thing that killed your friends and hurt you is gone. You’re safe now.”
The man’s teeth chattered. “N-nobody’s safe,” he stammered. “Nobody’s s-safe in the w-woods. The T-Terror’s out there!”
“Did you see it?” Frank asked.
Scott jerked his head in a nod. “It…it came out from behind a tree…knocked Billy off his horse…I never saw anything move so f-fast.”
“What did it look like?”
“Big! Hairy! Must’ve been…nine feet tall…and it had these…
Frank leaned closer. “How did you manage to get away?”
“Just luck. The thing started tearin’ at me…like it had done to Rance…and then one of the horses stampeded right into it. Knocked it off of me. I got up and ran.” Scott lifted horror-haunted eyes and gazed at Frank from them. “It could’ve come after me, could’ve caught me. I don’t know why it didn’t. Maybe the horse hurt it. Maybe it was just tired of…playin’ with us.”
One of the hunters said, “You hear that, boys? The thing’s hurt! We can track it down for sure now.”
Frank looked around at the men and told them, “You don’t know that. Like this hombre said, maybe it had some other reason for leaving.” He returned his attention to Scott. “You must have gotten a good look at it. Could it have been a bear? Maybe a grizzly that wandered over here from somewhere in the Rockies?”
Scott shook his head. That made the flap of skin that hung down from the gash on his forehead move. “It wasn’t a bear,” he said. “It was hairy all over like a bear, but…it wasn’t a bear.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“It didn’t have a snout like a bear. And it went on two legs.”
“Bears can get around on two legs,” Frank pointed out.
“Not like this.”
“Some other sort of animal then?”
Stubbornly, Scott shook his head again. “No, it was more like…a man’s face, but…bigger…hairier. It was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Sounds like one of those Sasquatch critters they’ve got up north,” one of the men said. All three of them had dismounted and stood around Frank and Scott now.
“Yeah,” another man said. “I’ve heard ’em called Bigfoot, too. They’re supposed to be nine feet tall and hairy, just like this hombre said.”
Frank wasn’t going to believe in such a thing, not unless and until he saw it with his own eyes. Even then, he’d be doubtful.
He came to his feet and said, “This fella needs medical attention. I want the three of you to take him to Eureka.”
“Hell, no! There’s ten grand on the hoof not far from here. We’re gonna go find it.”
The other two spoke up, voicing their agreement.
Scott clutched at the leg of one of them. “You can’t!” he wailed. “It’ll kill you, too, just like it did Billy and Rance!”
The man pulled his leg loose and said, “We can handle some damned old Bigfoot.”
“You don’t know…It’s worse than that…I can’t even t-tell you how bad it really is.” Scott closed his eyes and shuddered. “Like it’s not even from this world.”
“You saw what it did to those two men,” Frank said. “Well, just a little while ago it killed six more the same way, only worse. Those hombres it tore apart. Flat out tore them apart.”
One of the men rubbed at his angular jaw. “Maybe it would be better to come back later,” he suggested. “Maybe get some more men first.”
“That’ll mean splittin’ the bounty more ways.”
“I’d rather have a little less to spend and still be alive to spend it.”
“Well, I’m not goin’.”
“Yes, you are,” Frank said.
“Who the hell are you to be tellin’ me what to do?” The man who had been arguing moved his hand toward the butt of his gun. “Folks say I’m pretty fast on the draw, and if you ain’t careful, I might just show you.”
“That wouldn’t be a very good idea. My name’s Frank Morgan.”
The man’s nostrils flared as he drew in a deep, startled breath. His face paled under its tan. “Morgan,” he repeated. “The gunfighter?”
“One and the same,” Frank said.
“You’d best back off, Tom,” one of the man’s friends advised him. “Bein’ fast for around here don’t mean nothin’ against a man like Frank Morgan.”
