When Cynthia looked outside, she saw no one.
“Where did the others go?” Cynthia asked.
“They have gone to make medicine.”
“Medicine? What kind of a medicine do they make?”
Chandeisi laughed. “It’s not
“You are a warrior, but you did not go with them.”
“No. I did not go.”
“Why not?”
“Delshay asked me to stay here with you.”
“To keep me from running away?”:
“Yes. And to keep Nalyudi away.”
Chapter Twenty-four
With Spirit saddled, Matt led him down the street no more than half a block, then tied him off in front of Donavan’s General Store. Going inside, he stepped up to the long counter that separated the customers from the groceries that were on the shelves.
“You’re Matt Jensen, aren’t you?” Donavan said.
“Yes,” Matt said.
“I thought as much. I seen you down at the stage depot when you come in after you shot them stagecoach robbers. What can I do for you, Mr. Jensen?”
“I need a few things for traveling,” Matt said. “Some coffee, bacon, dry beans, flour, lard—”
“Ha! You would be goin’ after that ten thousand dollars now, wouldn’t you? Yes, sir, I figured you would. I told the missus you’d be doin’ that.”
Matt was surprised by the store owner’s comment.
“What ten thousand dollars are you talking about?” Matt asked.
“Why, the ten-thousand-dollar reward Jay Peerless Bixby is offerin’ to anyone that can find his wife and bring her back to him. That is what you’re doin’, ain’t it?”
“No.”
“You ain’t goin’ to look for that woman?”
“Well, yes, I’m going to look for Mrs. Bixby all right. But not because of the reward. I didn’t know there was such a reward,” Matt said.
“You must be the only one in town who don’t know,” Donavan said. “I hear tell Bixby woke up Elvis Blanton over at the newspaper at six o’clock this mornin’ and had him print up a bunch of flyers. Then he hired a couple of men to post the flyers all over the county. You mean to tell me you ain’t seen none of those flyers?”
Matt shook his head. “No,” he said, “I haven’t.”
“Well, walk over there to the table and pick one of them up,” Donavan said. “He’s got them things posted on ever’ fence and tree and in ever’ store, saloon, and buildin’ in Phoenix. All over the county by now.”
Matt walked over to the table Donavan had pointed out, then saw a stack of paper about two inches high. He took the top page off and looked at it.
REWARD!
$10,000 DOLLARS CASH
To be paid to whoever finds
CYNTHIA BIXBY
And returns her safely
Reward offered by Jay Peerless Bixby.
Taking one of the flyers with him, Matt started back to the hotel, intending to have a few words with Bixby. He didn’t have to go all the way back to the hotel, though, because he saw Bixby standing on the front porch of Sikes’ Hardware, talking to a crowd of men who had gathered in the street in front of the store. Bixby was holding up a piece of paper.
“This piece of paper says that I have drawn a draft at the local bank to put ten thousand dollars into an escrow account to be paid to anyone who can locate and return my wife to me.”
“Mister, ten thousand dollars don’t do you no good if you are dead,” one from the crowd shouted.
“What do you mean?”
