Slocum 373

“You move one inch and you’re dead meat, Kelso Jennings.” Slocum pointed the cocked .44 at his back.

Slocum, gun ready, slipped behind the man, who had his hands in the air, jerked out the man’s .45 Navy Colt, stuck it in his own waistband, and then took three large knives off the man, before he shoved him out into the sunlight that had been filtering into the kitchen.

“I never—I was just filling in for Toby. Him being gone, I figured she needed some company.”

“I imagine he’s having a high old time somewhere down there below the border.”

“That sumbitch got all the money that Simpson and them boys took off that cattleman up in Kansas, didn’t he?”

“Hell, no. I looked for him, but he was already gone and you had the ranch back.”

“No. I ain’t looked for him either. He’s lucky. Them Messicans of Toby’s used a wooden vise on them other two’s nuts to find out what they wanted to know. Guess that’s how they got the money.” Kelso shook his head. “That’s as mean as anything I ever heard about.”

“I needed some more whiskey to go out and trade some more. You costed me several barrels. I said I’d help Toby find his damn wife that you had if he’d buy me six kegs of lightning. Chester showed up with it. Guess Toby paid him in horses for it.”

“Interesting. I’m taking you to the jail in Mason and turning you over to the federal judge on charges of selling firewater to Indians. The deputy U.S. marshal can haul your ass down to San Antonio for your trial. But you say one word about Margie Pitch’s reputation and you’re dead meat. I can have you killed in prison as well as outside. You savvy?”

“You know, I ought to hate you. First, you take that stupid, silent bitch away from me. He’d’ve paid me a lot for her. And now you’re sending me up over this gal. But I don’t hate you. You’re a smooth bastard and you’ve outfoxed me twice.”

Kelso turned up his hands. “I ain’t seen him. But you can bet your sweet ass he’s out there somewhere figuring out how to get all of his money back and not get his balls mashed and throat slashed like them boys of his did.”

Slocum heard a rig pulling up outside. He went to the window and drew the lace curtain aside. It was Margie by herself, like she’d said. From his place, he watched her get down, hitch the buggy horse to the post, and come carrying her skirt out of the dust on her way to the porch.

When the front door opened, Slocum said, “Come in here, Margie. We’re in the kitchen.”

She came in to the room fluffing her hair up. Her brown eyes narrowed and her mouth drew in a tight line. “Oh, you’ve already got that rotten blackmailer.”

Slocum interrupted. “I promised him if he even so much as mentioned your name, I’d personally have him killed in or outside of prison. And I can do that—he knows me well.”

Her teeth obviously gritted, she looked hard at the whiskey trader. Hard enough that if her looks were sending bullets, he would have been dead right there. “You better not ever come into my life again. I’d like to shoot you right here, you’ve made me so mad.”

“Be careful and don’t step on his knives,” Slocum said. “They’re on the floor. Sorry, I had no place else to put them.”

She swept up a bowie knife and put it on the dry sink. “This one would cut it all off flush with his belly.”

They ate a quiet lunch of rye bread and ham. When it was over, Slocum headed his prisoner for the back door.

Kelso stopped and looked back. “Even after all this trouble you’ve caused me, I think you’d’ve been a good piece of ass.”

With his stiff arm, Slocum shoved him out the door onto the porch. “Shut up.”

In the barn, Kelso made a fast move for him, but not quick enough. It ended with a pistol muzzle jammed into the trader’s belly, and Slocum asked, “And now you want to die?”

“Good ’cause you just came within an inch of getting there. Don’t try me again. You won’t survive the outcome.” They went and got Slocum’s horse and saddled him, then led him out.

Kelso dropped his shoulders in defeat and got his mule out of the stall. They rode off for Mason.

The sheriff’s deputy took down the information and locked Kelso up in a cell.

“He’ll be here until the deputy U.S. marshal comes by for him,” said the deputy sheriff. “Who gets the federal reward on him?”

Slocum thanked the man and left the jail. Stars were already out. It would be late when he got back to the ranch, but that didn’t matter. He had Kelso behind bars, and that was one problem out of his way. Why did he think that Earl Simpson was still around there? No proof or word of anyone sighting him. But these people didn’t know him except from a vague description of a man on a poster.

Simpson was still in the country? Call it gut feeling, but those notions usually turned out to be right.

The next morning at breakfast with Juliana, he went over his day with Margie and his arrest of Kelso.

“I imagine she was pleased to be rid of that stinking whiskey trader.” Juliana shook her head as if the smell of him was still in her nose.

“I wanted you to know that Margie apologized to you about her affair with Toby. It was not a new one and went way back. He blackmailed her, too, she said.”

“I don’t doubt anything underhanded that Job Toby did behind my back. Obviously, I was the biggest blind fool in this country. Since coming back, I have even learned he had a child with a woman who worked here in the house. Probably did it in my own bed for all I know.”

“No need for you to be sorry. I never knew it was going on either before I learned all about the rest of the rotten things that he did. It was all concealed from me. I wonder who else he had affairs with.”

He shook his head, reading the upset in her blue eyes. She rose up and came over to sit in his lap and wept on his shoulder.

“We can hire you a good foreman. There’s top men would give their right arm to run an operation like yours. Sure, it would take him time to build a crew and gather cattle, brand the ones that got away.”

