“And?”
“I would have taken him if Chuck hadn’t stopped me,” John Burkett said.
“Don’t be a fool, boy,” Lincoln Burkett said. “The man would have killed you.”
“We’re talking about Evan McCall, not Big Sam,” John Burkett said.
“Evan McCall is no slouch with a gun,” Chuck Conners said.
“And what if you had killed him?” the elder Burkett asked. “Sam McCall would track you down and shoot you like a dog.”
“I’m not afraid of Sam McCall.”
“You should be,” Lincoln Burkett said.
“Are you?”
“Damn right.”
“You’re not afraid of anyone.”
“Don’t get me wrong, boy,” Lincoln Burkett said. “If I had to face him I would, and if I could kill him I would, but that doesn’t mean I’m not afraid of him. You should always fear
“What are we paying Coffin for?” the younger Burkett demanded. “So far all he’s done is sit in town eating and drinking and whoring.”
“So far that’s all I’m paying him for.”
“Why don’t we send him after Sam McCall?”
“I will,” Burkett said, “eventually, but the time’s not right yet.” The older man looked at his foreman and said, “What was Evan McCall doing on my land?”
“He said he was just riding around, thinking of old memories.”
Lincoln Burkett rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.
“You think they know what’s on this land?”
“I don’t know—”
“If old man Joshua knew and wrote it down somewhere, they may know, too.”
“And if they do?”
“If they do,” Lincoln Burkett said, “I’ll have to move my timetable up.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning I may have to use Coffin sooner than I’d planned. Chuck, get some of the men together, send them out in groups of four or five.”
“What do you want them to do?”
“I want anyone who doesn’t belong on our land chased off.”
“That include Sam McCall?”
“Yes,” Burkett said, “that includes Sam McCall.”
“You want McCall killed?”
Burkett took a moment to ruminate over that.
“I don’t want to lose any more men, but this would bedifferent from an ambush in town. He’d be trespassing, and we’d have a right to shoot him.”
“Tell me what you want them to do, Mr. Burkett, and they’ll do it.”
“I’ll ride out, too, Pa,” John Burkett said. “If we see Sam McCall, we’ll kill him.”
“You stay here. I don’t want to take a chance on you getting killed.”
“Pa—”
“Do as I say!”
John Burkett gave his father a murderous glare and then stalked away.
“You hurt his pride,” Conners said.
“I’d rather have that than have him get killed. Look, Chuck, talk to the men, make them understand that I don’t want them going after Sam McCall unless they’re absolutely sure they’ve got him outnumbered and out in the open. Once he gets himself in a position to shoot back, I want them to lightout. Understand?”
“I understand.”
“Well, make sure
“I’ll make sure they know.”
“All right,” Lincoln Burkett said. “I’d better talk to Cord, and then I’ll talk to the boy.”
“He’s not a boy anymore, Mr. Burkett.”
“Maybe not,” Lincoln Burkett said, “but he’s certainly not thinking like a man yet, either. If he’s somewhere in the middle I’ll settle for that, because that’s more than I’ve gotten from him in a long time.”
“That’s him.”
Jim Priest was pointing down at a lone rider. He and his men had topped a rise and spotted the rider immediately.
“How do you know?” Len Unger asked.
“He’s riding a coyote dun,” Priest said. “I heard in town that Sam McCall rides a coyote dun.”
He turned and looked at Unger and the two men with him.
“What do we do?” Unger asked. “Take him?”
“Well,” Priest said, “he is out in the open, and we do outnumber him.”
“So did Mike Gear and six other men in town,” Unger reminded him.
“You have a point.”
“Dan Hitchcock and his group are about ten miles east of here,” Bill Granger said.
“And McCall is riding that way,” Unger said.
“Good idea,” Priest said. “We’ll hook up with Hitchcock and his men, and then we’ll take him.”
The others agreed, and so the four began to ride parallel to Sam McCall.
Sam spotted them immediately. If they hadn’t been trying so hard not to be seen, he probably wouldn’t have seen them.
At first he expected them to come riding down the hill, most likely shooting at him. When they didn’t, he figured they were just there to watch him. He didn’t mind if they watched him because he wasn’t doing anything— now. He was simply riding back to town.
Suddenly he became aware that there were eight men instead of four. That meant that they would be twice as brave as before.
He was already spurring his horse on when he heard the first shot.
The fact that Big Sam McCall was running from them and not turning to fight them made the eight men, led by Jim Priest and Dan Hitchcock, even braver than before.
This caused several of them to ride faster, leaving behind others whose horses couldn’t keep up. As they stretched out behind Sam McCall they didn’t realize that this made them somewhat less menacing.
The man in front was Len Unger. His horse, a strapping mahogany bay, was the fastest of the eight. It was even starting to cut into the distance between Unger and McCall’s dun.
Sam guessed that they would probably chase him until he was off Burkett property. However, they were so filled with false courage that he could smell it. In such a condition they might chase him to the ends of the earth. He had to do something to deflate their courage.
Without warning Sam reined his dun around to stand sideways. He drew his gun, pointed at the lead man, who by this time was far ahead of the others, and fired. The man fired just a split second before Sam did. His bullet smacked into Sam’s thigh just before Sam’s bullet hit him in the center of his chest.
The impact of the bullet almost made Sam drop his gun. He holstered the weapon and grabbed his saddle pommel with both hands. Actually, he was glad the bullet had hit his thigh. A little to the right or left and the horse would have bought it. With a dead horse he would have been at the mercy of his pursuers.
Satisfied that one dead man would deter the other seven, he turned his horse and headed back to town on the run. He had to get there before loss of blood made him fall out of his saddle.
“Jesus!” Jim Priest shouted when he saw Len Unger.
Priest was the first to reach Unger. He dismounted and checked his fallen comrade.
The others caught up and looked down at Priest.
