mountain with a short gun. The editor of the paper was there, along with the town’s lawyer, both of them heavily armed. There were ranchers and farmers and shopkeepers, and while not all were born men of the West, they had blended in and were solid western men.
Which meant that if you messed with them, they would shoot your butt off.
Smoke shared a few words with all of the men of the posse, making sure they all had ample food and bedrolls and plenty of ammo. It was a needless effort, for all had arrived fully prepared.
Then Smoke briefed them all about the nature of the men they were going to track.
When he had finished, all the men wore looks of pure disgust on their faces. Beaconfield and Garrett, both big ranchers in the area, had quietly noosed ropes while Smoke was talking.
Monte noticed, of course, but said nothing. This was the rough-edged west, where horse thieves were still hanged on the spot, and there was a reason for that: Leave a man without a horse in this country, and that might mean the thief had condemned that man to death.
Tit for tat.
“Judge Proctor out of town?” Smoke asked.
“Gone to a big conference down in Denver,” Monte told him.
Beaconfield and Garrett finished noosing the ropes and secured them behind their saddles. They were not uncaring men. No one had ever been turned away from their doors hungry or without proper clothing. Many times, these same men had given a riderless puncher a horse, telling him to pay whenever he could; if he couldn’t, that was all right, too.
But western men simply could not abide men like Davidson or Dagget or them that chose to ride with them. The men of the posse lived in a hard land that demanded practicality, short conversations, and swift justice, oftentimes as not, at the point of a gun.
It would change as the years rolled on. But a lot of people would wonder if the change had been for the better.
A lot of people would be wondering the same thing a hundred hears later.
Smoke swung into the saddle. “Let’s go stomp on some snakes.”
26
The posse caught up with the men who had ranged out front, tracking the outlaws.
“I can’t figure them, Sheriff,” one of the scouts said. “It’s like they don’t know they’re headin’ into a box canyon.”
“Maybe they don’t,” Pearlie suggested.
One of the outriders shook his head. “If they keep on the way they’re goin’, we’re gonna have ’em hemmed in proper in about an hour.”
Garrett walked his horse on ahead. “Let’s do it, boys. It’s a right nice day for a hangin’.”
The posse cautiously made their way. In half an hour, they knew that King Rex and Dagget were trapped inside Puma Canyon. They was just absolutely no other way out.
“Two men on foot,” Monte ordered. “Rifles. And take it slow and easy up the canyon. Don’t move until you’ve checked all around you and above you. We might have them trapped, but this is one hell of a good place for an ambush. You—”
“Hellooo, the posse!” the call came echoing down the long, narrow canyon. It was clearly audible, so Davidson and his men were not that far away.
Monte waved the two men back and shouted, “We hear you. Give yourselves up. You haven’t got a chance.”
“Oh, I think not, Sheriff. I think it’s going to be a very interesting confrontation.”
“Rex Davidson,” Smoke said. “I will never forget that voice.”
Monte turned to one of his deputies. “Harry, you and Bob ride down yonder about half a mile. There’s a way up to the skyline. You’ll be able to shoot right down on top of them. Take off.”
“This is tricky country,” Beaconfield said. “Man can get hisself into a box here ’fore he knows. Took me several years to learn this country and damned if I still don’t end up in a blind canyon ever now and then.”
They all knew what he meant, for they all had, at one time or the other, done the same them.
“Hellooo, the posse!” the call came again.
“We hear you! What do you want?” Monte yelled, his voice bouncing around the steep canyon walls.
“We seem to have boxed ourselves in. Perhaps we could behave as gentlemen and negotiate some sort of settlement. What do you say about that?”
“Bastard’s crazy!” Monte said.
“You noticed,” Smoke replied.
Raising his voice, Monte called, “Toss your guns to the ground and ride on out. One hand on the reins, the other hand in the air.”
“That offer is totally unacceptable!”
“Then you’re going to get lead or a rope. Take your choice!”
“Come on and get us then!” Dagget yelled, laying down the challenge.
“We got three choices,” Garrett said, a grimness to his voice. “We can starve them out; but that’d take days. We could try to set this place on fire and burn them out; but I don’t want no harm to come to their horses. Or we
