by Ralph Hayes
‘Evening, boys. Anything we can do for you?’
The tall man released his hold on Dulcie, and faced Sumner. He and Gus had had just enough dark ale to be injudicious in their behaviour. ‘Oh. The friend. Yeah, you can just go back in there and get your buying done, and turn her over to us for a little while.’
Sumner sighed and came a few steps closer. ‘You boys got bounties on your ugly heads?’
Now both men were facing him. Taking notice of the big Peacemaker, and the svelte look of him.
‘Why is that any of your business?’ Gus growled at him.
But the tall one was studying Sumner more carefully. ‘Wait. Did she call you Wesley a minute ago?’
Dulcie was rubbing her arm, and feeling a lot better. ‘That’s right,’ she offered smugly.
The tall man was putting two and two together. ‘Wesley. Bounties.’ His face sagged into a look of dismay. ‘My God. You’re Certainty Sumner!’
Gus looked over at his partner. ‘Huh?’
Now Sumner was doubly irritated. He did not want to be recognized on this flight north. ‘Move away from her,’ he said quietly.
The tall man took two steps backward so fast he almost fell. Gus, now understanding too, joined him. A small smile came on to Dulcie’s pretty face, and her awe of Sumner grew. Sumner turned to her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine. Now that you’re here.’
Sumner turned to the two assailants. ‘Just a suggestion. You probably ought to get the hell out of here. While you still can.’
The tall man nodded quickly. ‘We’re already gone.’ A tight grin.
‘Good meeting you,’ Gus offered.
‘Move,’ Sumner growled.
Gus nodded this time, and they hurried away, towards a second saloon.
Sumner turned to Dulcie again. ‘You better come inside with me. You’ll attract men like flies to a honeypot.’
She liked that. She gave him a sexy smile. ‘I’m glad you think so.’
He ignored the flirting. ‘There’s a camp stool in there I might buy for you.’
She put her hat back on. ‘I didn’t know. That you could do that.’
‘Oh, them? They’re everywhere. But they’re seldom any real trouble.’
‘I see that.’ She smiled at him.
He gave her a sober look. ‘Come on, Dulcie. We’ve already stayed here too long.’
That evening they made hardship camp a few miles north of Cimarron, and off the trail. Dulcie helped make a fire, and then cooked them a light meal while Sumner tended to the horses. After they were finished and the implements were cleaned up and put away, they sat at the fire side by side, Dulcie on her new folding stool. They sipped at coffee cups and stared into the fire.
‘I’m very impressed,’ Dulcie finally said.
Sumner looked over at her. They were hatless, and a lock of dark hair had fallen on to his face. He didn’t respond.
‘I mean, here we are down in Kansas and those men knew about you. And they were scared to death of you.’
‘They used good judgment,’ he said.
She was studying his aquiline face from the light of the fire. ‘I’ve never met anyone like you,’ she said softly.
He met her look. ‘You’re a bit different yourself, Dulcie.’
‘Do you think so?’
‘I usually say what I mean.’
‘You’ve never married?’
He frowned. ‘Does it matter?’
‘I just want to know more about you.’ She paused. ‘I like you.’
His frown disappeared. He took a deep breath in. ‘There was a girl once. But when I went to her to ask her to marry me, after a long absence, she was already married.’ A wry smile.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I had no other plans about my future. I grabbed the first wanted dodger I saw, stuffed it in my pocket, and never looked back.’ He stared out into the blackness. ‘I had already killed five men, for various reasons that I felt were valid. And I had learned some skill with a gun.’
Her face had changed. ‘I see.’
Sumner caught her eye. ‘I’m not a murderer, Dulcie. I only hunt killers, and they always have a fair chance to defend themselves.’
‘I don’t see anything wrong in it. I guess Papa didn’t, either.’
‘It’s a kind of life,’ he said.
She stretched her legs out in front of the fire. ‘For a woman out here, there’s only one life available to her. She’s expected to marry and have children and make a home for her husband.’
‘And you’d like more than that?’
‘I think I’d like to work on a newspaper for a while. Maybe have a column of my own.’
