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LEE AND CARTER GALLOPED back into Silver Creek. Thirty minutes earlier, they’d sneaked out of the ranch while Stem and the others had blasted off an impressive amount of covering gunfire.
Abe’s gang, if they were still hiding behind the cart, returned no shots. Then they’d dashed to the stable and galloped away on Lorne’s fastest horses. Nobody had pursued them. In Silver Creek, the town was its usual raucous self, even in the morning.
Music blasted from the saloon and people bustled around as they filled the streets with excited chatter. They wended a path through the thronging people outside the saloon and headed to the end of the main drag and the marshal’s office. They tethered their horses and hurried inside.
Marshal Brown raised his head and winced. “I had a feeling you two would be back. The job of deputy town marshal is still open, and as soon as an applicant who isn’t Chinese and who isn’t an idiot walks through that door, I’ll hire him. Until then, you two are just littering up the place.”
Lee shook his head. “We aren’t here about the deputy’s job. We’ve got desperate news.”
Brown yawned. “I’ll listen, and if it isn’t a wild story, I’ll pay.”
As Carter muttered inaudibly under his breath, Lee ground his teeth, forcing himself to keep his anger bottled.
“Abe Mountain is back.”
Brown snorted. “You two are desperate. That’s the third time today some idiot has tried to sell me that ridiculous lie. I didn’t pay the first two, and I’m not paying you.”
“We didn’t ask for money,” Carter snapped.
“Then you’re even more stupid than I thought.” Brown pointed to the door. “Now get out of here before I arrest you for vagrancy.”
Lee walked across the office and placed both hands on Brown’s desk.
“We’re here for your help. Abe has killed Alistair Marriott and all of his ranch hands that got in the way. He’s holed up at the Wayne ranch now, aiming to kill Lorne. We need you to round up a posse and get out there.”
Murphy sneered. “I don’t believe a word of that.”
Lee turned away from the marshal, sneering, but Carter joined him and set his hands on his hips.
“Marshal, who told you that they’d seen Abe?” Carter said.
“It was Roger Vickers from the trading post, and then some ranch hand who works for Alistair, Brady Sanders.”
“Would you normally trust those people?”
“Nope.” Brown pointed at the door. “Now get out before I throw you out.”
“You can do that, but once Abe’s killed Lorne, he’ll come for you.” Lee smiled. “He knows you tried to remove him, and he isn’t impressed.”
Brown’s eyes widened and he gulped. “How do you know that I removed Abe?”
“Abe told us.”
“It can’t be,” Brown said, his eyes now frantic. “Abe is dead.”
“He’s alive, and he’ll come looking for you, unless you round up that posse real fast.”
Brown nodded curtly, jumped to his feet and hurried past them to the door, picking up a gunbelt as he went.
“We’ll come with you,” Carter said.
Brown shook his head and turned back, a devious smile spreading across his face.
“No. You two stay here. I need my deputies to look after my office when I’m not here.”
Despite the situation, Lee grinned. “Do you mean you’re hiring us?”
Brown walked to the door and stood with his back to them. He nodded.
“Yup. I’ve reconsidered.”
“You’re too late,” Carter said. “We aren’t interested. We work for Lorne Wayne now.”
Brown leaned on the doorframe. “Whatever Lorne is paying you, I’ll double it.”
Lee nodded and then smiled. “It looks like you’ve got two new deputies.”
Brown snorted and strode outside, slamming the door shut behind him.
Carter whistled through his teeth. “Yesterday, we were on half-pay. This morning, we were on full pay. Now, we’re on double pay. I reckon life is sure looking up.”
Lee sat on Brown’s desk. “Yeah, but only if we live long enough to enjoy it.”
For the next ten minutes, Lee munched a hunk of hard bread, while Carter stood by the window. Then Carter beckoned Lee to the door. From down the main drag Rufus Tourney was riding for Brown’s office.
Lee pressed his face to the glass and searched for more members of Abe’s gang, but only Rufus was visible. Ten yards from the door, Rufus dismounted and faced the office. He shuffled his feet into the ground.
“Marshal Brown, come out,” he called. “We have unfinished business.”
Lee cleared his throat. “He isn’t interested in your business.”
Rufus laughed. “That sounds like Yick Lee inside. You get around.”
“I’m Deputy Yick Lee now.”
Rufus shrugged. “That doesn’t matter to me none. My quarrel is with Brown. Send him out now, but if you defend that yellow-belly, I’ll kill you.”
“What do you reckon?” Lee said to Carter.
Carter patted his rifle. “I reckon I’ve had enough of hiding, and that Rufus is annoying me.”
Lee nodded and threw the door open. He walked on to the boardwalk. With Carter beside him, he faced Rufus and shuffled his shoulders in his jacket.
“We deputies have a duty to uphold the law. As you’re threatening a lawman, we’re arresting you.”
Rufus laughed. “Yesterday, you were another no-good varmint working for Lorne. Now, you’re a deputy. Quit jesting and tell Brown to come out.”
“If you want him, you’ll have to go through us.”
“I’d hoped you’d say that,” Rufus said. His grin widened.
Rufus rocked his right shoulder down, his hand whirling to his holster. Lee dropped to the boardwalk as a bullet whistled by his head. By his side, Carter blasted a slug at Rufus, but Rufus hurled himself to the side, Carter’s shot winging past his shoulder.
Lee drew his gun and rolled aside. On his belly, he rested both elbows on the boardwalk and, as Rufus rolled to his haunches, he blasted him through the chest. Rufus toppled back, twitched once and then was still.
With his smoldering rifle dangling from his hand, Carter stood tall. Despite the gunfire, nobody had ventured closer to the office.
“Where is Marshal Brown, and where is that posse?” Carter said.
Lee stood up and joined Carter. He rubbed his chin and then nodded.
“Unless he hasn’t stayed in town to raise a posse. . . .”
“Where would he go?”
“I reckon if you think for a moment, there’s only one place he’d go,” Lee said.