under the rising cloud of gunsmoke to stare down at the dead man on the floor. One of those who ran into the saloon was Marshal Drew.
“Marshal, it wasn’t Jensen’s fault,” Harry said quickly. “Ever’one in here will tell you that this fella on the floor, Scarns he said his name was, started it all.”
“Yeah,” Marshal Drew said with a resigned sigh.
“They have all been like that. Matt, you are a good man, I’ll attest to that. But I swear, the grim reaper must just hover over you.”
“Another one?” Teasdale said. “Are you telling me that Jensen killed another one?”
“Yeah, someone who was trying to collect the reward,” Reed said.
“How do you know he was trying to collect the reward?”
“Because he said it out loud, and everyone in the saloon heard him,” Reed said.
“My God, that’s not good,” Teasdale said, growing pale.
“He didn’t say who offered the reward,” Reed said. “And of course he wouldn’t know anyway, because he thought the reward would be coming from Sam Logan. And anyone else who might try and collect is going to think the same thing.”
“Yes,” Teasdale said. “Yes, I suppose that is right, isn’t it?”
“And, look at it this way,” Reed said. “Jensen isn’t dead, that’s true, but you aren’t out any money yet, either. And you won’t be until someone actually gets the job done.”
“That leaves a question hanging though, doesn’t it?” Teasdale said.
“What question is that?”
“Is there nobody that can kill that bloody bastard?”
Chapter Twenty-two
In the town of Curtis Wells, about twenty miles east of Sussex, Pete Carter, Tim Hodge, and Ben Decker were in the Back Lot Saloon.
“Five thousand dollars,” Carter said. “That’s how much the reward is to take care of Jensen.”
“Five thousand dollars? We was only going to get a hunnert dollars apiece,” Hodge complained. “Who’s givin’ this reward, anyway?”
“From what I hear, it is Sam Logan.”
“Sam Logan? He don’t have that much money,” Decker said.
“How do you know he don’t? He’s been runnin’ a pretty good operation in Johnson County for near ’bout a year, now. Hell, there ain’t no tellin’ how much money he’s got,” Carter said.
“What I’m wonderin’ is why he would be willin’ to give out so much money as a reward for killin’ Jensen, when he was only goin’ to give us a hunnert dollars apiece,” Hodge said.
“Well, think about it,” Carter said. “From what I hear, Jensen is playing hell with Logan’s operation. He’s already killed half a dozen of his men, and if you had somethin’ good goin’, and there was a chance that some son of a bitch was goin’ to mess it up for you, wouldn’t you want to get rid of him?”
“Yeah, I guess, but, it don’t seem fair that he would be offering all that money to someone else, and not to us.”
“Who said it ain’t to us?” Carter asked.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a reward,” Carter said. “It will be paid to anyone takes care of Jensen. All we got to do is get to him first, and the money is ours.”
“How do we do that?” Decker asked. “We already run into him once, and it didn’t work out all that well, if you remember.”
“No, we didn’t run into him. He ran into us,” Carter said. “This time we will do it different.”
Matt was having his lunch at The Lion and The Crown when he saw Carter, Hodge, and Decker come into the saloon. He recognized them right away and wondered what they were doing there. Then when they started toward him, he knew that their presence was no mere accident.
“Well, Mr. Jensen, it looks like we meet again,” Carter said.
“I didn’t think you boys would show up in Sussex,” Matt said.
“Oh, I’m sure you didn’t,” Carter said.
“Tell me, Jensen,” Decker said. “Did you really think you could steal our guns and get away with it?”
“I didn’t steal them, I just held on to them for a while. If you want them back, all you have to do is go see Marshal Drew.”
“Nah, we don’t want them back,” Hodge said. “We got us new guns.”
“Do you, now?”
Matt took a swallow of his beer, then put the mug on the table. He dropped his hands in his lap.
