“Why?” Halliday snapped.
The youth was on his feet and leaning back against the boulder. Halliday had let him tie a bandanna around his hand while he fetched the rifle from the brush behind the boulder. Now he was ready to beat some sense into the youngster to get some answers.
“Why what?”
“Why’d you try to gun me down?”
“Why shouldn’t I? You’re scum!”
The youth’s mouth turned down at the corners. “I saw you come through that gate. You knew what you were doing.”
“I’ve been through plenty of gates,” Halliday said.
“Yeah, and that one plenty of times. What are you after this time? Tim’s girl?”
Halliday lowered the gun. “You a friend of Tim’s?”
“I’m his brother.”
The information stopped Halliday in his tracks.
“I haven’t heard mention that Tim had kin.”
“Sure, you haven’t. And a lot of others haven’t, either. They figured that gettin’ rid of Tim would allow them to take over his place. But they were wrong and they’re gonna stay wrong.”
“They?”
“You and your kind. Did Dorgan send you or are you lookin’ to have some fun on your own?”
“Nobody sent me,” Halliday said.
For the first time, the youth’s face registered some doubt. But then his green eyes flashed.
“Why lie, dammit? You’re part of Dorgan’s outfit and now you’ve got me where you want me. Why not get it over with and kill me like they did Tim, then report back and tell your boss what a big man you are!”
“I don’t have anybody to report to,” Halliday told him. “I was on my way to look in on the girl. When I left earlier today, she was in need of a friendly face.”
The youth curled his lips. “She don’t need no friends, at least not those she’ll find ’round here. And she ain’t being pushed around, neither. Tim wanted her to stay. He wrote me a letter and told me so.”
Halliday moved away a few feet and put up his gun. He then sat on a rock.
“So, who the hell are you?” Cantrell said uncertainly.
“The stranger who found your brother and buried him.”
“That the truth?”
“You can check with Mary.”
“You know her name!”
Cantrell made it sound like an accusation.
“Does that make me guilty of something?”
“She said the man who came by earlier didn’t stay long enough for her to learn anythin’ about him. She didn’t get his name and she didn’t give hers.”
“Plenty of people know about her in town,” Halliday pointed out.
Cantrell pushed away from the boulder and walked into the shade of a tree. Resting against the trunk, he adjusted the bandanna on his wrist.
“Do you intend to wage your own private war against Cord Dorgan?” Halliday asked.
Cantrell eyed him suspiciously and still said nothing.
“If you are, you’re a fool. You aren’t up to fightin’ a young ’un in short pants.”
Cantrell glowered at him. “You got the drop on me!”
Halliday laughed. “Sure, I did. I rode into your gunsights and you had an open target and missed me. Then you wasted bullets by shooting at an empty saddle.”
Cantrell compressed his lips. “I won’t miss next time.”
“Next time you miss a man who’s got a gun, boy, you’ll be as dead as you’d be right now if I’d wanted it that way.”
“You missed me on purpose?” Cantrell asked.
“I hit what I aim at.”
Cantrell frowned and looked down at his wrist. “You mean you tried to shoot that gun out of my hand?”
“I had to stop you taking potshots at me. Couldn’t think of a better way.”
Cantrell slid to the ground, dejected, misery clouding his features.
“You want to tell me about it, young feller?” Halliday said. When the redhead looked up, Halliday could see the pain in his eyes.
“Why should I?”
“Because I could have killed you and didn’t. Because I don’t work for Dorgan and I’m worried about your Mary Bland.”
Cantrell licked his lips. He was slightly built but there was strength in his forearms and neck. Work-hardened, Halliday decided.
“I got a letter from him. He said he met this girl and was gonna ask her to stay with him. He also said he wanted me to come help him work the place, which would make it look right for the girl to stay on if she came. I don’t remember him ever bein’ interested in a woman. Anyway, I was tired of what I was doin’ and Tim and me were always close, real close, although he always had a yen to stay in one place and I liked to drift around. I came and found the girl and told her who I was and she broke down and told me what happened.”
“She told you that Dorgan was behind your brother’s hanging?” Halliday asked.
“Who else could it be? She told me about all the others Dorgan had forced off their land. Those who stood up to him got killed for their trouble. Mary said it had to be Dorgan. Tim told her that Dorgan tried to buy his place. He stood up to him and now he’s dead.”
Halliday stared thoughtfully at the ground. It fitted in with the stable hand’s story. He said;
“From what I’ve been able to find out, nobody has any definite clue on who hanged your brother.”
“Who the hell needs clues? Tim’s dead and the only person who benefits is Cord Dorgan. There were no clues to all the other killings, were there?”