He poked at the fire with a stick, and sparks flew up into the dark. ‘You must be a reader.’
She smiled gratefully at his understanding. ‘I am. I like Jane Austen, and Herman Melville.’
He glanced over at her. ‘Moby Dick?’
Her lovely smile brightened. ‘Why, yes. Do you know it?’
‘I read it in prison.’
The smile faded. ‘You were in prison?’
‘Three of the men I told you about earlier. They raped and murdered my aunt, and I went after them. It was all justified. But the law sent me up anyway.’
A heavy silence fell into the camp area for a long moment.
‘I think I’m really beginning to like you, Wesley,’ she finally said soberly.
A frown edged its way on to his face. ‘Dulcie. What are you saying?’
‘You know what I’m saying.’
He shook his head slowly. ‘Dulcie, what’s in your head? It’s natural to feel gratitude for being rescued from that low-life. But don’t mix that up with anything else. You’re just a kid. When you get back, you’ll be dating boys your own age. And that’s proper. Don’t confuse gratitude with affection.’
‘I can’t help it. I do have affection for you. Don’t you feel just a little something for me?’
He sighed. ‘Of course I do.’ He avoided looking at her lovely face, and the way she filled out her clothes. ‘But not in that way. I’m not a goddam child molester. Like Latham. Maybe we better change the subject.’
‘I may be young. But I think you know I look like a woman. And I have the feelings of a woman.’
‘Keep on with this and I’ll have to gag you.’ He stood up and walked over to the horses.
‘I’m not virginal, you know.’
‘Goddam it, Dulcie!’ he said heatedly, turning back to her.
‘There was this neighbour boy. About a year ago. He took me out behind the barn. Papa doesn’t know.’ She smiled to herself.
He walked over to the fire, facing her sombrely. ‘Did you forget who’s in charge here?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Then get this straight. Between you and me it’s strictly business, and always will be. Get any other ideas out of your little head. Once and for all.’
She looked away from him, her eyes watering up. ‘If that’s the way you want it.’
He was about to change the subject when he heard a voice behind him, from a small stand of trees.
‘I thought I’d find you out here.’
Sumner turned quickly, and Dulcie rose from her stool. Sumner had started for his gun, but found a long revolver aimed at his chest. It was a rough-looking man on horseback, and he had quietly come up on them as Sumner’s attention was diverted by Dulcie. Sumner swore under his breath.
‘Oh!’ Dulcie gasped.
‘Who the hell are you?’ Sumner growled out.
‘I’m Gus’s brother. The boy you hoorawed earlier in town. My family won’t tolerate that from no gunslinger. So here I am.’
‘Oh, God,’ Dulcie whispered.
‘You’ve got it all wrong, mister,’ Sumner told him. ‘Your brother was harassing this girl here. I asked him to leave.’
‘You made him back down,’ the stranger said in a deep, hostile voice. He was a big man, with several da
ys’ growth of beard and a scar through his right eyebrow. ‘Now that has to be answered.’
Dulcie was getting her courage back. ‘Do you know who this is?’
‘I know, girlie. And that makes it all the sweeter.’
Sumner sighed. ‘You don’t have to do this.’
‘Yes, I do. Now, step away from the girl. I want to keep her healthy.’
Dulcie swallowed new fear back.
Sumner stepped slowly away from Dulcie, as he spoke again. ‘All right. But she has a gun, too.’ As he stepped into the line of fire.
As Sumner expected, the gunman’s eyes went to Dulcie for just a second. And in that second, Sumner drew the Peacemaker.
His attacker saw the lightning-fast movement at the last moment, but his reaction time was too slow. The big Colt roared in the darkness three times in rapid succession, punching Gus’s brother in the belly, over the heart, and in the left eye.
The attacker’s and Dulcie’s bodies jumped with each shot, and he was knocked backwards off his horse, which reared and ran off into the night. Sumner stood there relaxed and motionless. Then he twirled the Colt over twice until it rested snugly in its holster.
