cocked the hammer on his gun. He felt Erin flinch.
“Father…” she said in a tiny voice, and that seemed to make Flanagan’s mind up for him.
“All right,” the fat man said to Sam McCall, “all right, don’t hurt her.”
“Tell ’em!” Sam said.
“Sheriff!” Flanagan shouted. “Let him go.”
There was a moan of disappointment from the crowd, but they fell silent when Sam pointed his gun into the air and fired it. Erin Flanagan closed her eyes and screamed, and Darby Flanagan started, jumping almost a foot and shaking the balcony.
“You heard the man,” Sam shouted into the silence, “let him go.”
Sheriff Watt hurriedly untied Jubal McCall’s hands, and Jubal removed the noose from his neck himself.
At the sound of horses the onlookers turned and looked down the street. Evan McCall was riding toward them, trailing two horses behind him, and it was clear he wasn’t about to stop for anyone. Men and women scattered, lest they be trampled, and Evan rode right up to thescaffold with the horses. Sam’s shot had served not only to silence everyone, but to signal Evan to come with the horses.
“Jubal!” Evan shouted, and tossed his brother a rifle. Jubal caught the weapon and covered the sheriff while he removed the man’s gun and tucked it into his belt.
“Watt, tell your deputy to drop his gun. He’s about to get himself killed,” Jubal said.
“Drop the gun, Willie.”
“But sheriff—”
“Drop it, damn you!”
Reluctantly the deputy slid his gun from his holster and dropped it.
“Kick it under the scaffold,” Jubal instructed, and the man did so.
“If there are any heroes in the crowd,” Sam called out, “I’d advise you to think twice.”
Sam turned Erin around to face him and kissed her fully on the mouth. He held her tightly to him, her breasts flattened against his chest. Startled, she was just beginning to return the kiss when he broke away.
“Ma’am, it’s been a pleasure.”
Jubal kept the crowd covered while Evan brought Sam’s horse closer to the hotel. Sam stepped over the railing and dropped down into his saddle. That done, he covered the crowd with Evan while Jubal descended from the scaffold and mounted up.
“Let’s go,” Sam said, and the McCall brothers spurred their horses into a full gallop before someone decided to go ahead and play hero.
They rode hard for several hours and then stopped and checked their back trail. Even a hastily formed posse would have been left far behind, and they took a moment to catch their breaths and rest their horses.
“Not that I ain’t glad to see you fellas,” Jubal said, “but just how did you manage to ride into Prosper right on time?”
“We were looking for you,” Evan said.
“When we heard that some young fool was about to get himself hanged,” Sam chimed in, “we figured it had to be you.”
“Well, thanks…I think,” Jubal said. “Now maybe you can tell me why were you lookin’ for me. Time for a family reunion all of a sudden?”
“Sort of,” Sam said, and handed Jubal the telegram. Sam and Evan waited silently while their younger brother read the news.
“What the hell—” Jubal said, looking up at both of them.
“That’s what we intend to find out,” Sam said. “Are you with us, little brother?”
“You know I am, Sam,” Jubal said, handing the telegram back. “We’re all gonna be wanted in Wyoming after this, you know. I think old Seth Folk was killed when he fell off that balcony.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Sam said, “but that’s something we can worry about after we find out what happened in Vengeance Creek. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Jubal said, and they both looked at Evan.
“Well,” Evan McCall said to his brothers, “sitting here isn’t getting it done, is it?”
Part Two
Vengeance Creek
Chapter Five
Dude Miller stared out the front window of his store at the dusty main street of Vengeance Creek, Texas. It had been two months since he had sent all those telegrams, hoping that one of them would find their way into the hands of Sam McCall. Each day Dude spent a few hours watching the street, waiting for the tall figure of McCall to ride down Main Street, with or without his brothers. Dude had the feeling that if Sam McCall did come back to Vengeance Creek, it would definitely be in the company of his two brothers, Evan and Jubal.
Although the McCall boys were spread far and wide through the west—and sometimes the east—dude Miller knew that their sense of family would remain intact. Up until their deaths Joshua McCall and his wife remained proud of all three of their sons, speaking of them often to anyone who would listen.
The boys all decided to travel, led by the exploits of older brother Sam. Soon after Sam left Vengeance Creek, Evan followed, to make his own name. Later, when he was old enough, Jubal followed in the footsteps of his brothers—or tried to. Jubal was not the man Sam or Evan was; he had spent too much time in their shadows, trying to be like them, to develop his own personality. Perhaps by this time he had.
Dude Miller’d had several motives for sending the telegrams. For one, he did not believe that the real solution to the deaths of the McCalls had been found. Second, he was curious about what had become of the McCall boys.
Sam, of course, had become the stuff of legend, and Dude wondered just how much of it was true. He had heard less of Evan and nothing of Jubal over the years. He had known them all as boys, and he’d known none of them as men—and he wanted to.
Miller’s business was on the order of a general store, except that he carried a wider array of goods. For that reason he was often interrupted from his reverie about the McCalls to service a customer. The time he spent looking out the window, however,
Looking out the window now he saw Lincoln Burkett step from the bank. Over the past nine months Burkett had become the most powerful man in Vengeance Creek. Just before the deaths of the McCalls he had purchased Joshua McCall’s ranch. Knowing how much it meant to the McCalls to keep the ranch so that their sons would have a home to come back to, Dude Miller had been suspicious of the sale ever since. He had been unable, however, to wrest the truth from Joshua McCall about the reason for the sale. A month later, the McCalls were dead, under what Miller considered suspicious circumstances. The powers that were in Vengeance Creek, however, led by Lincoln Burkett, had come to their decision fairly quickly, and there had been no investigation into the matter.
That would change when Sam and his brothers arrived.
And they would arrive.
Eventually.
Lincoln Burkett stepped from the bank and took a moment to slip his wallet into his jacket pocket. As he did so he looked across the street and saw Dude Miller watching him from the window of his store. Burkett frowned, staring back at the man, but that did not deter Miller, who stared back boldly.
Dude Miller was one of the few people in VengeanceCreek who resisted what Lincoln Burkett could do for this town. The man didn’t realize that the more powerful Burkett became, the more he could do for the town, and the faster the town would grow.
