“I’m not,” Smoke told him.
“Lord suffer us all!” the officer said. “What would you have done had you been angry?”
“Killed him.”
“I’d not like to get on the wrong side of the road with you, young man. But I would like to know your name.”
“Smoke Jensen.”
The crowd gasped and the cop smiled grimly. “Are you as good with your guns as you are with your dukes, me boy?”
“Better.”
Louis handed Smoke a towel and held his coat while his friend wiped his face and hands. York had stood to one side, his coat brushed back, freeing the butts of his .44s.
And the cops had noticed that, too.
The cop looked at all three of the men. “You boys are here for a reason. I’m not asking why, for you’re officers of the law, and federal officers at that. But I’d not like to see any trouble in this town.”
“There won’t be,” Smoke said, raising up from a rain barrel where he had washed his face and hands. “We’ll be leaving at first light.”
“You wouldn’t mind if I stopped by the stable to see you off, would you now?”
“Not a bit,” Smoke said, smiling.
The waiter stuck his head out the back door. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I’ve freshened your drinks. The management has instructed me to tell you that your dinners are on the house this evening.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Smoke told him. “I assure you, we have ample funds.”
The waiter smiled. “Gentlemen, Bull Everton will not be returning to this establishment for quite some time, thanks to you. And,” he grinned hugely, “if it isn’t worth a free meal to get rid of a big pain in the ass, nothing is!”
19
The men were in the saddle and moving out before first light; they would take their breakfast at the first inn they came to once outside of Springfield. It was cold in the darkness before dawn, with more than a hint of fall in the air, and it was going to be a beautiful day for traveling.
The road followed the Connecticut River. The men stayed on the east side of the river, knowing they would have to veer off toward the northeast once inside New Hampshire.
All were taken in by the beauty of the state. Although the leaves were turning as fall approached, the lushness of nature was a beautiful thing to see. As they traveled, the road was bordered by red spruce, red oak, white pine, sugar maple, yellow birch, and white birch.
“It’s shore purty,” York observed, his eyes taking in the stone fences that surrounded the neat fields and farms. “I can’t rightly describe the way I feel about this place. It’s, well—” He paused and shook his head.
“Civilized,” Louis finished it.
“I reckon that’s it, Louis. The only gun I’ve seen all day is the ones we’re totin’. Gives me sort of a funny feelin’.”
“Bear in mind,” Louis sobered them all, “that all that will change with the arrival of Davidson and his thugs.”
By mid-afternoon, the schools out for the day, boys and girls began to appear by the fences and roadways, staring in mute fascination as the cowboys rode slowly by. Smoke and Louis and York all smiled and waved at the young people, and just to give the kids something to talk about and remember, they swept back their jackets, exposing the butts of their guns for the kids’ wide eyes.
And the children loved it.
They could have easily made the distance to Keene by nightfall but decided to break it off at the inn on the New Hampshire/Massachusetts line. The innkeeper was a bit startled as the three jingled into his establishment.
“Innkeeper,” Louis said, “rooms for three, if you please. And we’ll stable our own horses.”
“Yes…sir,” the man said. “Right around back. You’ll see the corn bin.”
“And warn people to stay away from our horses,” Smoke told him. “Anybody gets into Drifter’s stall he’ll kill them.”
“Sir!”
“That’s what he did to the last man who owned him.”
“Yes, sir! I will so advise any locals.”
The man and his wife and the girls who worked in the tavern and dining room were having a hard time keeping their eyes off the twin guns belted around each man’s lean waist.
“We’ll freshen up a bit and then come down for a drink at the bar,” Louis told the man and woman.
Louis, York, and Smoke waited.
The man and woman and hired help contined to stare at the three tall men. No one seemed able to move.
Louis rapped gently on the desk. “The keys, please?”
The man came alive. “Oh! Yes! Here you are, gentlemen.”
Smoke smiled at the lady behind the desk. “We don’t bite, ma’am. I promise you we don’t.”