“You have credit with Mr. Cruthers that will be covered by the cattle sale this summer. We’ll round up all of his debts, get them paid, and then when the money comes in, you will be out of debt and have plenty of operating money.”

“What about Knowles?” she asked, wiping her tears away with a cloth from her pocket.

“Your husband made that debt, according to Kelso, to repay him for the whiskey he lost when I won you away from him. Let’s see what he’d take in cash instead of the horses.”

She agreed. “I’ll get dressed and we can look all these people up. The debt I hate to pay the most is to the dress shop for that other woman’s clothing.”

“Get it out of your system. He’s gone. He won’t be back. Flush him out.”

“I will. I’ll do that very thing. You know, I gave him all of this. He was busting horses for two dollars a head.” She shook her head. “And this is how he repaid me, having affairs, spending my money—the ranch’s money, like it was water. Do you think he had anything to do with my father’s death?”

“Yes, he was thrown from the seat and had a bad blow to his head. We thought he struck a rock. But I never checked. Oh, if he murdered him, I’d kill him with my bare hands.”

She agreed. “Will you ride along with me? We’ll make a list of all the debts he owes people and see if we can pay them off. Oh, and you can start looking for a ranch foreman. You wouldn’t take that post, would you?”

“I’d love to but—I have some problems in my past. They might come haunt me if I stayed too long here.”

“Find someone else. You’re young and attractive. You could have your pick of men.”

They went by Knowles’s place first. A woman hardly out of her teens came to the doorway in a dress unbuttoned down the front that she held closed at her navel with one hand.

“Tell him,” Slocum said, “that we were by and Mrs. Toby wants to settle with him.”

“I’ll sure tell him that for sure.” She let the hand go that held the dress shut and smiled big at him. “Come back again.”

The man at the mill told them that Job Toby’s debt on the books was 460 dollars, and he had not settled the ranch’s bill in over a year.

“Ma’am, I’d sure appreciate you doing that. I’m a small businessman and carrying a bill like this sure has hurt me.”

By the end of the day, she found her husband owed almost six thousand dollars, including his horse loan, if they allowed Knowles thirty dollars a barrel for the whiskey. That was all that Slocum wanted to pay the man.

“We have the main people. You show Cruthers the list and we’ll see what he says.”

She made a half smile and they went in the front door of the bank. Thirty minutes later, she had the money to pay off her creditors. Still acting a little shocked, she carried the money in her purse over to Pitch’s, where she cleared away that bill. Then they rode down to the mill and paid the dust-floured miller the amount she owed him.

He took off his cloth cap and bowed to her. “I sure am beholden. You need anything, you let me know any time, ma’am.”

After leaving the mill, she said, “Tomorrow we can go to Mason and I’ll clear up those debts.”

She looked a little embarrassed as they rode on. “I’m sorry. I guess I wanted to escape.”

“Nothing wrong with wanting to escape every once in a while.” He closed his eyes. “Nothing wrong at all with that.”

“Fine. I sent three boys out to check the north range, to look over the cattle, and get a count on how many calves on the ground that we have to brand. They’ll make top hands in a few years. Besides, these boys have done a lot of the ranch work around here the past year. Those pistoleros lounged around all day.”

“One more thing,” said the boy. “Two tough white men came by and asked if she was home. Wouldn’t tell me their names and got kind of mouthy.”

“No. But they were hard cases. I couldn’t figure what they wanted with her.”

“Good question. Keep your hand gun handy. We’re going into Mason tomorrow and do some business. Maybe we should arm a few of the vaqueros to back you in case they come back.”

“These boys are serious about their jobs. They want to be vaqueros. All I need to say is we should guard some at night and they’d jump in to help to be sure that we were all safe.”

“Arm the guards with Spencers from the house. Be sure they all know how to use them. While there aren’t a lot of guns left that Toby didn’t take, there are a handful. They can pass on their rifles to the men who relieve them on guard duty.”

“Search me. But we need to be more careful. Ride some back roads where they don’t expect to find you.”

“There were two tough hombres here today who asked about you. They got pushy with Carlos when he stood up to them.”

“It don’t make much sense. They must have known her husband was gone or they’d’ve asked for him.”

“It worried me all day. I don’t want her hurt anymore.” Maria looked upset.

“I think we have things in hand now. I’ll have a few armed men stay around to back Carlos when we are gone.”

Who were they? Why ask for her? That was strange. He’d poke around some and find some answers. Someone knew who they were, and he would have that information in a day or so. He entered the bedroom and tossed his felt hat on a chair.

“You feeling better?” he asked as Juliana stood before the tall mirror and brushed her shoulder-length hair.

“Yes, some. Now I must hope and pray the cattle all arrive safely in Kansas, huh?” She twisted to look back at him. “Am I being too vain looking at myself in this tall mirror he bought for her?”

“You looked at your image for months and never spoke. Now you can watch yourself and speak as well.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Maybe that is why I like the mirror so much.”

He came up behind her and hugged her around the neck. “Next time, I’ll take a bedroll.”

“Hey, there is nothing that we can’t do in that bed tonight.” She pulled harder on her brush. “Why did he need so many other women?”

“I thought I had failed him as a wife for months out there while I was being poked by young bucks. I thought that was the reason why he sent me off. I was such a poor excuse for a wife. But it wasn’t that at all. He had my ranch, and he got rid of me to get another ranch. It wasn’t our sex in bed. It wasn’t my fault at all, was it?”