“I don’t know,” Halliday said. “I wasn’t here.”
“And you ain’t got no business being here on our land. I’m stayin’ in my brother’s place and I’ll hold it for him and Mary.”
“And maybe get yourself hanged, too?” Halliday said.
Cantrell’s eyes blazed. “Let ’em try!”
Halliday got slowly to his feet and dusted himself down. Then he looked curiously around him, recognizing the terrain as being close to the place where he found Tim’s body.
“Let’s go see Mary,” he said.
Cantrell straightened, his face tight again. “What do you want with her, mister?”
“Halliday’s the name, Cantrell, and what I want is to make sure that she’s happier than she was the last time I saw her. Maybe you bein’ here is what she needs. But I want to see that for myself.”
Halliday walked to his sorrel and swung into the saddle. Cantrell kicked at the ground as if he was unable to make up his mind. Then he held out his good hand and said;
“My gun?”
“You’ll get it back at the cabin.”
“You wanna make me look like a fool in Mary’s eyes, gettin’ shot up and comin’ home like a prisoner?”
Halliday thought about that, then he tossed the rifle to Cantrell and said;
“Put a bullet in the chamber and I’ll make damn sure you regret it. Now get your horse and ride in front of me.”
Minutes later they were riding up the slope toward the valley and the Cantrell cabin. Cantrell turned in the saddle and studied Halliday for a long moment.
“You got a grudge against Cord Dorgan, Halliday?”
Halliday shook his head. “I’ve never met the man.”
“He ain’t a man, as I hear it. A skunk is more like it.”
“When I meet up with him, I’ll work that out for myself,” Halliday said as he pointed ahead. “There she is, waitin’ for us. What story will you tell her about your hand?”
Cantrell looked down at the bloodied bandanna and savagely tore it away, revealing a three inch-long bullet burn. He stuffed the bandanna in his pocket.
“I got taught a lesson,” he said.
Then he rode on, sitting tall in the saddle now.
Halliday could not help but admire him, a boy in a man’s world, refusing to be pushed around. He’d known youngsters like Cantrell, and most of them had died young.
How could they still be alive when their impetuosity forced them to do things an older, more experienced man would dismiss as the actions of a fool?
But then, some had made it and were now respected citizens. Perhaps Cantrell could one day join their ranks, but for the moment Halliday doubted it. If he hadn’t sighted the young face under the shock of red hair, Cantrell would now be dead.
Halliday drew up at the hitchrail outside the cabin but remained in the saddle. Mary Bland’s gaze went to him first and then to Cantrell. She looked worried when she saw Cantrell’s bloody hand.
“I heard shooting,” she said.
“Our young friend mistook me for a trespasser,” Halliday told her. “The shooting didn’t amount to much.”
Mary studied Cantrell intently. Then she walked back to the door of the cabin. “Boys will be boys. Supper is ready. Unsaddle the horses and by then it will be on the table.”
“We’ll be right along,” Cantrell said as he rode toward the barn.
When they’d off-saddled their horses and fed and watered them, they let them out in the small yard behind the barn.
Halliday carefully checked the land behind the barn and figured he’d hear anybody approaching from that direction at night. Satisfied, he made Cantrell bathe his wound and then he tied a thin strip of bandage around it.
“That won’t stay on, Halliday,” Cantrell growled.
“The smaller the bandage, the less Mary will be concerned about it.”
“Dammit, Halliday, you always have a ready answer for ev’rythin’! You—”
But Halliday was already making his way to the cabin. Mary called them in and they sat down at the table. She ladled stew into plates and handed the plates around. They ate in silence, and only when the meal was finished did she say; “What do you intend to do now, Billy?”
The youngster shook his head. “Hard to say. Dorgan’s behind all this, that’s fer sure. Somehow I’m gonna get him for what he did to Tim.”
“But we can’t be certain that Dorgan was behind the hanging,” Mary argued.
“I’m sure, that’s all I need. You’re a woman, so you don’t know about these things. A man has to do what he must when his brother’s been killed.”
“And get killed yourself? Will that solve anything?”
“I can’t think about that.”
Halliday sat back, enjoying the feeling of hot food in his stomach. The girl could certainly cook.
“What do you think, Mr. Halliday?” Mary suddenly asked.
“Looks like Dorgan hopes to own this whole range,” he said. “I know that he works in with an attorney named Ramsey.”
Mary sucked in a deep breath. “That foul-minded, fork-tongued dude. I’ve never met a more despicable person, with all his fancy ways.”
“I got his name down, too,” Billy said. “If they wanna fight, in court or out here, it don’t matter. I ain’t movin’ on and I ain’t lettin’ Mary be pushed off. This was Tim’s place and he brought her here. So I’ll make it legal that she can stay.”
