“Then we’re all agreed.”
When Serena admitted them to the house she frowned at Jubal and said, “What happened to your lip?”
The three brothers exchanged glances and then decided to tell her about the incident.
“Where’s your father?” Sam asked.
“In the kitchen.”
“Let’s go in there.”
Sam didn’t want to have to explain it to her and then repeat it to Dude Miller.
They had been able to smell breakfast cooking as soonas they entered. In the kitchen the smell of frying food was stronger still, and they all experienced hunger pangs of one degree or another.
“You could have been seriously hurt,” she said to Jubal afterward.
“Evan got there in plenty of time.”
Evan could tell from the look on her face what she was thinking. If not for two kisses, he might have been there before Jubal could be hurt, at all.
“Everything turned out all right,” Sam said. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“You have something in mind?” Evan asked as they seated themselves at the table.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “I’m goin’ out to see Lincoln Burkett today.”
“What?” Jubal said.
“That’s madness!” Serena said.
“Do you think that’s wise?” Dude Miller asked.
Evan looked at his older brother and said, “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No,” Sam said, “I’ll go alone.”
“Why go at all?” Serena asked.
To the room at large Sam said, “I’m tired of being shot at and chased. If Burkett wants me dead I figure to give him a chance to do it himself.”
“And if he tries?” Serena asked.
Nobody answered and Jubal finally said, “Sam will defend himself.”
“And if he doesn’t try?”
This time Sam answered.
“Maybe it’ll force his hand.”
“Meaning what?” she asked. “That he’ll finally send Coffin after you?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” she said to Sam, angrily.
“You want to stand out there in the street with Coffin and see who’s best!”
“I want to get this over with,” Sam said. “I want to find out once and for all if Burkett killed our folks for what was on their land.”
“What’s on their land?” Dude Miller asked.
The McCalls had not yet confided to the Millers what they had discovered.
“We think there’s oil on the land, Dude,” Evan said.
“Oil?”
Sam told Miller about what he found, and about the geologist.
“Lord almighty,” Miller said, “no wonder Burkett wanted that land—but your father couldn’t have known, else why would he have given it up?”
“That’s something we still have to find out,” Sam said.
“And what happens if you find out that Burkett didn’t kill your parents?” Serena asked.
“That would mean someone else did,” Sam said.
“And we’d have to find whoever did,” Evan added.
“And what about Burkett?” Serena asked. “Does that mean you’d forget about him? I mean, if it turns out he didn’t kill them, and he didn’t force the land from them, would that be the end of things with him?”
The brother exchanged glances and then Evan said, “We don’t know, Serena.”
“Serena,” Dude Miller said, “if Burkett didn’t kill their folks, then they don’t have any business with him.”
“The town—”
“We’d be back where we started, honey,” Miller said.
“Us against Burkett.”
“And we’ll lose,” Serena said, twisting a dish towel in her hands. “I’d rather just pick up and leave than go on fighting, Papa.”
“Why don’t we wait and see what happens before you decide to leave?” Evan said.
“Sure,” Serena said, throwing her towel down to the floor, “wait until one, or two, or all of you are dead. That’s when it will be over.”
She stalked out of the room then, leaving the four men speechless.
“I’ll get that food off the stove before it burns,” Dude Miller said.
Jubal walked Sam to the livery, while Evan stayed at the house with Serena. Dude Miller walked with them as far as his store.
“Don’t be too hard on Serena, Sam,” he said before they parted company. “She’s grown very fond of the three of you, and she doesn’t want to see anything happen to you.”
“I don’t hold that against her, Dude,” Sam said. “I just hope she understands what we have to do, and why we can’t walk away from it.”
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see about that,”
Miller said, and entered his store.
Sam and Jubal proceeded to the livery, where Swede brought out Sam’s coyote dun.
“I wish you’d let me ride with you,” Jubal said as Sam mounted up, “at least part of the way.”
“I’ll do this alone, Jubal,” Sam said.
“Why do you have to do it alone?”
“Because this is what I do, Jube,” Sam said. “This is what I do.”
Coffin was looking out his window when Sam rode by, heading out of town. He had a feeling he knew where Sam McCall was going. Hell, if he was in McCall’s shoeshe might not have waited this long to confront Lincoln Burkett. Evan McCall’s visit to Burkett hadn’t accomplished anything. Maybe Sam McCall’s visit would stir things up some.
Coffin decided maybe he’d take himself a little ride as well.
As Sam rode up to Burkett’s house he attracted the attention of the men at the corral, the men in front of the barn, and a couple of men who were on the porch.
One of the men on the porch was Chuck Conners.
When he spotted Sam McCall riding up he turned away from the man he was talking to and descended the steps to wait for him.
“Don’t bother dismounting, McCall,” Conners said.
“You ain’t wanted here.”
“I want to talk to Burkett.”
“He don’t want to talk to you.”
“Why don’t you let him make up his own mind about that?”
“I’m the foreman around here,” Conners said. “I make most of the decisions around here.”
“Not this one.”
“Now look—”
“Are you prepared to keep me from seein’ your boss, Conners?”
“I am.”
“Well then, get to it.”
“What?”
“I said get to it,” Sam said. “Go for your gun.”
There were eight or ten men watching the proceedings now, and Conners’ eyes flicked right and left, taking in that fact.
“Now wait—” he said.
