by Neil Webb
It was crowding sunset when they finally topped the ridge and reined in. Long shafts of red and gold lanced obliquely through the piled up clouds over the western sky, like great fingers grasping at the ground, as if the sun was loath to pass on and let the night blanket out the wonderful vista before their eyes. Latimer half turned in his saddle and let his keen gaze sweep across the panorama about them. The small ranch in the middle distance looked deserted. Everything was still. The interminable stretch of grass was empty, except to the side, where in the gathering gloom he could see a sizeable herd of some fifteen hundred steers.
‘Do you run that many cows?’ he asked in some surprise. ‘And there are some more over there.’
‘They’re not mine,’ Aggie said with some bitterness. ‘It looks as if KS has pulled down the fence and claimed my land.’
‘I’ll check up on that,’ Latimer said, and the old hardness seeped back into him. ‘Let’s get on to your house and see if anyone is there.’
They rode forward, and Latimer loosened his Colt as they neared the deserted building. But the house was as they had left it on the fateful day they met.
‘I’ll turn your horse loose,’ he said. ‘I figure on riding over to that herd and checking. You stay here in the house and keep a gun handy.’
‘I’ll get some food going,’ Aggie said. ‘Don’t be long.’
‘It’ll be dark before I can get back. You’d better have a light in the window for me. I’m not familiar with this country.’
The sun was now very low in the sky. Latimer set off at a gallop towards the distant herd. He circled the great gathering of steers, but could see no riders. He kept going until, in the deepening gloom, he came upon the posts that marked KS boundary. He saw that the dreaded barbed wire had been stripped from the fence for more than one hundred yards. But it was too dark for checking sign, and he wheeled his mount and rode surely back to the Porter house. The lighted windows of the big cabin were like warm beacons that attracted him instinctively. He felt joy rising up inside him. Aggie! His lips formed her name, and he sighed. There was something inside him for both Aggie and Glory Stott. The first stars were twinkling remotely in the deep velvet of the heavens when he rode noisily into the dirt yard. He watered his mount, fed the animal, then turned it into the corral with Aggie’s mount. He felt tiredness pull at him when he walked into the house.
Aggie had prepared bacon, beans and coffee, and the smell of the cooked food made Latimer aware that he was ravenously hungry. He washed at the pump and his tiredness eased, and when he returned to the kitchen the meal was ready.
They ate almost in silence, and afterwards Latimer helped her wash the dishes and dry them. When they had finished he turned to her, catching her unawares. Tears were glinting in her eyes and his breath quickened. He sensed an undefinable softness about her. Reaching out, he cupped her chin in one of his big hands, and his fingers were surprisingly gentle. He tilted her face up to him.
‘Aggie, I know it’s going to be hell for you here for a long time. You have so much to live down. But I’m more concerned about your immediate future. If I may, I’ll stay here until dawn. Then I’ve got to be on my way to KS. I want you to stay quiet on this place until all the trouble is done. Then we’ll try and sort out things. Does that sound alright to you?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded and smiled wanly. ‘I’m greatly beholden to you. How can I ever repay you for what you have done?’
‘Just give me a bed for the night. I’m mighty tired, and tomorrow will be a hard day.’
She was about to reply when he stiffened and inclined his head into a listening attitude. He raised a think finger and pressed it against her softly curved lips. She saw his eyes slit and harden.
‘What is it?’ she whispered, and was aware that her heart thumped madly.
‘Riders coming. Two, maybe three horses.’ He palmed his right hand gun and checked its load, spinning the cylinder before returning the weapon to its holster. Then he checked the other weapon. ‘Can’t be enemies or they’d sneak in. Unless they figure you’re here alone. They must be able to see the lights at the windows.’
‘I can hear them now,’ she said, and gulped.
‘Sit down away from the door,’ He pushed her into a seat. ‘Don’t move for anything. You’ve got a back door? Good. I don’t fancy getting caught in a lighted room with only one door. Sit tight and I’ll scout outside.’