Color rose to Mary’s cheeks. Halliday drew on his cigarette, seeing the young girl’s surprise. What her thoughts were, he couldn’t be sure, but he guessed that she was afraid Billy would make some personal demands of her.
“Just as soon as Mary can dig up some paper and a pencil, I’ll sign over my share of this place to her, just in case,” Billy said.
“Your share?” Halliday probed.
Billy nodded. “Tim told me that if anythin’ happened to him, I would be his beneficiary. So they can’t kick me off now, can they?”
“They sure can’t.”
“And if they kill me after I’ve signed over everythin’ to Mary, they can’t kick her off, neither, can they?”
“I don’t see how they could,” Halliday said, blowing smoke into the air.
Mary stood up and smoothed down her skirt. She looked from one to the other—the big man who had been such a help to her, and the young man, brother of the only person in Crater Creek who had shown any friendliness toward her. Tears welled up in her eyes. Seeing them form, Billy lowered his gaze and muttered;
“It’s the least I c’n do.”
“I see it as a pretty big gesture,” Halliday pointed out.
“But a foolhardy one,” Mary put in. “I admire you for the thought, Billy, but I won’t stay here and see another friend killed. I’ll pack up and be gone by morning.”
“Where will you go?” Billy asked, shocked at the thought of her leaving.
“Back where I came from.”
Billy looked at Halliday, who got to his feet. Stacking the plates, he took them to the sink. Mary turned to watch him, tears coursing down her cheeks now.
“Maybe you two should put the past behind you,” Halliday said to both of them. “The future can’t be any worse, can it?”
“It can’t. Oh, hell, I hope it can’t,” Mary cried out, and hurried from the room.
Halliday looked around the room. Billy stared miserably at the curtain behind which Mary had gone. Then he looked back at Halliday.
“Leave her be,” Halliday whispered.
“She might... need someone to talk to, Halliday. After all that’s happened, mebbe ...”
Halliday merely shook his head and headed for the door. Then he signaled for Billy to follow him and they walked up the clearing to the barn. Taking his saddle roll, Halliday spread it out in the first empty stall and looked carefully around. Watching him, Cantrell seemed confused.
“What are you doin’?”
“Fixing a place where I can keep an eye on the cabin and the clearing at the same time. You go up to the barn near where that old saddle’s hanging. From there you can keep an eye on the land behind the house. We can’t take any chances, Billy. Maybe the culprits responsible for your brother’s death will come back. Then we should both lie down and get some shut-eye.”
Billy was stunned that the big man had seen so much in such a short time. But then wasn’t Halliday turning out to be a man full of surprises?
He kicked some hay into a heap and smoothed it out to make a bed for himself.
“Are you an outlaw, Halliday?” Billy asked.
“No.”
“What are you then?”
“One day I hope to be able to work that out. Right now I let my sorrel take me where it wants to go. See you in the mornin’, Billy. I’m off to sleep.”
“Just like that, with Mary inside worryin’ herself crazy, you can sleep?”
“A man needs his sleep for what might happen tomorrow. Good night, Billy.”
The young man merely grunted, then spent a considerable amount of time making himself comfortable, turning this way and that, until finally he ended up flat on his stomach. He lay still and stared out into the dark. Halliday had told him he wasn’t an outlaw, but Billy wasn’t so sure.
Halliday was definitely a fine hand with a gun, he’d proved that with just one shot. But whether he worked on the side of the law or not... Billy couldn’t be sure.
Whatever, it was sure a fine display of fancy shooting, if Halliday had meant to miss as he’d said.
Billy rolled over onto his side. The man had meant to miss, all right. He was sure a cool one. If not an outlaw, then he’d locked horns with trouble a number of times in his life. So maybe, using his head, Billy could use him. He wasn’t going to leave in a hurry, he meant to hang around. And he was always making eyes at Mary and ...
He sat up straight and called;
“An’ keep away from Tim’s girl, Halliday. If that’s what you came here for, you’ll have to get past me.”
Halliday didn’t answer.
“You hear me, Halliday?”
“I hear you, Billy. Now get some sleep.”
Billy cursed under his breath and lay down. His eyes began to close but he forced them to stay open again. For at least five minutes he stared out at the dark, listening to the wind rustling through the trees, feeling the cool night wash over his face. The smell of hay became intoxicating and he soon closed his eyes.
Lying with his hands clasped behind his head, Halliday smiled wryly. Billy was beginning to look all right. Inexperienced, but loaded with the kind of grit that win battles.
With his help ...