Jay Hurwood looked keenly at her. “How could I fire them when I didn’t know who they were.”

  “But the other evening, after you’d seen Mr. Thomas and made arrangements to sell your cattle, I mentioned it to you. I described them and I told you I was positive they were two you’d hired in Sonora to make the trip with you.”

  “That was the night before I returned to my outfit, Merle, only two days ago.”

  Merle looked puzzled. She got to her feet and approached him. There was no fear in her face now, only a deep-seated worry.

  “Jay, if you knew who they were then, and knew what they’d done to me, why didn’t you react in some way?”

  Jay Hurwood smiled thinly. “I did react.”

  His tone brought new concern into Merle’s dark eyes. “How?”

  “I killed one of them, and just awhile ago I shot the other one.”

  Merle reeled away from him, horrified, shaking her head so hard that her hair flew about her face. “No, Jay!” she said. “Not—not killing!”

  “They mauled you, you said. They were supposed to be with the cattle but they came into town. I must have missed them on my way out. Next morning they told me they’d gone back to town for a last drinking bout and I believed them. So I kept them on and knew nothing of what had happened to you until the other night. Then, with my cattle already close enough to town for me to bring them in on my own if necessary, and with a storm blowing like all hell out there, I ran into one of them and put it to him. He went for his gun and I shot him.”

  Merle sank back on the bed, her eyes closed and her body quivering. “No,” she said.

  “The other one I meant to settle with here in town, but things happened and it looked like he’d be taken care of by Durant. Only that blasted Durant got some holy stuff into his head and wouldn’t finish him off. Now you’ve run into him and he knows you’re in town. It won’t take long for him to work out what’s been happening and who killed his brother. There are going to be some storms brewing, Merle, which is why you’re going to stay in this room and keep the door locked at all times. Do you hear me?”

  Merle looked anxiously up at him, and Hurwood frowned heavily, never having seen her so distraught before. He crossed to her and took her trembling hands.

  “They deserved to die,” he said. “I couldn’t let them live, not when I knew what they’d done to you.”

  Merle withdrew her hands with a jerk and drew away from him. “Not killing, Jay. I’ve never been caught up in a thing like that.”

  Hurwood became angry again. “You’ve been caught up in a lot of things, damn you, so a little bloodshed shouldn’t worry you. Don’t worry—I’ll handle everything from here. But remember—you stay in this room until I’m ready to pull out. We’ll forget the train. I’ll buy a rig and get us a good horse. We can have a pleasant trip back to Cheyenne.”

  Merle looked away from him but not before he saw deep anguish in her face. He couldn’t understand that, and he wasn’t sure if he could trust her. So he said, in a voice filled with tenderness, “Merle, we’ll make it. I said I’d make money and I did. I risked everything I had for you and I’ll go on risking it until I have enough money to set you up comfortably for life. So what have you got to worry about?”

  Merle brought her troubled gaze back to him and shook her head. “I don’t know, Jay. I’m all confused and upset. I need another drink.”

  Hurwood picked the bottle up off the table and took it across to her. Handing it to her, he said, “Drink all you like—only stay here, Merle. I’m going down into the town now to see what’s happening about the shooting. Nobody saw me shoot down Sowarth, so there won’t be any danger. I’ll just act as I’ll be expected to act. I’ll tie up some loose business ends, get that rig and horse and pack it with what we’ll need for the trip. A day or two from now, we’ll be in open country with not a worry in the world.”

  Merle took the bottle and poured herself a drink. Then she sat forward, staring at the whisky in the glass. She had never been a good drinker, but she felt right then that she could empty the bottle and drink another and not feel its effects. Hurwood went to the door, opened it, and turned back.

  “You all right now, Merle?”

  Merle nodded without looking at him.

  “Okay. I won’t be long.

  Jay Hurwood closed the door behind him and checked out the passageway. Finding it empty, he went down the foyer stairway and approached the desk. Bose Cameron looked nervously at him, but Hurwood merely said, “Keep away from her, mister, and see that nobody bothers her. She’s had a hard time of it lately.”

