“Yes, they rode out hell-bent-for-leather a few minutes ago, and there’s no sign of them coming back.”
Coleman’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Thank God. I thought at first we were goners, Hannah and me.”
“Then Hannah
“Yeah.”
“Is she hurt?”
“Nope.” Coleman turned his head and called through the open door, “Come on out, honey. The shootin’s over.”
Sam hoped that was true, but he hadn’t forgotten about Ambrose Porter and the special deputies. He stepped quickly to Coleman’s side, put a hand on the lawman’s arm, and said, “You’d better get back inside, Marshal, and keep Hannah there for the time being, too.”
“What’s wrong?” Coleman asked with a frown. “You think Kane’s gonna come back?”
“No, but there might be another problem.”
Movement in the doorway of the marshal’s office caught Sam’s eye. He looked that direction and saw Hannah stepping out with a rifle in her hands. He was about to call out to her and tell her to go back inside when a shadowy shape glided up behind her and she suddenly let out a gasp of surprise and fear. The Winchester dropped to the planks with a clatter as it was torn from her hands, and Sam stiffened as he saw an arm go around her neck and jerk her back against the man who had come up behind her.
“Drop your gun, Two Wolves,” Ambrose Porter ordered as he tightened his left arm around Hannah’s throat and thrust the gun in his right hand toward Sam and Coleman.
“What the hell?” Coleman exclaimed as he turned toward this new and, to him, unexpected problem.
Sam had tucked the extra revolver Matt had given him behind his belt and still held his own Colt. He didn’t drop either gun. He kept the one in his hand pointed toward Hannah and Porter and told the crooked special marshal, “Forget it, Porter. Your little scheme is done for.”
A harsh laugh came from Porter. “I don’t think so. Look around, you damn ’breed.”
Sam glanced up and down the street. “I don’t see anything.”
“That doesn’t mean my men aren’t there. There are eight rifles trained on you right now, Two Wolves. You don’t have any choice but to do as I say.”
“Blast it, what’s goin’ on here?” Coleman demanded. “Marshal Porter, is that you?”
Sam didn’t wait for Porter to answer. He told Coleman, “It’s him, all right, but he’s a lawman in name only, Marshal. He and Bickford and their deputies are all criminals.”
“That’s a matter of interpretation,” Porter said.
“The hell it is,” Sam snapped. “Bickford told me all about how you’ve been taking payoffs to let some of the men you’ve arrested go free…and murdering the ones who wouldn’t come through.”
An angry growl came from Coleman. “Is that true, son?”
“One of the prisoners in the wagon told me all about it, and then Bickford confirmed it when he thought he had the drop on me.”
Coleman glared at Porter. “Why, you low-down skunk! Dishonoring the badge that way. Let go of my daughter, right now!”
“I can’t do that,” Porter said. “You and Miss Hannah and Two Wolves have to go in one of the cells. We’ll lock you up, and then we’ll be on our way. I was tired of this game, anyway.”
Sam knew that Porter was lying. The crooked lawman wouldn’t be content to lock them up and escape. He and Bickford were making too much money with their scheme.
No, if Porter succeeded in getting the three of them inside the jail, he would kill them and probably gun down the three men who were already locked up in there, too, so there wouldn’t be any witnesses. All the law-abiding people in town had their heads down at the moment, lying low because of Cimarron Kane’s attack on the jail and all the lead that had been flying around a few minutes earlier. If Porter insisted that Sam, Coleman, and Hannah had been killed in that fight, there would be little chance that anyone would contradict him. He and Bickford could still salvage their scheme and carry on with it for a while yet, extorting more money from the luckless prisoners they arrested.
“I won’t tell you again,” Porter said in a harsh voice. “Drop your guns, or I’ll kill the girl right now.”
“If you hurt her—” Coleman began.
“Don’t waste my time with threats, old man,” Porter interrupted coldly. “I told you, you’re covered. If I shoot the girl, a second later my men will fill you and the half-breed full of lead. Your only chance to survive is to do what I tell you.”
“He’s lying,” Sam said under his breath. “He intends to kill us anyway.”
Coleman sighed. “I know that.” He bent over and dropped his pistol into the dirt of the street. “But that’s my little girl he’s got. I have to go along with him.”
Sam knew that the marshal was right. Porter would kill them and maybe even try to wipe out the whole town if he was pushed too far. With his mouth twisted in a grim line, Sam dropped his Colt next to Coleman’s. Then he reached for the gun tucked behind his belt.
“Careful,” Porter warned.
Sam eased the revolver out and added it to the two lying in the street. Then he and Coleman backed away from the guns.
“Come on,” Porter ordered. “Into the jail.”