He squeezed her hand, moved swiftly to the back door and let himself out. Now he could hear quite plainly the pounding of approaching hooves. He moved through the shadows around the side of the cabin and stood with palmed Colts at the front corner, hugging the blackness of the thick log wall. The beat of the hooves faded as the riders slowed their approach. Latimer waited patiently, ears keened and eyes strained. Death lurked with him in the silent shadows.
Presently he saw the outlines of three horsemen appear out of the night. He cocked the hammer of his big Colt, lifting the muzzle of the heavy weapon to aim at the nearest horseman. Now that his eyes had become accustomed to the night he could make out details. While the riders came on more slowly a passing cloud slid from the round face of a full moon as if wiped away by a giant hand. Latimer edged in closer to the corner and waited.
The riders reined in some fifteen yards from the house, and one of them got out of his saddle and came towards the corner where Latimer was standing. He edged back slightly and lowered his face to conceal its tell-tale blur. His trigger finger tensed and a challenge trembled upon his thin lips. He was about to call when one of the riders shouted raucously.
‘Hello the cabin! Come on out with your hands up. The place is surrounded. Come quietly and there’ll be no shooting.’
Latimer pulled his lips into a snarl. He eased still further back into the shadows as the dismounted rider came towards him. With all the viciousness that his years of hardness and violence had instilled in him, Latimer struck the black shadow a powerful blow with the barrel of his gun. There was a dull thud, a little grunt of pain, and Latimer caught the man and lowered him silently to the ground. He thoughtfully removed a revolver from the holster on the unconscious man’s belt and stuck it into the waistband of his own pants. Then he returned to the corner.
‘You’ve got ten seconds to come on out. Then we start shooting,’ shouted one of the remaining two riders.
Latimer slid around the corner and placed his broad back against the front wall. He stood beside one of the lighted windows, and was invisible to anyone staring into the lamplight.
‘You’ve got just two seconds to throw down your guns,’ he replied loudly. ‘And sit still on your mounts. I can see you very well, and you’re covered.’
Two startled voices exclaimed loudly in front of the house. Then both riders swung their mounts in the direction from which his voice had sounded. Latimer immediately snapped off a shot, and the nearest rider tumbled from his saddle, his cry of pain lost in the roar of the gunshot. Latimer stepped forward a pace as he recocked his long-barrelled Colt. For a fraction of a second the other rider’s head was silhouetted against the full moon. Latimer fired again and the second saddle was swept clear. Then tension left him in a long sigh. He stood for a moment until the echoes of his shooting had faded away. Then he strained his ears and listened to the noises of the night. When he heard nothing suspicious, he holstered his gun and dropped to his knees, pressing an ear to the ground. For many long minutes he remained listening, but picked up nothing. He heard the movement of three riderless horses at hand, but nothing else, and was at last satisfied that the three had come alone.
He got to his feet and moved forward to the two men he had shot. He checked them out silently. They were both dead. He returned grimly to the unconscious rider. With a powerful heave he got the man off the ground and across his shoulder. He went into the cabin through the back door and dropped his burden at the feet of the pale-faced Aggie.
‘There were three of them,’ he said. ‘This one will be out for a long time. Th
e other two are dead.’
She shook her head slowly and sighed. Her face was ashen with shock. ‘When is this all going to end?’ she demanded hopelessly.
‘When the men responsible are either dead or behind bars,’ he said sharply, ‘It’s the only way to stop trouble of this sort. Violence must be met with violence. Killers must be killed. Have you seen this man before?’
She studied the unconscious face, her eyes wide and almost unseeing with shock. But she shook her head.
Latimer nodded slowly. ‘I’m going to take a look at the brands on the horses they rode. Here.’ He held out the gun he had taken from his victim. ‘I don’t expect he’ll wake up yet, but if he does just wave this under his nose or hit him on the head with it.’
She took the gun and Latimer left the cabin again by the back door. Aggie sat watching the man on the floor, frozen with shock. It seemed ages before Latimer returned.
‘I’ve put their horses in your corral,’ he said. ‘The bodies can stay where they are until sun-up.’