  Cameron nodded grimly. “I was only trying to help.”

  “Sure. But from now on, be smart,” Hurwood said, then he left the rooming house and walked along the boardwalk. Having used the back street and the backyard of the rooming-house, he was confident he hadn’t been seen shooting Lanny Sowarth. He entered the saloon and ordered a drink, looking easily about him, but he knew no one but the cattle buyer, Roger Thomas. Hurwood crossed the room to the buyer, and then, smiling, asked if he could join him. Thomas introduced him to the train guards to whom he was giving last instructions about the care of the cattle on the journey to the eastern market. Hurwood sipped his drink, loosened his string tie and relaxed.

  Doc Fogarty came onto the porch wiping his hands with a towel. He looked at Hap Wheeler and Dave Crane and walked to where Blake Durant was leaning against the porch rail.

  “He’ll be all right,” Fogarty said. “That business opened his shoulder wound again and he lost a lot more blood. But the head wound is only shallow and will cause no more inconvenience than some bad headaches for awhile. After that he should be all right.”

  Blake thanked him and asked, “How long will he be laid up here with you?”

  Fogarty shook his head. “I’d like to keep him for a couple of days, and I will if he has no objections. But he’s already proved that he’s not willing to take my advice. He’ll be unconscious and too weak to move for the rest of today, but by morning I expect he’ll be up and about and straining to get going.”

  Blake walked to the top of the porch steps where Wheeler and Crane were still waiting for him. He was about to go down when Rod Plimpton came along the boardwalk and signaled for the three of them to stay put. He came into the cottage yard then and walked stiffly up to the steps. After getting information on Sowarth’s condition from Fogarty, Plimpton turned to Durant.

  “I’ve made a further check on what happened and it seems you saved Sowarth’s life. Now why in hell would you do that?”

  “He’s no threat to me,” Blake said.

  Plimpton’s eyes popped wide with feigned surprise. “No? He jumps up in front of you, gun in hand and ready to shoot your guts out—and you reckon he’s no threat to you?”

  “He knows better now,” Blake told him.

  “Like what?”

  “Like somebody else wants him dead, not me.”

  Plimpton studied Blake intently. “Put that clearer, mister.”

  Blake rested a hand on the overhang post. “Sheriff, Lanny Sowarth believed all along that I’d killed his brother. Now he knows I saved his life. Why would I do that except to prove my innocence? Even with the way his mind works, he can’t deny my innocence now. He won’t worry me again.”

  Plimpton asked, “Do you know who killed his brother?”

  Blake shook his head. “No.”

  Plimpton scowled at him and turned to Wheeler and Crane. “Maybe you pair do. Maybe somebody here has begun to put two and two together, eh?”

  Hap Wheeler shook his head, but Dave Crane, looking intently at Blake Durant, gave no answer of any kind. Plimpton noticed this and kept at him.

  “You, cowboy, have you got any ideas?”

  Crane dragged his troubled gaze back to Plimpton. “No, Sheriff, I don’t know anything. I’m ready to hit the trail and get to blazes away from this town and away from Sowarth. Unlike Durant, I don’t think he’s right in the head.”

  Plimpton cursed under his breath, then turned and walked down the pathway to the street. Outside the gate he stopped again, and when Blake drew up he said, “I’ve got it figured this way, Durant. Whoever killed Sowarth’s brother figured you’d take care of Sowarth. But he didn’t figure on your damned stubbornness and your contrary ways. The killer, once he found out you weren’t out to shoot Sowarth, took things into his own hands and tried to finish Sowarth off. What I want to know is—why? When I know that, I’ll know who.”

  Blake looked back at him. “I only knew the Sowarth boys for three weeks, and we were on the trail all that time. So I have no way of knowing if they’d done something to cause a man to track them down. An avenger.”

  “An avenger, eh?”

  “Somebody out to even a score, Sheriff. If you knew those two as I got to know them, you’d find it easy to believe they’d left plenty of enemies behind them. But outside of that, I don’t know a damned thing.”

