Sam felt her looking at him, and did not look at her. Instead he stared not at the gravesites, but at his brother’s backs.
After a few minutes Evan and Jubal turned and remounted. “We’ll have to get them something better,” Evan said.
“Sure,” Sam said, “but first let’s make sure they’re buried in the right place.”
A stranger rode into Vengeance Creek while the McCall boys were out of town. He rode directly to the livery and asked the Swede for directions to the Burkett spread, and then immediately left town and headed for the ranch.
From the gravesites they rode to the house, where they all dismounted. They went into the house together, a small two-room house with a hard-packed dirt floor and flimsy wooden doors and shutters.
“They lived here?” Evan said in disbelief.
Sam looked down at the dirt floor. There were stains in some places, which made the floor darker. He knew they were bloodstains.
“No,” Sam said, “they died here.”
There was some furniture, but it was all old, dusty and in various stages of disrepair. Evan walked over to the wooden chair, shook it, and then lifted his foot and easily smashed it.
“They traded the ranch for this?” he said, angrily.
“What?” Jubal asked. “Traded?”
“Even up,” Sam said. “The ranch for this.”
“They didn’t get any money for the ranch?” Serena asked in disbelief.
“Not a penny.”
“I don’t believe it,” Jubal said.
“It’s on file at the courthouse,” Evan said.
“I mean, why would Pa do that? It doesn’t make any damn sense.”
“I agree with Jubal,” Serena said. “We all heard that Burkett had bought the ranch. We never suspected… this.”
“Well,” Evan said, looking around in disgust, “it’s plain that the answers are not going to be found here.”
“Jubal,” Sam said, “take Serena back to town.”
“Where are you going?” Jubal demanded.
“Out to see Lincoln Burkett.”
“I wanna go with you!”
“As a matter of fact,” Serena said, “so do I.”
“Sam,” Evan said, “I have a suggestion.”
“What’s that?”
“Since I’m just a little less excitable than you, I think I’d better go and see Mr. Burkett alone.”
“I don’t like that suggestion,” Sam said.
“I like it better than yours,” Jubal said, with a smile.
“Besides,” Evan said, “someone has to register us in the hotel. It’s plain that we can’t stay here.”
“Evan—”
“Sam,” Evan said, “I’m just going out there to talk.
That won’t take all three, or even two of us. Come on, see it my way.”
Sam frowned, obviously not happy. Jubal was smiling because Sam was getting some of his own medicine.
“I can go with you and introduce you, Evan,” Serena said.
Evan smiled.
“Don’t worry, Serena, I know how to introduce myself. You go home with Jubal.” Evan looked at Sam and said, “All right?”
Sam’s jaw was tight but he nodded and said, “Yeah, all right…but watch your step.”
“I’ll watch it, brother,” Evan said. “I’ve had a lot of practice doing just that.”
The stranger rode up to the Burkett house and dismounted. As a ranch hand approached him to ask if he could help him, the stranger tossed him his horse’s reins and said, “See to my horse, boy.”
The hand tossed the reins right back and said, “I ain’t your boy. Whataya want here?”
The stranger ignored the reins, which struck his chest and fell to the ground.
“I have business with Mr. Burkett.”
“Is that so?” the hand said. “Well, maybe Mr. Burkett doesn’t have business with you.”
The stranger’s face split into a humorless smile. He was very tall, and clad in black, which made his dark eyes seem black, as well—as black as two small holes which now bore into the hand’s own eyes, chilling him.
“Why don’t I go and ask him?” he said, and started for the front steps.
“Hold it—” the hand said, putting his hand on the stranger’s arm. The stranger turned and rammed the heel of his other hand into the man’s jaw. The man’s head snapped back and he fell to the ground, blood from his severely bitten tongue seeping out from between his lips.
As the stranger turned to approach the steps he heard some more men running up behind him. At that moment the front door opened and a man stepped out.
“Are you Coffin?” Lincoln Burkett asked.
“That’s me,” Coffin said. “You Burkett?”
“Yes.”
“You want to call off your dogs before I have to kill some of them?”
“Hold up, men!” Burkett said.
Seven or eight hands had been rushing to the aide of their friend, and Burkett’s voice stopped them in their tracks.
“This man works for me,” Burkett said. “Gear, have some men pick up Adams and take him to the doctor. Coffin, come inside.”
“Sure,” Coffin said.
He climbed the steps without looking back.
As Evan McCall rode up to the Burkett house—what used to be his father’s house—he saw a man being helpedto his feet by several others. There was blood on the man’s chin and chest. It seemed to be pouring from his mouth.
He reined in as the men helped the injured party away, and another man turned to face him.
“Help ya?” Mike Gear asked.
“I’d like to see Mr. Burkett.”
“About what?”
“Tell him Evan McCall is here. I’d like to talk to him about my father.”
“McCall?” the man asked.
“That’s right.”
“You Sam McCall’s brother?”
“Right again.”
“Is Mr. Burkett expecting you?”
Evan opened his mouth to say no, then thought better of it and said, “I believe he is.”
He looked at Evan as if he didn’t believe him and said, “Wait here.”
The man was gone five or six minutes, and during that time Evan looked over the house. Several improvements had been made since the last time he was there. They could have been made by his father, but he suspected that they had been made recently, by Lincoln Burkett. For one thing, the wood of the front steps looked rather new. There also seemed to have been some work done on the roof. Off to one side of the house, on the second floor, a new room was under construction.
To his left he saw another horse, a gelding as black as night, tied off. From the look of it, it had just recently been ridden in. Evan was not Burkett’s only visitor.
When the man returned he simply motioned to Evan from the top of the steps.
Evan tied his horse off on a post in front of the house and followed the man inside. Without saying a word theman led him to a room that was either an office or a library. When he and his brothers had lived there with their