‘Did you find a brand on the mounts?’
‘Sure. They’re KS alright. Someone at Stott’s headquarters will have a lot to answer for when I get there. I’ll hog-tie this fellow for tonight. We ain’t going to lose any sleep watching him. Tomorrow, I’ll take him with me when I go to see Stott.’
The night passed uneventfully, but Latimer slept very little. He occupied the room that had been Aggie’s brother’s and several times during the darkness he tiptoed down the stairs and left the house to listen for suspicious noises. Each time all he heard was the soft breeze sighing through the tall grass and other natural noises that belonged to the great prairie. He checked up on his prisoner, but the man was asleep, or pretending to be. He finally rose at dawn and made some coffee. He took a cup to Aggie and awoke her.
‘How are you feeling this morning?’ he asked, noting that the strained look was still in her eyes. She smiled as she took the coffee. ‘I didn’t sleep much. I heard you go down several times. Is everything alright?’
‘You’ve had no more callers, and our prisoner is still breathing down in your store cupboard. I’m going to question him now.’
‘I’ll get up and cook breakfast. I’ve got a bad feeling, Frank, that makes me think this is going to be a dreadful day. I feel depressed and I don’t know why. Of course I have a lot to be depressed about; my father and my brother. But this is something different.’
‘You’re going back to town today to live, and I’m taking you. My business with KS can wait. You’re not safe out here until all this trouble is settled.’
‘Alright.’ She sighed heavily. ‘I’ll go back to town. But there’s no need for you to take me. You have a job to do, and the sheriff may not like it if you ride back without success.’
‘Don’t worry about me.’ He left the room and went back to the kitchen, helping himself to some coffee. Then he went to the store cupboard and brought out his prisoner.
‘Well,’ he said, helping the man into a seat. ‘You’ve got a lot to answer for. What were you doing outside this cabin last night?’
‘I ain’t got anything to say.’ The man’s shifty eyes flickered to Latimer’s law badge.
‘You’re two pards are lying dead outside.’ Latimer fetched the man some coffee and untied his hands. He stood back with his right hand at his hip while the man drank thirstily. ‘This may be my week for killing KS riders. Those two outside bring my tally up to a dozen. On whose orders did you come here prepared to murder? That’s all I want to know.’
‘I ain’t saying nothing. It’d be more than my life is worth.’
‘What do you reckon your life is worth right now?’ Latimer asked him flatly. ‘If I don’t get the answers I want I’ll take you outside, stand you by your dead pards, and gutshoot you. I won’t kill you outright, but you’d be dead before the sheriff arrived. I ain’t foolin’. If you want to go on living you’d better start talking.’
‘You’re a law man! You wouldn’t shoot a man in cold blood.’
‘Don’t bet on that.’ Latimer smiled coldly. ‘I don’t happen to like killers, especially when they’re all set to murder me. And if I hadn’t been here you would have found a woman alone. I don’t like to think that would have happened to her. I’d like sure as hell to make certain that you’ll never pull a gun again. But that’s up to you. Now, my question. Who gave the order for you to come here last night?’
The gunman looked into Latimer’s merciless face and a deathly coldness filled him. He could not match Latimer’s unwavering stare, and lowered his eyes.
‘Rand sent us to live in the house here, and watch the herd.’ He said finally. ‘We were told that no one was living here. We heard the girl was staying in town. We were surprised to see the lights in the windows. But we had no intention of killing anyone.’
‘I heard one of your two pards shout that you would start shooting if we didn’t come out,’ Latimer said grimly.
‘It was their way of throwing a scare into the girl. When we saw the lights we figured she had come back from town, and thought she was alone.’
‘Good thing she wasn’t. What’s Rand’s game?’
‘I don’t know.’ The gunman shook his head. ‘What about me?’
‘You’re riding with me to KS, and then you’re coming with me and Rand to town, both under arrest.’
‘You’re going to try and arrest Rand?’ The man’s face showed astonishment. ‘Mister, you don’t know how fast Rand is with a gun.’
