“Can you see anybody inside the shack?” Fargo asked.
“Yeah, I can see three men sittin’ at a table, just inside the window,” Casey said.
“When I give the word, everyone start shooting at the same time,” Fargo said, raising his rifle to his shoulder. The others raised their rifles as well, and waited for Fargo.
“Now! Shoot!” Fargo shouted, squeezing the trigger that sent out the first bullet.
Arnie died instantly, a bullet coming through the window to crash into the back of his head. Sandy and Curley heard the little tinkle of glass as the window broke; then they watched in surprise and shocked horror as blood and gore exploded out of the top of Arnie’s head. By the time the sound of the shot reached them, other bullets were flying through the little cabin.
As Arnie flopped forward across the table, Curley felt a blow to his chest, as if he had just been kicked by a mule. His chair went over backward, and he fell to the floor.
Sandy went next, a bullet in his neck.
By now Shorty, who had remained on the bunk, had rolled onto the floor.
“Jesus!” he said. “What is it? What’s happening?” Shorty called.
“Shorty!” the wounded man on the floor called. “Shorty, I’m hit bad!”
Shorty crawled over to Curley, then saw the blood on his chest. The wound was sucking air and Shorty knew it would soon be over for his friend. He put his hand on the wounded man’s forehead. That gesture of comfort was Shorty’s last mortal act because the next bullet hit him right between the eyes.
Less than a moment later, all four men were dead.
“Hold your fire,” Fargo said, holding up his hand to stop the others.
The men quit firing.
“See any movement?”
“No,” Casey said.
“Casey, how about you go up and see if anyone is still alive?” Fargo said.
“What do you mean go up and see if anyone is still alive?” Casey replied. “Hell, you go up.”
Fargo glared at Casey, then got up and, upright and without caution, walked straight toward the shack.
“What’s that dumb son of a bitch trying to do? Show off?” Casey asked with a growl.
Casey, Dagen, and Monroe watched as Fargo kicked the door open and went inside. They waited to hear some sign of a struggle or, barring that, for him to come out and tell them it was all right to come in.
A long minute went by.
“What do you think happened?” Casey asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You think Fargo’s dead?”
“Did you hear anything?”
“No.”
“Then he probably ain’t dead.”
“How come he hasn’t come out and told us anything?”
“’Cause the son of a bitch has found the food and he’s eatin’ it all himself,” Dagen said in a sudden realization.
Dagen started toward the line shack and after only a moment’s hesitation, the others went with him. When they got to the shack they saw Fargo inside, eating beans straight from the pot. He was sitting at the table, totally oblivious of the dead man whose head was leaking blood and brains right beside the pot of beans.
There were three other men in the room and they lay dead on the floor.
“What the hell has been keeping you?” Fargo asked around a mouthful of beans. “Hurry up and eat. We’re goin’ back after our money.”
“Going back? To Mesquite?” Casey asked. “You think that’s the smart thing to do? I mean, seein’ as you kilt that man an’ all.”
“Hell,” Dagen said as he opened a biscuit and filled it with beans. “What are you worried about, Casey? You didn’t kill that fella. Neither did Monroe or me. If the sheriff is goin’ to be after somebody’s ass, it’s goin’ to be Fargo’s, right, Fargo?”
Fargo glared at Dagen across the top of the bean pot. “So I figure,” Dagen said, taking a bite of his biscuit and letting beans and juice dribble down either side of his mouth, “if there’s a chance of getting the money back by goin’ back to Mesquite, then let’s go.”
CHAPTER 19
“Natanke, there is food!” Kwazi called to his friend. Kwazi pulled a stick with skewered rabbit from the fire. It was roasted brown and from it curled a wisp of aromatic smoke. “Food!” he called again.
“Why does he not come?” one of the others asked. “Did he not say he was hungry?”
“Maybe he has fallen asleep,” Kwazi called.
“Give the meat to me,” Chetopa said. “I will take it to him, and if he has fallen asleep, I will send him back. We
