Fleharty fled around them into the Great Northern. At the hitch rack out where Amy had tied her animal, several cowboys came up, got down, tied up, and paused to stare admiringly at Amy. Hub Wheaton took her arm and started along southward.
“It’s working out all right,” he told her. “Lew was smart. I just can’t imagine why he didn’t want me to know he was sending Charley away, though.”
Amy looked up at the shadow of trouble mantling Wheaton’s countenance. “Because he wasn’t sure you wouldn’t want to arrest Charley, Hubbell.”
“Why would I arrest him?” Wheaton asked, puzzled.
“For murder,” said Amy as she freed her arm and swept on into the hotel lobby.
Parker recognized Lewis Morgan the instant he saw him in the gloomy corridor outside his hotel room. He nodded without speaking and Morgan did the same back again.
Parker unlocked his door, pushed it back, and motioned Morgan in ahead of him. He afterward closed the door, leaned upon it, and put a considering look forward where the owner of Lincoln Ranch halted and turned about.
“All right,” said Parker. “Sheriff Wheaton told me you had something to say. Say it.”
Morgan removed his hat, tossed it aside, and looked straight at Travis. “I’d like to see that bill of sale Wheaton says you have, before I say anything.”
Parker dug the paper out, wordlessly handed it over, and continued to stand by the door, watching Morgan read it. Parker saw the slackness of Mor-gan’s muscles, the grayness of his lips. He stood waiting for Morgan to speak.
Morgan made a little feeble gesture. “What can I say?” he muttered. “I think this is probably true.”
“It’s true, all right!” exclaimed Parker.
Morgan nodded dumbly. “I wired Arizona the minute I got to town…after Hub Wheaton told me what you’d said and what you’d shown him. The answer’ll be along soon now.”
“What then?” asked Parker dryly. “You going to offer me cash, Mister Morgan?”
“Would cash do it, Travis?”
Parker shook his head.
“No, I didn’t think it would.”
“Only justice will satisfy me, Mister Morgan.”
“You mean…with guns?”
Parker shook his head again. “I didn’t have that in mind, exactly, although apparently Ace McElhaney did. I had in mind a fair court trial for every man connected with my brother’s killing.”
Morgan dropped the bill of sale upon the room’s only bed. He brought forth a limp handkerchief and mopped perspiration. “All those men weren’t involved.”
“Yes they were. Every man who rode with you and Sheriff Wheaton’s brother the day my brother was killed is involved. I’ll accept nothing less than a trial for every one of them.”
“Travis, listen to me. McElhaney is dead. Can’t you be satisfied with that? What good can a trial do for the others? They didn’t even see your brother shot. They weren’t even close enough to hear the shots.”
“A lot of them aren’t even close enough right now to serve a court summons on, Morgan.”
Lew looked startled. “What d’you mean by that?” he swiftly demanded, his expression guilty.
Parker didn’t make any immediate reply. A black suspicion sprang through him. “I meant,” he said slowly, watching Morgan’s eyes, “that I sat outside this afternoon and counted nine riders with bedrolls and canteens hit the southward trail out of Laramie.” Parker paused, cocked a wry eye, and said: “But you just made me suspect something else, the way you looked when I said that. Tell me, Morgan, where did you tell Charley Swindin, your ranch foreman, to hide out?”
Lew turned, walked to the window, looked out a moment, turned, and walked back. His eyes were suddenly imploring. “Name what you want as an alternative to all this and I’ll give it to you, Travis.”
“I want Swindin first. After that, I’ll see the rest of you tried for being accessories to murder.”
“Travis, give us a chance. We know now what we did. Give us a chance to…”
“Yeah,” broke in Parker. “I’ll give you the same rotten chance you gave my brother.” Again Parker cocked his head with that same dry expression. “Of course, you can try to compound it by having me murdered, too, Morgan, like your niece did this morning with McElhaney. But I’ll promise you one thing if you try it. You’ll be dead, too, if I’m able to draw a breath afterward.”
Lew was stunned. “My niece? Are you talking about Amy? She has nothing whatever to do with this.”
“One thing at a time,” growled Parker. “Where did you send Swindin?”
“Away. You can’t blame me for wanting to save a man’s life, Travis.”
“No, I wouldn’t blame you for that, Morgan. That’s what Frank was trying to do on that thoroughbred horse I gave him, when your former sheriff and your foreman rode him down and shot him like a rabid dog.”
Lew Morgan was breathing hard; this was the only sound in the room for a little while.
Parker said again: “Where is Swindin?”
“I don’t know. That’s the truth. I told him to get away. To go a long way off. I didn’t say where he was to go, only that he was to leave at once…today.”
Parker stood there dourly considering the cattleman. When next he spoke, his voice had hardened, had turned grim and accusing: “You feel badly about being part of a murder, yet not quite bad enough to see the other murderers tried in court. Morgan, you’re scum. You’re the kind of a man who says he believes in law and order, but, when it affects you personally, you don’t believe in it at all. You’re the lowest kind of a hypocrite. I wish you’d go for that gun under your coat.”
The door was pushed suddenly inward, striking Parker. He side-stepped at once, dropped his right hand, whirled, and faced what he thought was fresh danger. It was Amy. She looked straight at him, ignored his fighting stance, entered the room, and closed the door.
Her uncle said: “Amy, what are you doing here?”
She had an answer for him: “The same thing you are, but also to explain to Mister Travis I didn’t know anything about McElhaney when we talked this morning.”
Lew gradually came to appear puzzled. He watched Amy face Travis.
“I don’t know how he knew you’d be on that road this morning. I have an idea, but otherwise I want you to believe me. I did not know anything about your fight with McElhaney until late this afternoon. I want you to believe that.”
“Why?” asked Parker. “What difference does it make whether I believe that or not?”
Amy went forward several steps; she was now between her uncle and Travis. She turned toward Parker. “So there will be no more senseless killings.”
He gazed at her. She stood before him, cool-looking, fresh, and crisp in all that wilting heat. Just gazing upon her forced out some of the bitterness. “Was it just coincidence, ma’am?” he sarcastically asked.
Amy shook her head. “I don’t think so. You see Ace McElhaney and our ranch foreman Charley Swindin were close friends. I’ve been told my uncle warned Swindin against you. I know also that Sheriff Wheaton, when he suspected who you were last night, also warned McElhaney to watch out for you.”
“So?”
“It’s not hard to understand, Mister Travis. McElhaney was riding to Lincoln Ranch this morning. He evidently intended to discuss the trouble they were in with Charley. On the way to Lincoln Ranch he came upon you. He made the kind of a decision the McElhaneys of this world are capable of making. He saw you and at once thought that, if he could kill you without any witnesses around, he would solve everyone’s troubles.” Amy lifted her shoulders, and let them fall. “He tried and he failed.”
Parker looked past at Lew. Morgan was running this theory through his mind. It made sense to him, Parker
