Ridgeways bride, p.12
Ridgeway's Bride, page 12
Walt was happy to comply and dropped his revolver on to the dusty street. Larry Grimes did the same with the rifle that Connie had removed from some man’s saddle boot. Rex Coulter’s six-gun was on the ground, but not of his own volition.
‘Is that Rex Coulter?’ Andy Hayes asked when he saw the body stretched out on the far boardwalk.
‘Twice today he’s tried to kill me.’ Walt told him.
‘He’s been a busy boy, because I wanted to ask him some questions about a stagecoach hold-up earlier today. The driver’s regained consciousness. He recognized Coulter’s voice and told me that Mr Barclay had some involvement, too.’
‘Barclay,’ muttered Walt, and the probability that the lawyer had been behind the events that had led to so many killings became all too obvious.
At that moment, a shout went up from one of the sheriff’s deputies. ‘There he is.’ He was pointing down the alley which gave access to the lawyer’s other exit.
From the moment Rex Coulter’s first shot at Walt Ridgeway had struck the wall of his building, Jonathan Barclay had been engulfed by the suspicion that everything was beginning to fall apart. For a moment he’d considered taking an active part in the gunfight. He had the opportunity to kill Walt Ridgeway as he crouched at the foot of the post below his window, but even he would have found difficulty in providing a story that would justify back-shooting. Then it was all too late. Connie Stuart’s anger was quelled by the young cowboy who’d taken the gun from her, and Rex Coulter was lying dead on the street. His only hope was to get away quickly. Ride for Wyoming or Nebraska where the law couldn’t touch him.
The deputy’s shout put an end to that plan. He wasn’t a foolish man, wouldn’t try to shoot it out with Andy Hayes and his men, would put his faith in his ability to talk himself off the gallows in a courtroom. He held up his hands and surrendered.
By the end of the week, when it was time for Walt Ridgeway to return to Fort Bridger, Jonathan Barclay’s chances of escaping the hangman’s noose had been greatly reduced. The letter stolen from the Territorial representative, George Turnbull, had been found in the lawyer’s desk. Figuring that the letter had been the reason for the hold-up led Sheriff Hayes to believe that Barclay had had advance warning of the coach on which Mr Turnbull was due to travel, which, in turn, pointed to an accomplice in Helena. Fred Winterfield was soon flushed out, and he, who could plead ignorance of the violence that had taken place around Elkhill, was willing to ease his own punishment by pointing a finger at Jonathan Barclay.
‘Winterfield will still go to prison,’ Andy Hayes predicted when he spoke to Walt Ridgeway, ‘but Barclay will hang. Fitting,’ he added, ‘that a lawyer should be executed by the law, but more than that it proves our justice system is sound and boosts our case for statehood.’
Walt didn’t argue, he had a more personal matter to resolve long before Montana became a state.
He’d remained at Cassie Edmond’s home all week doing what he could to help around the place. The letter that George Turnbull had brought had confirmed Walt’s opinion, that Cassie was going to be a very wealthy young woman.
‘Don’t act hastily,’ he told her over dinner on their last night together. ‘Get the advice of someone you can trust.’
‘That would be you,’ she’d told him and it was clear that she wanted him beside her, rich or poor.
The next day, as he mounted his horse for the return journey to Fort Bridger, he told Cassie he would be decommissioned in a year.
‘I’ll be waiting,’ she told him, ‘and you won’t get away from this bride when you come back to Elkhill.’
She watched until he’d ridden out of sight towards the river crossing near Eagle Pass.
Will DuRey, Ridgeway's Bride