‘He’s ten years older than the last time I saw him in action,’ Latimer retorted. ‘I’ll allow that those ten years have taken the edge off his gun speed.’
‘You’re Link Latimer, the outlaw, aren’t you?’
‘Is that any of your business?’
‘No. But it sure as hell beats all that an outlaw rides around wearing a lawman’s badge.’
‘I’m doing a lawman’s job.’ Latimer’s voice was brittle. ‘Who is making my identity known on this range?’
‘Not me. But it’s common knowledge on KS.’
‘If I hear you breathe it to a living soul, I’ll put a gun in your hand then kill you.’
‘Some of our riders say you’re faster than Rand. It’s a fact though that you shoot just as straight. But even you can’t take on all the KS crew and live. You’d get some of them, but they’d down you.’
‘They may get their chance at me before I’m through,’ Latimer said grimly. ‘Is Stott in on this crooked deal or is Rand the king-pin?’
‘It’s all Rand’s idea. He wants KS for himself and he’s been working years to get it.’
‘He’ll have to kill Stott first.’
‘He’ll do that when he’s ready. He wanted to get the spread the easy way by marrying Glory Stott, but she isn’t having any of that, and old man Stott has told Rand that his daughter is too good for a gunslinger. They had a hell of a row last night. It finished with Stott being held a prisoner in his own house, and Rand has taken the girl away to keep her as hostage. She’ll be a lever to use against Stott.’
Latimer mulled over what the man had said. He had expected something like this; had planned something similar if he found at the outset that Stott was the crooked pin in the pile. Now this proved that Rand was getting nervous. It showed that he was worried by Latimer’s presence on this range as a deputy sheriff. Latimer tried to reason out the situation from Rand’s angle. The girl refused to marry him and her father was dead set against the idea of his daughter getting hitched to a gunman. That washed out Rand’s easiest method of getting control of KS. Now what would he do? Killing Stott wouldn’t solve anything unless Rand had married Glory. Perhaps Stott was aware of that. Taking Glory away would put a cinch on Stott’s resistance. But Stott would figure that Rand would not kill the girl.
‘We’re riding to the KS as soon as I’ve saddled up.’ Latimer told the gunman.
‘Suits me,’ the man replied. ‘The crew out there will soon deal with you. It will be a
pleasure to watch you and Rand shoot it out.’
Aggie prepared breakfast, and after he had eaten, Latimer unbound his prisoner and fed the man. When they were ready to leave, Latimer took the man out to the barn and saddled three horses. Aggie tidied the cabin to her liking before she came out.
‘All set?’ Latimer asked. He held the reins of his prisoner’s mount. The man’s hands were tied to the saddlehorn. Aggie swung into her hull, riding close to Latimer. ‘You’re to ride straight to town, you know,’ he said. ‘And you’d better tell the sheriff my plans in case anything happens to me. He’ll want to know where to pick up the pieces. Tell him what happened here last night, and that I have a prisoner.’
‘Don’t you think you’re being foolhardy, Frank? Rand and his gunmen are obviously getting desperate. They’ll shoot you down in cold blood if they see you. They all know you are the only law around here. You’re the one who has stirred up the town against them. They would welcome a chance to get you alone so that they can shoot you.’
‘Maybe they’ll get the chance now,’ he replied grimly. ‘I’ve got a job to do, Aggie, and nothing is going to stop me. So get on your way to town. I’ll see you back in Buffalo Springs when I return.’
She nodded and pulled round the head of her mount. Latimer watched her ride along the trail that eventually led to town. He waved every time she twisted in her saddle and lifted her arm in farewell. When she had disappeared beyond a grove of trees, Latimer rode forward beside his silent prisoner, and they headed for the gap in Stott’s fence. ‘Did you jaspers do this?’ he asked as they rode through the breached wire.
‘Another party rode through before us,’ the gunnie replied. ‘They had orders to cut all fences where they joined smaller ranches. Then we were supposed to haze in some cows, and shoot the small ranchers for rustling.’