19
“If there is anyone waiting out there, don’t shoot!” Draper yelled from the front door of Manuel’s. “For God’s sake, don’t shoot!”
“All right, let’s go,” Slocum said, shoving the double barrels of the shotgun under Draper’s chin.
Draper led the way out into the street, his head held rigidly erect by the shotgun, his eyes open wide in fear. Slocum was right behind him, holding on to him with his left hand while with his right he held the shotgun. Ian was just behind Slocum.
Slocum saw movement behind the comer of the leather goods store.
“I don’t know who’s over there,” Slocum shouted. “But I want to tell you that my thumb is already getting tired.”
“Come out!” Draper shouted. “Come out in the street so he can see you!”
Two men walked out then, both of them carrying guns.
“Throw the guns down and put your hands up,” Slocum ordered.
The two men did as ordered, then walked on either side of him as a human shield against anyone who might take a shot.
Slocum shepherded his little party toward the depot. The train whistle they heard a moment ago was now much closer, and in fact, not only the whistle could be heard, but the chugging, puffing sound of the engine as well.
Manuel’s was at one end of the street, the depot was at the other. About one hundred yards separated the two structures. As Slocum looked down the one hundred yards, he could see the Crown Ranch riders, some of them on the roofs behind the false fronts of the buildings, some of them just inside doorways, others near the corners of the buildings. At the far end of the street he could see the MacTavish private car, and standing on the depot platform in front of the car were Emma and Julie.
“Ian!” Emma shouted excitedly. She started toward them.
“Ian, tell her to stay until we get there,” Slocum said.
“Emma, no, get back!” Ian said, waving at her. “Get back!”
Understanding, Emma nodded her head, then got back onto the platform to wait.
“Good,” Slocum said. “Getting her out in the middle of the street now would just complicate things. It’s easier if she stays there.”
“It doesn’t make any difference what she does, Slocum,” Draper said. “You won’t make it alive to the other end of this street.”
“You damn well better hope I do,” Slocum said, jamming the barrels harder against Draper’s chin. “Because if I don’t make it, you sure as hell won’t.”
“Don’t shoot!” Draper shouted with renewed enthusiasm, as if just realizing the truth of Slocum’s statement.
“You know what, Draper? It might be safer for both of us if everyone would just throw their guns out into the street,” Slocum said.
“Throw your guns out into the street!” Draper ordered.
“What?” someone said. “Damned if I’m going to throw my gun in the street.”
“Do it! Just do it!” Draper shouted in a near hysterical voice.
There was a long pause, then one gun came out, then another, and another, until, one by one they began to plop down into the dirt of the street as the little party walked by.
Ian, you keep a good lookout behind us,” Slocum said. “I wouldn’t want anyone to get brave after we pass them.”
“Aye, laddie, I’ll keep a sharp eye out,” Ian promised.
The train was nearly to the station now and it sounded its whistle again, then it began braking with puffs of steam and the screeching sound of metal on metal. Slocum had come better than fifty yards, just over halfway there.
“Stivers, no!” Draper suddenly shouted. He had spotted one of his men just inside a door, aiming a gun at them. “Put your gun down!”
Stivers hesitated for a moment, then he tossed his gun out.
“Good man, Draper, I see you are watching out for both of us. Now, tell him to come on out into the street.”
“Come out!” Draper ordered.
Stivers, with his hands up, came outside to join all the other Crown Ranch riders. By now there were nearly thirty of them and they were all walking quietly down the street behind Slocum and the others, as if this were a giant parade.
In a way, it was a parade, for the rest of the town was watching from their own positions on the sidewalks, and through the windows of their homes and businesses. It was a strange, almost bizarre scene played out in an eerie silence. Slowly, quietly, the parade continued down the street toward the depot.
The conductor was surprised to see that the depot was completely deserted. To the small towns in remote parts of the West, the arrival and departure of trains were the most significant events of the day. Such trains were more than mere conveyances for passengers, or the means of shipping and receiving goods. They were a physical link with the rest of the country, a visible sign that the towns-folk weren’t alone. And yet, as the conductor stepped off to give his clarion call, there was not one citizen of Prosperity present to hear him.
“Where is ever ...” the conductor started, but he stopped when he saw the parade approaching. And at almost the same moment, he saw that the person leading the parade, Seth Draper, had a shotgun jammed up against his chin. “My God! What’s going on here?” he asked.