Dulcie stood with her jaw dropped slightly open. She had not seen him kill Weeks, so she had never seen him in action. ‘My God. You’re as good as they all think you are.’
‘I’m sorry you had to see that. But he gave me no choice.’ He went over and examined the very dead body on the ground. ‘He should have let it go.’ He went over to the fire and poured himself a cup of hot coffee. ‘Can I get you one?’
Dulcie was almost speechless. ‘I think I’ll wait till I can move my arms and legs again,’ she said with a weak smile.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was an overcast, damp morning in Cimarron when Duke Latham and Ira Sloan rode into that cowtown. It was just past seven, and Sumner and Dulcie had broken camp and headed on north less than an hour before, just a mile beyond town.
Latham and Sloan had ridden most of the night to get there, but had no idea they were now so close to their quarry.
The saloons were still closed up, so Latham could not inquire at any of them. They reined up, therefore, in front of a hotel down the street from one of the saloons. There were very few pedestrians out on the street. Latham leaned on his saddlehorn and removed his Stetson.
‘I’m ready to quit this,’ Sloan grumbled. ‘This is getting us nothing, Duke.’
‘You’ll quit when I quit,’ Latham growled at him. ‘Stay put here. I’ll inquire in here. I got a feeling. That we’re getting close.’
‘All right. But when you’re through with that, let’s stop at that little restaurant we saw down the street. I could eat the nails in my boots.’
‘I’ll just take a minute,’ Latham told him.
He wrapped his reins over a hitching post and went into the hotel. As the miles wore on, his anger towards Dulcie had grown. Now, in his head, he was raping her before killing her, and maybe even letting Sloan have a turn on her. Then he would leave her body in a woods somewhere where Provost could find it, when Latham broke the news to him by telegram.
Inside the hotel, it was Kansas City luxury. Potted palms. Carpeting. A Remington painting on the wall behind the desk. There was a fat clerk behind a mahogany counter.
‘May I help you, sir?’ Tilting his head down to look at them over his reading glasses.
‘I’m looking for a couple of friends. A man and young woman travelling together. Has anybody like that been in here the past couple of nights?’
‘I believe there was a couple here two nights ago,’ the clerk said curtly. ‘If they’re your friends, you missed them. Can I get you a room?’
Latham took quick interest. ‘A couple? How did they register? What names?’
‘Oh, I can’t tell you that, sir. It’s against hotel policy. Do you intend to stay the night?’
Latham walked around the end of the counter and went over to the clerk.
‘Oh! You can’t be back here, sir! We don’t allow that!’
Latham grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him back against a bank of key boxes. The fellow winced when he hit them, his breath coming hard. ‘Please!’
‘What were their names?’ Latham spat at him.
The clerk swallowed back his fear. ‘Why, I believe it was Watkins.’
‘What did they look like?’
‘Well, let’s see. They was well dressed. I remember she was very courteous.’
Latham fairly shouted at him. ‘Damn it, how old were they?’
‘Oh, they both had grey hair. I think he was a banker from Wichita.’
Latham swore under his breath. ‘Why the hell didn’t you say so?’
He released his hold on the clerk and stormed out of the lobby, grumbling under his breath. Outside, he went down and leaned on his mount’s flank. Sloan watched him silently.
‘They haven’t been there.’
Sloan shook his head. ‘Let’s go eat,’ he said dully.
They walked down to the small restaurant, found a table at the front of the place, and ordered breakfast. Sloan was so hungry he ordered steak and eggs. But Latham had lost his appetite.
When their food was delivered, they ate in silence, Sloan wolfing his food down and Latham doing a lot of staring across the room, thinking. Wondering if they really were on the right track to catch Dulcie and her captor.
‘We could head back east and see if they went through Dodge,’ Sloan finally offered, as he finished up his plate. Latham was sipping at a cup of coffee.
‘They came this way. I feel it in my bones,’ he said quietly.
There was only one other table occupied, by a local man and wife, and they now paid their bill and left.
Finally Sloan looked over at Latham. ‘We’re not going to find them.’ he said flatly. ‘I feel that in my bones.’