  Plimpton sighed wearily and then he looked at Hap Wheeler and Dave Crane. He got nothing from their faces and went on his way without another word. But halfway across the street, he stopped to glance back and seemed about to return to them. Instead, however, he wheeled about and went on his way.

  Dave Crane said, “What the hell’s going on, Durant? You got any idea?”

  “Some,” Blake told him and looked thoughtfully up the street towards the rooming house.

  “Then maybe you’ll let us in on it, eh?” Crane suggested.

  Blake shrugged. “I don’t know enough, in fact I don’t have anything but suspicions to work on. Let’s have a drink on it.”

  “Best thing said today,” put in Hap Wheeler and the three of them crossed the sunlit street and went into the saloon.

  Seven – Pulling Out

  JAY HURWOOD ROSE from Thomas’ table when he saw Durant, Crane and Wheeler enter the saloon. He mumbled his apologies to Thomas and his companions and made his way to the bar counter. Durant pushed forward money for drinks and leaned on the counter’s edge staring into the bar mirror, seeing Hurwood coming towards him. The drinks came and Durant turned slowly to give Hurwood a casual look.

  Hurwood nodded at Durant. “I just heard about Sowarth. He’s still at it, is he?”

  “Seems like,” Blake said.

  “Blasted damn fool! Can’t he be made to understand? I know it’s none of my business, Durant, but you worked well for me. You gave me no trouble and perhaps I was a bit hasty in washing my hands of all this trouble. You want me to go see Sowarth and talk to him?”

  “What could you say to him?” Blake asked.

  Hurwood shrugged his heavy shoulders and pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Well, maybe he’d listen to me. I was, after all, the man who hired him. I gave him his brother’s pay dirt, too, so maybe he’ll feel obligated to me. I’d like to ride out knowing everything was peaceful behind me.”

  “It might work,” Dave Crane put in. “Then we could hit a fresh trail, Durant.”

  Blake nodded. “I can’t see how it could do any harm, Hurwood. But you’ll have to wait awhile. He’s still unconscious and the doctor says he won’t be feeling like talking to anybody until tomorrow morning at the earliest.. Thanks.”

  Hurwood nodded grimly and finished his drink. Then he reached out and put some money on the counter. “Get the drinks, Crane, while I talk to Durant privately, will you?”

  Crane nodded his willingness to do this and Hurwood, taking Blake’s arm, drew away from the other two. He went several yards along the bar and then breathed in deeply.

  “Durant, you’ve seen the woman who is with me, haven’t you?”

  Blake nodded.

  “She means a great deal to me.”

  “So?”

  “So, when I heard that Sowarth was hurt while she was walking the street with you, I didn’t like it.”

  “What part of it Hurwood?”

  Hurwood frowned. “The part about you and her being together, Durant. Merle is a fine woman in lots of ways, but she’s too easily attracted to men like you. She means no harm, I know, but men get the wrong idea about her friendliness. I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea, Durant.”

  Blake smiled thinly at him. “You needn’t worry on that score, Hurwood. I don’t know her and I don’t wish to.”

  “Easily said,” Hurwood murmured.

  “And easily believed, Hurwood,” Blake told him with a hint of annoyance coming into his voice.

  Hurwood accepted this with a terse nod. “Well, for the moment I’ll believe that. We’ll be moving out anyway, when the air cools down. Just do me a favor, will you, and keep away from her. It appears I’ve said too much about you to her already and she’s curious to know more, if you get what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t,” Blake said and eased Hurwood aside. He made his way back to Wheeler and Crane and accepted the drink Crane offered him. Crane had another glass extended in Hurwood’s direction, but Hurwood had turned and gone the other way.

  “The less the merrier,” Hap said. “So enjoy Jay Hurwood’s hospitality finally. I never thought he’d get around to it.”

  Blake Durant stood there, looking thoughtfully after the big cattle dealer while Crane and Wheeler counted out the money Hurwood had left for them.

  “Seven dollars,” Crane announced.

  Blake Durant finished his drink and studied each of them in turn. Then he said, “Whoever tried to kill Lanny Sowarth may have another try.”

