“That gun-slick I shot reckons Miss Eastfield and Vandor got Endicott liquored up and he let on how we was trying to find you and buy the Rafter C, Calam,” Trinian explained. “Told her about the arrangements with Counselor Talbot ’n’ every damned thing. I’m acting as deputy until Day’s back on his feet. If you want, I’ll arrest Endicott.”
“No!” Calamity stated flatly, glancing at Mrs. Leckenby. “Let it ride, Cash. He saw me yesterday and told me everything. Says he’s through law-wrangling and that’s good enough for me.”
The sheriff’s wife let out a sigh of relief, for she had wondered how Calamity intended to deal with her brother’s breach of trust. Nodding his agreement, Trinian continued to discuss the affair with Calamity and the Kid. They decided that the girl should tell Marshal Beauregard everything on returning to Mulrooney, leaving him to decide what action, if any, could be taken against The Outfit. Calamity looked disturbed when she learned that Staff had left a widowed mother. Not until after an enjoyable meal, however, did Trinian raise the matter which most concerned him.
“What’re you fixing to do with the Rafter C, Calam?” he asked, watching the girl limp stiffly across to sit in the well-padded armchair.
Instinctively Corey-Mae moved to her husband’s side. Leaning by the fireplace, the Kid watched the couple’s and Calamity’s faces. Mrs. Leckenby put aside her intention of clearing the table and listened to the conversation that followed.
“It’s a right nice-looking place,” the girl answered. “I bet I could get nine, ten thousand dollars for it.”
“You could,” Trinian agreed coldly.
“So I’ll sell it to you. If you can meet my price.”
Trinian jerked his head around to look at his wife, but Corey-Mae’s eyes never left Calamity’s unsmiling face.
“How much?” Trinian inquired warily.
“There’s some’d say five thousand one hundred and fifty simoleons’d be a fair price,” Calamity answered.
“Five thous——!” Trinian barked.
“That’s what it cost pappy,” Calamity pointed out, looking as sober and unfeeling as a hanging-judge about to pass a sentence of death. “He started out with one hundred and fifty dollars ’n’ won the spread on a five-thousand- dollar call in a poker game. So there’s some’d say that’d be a fair price.”
“But you don’t see it that way?” Corey-Mae said quietly.
“I don’t,” Calamity admitted.
“Then how do you see it?” Trinian demanded.
“Like I said, pappy started out with a hundred and fifty lil iron men,” the girl replied and a grin started to twist at the corners of her mouth. “So you give me that and split the rest between the sheriff ’n’ Staff’s mother, seeing’s it was through me they got shot up.”
Silence followed the girl’s words. Corey-Mae looked triumphantly at her husband and Trinian stared blankly, with mouth dropping open, at the red-haired girl in the armchair.
“Who’s going to buy me that new shirt I got promised?” asked the Kid.
“Hell, yes!” Calamity ejaculated. “I forgot that. Cash, the price’s gone up. I want a new shirt for Lon on top of it.”
“But—But——” Trinian gobbled, hardly able to believe that he had heard correctly.
“It’s my only offer,” Calamity declared. “And, happen you’ve any feeling for the good folks of Hollick County, you’ll take me up on it.”
“I don’t follow you,” Trinian said.
“If you don’t buy the place,” Calamity explained, “I’ll settle on it myself.”
“Which means you’d have fire, flood, storms, drought, Injun raids and every other kind of misery ’n’ torment come a-running here,” the Kid elaborated.
“How you talk, Lon Ysabel,” Miss Martha Jane Canary snorted indignantly. “Why you’ll have folks believing I deserve to be called ‘Calamity.’”
About the Author
J.T. EDSON brings to life the fierce and often bloody struggles of the untamed West. His colorful characters are linked by the binding power of the spirit of adventure—and hard work—that eventually won the West. J.T. Edson has proven to be one of the finest craftsmen of Western storytelling of our time.
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Books by J.T. Edson
RANCH WAR
THE BIG HUNT
THE ROAD TO RATCHET CREEK
RUNNING IRONS
WACO’S BADGE
TEXAS KILLERS
COLD DECK, HOT LEAD
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
RANCH WAR. Copyright © 1970 by J. T. Edson.
* The reasons for Mulrooney’s law-abiding conditions are told in
† Nemenuh: the People, the Comanches’ name for themselves.
* Dusty Fog’s and Mark Counter’s stories are told in the author’s floating outfit books.
† Told in
*The first occasion is told in
* Told in
