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Back in the reception room, a maid joined Niles and he whispered instructions to her to tend to his father. As she hurried into the back room Glenn turned to the window. Outside, the crowd was still milling with the same intensity and animation as before, but they were showing no sign that they were ready to storm the hotel.
On the other hand Glenn also reckoned there were more people than before, and he didn’t detect any sign they would disperse. Although Niles followed the maid into the back room, Hop stayed to loiter in the reception room. Presently, he shuffled closer.
“What I’ve just heard changes nothing,” he said, his eyes downcast and not meeting Glenn’s. “I don’t want nothing to do with you.”
“Then I guess I have no choice but to accept that.”
Hop nodded, this time meeting Glenn’s eye. He gestured outside.
“I guess that crowd won’t stay outside forever. Someone is going to act before too much longer.” He shrugged. “I’ll see about getting you a spare horse out back, and perhaps a change of clothes.”
“I’m obliged,” Glenn said.
“Don’t be. I just want to get rid of you.” Hop pointed at the stairs. “Now stay out of the way and don’t let anyone see you.”
Glenn nodded and with Randall at his side he headed up the stairs. The balcony doubled back over the reception room with rooms coming off on either side. At the front was a window and Randall and Glenn stood on either side of it, staying far enough back to be hidden from the mob.
Glenn’s concerns grew in proportion to the expanding size of the crowd, which had doubled in the time since they’d sought sanctuary in here. Everyone was chatting and they appeared more eager to share news of what had happened than to display their anger. Glenn still judged that they needed provocation before acting, but as more people continued to swell the crowd, the chances of that happening grew.
“Do you reckon you can find Arnold?” Glenn asked.
Randall shrugged. “Like I told you, I have no interest in this no more. This is too complicated for me.”
“You must want to work out what’s happening?”
“I’m no lawman and I have no personal interest in this, and the chances of a bounty are getting smaller as that crowd gets larger. As soon as this mob calms down, I’m leaving.”
Glenn edged closer to the window. “Then you’d better hope they don’t goad themselves into lynching us.”
Randall pulled Glenn back. “You staying out of sight will help that.”
Glenn shook his head. He pulled away from Randall and drew his attention to a bustle of people who were heading away from the main group. They stopped outside the sheriff’s office, their gesturing to each other conveying they were debating what had happened to the sheriff.
“Do you believe everything that Stewart said?” Glenn asked as one man hammered on the office door.
“Some of it might be true, and maybe it does explain why your father was murdered.”
Glenn sighed. “I’ve spent years hating you for catching me and even more time hating the people who put me away, but until now, I hadn’t realized how good it is to hear that you reckon I’m innocent.”
“I didn’t say that. I bear no feelings toward you either good or bad.” Randall frowned. “If all the facts had come out, I’d have still brought you in, but I reckon they shouldn’t have found you guilty.”
“That helps.” Glenn pointed outside. “But I need more than just you who reckon I’m innocent now.”
Randall followed the direction of Glenn’s pointing and winced. The office door was swinging open to reveal a groggy Sheriff Price. Two men were helping to move him, but he pushed these people aside, swayed before regaining his footing and then barged away the people gathered outside his door, to stand on the edge of the boardwalk.
He felt his jaw while listening to a man explain what had happened. He nodded, set his hat forward and headed off, trailing people behind him. The mob ahead parted and then closed behind him like a stick drawn through water.
Inside, footfalls pounded up the stairs. Then Niles hurried down the corridor, his eyes wide.
“We’ve got trouble,” he said, sliding to a halt.
“We’ve seen,” Glenn said. “Emerson Price is heading here. Has Hop got that horse ready?”
“He hasn’t had the time yet.”
“Then are you prepared to defend us, or are you letting the mob in?”
“Like I said, we stay out of trouble and don’t take sides.” Niles edged from foot to foot and then shrugged. “Either way, no Price is setting foot on Archer property without a proper invite.”
Glenn patted Niles’s back. With Niles leading the way and with Randall following behind, he headed down the corridor to the top of the stairs. In the reception room below Hop and Quincy were standing in front of the door with guns drawn.
Hop shouted a threat through the door, but the rising clamor from outside drowned out his words. A pounding started on the door, as of another beam hammering against it. The beam holding the door in place rattled and creaked, but the heavy hoops stayed firm and wouldn’t let the door open.
Then a huge crack sounded and the entire door and frame rocked forward. It crashed to the floor and a block of people spilled inside. At their front was Sheriff Price. Hop and Quincy backed away as Emerson advanced on them, a solid phalanx of shouting and arm-waving people following him into the hotel.
“Put those guns down, or join that excuse for a Price on the end of a rope,” Emerson ordered.
Quincy instantly lowered his gun, Hop reluctantly following him. At the top of the stairs Niles grabbed Glenn’s arm and pulled him out of view and down the corridor, cutting off his view of what Sheriff Price did next.
Hop complained about the intrusion and damage, but the explosion of responses from the crowd left Glenn in no doubt that the mob was in no mood to listen to reason. Niles led them into the first room along the corridor.
Once inside Glenn hurried to the window. The crowd below was now about ten deep and every person was shoving forward as they tried to follow Emerson into the hotel. From their slow pace, Glenn judged that only a few of them would get in. Sure enough, presently the backmost members stopped shoving, accepting they wouldn’t be able to reach the hotel.
“This isn’t looking good,” Randall said, joining him at the window.
“Yeah.” Glenn pointed across the main drag. “But they haven’t moved your horse. If enough of them get inside, we might be able to get out through the window and make a run for it.”
Randall gave a skeptical nod. Then he drew Glenn back from the window.
“Running didn’t help you last time,” he said.
“Yeah,” Niles said from beside the door. “Give Hop a chance. He may not like you, but he hates the other Prices more and he can be persuasive when he wants to be. If all else fails, Pa still commands a kind of authority that even Emerson’s star can’t provide.”
Glenn blew out his cheeks. “That mob didn’t look as if it wanted to listen to persuasion.”
“I guess you’re right there, but there hasn’t been a lynching in Black Rock since . . . since the last time they tried to lynch you. If anyone can talk them down, they can.”
Randall gave a sorry shake of the head that didn’t hold out any hope that a frail old man and his argumentative son, armed with just words, could hold back a hundred angry people.