A few of the passengers on the train, who just happened to be looking out the window at what they thought was just one more stop along the way, also saw the strange parade coming toward them. Like the conductor, they were instantly curious, and they left the train to get a better look. Within a few moments, the depot platform was crowded, not with the townspeople who normally gathered to watch the passing of the trains, but with the passengers themselves. It was a strange reversal of normality.
The townspeople weren’t left out, though. As the parade had passed them on the street, they left their vantage points and followed. Now, just at the edge of the depot itself, there were nearly three hundred people gathered, representing most of the town and all the passengers on the train.
Just as Slocum arrived at the depot, Caulder stepped out of the crowd and planted himself in the street right in front of Slocum.
“Well, now, you’re here,” Caulder said, smiling. “I have to tell you, Slocum, I really didn’t think you would make it this far. I admire you for that.” The smile left his face. “But this is as far as it goes.”
“Out of the way, Caulder,” Slocum growled.
“Oh? Out of the way or what? You’ll kill Draper?”
“You damn right I will.”
“Go ahead.”
“Caulder!” Draper shouted. “What are you saying? What are you doing? He means it, can’t you see that?”
“Oh, yes, I see that. But Slocum knows that I mean it, too. In fact, I understand he played the same game with Mrs. MacTavish. Of course, we don’t know if he really meant that or not. Go ahead, Slocum, kill Draper.”
“If he’s dead, who pays you?” Slocum asked.
“Oh hell, I’m not worried about that,” Caulder replied. “I was about ready to move on anyway. But I can’t leave without settling the score with you. You understand that, don’t you, Slocum? If I let you go, how would that make me look? Why, I’d be the laughingstock of the territory. I’d never get on with anyone else.”
“That’s probably true,” Slocum said. “But that’s your problem.”
“Not just my problem,” Caulder said. “We’re going to have to deal with it, both of us, right here, right now. You said it yourself, Slocum. Everyone wants to see us shoot it out.” He smiled and took in the crowd with a wave of his hand. “Look how many people are here. Don’t you think we owe them a show?”
“Is that really what you want, Caulder?”
“Yeah, that’s really what I want. Now, either kill that son of a bitch, or let him go. I really don’t care which. Then, let’s you and me settle this thing, once and for all.”
Slocum eased the hammers down on the shotgun and pulled it away from Draper’s chin. He handed the gun to Ian.
“Keep an eye on him,” he ordered.
“You’ve got it,” Ian said.
Slocum turned toward Caulder. The crowd backed away to give them more room.
“Ever since you come to town, I’ve been wonderin’ which of us was the fastest,” Caulder said.
“Slocum!” Ian shouted, and right on the heels of his shout came a blast from one of the barrels of the shotgun he was holding. Slocum looked up to see Deputy Percy Boyle, his chest and neck blood-splattered from the charge of buckshot, pitching forward off the roof of the private car. Caulder had planted him there as a backup.
When Caulder saw that Boyle was dead and he was going to have to face Slocum alone, the smile on his face faded. Slocum realized then that the advantage had suddenly passed to him. It might have been, all things being equal, that Caulder was as fast, or perhaps even a little faster than Slocum. But Caulder had given himself an edge, and now he saw that edge taken away. That left him with self-doubt, and the self-doubt caused him to feel fear, perhaps for the first time in his life. And that fear was mirrored in his eyes and in the nervous tick on the side of his face. His tongue came out to lick his lips.
Slocum waited, an easy grin spread across his face. Even that, the grin in the face of a life-and-death situation, seemed to unnerve Caulder.
Suddenly Caulder’s hand started for his gun, but Slocum’s was out just a heartbeat faster. That heartbeat of time was all the advantage Slocum needed, for he fired first. Caulder caught the ball high in his chest. He fired his own gun then, but it was just a convulsive action and the bullet went into the dirt, just before he dropped his gun and slapped his hand over his wound. He looked down in surprise as blood squirted through his fingers, turning his shirt bright red. He took two staggering steps toward Slocum, then fell to his knees. He looked up at Slocum.
“How’d you do that?” he asked in surprise. “How’d you get your gun out that fast?” He smiled, then coughed, and flecks of blood came from his mouth. He breathed hard a couple of times. “I was sure I was faster than you.”
