w and his door. He was on edge and aware, aware as a wild animal is when a strange creature nears its lair. Trouble was in the wind.
Gelvin’s store was closed, unusual for this time of day. Abel glanced at Rip, and his brow furrowed. Rip was wearing two tied-down guns this morning, unusual for him.
Abel finished polishing the glass and put it down, glancing nervously at Packer. Suddenly Packer downed the drink and got to his feet. Walking to the door, he glanced up and down the street. All was quiet, yet the big man was worried. A man left the post office and walked along the boardwalk to the barbershop, and entered. The sound of the closing door was the only sound. A hen pecked at something in the mouth of the alley near Gelvin’s store. As he watched, he saw Pete Dodson stop his horse behind Gelvin’s. Pete was carrying a rifle. Packer glanced over at Rip, noting the guns.
Packer turned suddenly, glaring at Abel. “Give me that scatter gun you got under the bar!”
“Huh?” Abel was frightened. “I ain’t got…”
“Don’t give me that! I want that gun!”
There was an instant when Abel considered covering Packer or even shooting him, but the big man frightened him and he put the shotgun on the bar. Packer picked it up and tiptoed to the window and put the gun down beside it. Careful to make no sound, he eased the window up a few inches. His position now covered Rip’s side and back.
Abel cringed at what he had done. He liked Rip. The lean, easygoing, friendly young man might now be killed because of him. He’d been a coward. He should have refused, covered Packer, and called Rip inside. And he could have done that. If he wasn’t such a coward. Now, because of him, a good man might be murdered, shot in the back. What was going on, anyway? This had been such a quiet little town.
Jim Yount rode up the street with Ruth beside him. Her face was pale and strained, and her eyes seemed unnaturally large.
Red Lund trailed a few yards behind. He drew up, and tied his horse across the street.
From the saloon Abel could see it all. Jim Yount and Ruth Kermitt were approaching Rip from the west. North and west was Red Lund. Due north and in the shadow of Gelvin’s was Pete Dodson. In the saloon was Packer. Rip was very neatly boxed, signed, and sealed. All but delivered.
Jim Keane, Logan’s much older brother, was the express agent. He saw Jim Yount come, saw Red Lund across the street.
Rip got up lazily, smiling at Ruth.
“Come for your package, Miss Kermitt?” he asked politely. “While you’re here, would you mind answering some questions.”
“By whose authority?” Yount demanded sharply.
Ward McQueen, crouched behind the saloon, heard the reply clearly. “The state of Texas, Yount,” Rip replied. “I’m a Texas Ranger.”
Jim Yount’s short laugh held no humor. “This ain’t Texas, and she answers no questions.”
Ward McQueen opened the back door of the saloon and stepped inside.
Packer, intent on the scene before him, heard the door open. Startled and angry, he whirled around. Ward McQueen, who he had buried, was standing just inside the door. The shotgun was resting on the windowsill behind Rip. Packer went for his sixgun, but even as he reached, he knew it was hopeless. He saw the stab of flame, felt the solid blow of the bullet, and felt his knees turn to butter under him. He pitched forward on his face.
Outside all hell broke loose. Ruth Kermitt, seeing Rip’s situation, spurred her horse to bump Yount’s, throwing him out of position. Instantly she slid from the saddle and threw herself to the ground near the edge of the walk.
All seemed to have begun firing at once. Yount, cursing bitterly, fired at Rip. He in turn was firing at Red Lund. Ward stepped suddenly from the saloon and saw himself facing Yount, who had brought his mount under control. He fired at Yount, and a bullet from Dodson’s rifle knocked splinters from the post in front of his face.
Yount’s gun was coming into line and McQueen fired an instant sooner. Yount fired and they both missed. Ward’s second shot hit Yount, who grabbed for the pommel. Ward walked a step forward, but something hit him and he went to his knee. Red Lund loomed from somewhere, and Ward got off another shot. Lund’s face was covered with blood.
There was firing from the stage station and from Gelvin’s store. There was a thunder of hoofs, and a blood-red horse came charging down the street, its rider hung low like an Indian, shooting under the horse’s neck.
Yount was down, crawling on his belly in the dust. He had lost hold of his six-shooter, but his right hand held a knife and he was crawling toward Ruth. McQueen’s six-shooter clicked on an empty chamber. How many shots were left in his other gun? He lifted it with his left hand. Something was suddenly wrong with his right. He rarely shot with his left hand, but now ....
Yount was closer. Ruth was staring across the street, unaware. McQueen shot past Ruth, squeezing off the shot with his left hand. He saw Yount contract sharply as the bullet struck. McQueen fired again, and the gambler rolled over on his side and the knife slipped from his fingers.
