wasn’t to be,” Kinsley said. Again, he pointed to the marker. “You ain’t to be in Colorado, and this is the last town inside of Colorado. That there marker gets you out of the state. Now, come along.”
The rainfall intensified as they walked alongside the track toward the state-line marker.
“Look, couldn’t I just wait there in the depot with you until morning? Or at least, until this rain stops?”
“The depot is in Colorado,” Kinsley said pointedly.
“So?”
“My job is to get you out of the state,” Kinsley repeated.
“So then are you just goin’ to leave me here? What about my gun? Where’s my gun?”
“More than likely, your gun is on the train we just left.”
“What?”
“Sheriff Allen sent your gun on ahead by U.S. mail. You can call for it at general delivery at the post office in Santa Fe.”
“That ain’t right,” Willis said.
“Think about it, Willis. Do you really think I would turn you loose out here with a gun?”
All the time the two men were talking, they were walking. At one point, Willis tripped and fell against Kinsley, but he recovered quickly.
“Watch where you’re walkin’,” Kinsley said irritably.
After a few more steps, they reached the marker.
“Here we are,” Kinsley said. “From this point, you are on your own.”
There was another lightning bolt, this one so close that it was followed almost immediately by a huge clap of thunder.
“Ha,” Kinsley said. “If I was you, I’d be findin’ me a rock to crawl under or a hole to crawl into,” he said. “Otherwise, you’re purt’ near goin’ to drown out here.”
Willis didn’t reply.
“Well, so long, Willis. I’ll be seein’ you. Oh, no, I won’t, will I? I mean, seein’ as you can’t come back into Colorado no more.”
Turning, Kinsley laughed as he started back toward the small depot.
“Deputy?” Willis called.
Kinsley stopped.
“Ain’t no sense in you callin’ after me, Willis,” he said. “You heard the judge’s rulin’ same as me. I done just what he said for me to do. Now, like I said, your best bet would be to find you a place to get out of the rain.”
“Turn around, Deputy Kinsley,” Willis said.
There was something in Willis’s voice that caught Kinsley’s attention and he turned back toward him. When he did, he gasped at seeing a gun in Willis’s hand.
“What the hell?” Kinsley said. “Where did you get that?”
“It’s your gun,” Willis said. Another lightning flash showed that a wide, demonic smile had spread across Willis’s face. “I got it when I fell against you a while ago.”
“No,” Kinsley said, holding his hands out in front of him and shaking his head. “Willis, no!”
Willis pulled the trigger, but the muzzle flame was obliterated by another lightning flash, and the sound of the shot was covered by the crash of thunder from the previous lightning flash.
Kinsley fell forward, the blood from his wound streaming out into the mud puddle.
Stepping over to him, Willis went through his pockets, relieving him of all his money.
“Three dollars?” he said with a snort of disgust. “All you got is three dollars? Damn, they don’t pay you lawmen nothin’, do they?”
A further search turned up a railway ticket to Denver, and another from Denver back to Fort Collins. Willis took the two tickets, then removed the deputy’s star and stuck it into his pocket.
Willis pulled Kinsley’s body up the berm, then laid it down lengthwise between the rails. After that, he walked back to the depot. Once there, he stepped into the building to get out of the rain. One hour later, a freight train passed through and Willis walked to the edge of the platform and looked down to where he had put Kinsley’s body. The train had not slowed down, and Willis smiled as he knew that the body would now be impossible to identify.
It was two and a half hours before the stationmaster arrived. He lit a lantern, then walked around behind the ticket counter. That was when he saw Pogue Willis sitting on the bench. Seeing him there startled the stationmaster and he jumped.
Willis chuckled. “I didn’t mean to startle you there, friend,” he said.
“That’s all right,” the stationmaster replied. “I just didn’t expect to see anyone here. Can I help you?”
“Yes, I have tickets for Denver and Fort Collins, but I’ve changed my mind, I’d rather go to Santa Fe. The only thing is, I don’t have enough money to buy a ticket on to Santa Fe, so I was wondering if there was any way I could just change these tickets to Santa Fe.”
“Why, of course you can, there’s no problem there,” the stationmaster said. “I can change those tickets around