Latham regarded him darkly. ‘If she makes it back to Provost, I swear to God I’ll ride in there and shoot him down like a goddam dog!’
‘You’d never get past his men,’ Sloan said.
Latham thought about that. ‘Then I’d go out and kill somebody. Anybody. Just to get it out of my system.’
Sloan gave him a narrow look, but said nothing. In the next moment, the door opened and two men came in. One was Gus, the fellow who had harassed Dulcie in town the previous day, and whose brother now lay dead out on the trail where Sumner had killed him. Gus was with a blocky man who worked for a local blacksmith. They took a table not far from Latham and Sloan. The proprietor came and took their order and left. Latham was still nursing the coffee, and thinking dark thoughts.
‘He left last night,’ Gus was saying. ‘But Natty says he ain’t been back since.’
‘Well, don’t that beat all,’ the other man retorted. ‘What do you think, Gus?’
‘I don’t know, but I better ride out there later. Take a couple of dependable boys with me.’
Neither Latham nor Sloan was paying any attention to them. Sloan let out a long breath. ‘I wish I could get you off this, Duke. It could wreck our future plans. We got big money to make. You had some good ideas.’
‘That will all come, don’t worry,’ Latham said absently. ‘Once I get my payback. Everything will be good again.’
Across the way, Gus was speaking again. ‘We had no idea who he was. Till the girl called his name.’
‘And you say it was somebody named Sumner?’
‘That’s right. Just maybe the most dangerous gunslinger out there. Well, we wasn’t going up against that. But that just got in Ben’s craw. So he went out to take him by surprise.’
Latham turned to Sloan. ‘Did you hear that? That bounty hunter and a girl. Sonofabitch.’
‘Certainty Sumner?’ Sloan wondered.
But Latham had already risen from his chair and was on his way over to the other table. When he got there he leaned over Gus. ‘I heard you talking over here. Did you meet up with a man named Certainty Sumner?’
G
us gave him a dismissive look. ‘Who the hell are you?’
‘Somebody you don’t want to get crossways of. Now, just answer the question.’
Gus frowned. ‘Are you with the city marshal?’
Latham sighed, and drew his Starr .44 and shoved the muzzle up against Gus’s right temple.
‘Hey!’ Gus exclaimed.
‘Take it easy, stranger,’ the blacksmith said, a little breathlessly.
‘Now, when I ask you a question, I want an answer, understand?’
Gus swallowed hard. ‘I got it.’
‘Then answer my question.’
‘It was that bounty hunter, all right. Sure enough.’
‘And he was with somebody?’
‘A girl. Just a kid, but a looker.’
Latham grunted. ‘You tell me true, you little weasel, or I’ll blow that tiny brain of yours out past your left ear. Did he call her name?’
Gus’s tongue was paper dry. ‘I . . . don’t think so.’
‘Did they ride out to the north?’
Gus nodded tightly. ‘I believe so. My brother went after them. He ain’t back yet.’
Latham finally holstered the Starr. ‘Your brother is dead,’ he said. Then he returned to his table.
‘Did you get all of that?’ he asked Sloan.
Sloan nodded. ‘That’s her, for sure. And Provost sent that bounty hunter after her.’
Latham grinned for the first time in days. ‘Now what do you think of my gut feelings, Ira? We’re right behind them, by God!’ He slammed his right fist into his other hand. ‘We’ll catch them within forty-eight hours.’
Sloan rose from his chair. ‘Then let’s get on it,’ he responded. ‘I want this over with.’
Then they left the restaurant, with Gus and his companion staring hard after them.
Several hours later Sumner and Dulcie stopped under the shade of some young cottonwoods and dismounted. Sumner had seen she was tired and decided to give her a brief noon break. They made a small fire and heated up some coffee, and leaned against two saplings while they refreshed themselves.
‘Sorry I have to push you so hard,’ Sumner said to her.
‘I know you’re just trying to take care of me.’
They talked about their past for a few minutes, and then, without warning, Dulcie quietly said, ‘I think I’m falling in love with you.’