“Looks like you were wrong,” Slocum said easily.
Caulder fell facedown into the dirt. He was still for a moment, then someone leaned down and put his hand to Caulder’s neck. He looked up at the others.
“He’s dead,” he said.
“Slocum! Look out!” Ian suddenly shouted.
Slocum, who had already returned his pistol to his holster, now spun toward Ian, just in time to see that Draper had somehow managed to get the shotgun away from him.
“I’m going to kill you, you son of a bitch!” Draper shouted, but before he could pull the trigger, even before Slocum could get his own gun out, there was the bang of a gunshot. Slocum saw blood and brain matter explode from the side of Draper’s head as he went down, and he turned to his right to see Clint Lane standing there, holding a smoking Colt .44. A flash of sunlight glistened off the sheriff’s badge that was pinned to his vest.
Slocum, who had drawn his pistol but hadn’t fired, now turned to look at the Crown Ranch riders. Most of them were now unarmed, having thrown their guns into the street during the walk down here.
“It’s all over, men,” Slocum said. “You’ve got nobody left to pay your reward. Is there anyone among you who wants to keep this going?”
“I sure as hell don’t,” a cowboy in the front rank said. “I’ve had enough of this.”
“Me, too,” one of the others said.
“Yeah,” a third agreed “I’m getting out of here.”
One by one the Crown Ranch riders began to walk away. Most of the townspeople returned to their activities as well, though a few of the more morbidly curious hung around a bit longer to look down at the three bodies that had been added to the earlier total.
“All right, folks,” the conductor said to the passengers who had been witnesses to the drama. “Let’s go. Get back on the train. We’ve got a schedule to keep.”
Slowly, almost reluctantly, the passengers got back onto the train, then it pulled out of the station. Almost as soon as the train left, the switch engine arrived to take the MacTavish car out to Cross Pass Station.
Julie walked over to Slocum and handed him something. When he looked at her questioningly, she said, “It’s a bank draft good for fifteen hundred dollars. I believe that was the agreed-upon price?”
“Yes.”
“What will you do now?” she asked.
“Move on.”
“Where will you go?”
“Nowhere in particular.”
“You could stay here, you know. Since Uncle Ian got Crown Ranch returned to him, he has a lot more land to manage than he used to. More land than one man can do alone.”
“The offer is tempting.”
“I come with the offer, John,” Julie said provocatively.
“That makes it even more tempting.”
Julie looked at John and read him correctly. The enticing smile on her face was replaced by a look of disappointment, but not anger.
“You are tempted, but you won’t come, will you?” she said.
“No.”
Leaning into him, she kissed him, letting the tip of her tongue flick across his lips just an instant, then withdrawing it.
“It’s too bad, John Slocum,” she said as she turned and started toward the private car, which was now connected to the engine. “You will never know what you missed.”
“It might be better that way,” Slocum said. “If I knew what I was giving up, I might kick myself for the next ten years.”
“I hope you do,” she said sweetly.
Slocum watched her climb into the car. Then she, Ian, and Emma waved good-bye as the engine started to move. He watched the engine and car move from the side track over to the Cross Station spur line, then begin to gain speed. The engine blew its whistle and smoke poured from the stack as it sped down the track, growing smaller and smaller until it was a distant dot on the horizon.
“Señor Slocum?”
Turning, Slocum saw Juanita standing just behind him.
“Yes?”
“Señorita MacTavish is not your woman?”
“No.”
“But why? She is beautiful, is she not? And she is also rich.”
“Yes, she’s all those things.”
“Then why is she not your woman?”
“She can never be my woman,” Slocum said, “because she wants too much of me. She wants me for the rest of my life, and I’m just not ready to make a commitment to one woman for the rest of my life.”
“But, with one woman for one night, you would make such a commitment?”
“Yes.”
“I think a woman who would get such a commitment for one night would be very lucky,” Juanita said.
There was no mistaking the expression on Juanita’s face. It was one of intense sexual desire, and she was making it abundantly clear that she would like to be that woman.
“Do you know where such a woman might be found?”
“Sí, señor.” Juanita said. She put out her hand. “Come, I will show you.”
Slocum followed her. He had been here this long, he could spend one more night in Prosperity.