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The players were getting ready for the showdown when Sheriff David Underwood entered the backroom of the Maverick saloon. Usher Pullman was sitting opposite the door and he raised a finger, delivering a silent order to the two men who were guarding him.
Usually Spike Talbot and Bart Merrill were close by, but tonight they were out of town. Their replacements were just as flint-eyed and dour. The guards pushed themselves away from the wall.
One man cracked his knuckles while the other sneered. Underwood didn’t recognize the other two men, but they had their backs to him and were more intent on the game than on his arrival. He paced across the room to stand at the table.
“You came,” Usher said, smiling like a predatory cat.
“Your message intrigued me,” Underwood said.
Usher gestured at his guards, conveying a silent message that made them relax. Then he placed his cards on the table face down and leaned back with his hands entangled behind his head.
“This one did, but the others didn’t,” he mused. “Then again, every man has his price.”
The men were playing five-card draw and around $500 was in the pot. One man had thrown his cards in. The other man had only a few dollars left in his pile, clearly having decided to risk everything on this hand.
This was a foolish strategy bearing in mind the huge pile of dollars sitting in front of Usher and the presence of his guards behind him. Underwood reached for the pack of undealt cards and placed it before Usher.
“Cut,” he said. “Then deal me five cards.”
Usher did as asked, his eyebrows rising with a question that Underwood didn’t feel inclined to answer just yet.
“Hey!” the other player whined. “You can’t deal him in now. I’m playing this—”
The man didn’t get to finish his complaint when one of the guards walked up to the table, grabbed his collar and yanked him up. He marched him to the door and threw him outside. He continued complaining when the door closed, but a scuffle sounded followed by a pained shriek.
Then the guard returned. The other player decided that now might be a good time to have an appointment elsewhere. Nobody paid his hurried departure any attention. Usher pushed the dealt cards to Underwood.
In response Underwood withdrew a sealed envelope from his jacket pocket and threw it on to the pot. Then he gestured for Usher to reveal his hand first. Usher presented two jacks and then sat back.
Underwood lifted up the edges of his cards. He’d received two kings.
“You win,” he said, and then withdrew his hand, leaving the cards still face down.
Usher narrowed his eyes, suggesting he knew Underwood had lied.
“I understand. Perhaps we should play again and see if a larger pot is more to your liking.”
“Only after you’ve taken your winnings from this hand.” Underwood pushed the envelope toward him.
Usher slit open the envelope, drew out the folded sheets of paper within and began reading. His right eye twitched and the papers fell from his hand. Then he raised that hand. Underwood didn’t know the meaning behind all of Usher’s gestures to his guards, but this one was clear enough.
So without warning he drew his gun and blasted lead through one guard’s chest before he could draw, making him stumble into the wall. Then he turned to the second one. This man had enough time to drag his gun from its holster, but not enough to fire.
A low shot to the guts bent him double. The gun fell from his slack fingers as Underwood planted a second bullet in him. Then he was on Usher. He hoisted him up from his chair and thrust his gun up under his chin, buckling the skin.
“Go on and kill me,” Usher grunted. “Spike and Bart will be back soon and they’ll make you pay for every bullet you put in me.”
“They’ll fail, but you’re right that soon someone will risk coming through that door. They could find your dead body and hear my explanation of how you gave me no choice but to kill you, but I don’t work like that. After everything you’ve done to Lonesome, I’ve decided to do this the proper way.”
Underwood pushed Usher away, tumbling him on to his back. Then he reached down for the papers and threw them on his chest. Usher sneered, still arrogant despite his predicament and his undignified posture.
“You’ve made a big mistake, Sheriff, serving an arrest warrant on me in my town. You should have taken the bribes like everyone else has. There was a thousand on the table and that could have been just a first installment for the right lawman.”
“I am the right lawman.” Underwood dragged Usher to his feet and walked him to the door. “You may think you’ve sown up Lonesome, but I will make those charges stick and I will see you get the justice you deserve.”
“You’ll never find anyone to stand up in court and speak up against me.”
“There’s me for one.”
Usher laughed. “Like I said, nobody will stand up in court and speak up against me.”
Underwood heard the implied threat, but didn’t retort as he led Usher into the saloon room to begin the new era of justice in Lonesome.