“I know of him. Looks like a big rat. But he’s pure poison with a rifle.”
Cord looked toward the bunkhouse, where half a dozen gunhands were loafing. “Worthless scum. I was gonna let them go. Now I don’t know what to do.”
Smoke could offer no advice. He knew that Cord knew that if Dooley even thought his daughter’s attackers came from the Circle Double C, he would need all the guns he could muster. They were all sitting on a powder keg, and it could go up at any moment.
A cowboy walked past the big house. “Find Del for me,” Cord ordered. “Tell him to come up here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You want me to stick around and help you?” Smoke asked. Cord shook his head. “No. But thanks. This is my snake. I’ll kill it.”
“I’ll be riding, then. If you need help, don’t hesitate to send word. I’ll come.”
Smoke was riding out as the foreman was walking up.
Smoke rode back to the site of the attack. His people had already righted the buggy and hitched up the now calmed horse.
“I’ll take it over to the D-H,” Smoke offered. “I’ve got to get my horse anyway.”
“I’ll ride with you,” Lujan said.
“What are we supposed to do?” Silver Jim asked. “Sit here and grow cobwebs? We’ll all ride over.”
Bobby had returned to chasing strays and pushing them toward new pasture.
The foreman of the D-H, Gage, met them halfway, leading Smoke’s horse. “You boys is all right,” he said. “So I’ll give it to you straight. Don’t come on D-H Range no more. I mean, as far as I’m concerned, me and the regular hands, you could ride over anytime; but Dooley has done let his bread burn. He’s gone slap nuts. Sent a rider off to wire for more gunhands; they waitin’ over at Butte. Lanny Ball found where them tracks led to McCorkle Range and that’s when Dooley went crazy. His wife talked him out of riding over and killing Cord today. But he’s gonna declare war on the Circle Double C and anybody who befriends them. So I guess all bets is off, boys. But I’ll tell you this: me and the regular boys is gonna punch cows, and that’s it ... unless someone tries to attack the house. I’m just damn sorry all this had to happen. I’ll be ridin’ now. You boys keep a good eye on your backtrail. See you.”
“Guess that tears it,” Smoke said, after Gage had driven off in the buggy, his horse and the horse Smoke had borrowed tied to the back. “Let’s get back to the ranch. Fae and Parnell need to be informed about this day.”
Rita regained consciousness the following day. She told her father that she never saw her attackers’ faces. They kept masks and hoods on the entire time she was being assaulted.
Cord McCorkle sent word that Dooley was welcome to come help search his spread from top to bottom to find the attackers.
Dooley sent word that Cord could go to hell. That he believed Cord knew who raped and beat his daughter and was hiding them, protecting them.
“I tried,” Cord said to Smoke. “I don’t know what else I can do.”
The men were in town, having coffee in Hans’s cafe.
Parnell had wanted to pack up and go back east immediately. Fae had told him, in quite blunt language, that anytime he wanted to haul his ashes, to go right ahead. She was staying.
Beans and Charlie Starr had stood openmouthed, listening to Fae vent her spleen. They had never heard such language from the mouth of a woman.
Parnell had packed his bags and left the ranch in a huff, vowing never to return until his sister apologized for such unseemly behavior and such vile language.
That set Fae off again. She stood by the hitchrail and cussed her brother until his buggy was out of sight.
Lujan and Spring walked up.
“They do this about once a month,” Spring said. “He’ll be back in a couple of days. I tell you boys what, workin’ for that woman has done give me an education I could do without. Someone needs to sit on her and wash her mouth out with soap.”
“Don’t look at me!” Lujan said, rolling his dark eyes. “I’d rather crawl up in a nest of rattlesnakes. ”
“Get back to work!” Fae squalled from the porch, sending the men scrambling for their horses.
“There they are,” Smoke said quietly, his eyes on three men riding abreast up the street.
“Who?” Cord asked.
“The Sabler Brothers. Ben, Carl, and Delmar. They’ll be gunning for Lujan. He killed two of their brothers some years back.”
“Be interesting to see which saloon they go in.”
“You takin’ bets?”
“Not me. I damn sure didn’t send for them.”
The Sabler boys reined up in front of the Hangout.
“It’s like they was told not to come to the Pussycat,” Cord reflected.
“They probably were. No chipped shoes on any of your horses, huh?”
“No. But several were reshod that day; started before you came over with the news. It’s odd, Smoke. Del is as square as they come; hates the gunfighters. But he says he can account for every one of them the morningRita was raped. He says he’ll swear in a court of law that none of them left the bunkhouse-main house area. I believe him.”
