“Stand against the back wall.”
“You think I’d waste good coffee—”
“Look, Coffin, I’d just as soon kill you as look at you.
Now stand against the back wall!”
Coffin obeyed, and Jubal set the coffee cup down in front of the cell. When he stood up he stared at Coffin, the man who had killed his brother. Earlier, when they had first heard about Evan’s death, he had been ready to kill this man. He couldn’t understand how Sam could
It would be easy to do now. Just take out his gun and fire. So easy…
“Are you going to wait until it gets cold?” Coffin asked.
Jubal looked down at the coffee and had the urge to spit into it. Instead he turned and walked stiffly back into the office.
“You’ve been a sheriff before, haven’t you?”
“Once or twice.”
“I’ve never worn a badge,” Jubal said. “It feels sort of funny.”
“The badge gets heavier and heavier the longer you wear it. Luckily we won’t be wearing them very long.”
“I don’t get it,” Jubal said suddenly, and Sam knew he was changing the subject.
“What?”
“How could you not have killed him?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said, shaking his head. He put his coffee cup down and rubbed his hand over his face. “I intended to kill him. I went there to kill him. When I saw him I just kept walking toward him, and I was thinking, ‘This is what Burkett wants.—I guess I didn’t want to give it to him…you know?”
Jubal studied his brother for a few moments, then said, “Yeah, maybe I do.”
“You want some dinner?” Sam asked.
“I am hungry. What’s on the menu?”
“Beans.”
“Sounds great.”
“Yeah,” Sam said, “don’t it.”
As Sam opened a can and set in on the potbellied stove Jubal asked, “What’s Burkett likely to do?”
“If I was him,” Sam said, “I’d send a man into town to look us over first, see how things were laid out.”
“What’s to see?” Jubal said, “We’re in here and he’s out there.”
“Well, when he knows it’s that simple he’ll come for us…unless…”
“Unless what?”
Sam turned to face his brother and said, “Unless he wants to make us sweat.”
“You think he will?”
Sam shrugged.
“If he does that it’ll work in our favor.”
“How?”
“If he waits long enough the marshal will get here,”
Sam said. “It’s not likely, though.”
“He knows about the marshal?”
“Yep,” Sam said, “smart me told him.”
“It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Thanks,” Sam said. “Hey, you want these real hot?”
“It don’t matter. Warm’ll do.”
Sam used the coffee cups to hold the beans and handed Jubal a cup and a fork.
“What about him?” Jubal asked.
Sam sat behind the desk and said, “If there’s any left…”
Later they set up the sleeping arrangements, four hours on and four off. They decided to play some checkers before one of them went to sleep. The board was a contribution of Dude Miller’s.
Over the board Jubal said, “I just thought of something.”
Over the board Jubal said, “I just thought of something.” “Tell me.”
“The marshall’s going to be coming alone, right?”
“Probably.”
“What’s to stop Burkett from waiting for him and ambushing him?”
Sam looked at Jubal. It was a sharp observation, and he gave it some thought.
“It’s a good point,” he said, finally, “but I don’t think he will.”
“Why not?”
“Well, there are several directions the marshal could come from. Burkett would have to use too many men to cover them, and he’s gonna want to use those men on us.
No, I think he’s gonna try and take us before the marshal gets here.”
“Tonight?”
“Not tonight,” Sam said. “He’s got to get his information first. Sometime tomorrow, he and his men will come.”
“And we be ready?”
“As ready as we can be.”
The man Chuck Conners sent into town for Burkett was Jackie Doaks. Doaks rode in and headed straight for the saloon. It was there that he heard the story about Sam McCall, Coffin, and John Burkett.
He circulated around town and gradually put together the setup. It was almost eleven P.M. when he mounted his horse and rode back to the ranch. He had watched theMcCall brothers carry supplies into the jail, and it was clear that they intended to spend some time in there.
Maybe a long time.
When Doaks gave Conners the story, Conners took it in to Burkett.
“They’re not stupid,” Burkett said. “They know we’ll be coming for them, and they’ve decided to barricade themselves in the jail.”
“How do we get them out?”
“Oh, there are any number of ways,” Burkett said. “I’d like to try and get them out alive first. I want to put my hands on Sam McCall.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“Then they’ll die in there.”
“What about Coffin?”
“Coffin didn’t do the job,” Burkett said. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s dead already.”
Conners stood still and quiet and waited for his instructions.
“All right,” Burkett said. “I want all the men to have a good breakfast in the morning before we go to town. Tell Cook to make it a big spread.”
“Yessir.”
“Some of them won’t be coming back.”
Jubal took the first watch. He started out by playing solitaire, then walking to the window and looking out every so often. Once or twice he went in the back and looked at Coffin while he slept. He was tempted to put a bullet in the man, but he knew that he and Sam had to stay together on this.
He went back into the office and sat behind the desk. He started thinking about Evan, about how little they knew each other. How could three brothers grow so farapart, he wondered? How could they let that happen—and worse, leave their parents behind to die?
When this was over he was going to have to see what Sam wanted to do. If he wanted to split up—well, he’d abide by his wishes but maybe, just maybe, he’d want to stay together. Maybe they’d stay, or they could leave and ride together.
And what about Serena? There were times when Jubal thought she was in love with Evan and times when he