Abel ran from the saloon with a shotgun, and Gelvin from his store with a rifle. Then Ruth was running toward him, and he saw Kim Sartain coming back up the street, walking the red horse. Ward tried to rise to meet Ruth, but his knees gave way and he went over on his face, thinking how weak she must think him. He started to rise again, and blacked out.
When he could see again Ruth was beside him. Kim was squatting on his heels. “Come on, Ward!” he said. “You’ve only been hit twice and neither of ’em bad. Can’t you handle lead any more?”
“What happened?”
“Clean sweep, looks like. Charlie Quayle got to us and we hightailed it to the ranch. Hollier wanted to give us trouble, but we smoked him out. I believe there were others around, but if there were, they skipped the country. Whilst they were cleanin’ up, I took it on the run for town. Halfway here, I thought I heard a shot, and, when I hit the street, everybody in town was shootin’, or that’s what it looked like. Reg’lar Fourth of July celebration! Pete Dodson is dead, and Red Lund’s dying with four bullets in him. Yount’s alive, but he won’t make it, either. Packer’s dead.”
Ward’s head was aching and he felt weak and sick, but he did not want to move, even to get out of the street. He just wanted to sit, to forget all that had taken place. With fumbling fingers, from long habit, he started to reload his pistols. Oddly he found one of them contained three live shells. Somehow he must have reloaded, but he had no memory of it.
Rip came over. “My name’s Coker, Ward. I couldn’t figure any way to bust up Yount’s operation without getting Ruth Kermitt away from him first, so I faked that package to get them into town, hoping I could get her away from them. I didn’t figure they’d gang up on me like they did.”
They helped Ward up and into the saloon. Gelvin brought the doctor in. “Yount just died,” Gelvin said, “cussing you and everybody concerned.”
He sat back in a chair while the doctor patched him up. Again he had lost blood. “I’ve got to find a bed,” he said to Kim. “There must be a hotel in town.”
“You’re coming back to the ranch,” Ruth said. “We need you there. They told me you left me, Ward. Jim Yount said you pulled out and Kim with you. I hadn’t seen him, and Yount said he’d manage the ranch until I found someone. Then he brought his own men in and fired Kim, who I hadn’t seen, and I was surrounded and scared. If you had been there, or if I’d even known you were around, I…”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ward leaned his head back. All he wanted was rest.
Baldy Jackson helped him into a buckboard, Bud Fox driving. “You know that old brindle longhorn who turned up missin’? Well, I found him. He’s got about thirty head with him, holed up in the prettiest little valley you ever did see. Looks like he’s there to stay.”
“He’s like me,” Ward commented, “so used to his range he wouldn’t he happy anywhere else.”
“Then why think of anywhere else?” Ruth said. “I want you to stay.”
Show
down on the Hogback
I
Everything was quiet in Mustang. Three whole days had passed without a killing. The towns-folk, knowing their community, were not fooled, but rather had long since resigned themselves to the inevitable and would, in fact, be relieved when the situation was back to normal with a killing every day, or more on hot days. When there had been no killing for several days, pressure mounted because no one knew who would be next. Moreover, with Clay Allison, who had killed thirty men, playing poker over at the Morrison House, and Black Jack Ketchum who richly deserved the hanging he was soon to get, sleeping off a drunk at the St. James, trouble could be expected.
The walk before the St. James was cool at this hour, and Captain Tom Kedrick, a stranger in town, sat in a well-polished chair and studied the street with interested eyes. He was a tall young man with rusty brown hair and green eyes, quiet-mannered and quick to smile. Women never failed to look twice, and, when their eyes met his, their hearts pounded, a fact of which Tom Kedrick was totally unaware. He knew women seemed to like him, but it never failed to leave him mildly astonished when they liked him very much, which they often did.
The street he watched was crowded with buckboards, freight wagons, a newly arrived stage and one about to depart. All the hitch rails were lined with saddled horses wearing a variety of brands. Kedrick was suddenly aware that a young man stood beside him, and he glanced up. The fellow was scarcely more than a boy and he had soft brown eyes and hair that needed cutting. “Cap’n Kedrick?” he inquired. “John Gunter sent me. I’m Dornie Shaw.”
“Oh, yes!” Kedrick got to his feet, smiling, and thrust out his hand. “Nice to know you, Shaw. Are you working for Gunter?”
Shaw’s soft brown eyes were faintly ironic. “With him,” he corrected. “I work for no man.”
“I see.”
Kedrick did not see at all, but he was prepared to wait and find out. There was something oddly disturbing about this young man, something that had Kedrick on edge and queerly alert. “Where’s Gunter now?”
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