THERE HAD been a grim council of war at the Harris ranch. After Appleby had left, Sudden had learned for the first time of the murder of Johnstone and Newley. Harris was deeply distressed not only by the terrible blow that the news of his friends’ death had been but by the behavior of the Marshal, which had resulted in Sudden expelling the lawman from the JH.
‘I ain’t suggestin’ yu didn’t do the right thing, Jim,’ said Harris, a deep frown on his face. ‘On’y now we ain’t even got a friend in court. If Saber chooses to ride all over us in Yavapai I’m bettin’ Tom will turn a blind eye.’
‘That being so, I’m thinkin’ he was no friend in the first place,’ put in Taylor.
‘Alex is right,’ added Kitson. ‘If Tom Appleby is the kind o’ man to let an affair o’ this nature interfere with the way he does his job, then we’re a sight better off on our own.’
‘I’m just a wee bit concerned about Terry sendin’ his man into town to bring back the bodies’ Alex Taylor said after a pause. ‘If Tom Appleby is as mean as ye all seem to think, then the poor chap oughtn’t to go in alone. That Cameron would find him easy meat, I’m guessin’.’
Jake Harris got to his feet and replenished his cup from the pot on the stove.
‘Those boys was my friends,’ he announced. ‘I’ll go in for their bodies myself. I want to see they’re buried decent.’
There was a chorus of disagreement and much dismay at this statement. Harris shook his head.
‘If I don’t go, folks are goin’ to say we was too yeller to bury our dead,’ Jake said. I got my pride, too.’
‘That’ll look right handsome on yore tombstone,’ Sudden interjected flatly.
Harris flushed. ‘Yu ain’t got no call to talk to me like that, Jim,’ he protested.
Sudden nodded, a smile making his next words disarming.
‘Jake, yo’re tryin’ to do the right thing, an’ I respect that. But yu got to admit that Philadelphia in there could probably give yu a head start an’ outdraw yu. What chance do yu reckon yu’d have agin someone like Cameron?’
Alex Taylor nodded in agreement with Sudden’s words. ‘Aye, they’re a breed o’ scum, these gunfighters. All the same. Cold killers, without so much as a breath o’ decency in their bodies. Yon Cameron’ll no doubt be struttin’ about Yavapai, free as air, boastin’ his deeds. An’ no doubt cuttin’ a couple more notches on his gun butts.’ He spat loudly. ‘Scum!’
Sudden’s face was cold and hard, and he stood abruptly. There was, had any of them noticed it, a hint of pain in his eyes, but he quickly concealed it beneath hooded lids and spoke to his employer.
‘Yu talk to Shorty. Get the full story outa him. He can prove Randy an’ Dancy is up to their necks in somethin’, but I ain’t quite figgered what, yet.’
Harris looked at Sudden in surprise. ‘Yu goin’ somewhere?’ he asked.
A faint smile touched the corners of Sudden’s mouth. ‘I’m goin’ to play a hunch. If what I think is right, then we’re going to be mighty close to knowin’ who’s behind all this trouble.’
‘Yu mean Gunnison?’ asked Taylor.
‘Lafe Gunnison? I don’t know for shore,’ replied Sudden. ‘I’m thinkin’ he knows as much as yu do, Alex, about the whole thing. Mebbe less.’
With those words he left Taylor staring at his retreating back with open mouth. When Sudden had closed the door behind him he turned to the others.
‘I’ve heard some things said in my time that I’ve not understood,’ he complained. ‘But if Lafe Gunnison knows less than I do about what’s been happenin’ in this valley, then I reckon he must be one step short o’ deaf! ’Cause I don’t know a thing!’