  Hap Wheeler grunted at this and Crane straightened.

  “So what, Durant?”

  “So we rode with Sowarth and his brother.”

  “Which doesn’t make us kin,” Wheeler put in.

  “No, Hap, it doesn’t. But can you ride on, not knowing?”

  “Not knowing what?”

  “Who killed Joe Sowarth and why. And who wants Lanny Sowarth under the ground too.”

  Wheeler cursed under his breath. “It don’t matter an owlhoot to me. Neither of them two ever said a kind word to me, or ever acted like anything better than rattlers.”

  “A third attempt could be made on Lanny Sowarth’s life today,” Blake said.

  Wheeler straightened, his old face creased with annoyance. “So we buy into the business, Durant? Is that what you’ve got in mind?”

  Blake shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s hard for any man to ride on and leave a mystery behind him. For mine, I’ve got a little something to work on. While I’m doing that, I’d like to be assured that Lanny’s life isn’t in danger. Maybe he deserves most of the pain that’s come his way, but what man deserves to be killed cold?”

  Dave Crane put down his drink and wiped his mouth. “You want somebody at doc’s, watching over Sowarth, Durant?”

  Blake nodded. “It might reveal to us who’s after Sowarth’s hide. That known, life would be a lot simpler for all of us.”

  Dave Crane nodded. “Hell, my head’s been bustin’ with thinkin’ about it all the damned time. I reckon I can’t ride away, not knowing. What about you, Hap?”

  Hap Wheeler grunted under his breath, finished off his drink and studied Blake Durant. “What do you know, Durant, that we don’t?”

  Blake shook his head. “Nothing much, Hap.”

  “Well, if you’re gonna be so tight-fisted, you’d best handle it all by yourself, big man.”

  Blake smiled at him. “I’ll let you think about it, Hap. I don’t think anything will happen until evening anyway. It would be too risky for a killer to show himself in daylight. Drink well, Hap—I’ve had enough.”

  With that, Blake Durant left. He returned to his room and locked the door; and then, as he had done so often in the past, he lay there looking at the ceiling and thinking about the one woman he had loved, Louise Yerby.

  Lanny Sowarth blinked his eyes. Evening had brought coolness into his room. He’d tried to move a few times but the effort brought excruciating pain. So he lay completely still, the pain in his head so bad that he had forgotten about his shoulder wound.

  The door opened and Doc Fogarty came into the room. He carried a lantern which he put on the table beside Sowarth’s bunk. Without a word he went out again, but he returned a few minutes later with a bowl of steaming broth that he set on the table.

  “Can you sit up?” Fogarty asked.

  Lanny Sowarth scowled and said nothing.

  “You’ve got to eat, Sowarth, or you’ll waste away and die. But I’ll leave that up to you.”

  Doc went out to the porch in time to see Sheriff Rod Plimpton coming up the pathway. It was Plimpton’s third visit that day.

  Drawing to a halt at the bottom of the yard steps Plimpton took off his hat and mopped his brow. He looked deeply worried. “How is he, Doc?”

  “Eating.”

  Plimpton showed surprise. “He’s a tough little runt, eh?”

  “He’s determined to get well and on his feet. I don’t understand men like him, wanting to fight all the time. What makes them tick?”

  Rod Plimpton shook his head. “Some are born loco. Or maybe they had it bad when growing up and so they carry a burn against the whole world. This one, though, he’s got something else burning him up.”

  “Revenge?” Fogarty asked.

  “Yeah, revenge, Doc. How long do you reckon it’ll be before he can move about?”

  “I’d say by morning, the way he’s pushing himself. He won’t be much of a threat to anybody, though.”

  “Well, if he skips out on you, let me know right away, will you? There’s more in this damned thing than Sowarth going after Durant. I don’t know what, but I’m damned if I can sleep until I find out. You’ll do that for me, Doc?”

  Fogarty nodded. Plimpton went on his way and Dave Crane and Hap Wheeler appeared at the side of the house. Fogarty signaled them to come onto the porch. After waiting until Plimpton was out of sight down the dark street, they climbed the steps.

 

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