'I shall certainly bear that in mind.'
'Thank you, Charles.'
'If by chance you should need me this afternoon, I will be at the hotel.'
'I thought the hotel was full,' said Viv.
'Not the luxury suites at the end of the hall. They have private baths. I insisted upon that.'
Frank rolled his eyes and looked heavenward.
Viv caught his eye movement and fought back a smile. 'Of course you did, Charles.'
'It's so primitive out here,' Dutton complained. 'I don't understand how you tolerate these barbaric conditions, Vivian.' He plopped his hat on his head and walked toward the front door without another word.
'Nice fellow,' Frank remarked.
Leon muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'He's a turdface!' _But surely not_, Frank thought.
'Frank,' Vivian said. She had dropped the 'Marshal Morgan' when addressing him. There was no point in any further pretense. The whole town knew they were seeing each other socially. 'Could I see you in my office, please?'
Seated in Viv's office, Frank asked, 'How's Conrad?'
'He's all right, but I insisted that he stay home today. I've just about convinced him that he should return east as soon as possible.'
'I'm not sure about that now, Viv. As long as he stays here, there are plenty of us to keep an eye on him. Back there, he would have little if any protection.'
Viv frowned, then slowly nodded her head in agreement. 'You're right, Frank. I hadn't thought about that.'
'Might be a good thing to keep him here until we get this situation straightened out and decide who's trying to kill us both. As if we didn't already know.'
Before Viv could reply, they heard the sound of running boots in the outer offices. Jerry burst into the room. 'Frank! Outlaws just hit the Lucky Seven. Got the payroll and killed the owner and his foreman.'
Frank was on his boots instantly. 'That's the mine about four miles from town, right?'
'That's it.'
'Get a posse together. I'll get my horse and meet you at the office.'
'Will do.' Jerry left the office in a run.
'Be careful, Frank,' Viv cautioned.
Frank winked at her. 'Long as I got you to come back to, Viv.'
'I'll be here.'
--------
*Twenty*
Frank looked at the bodies of the mine owner and his foreman and shook his head in disgust. The men had been shot to ribbons, each one more than a dozen times. Their faces had been deliberately shot away. He ordered the bodies taken back to town in a wagon.
'Marshal,' said one of the men in the posse. 'Those robbers used them men for target practice. They made a game of it.'
'I know,' Frank replied. 'They shot them in the knees, then the arms, then in the belly. They tortured them for the fun of it.' Jerry walked up and Frank asked him, 'How about the workers -- did any of them see anything?'
'One did,' Jerry said. 'The other three were in a secondary shaft of the mine ... looking for gold,' he added. 'It was part of the Pine and Vanbergen gangs. The man is sure of that.'
'How can he be sure?'
'He knows a couple of them. Was in jail with them once. They broke out, or was broke out. One or the other. He done his time for drunk and fighting, and hasn't been in trouble since.'
'Those two gangs just keep getting more and more vicious,' Frank said. 'This is not the first time they've done something like this. It's fortunate that no women were out here. We all know what happens to women they take captive. Which way did they head out of here?'
'Straight into the mountains, Marshal,' a posse member said. 'They're long gone through the pass now. And I ain't goin' into the pass.'
Frank did not have to question any of the others about that. He knew without asking none of the men would be willing to enter the outlaw-controlled pass through the mountains. And he really didn't blame them one bit
'Take the posse back to town, Jerry, and look after things until I get back. I'm going to prowl around some.'
'You goin' to the pass, Frank?'
'I'm going to look it over, yes. I might not be back tonight. If that's the case, I'll see you late tomorrow.'
