“I didn’t figure it was.” Smoke moved to the table and sat down.
Blackjack munched on a doughnut and sipped his coffee. “That editor feller is gone to Utah. Won’t be back for a month or more. And that youngster he hired to cover the news has recently got himself a bad case of jitters. Didn’t take much; just a little talkin’ to, is all. He won’t be comin’ around here no more.”
“We expected that.”
Blackjack’s eyes held a visible light of amusement as he looked around at the boys and the old men. “Damnedest outfit I ever did see. Pardon my language, ladies. These boys doin’ a man’s work. Drove that herd all the way to the railhead without a bobble. You boys is all right in my book. I brung a message from the Bar V,” he said abruptly.
Smoke took a bite from a doughnut and waited.
“Jud Vale has done declared war on anybody ridin’ for the Box T. Man, woman, or child. Thai don’t set too well for a few of us. Me and Jackson, most especially. I don’t believe in mistreatin’ women or hurtin’ no kid or dog. So, I ain’t a-gonna do it. Neither is Jackson.”
He finished his bear sign and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He drained his coffee cup and thanked Susie as she refilled it.
“But that’s just two out of about forty-five. . . with more comin’ in shortly. The odds is too high. Smoke. You can’t win this one.”
“These folks have no place else to go, Blackjack. So we have to win it.”
“Figured you’d say that. You bein’ who you is and all that.”
Blackjack sipped his coffee. “Now I ain’t got nothin’ personal ag’in you, Smoke. But that ten thousand dollars that Jud’s done hung on your scalp is jusi too good for me to walk away from. That money would get me a right nice spread down in Texas and I can hang these guns up.”
“You ain’t never gonna hang them guns up, Blackjack,” Cheyenne told him. “You been around too long. You’re one of the old breed. There’s always gonna be some punk kid who wants to make hisself a rep.”
“Not me, Cheyenne. I’m a-gonna change my name and bury myself down near the Barrillas. Me and Lassiter. We done talked it over. So me and Lassiter will be waitin’ for you over at Preston, Smoke. That’s the way it’s got to be, and you know it.”
Smoke nodded.
Blackjack cut his eyes to Matthew. “Git shut of that gun, boy. It ain’t nothing but grief. You already got the stamp on you, but it ain’t too late to shake it off. As young as you is, you kill another man, you’re gonna be marked.”
“I plan on becoming a lawman,” Matt told him.
“Huh! That’s even worse. Puttin’ up with drunks and whoors and tin-horns and gamblers. It ain’t no life.” He smiled sadly. “O’ course, my life ain’t been all that great, neither.” He stood up and smiled at the women. “Much obliged for the coffee and bear sign, ladies.” Turning, he looked at Smoke. “Lassiter’s just over the ridge. We’re headin’ for Preston. I ’spect we’ll see you there, Smoke.”
Blackjack Morgan walked to his horse and swung into the saddle. He rode off without looking back.
“Now that is interesting!” Walt said.
“Not really.” Smoke began rolling a cigarette. “They’re setting me up, that’s all.”
“You can bet on that!” Cheyenne agreed. “Blackjack and Lassiter will prob’ly have four or five men with them. Their plan is being the only ones standin’ after the battle.”
“That’s the way I read it at first. Now I’m not so sure.”
“What do you mean, son?” Walt asked.
“Jud wants me away from the ranch, probably figuring I’ll take someone with me.”
“And he’ll hit the ranch when you’re gone,” Alice stated, a sick expression on her face.
“That’s the way I see it.”
“And if you don’t go into Preston, Blackjack and them others will spread the word that Smoke Jensen has turned yeller,” Cheyenne added that.
Smoke shrugged that off. “That kind of talk never bothered me, Cheyenne.”
“Son, you can’t face seven or eight men alone,” Walt told him.
Smoke smiled. “I faced eighteen alone one time. I did take some lead. But I put them all down. Don’t worry, Walt. I have no intention of riding into a setup. If I just stay put, that will probably make Blackjack and the others so mad they’ll do something rash.”
“Like what?” Rusty asked.
“Oh . .. like moving their ambush a lot closer than Preston. Like over to the trading post.”
“And you’d ride over there to face them?” Susie asked. “One man against seven or eight gunslingers?”
“I’d give it some serious thought,” Smoke told her, pouring another cup of coffee.
“That man said that more gunfighters would becoming in shortly,” Doreen said.
“I’m fresh out of ideas, Doreen. W hat do you wan t me to do, girl?”
“You could put the ranch up for sale. Advertise it in the paper, in papers all over the state. That would draw a lot of attention to our situation and maybe make Jud Vale back off.”
“She’s got a point, Walt,” Smoke told him.
