“I can,” Audie said. “If you were my size, you would know just how cruel many people can be.”
“Rider comin’,” Tenneysee said.
Sam rode up and dismounted, walking to the edge of the ridge. He waited until Smoke and his friends climbed back up. “Givin’ them folks a way out, Smoke?” he asked.
“I tried,” Smoke replied.
“They ain’t worth no pity,” Sam said. “Lord knows I ought to know. I worked for them long enough. I seen them people do things that would chill you to the bone. I ain’t never seen a bunch so hard-hearted as them people down there. Lie, steal, cheat, kill—them words don’t mean nothing to them people. Simmons at the general store worked his momma to death. And I mean that. Then buried her in an unmarked grave. Cannon at the newspaper is so bad he’s barred from the Pink House. Likes to beat women, if you know what I mean. And them ranchers out from town”—he spat on the ground—“hell, they just as bad. They run down and hanged a twelve-year-old boy when they found him leadin’ off unbranded stock. He was just tryin’ to feed his sick ma. It was pitiful. I seen some sights, but that one made me puke. Don’t feel no sorrow for them folks down there, boys. They ain’t worth spit.”
“Come and get us, gunhawk!” a voice yelled from the town. “We’ll give you the same treatment the rest of your family got.”
Smoke tossed the homemade megaphone to one side. “I tried,” he said. “I tried.”
The owners of the three other ranches located near Bury gathered at the home of Josh Richards. The owners had brought their so-called cowboys, many of whom were outlaws and gunfighters. Richards explained the situation at Bury—tactfully and pointedly leaving out that when his partners were dead, he would own it all.
“Well,” Marshall of the Crooked Snake spread said, “I can see why we can’t rush the town. Them mountain men would pick us off afore we got close enough to do any real damage.”
The other two owners, Lansing of the Triangle and Brown of the Double Bar B, nodded their agreement. Lansing looked at Richards and asked, “You got a plan?”
“Not much of one. And my plan is rather self-serving, I’m afraid.”
“Self what?” Marshall asked.
“It helps us but doesn’t do much for those trapped in Bury,” Richards explained.
“Hell with them!” Brown said. “We can always get more shopkeepers to come in.”
No one mentioned Stratton or Potter. The men just looked at each other and smiled. Honor among thieves, and all that.
“Let’s hear it,” Lansing said.
“I don’t understand it,” Sam said. “Richards has about twenty gunhands out there at the ranch. And by now he’s called in Marshall and Lansing and Brown. Together, the four of them could put together forty-fifty men. That many men could put us in a box. I wonder what they’re waiting for?”
Audie was thoughtful for a moment. “Perhaps this Richards person is hoping to gain from all this.”
Smoke looked at him. “Sure. If Stratton and Potter get dead, Richards has it all.”
“The loyalty of those men is overwhelming,” Audie said drily.
“I wanted to burn down the town,” Smoke admitted. “And I wanted revenge against those who killed my brother and pa, and who sent those men after me and my family. But as sorry as those people are down there in Bury, I don’t want their blood on my hands.”
Preacher seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He knew the young man well, and knew Smoke did not want needless killing on his mind.
“Mayhaps you won’t have to kill none of them down there,” Preacher said.
“You chewin’ ’round on something, Preacher,” Beartooth said. “Spit ’er out.”
“Well, lets us’ns slip word to Potter and Stratton that Richards is gonna lay out of this here fight. Kinda see what happens after that.”
“An’ juice it up a mite, too,” Tenneysee said with a grin.
“Why, shore!” Preacher returned the grin. “Ain’t nothing no better than a good joke.” He thought about that for a moment. “At our age, that is.”
18
Audie wrote out the first message to be delivered to the citizens of Bury. But it was so filled with big words nobody on the ridge knew what it said.
YOUR SO-CALLED CONFIDANTS HAVE ELECTED NOT TO CROSS THE RUBICON. THEY HAVE NOW SHOWN THEIR TRUE COLORS. THE MOMENT OF TRUTH IS NIGH. TO FIGHT US WOULD BE FOLLY. YOUR TRUE ADVERSARIES ARE YOUR ONETIME INTIMATES.
Tenneysee looked at the note and said, “I et Injun corn and sweet corn and flint corn, but I ain’t never et no rubycorn. Whut the hell does food have to do with this here matter?”
“Imbecile!” Audie snapped at him. He opened his mouth to explain, then closed it, knowing that if he tried to explain about the river it would only confuse matters further.
Audie stood and watched as Smoke laboriously printed another message, pausing often to lick the tip of the pencil stub.
Smoke tied the note to a stick, slipped down the ridge to within throwing distance, and tossed the message onto the main street.
