“You sure he’s gonna hang?” a man asked.
“He’s got to be found guilty first,” another pointed out.
“Hell, we got dozens o’ witnesses who saw him lead that charge into town, shootin’ all the way,” Flagg said. “He’s been seen in other towns, too, raidin’ and killin’. No jury’s gonna find him innocent. You know that.”
More nods and mutters of agreement came from the crowd.
“So go on home,” Flagg continued, “unless you want to volunteer to take a shift on lookout duty.”
Several men stepped forward, and Flagg picked two of them to climb up on the hotel and the bank.
“We gotta get poor Charlie and Harlan down from there, too,” Flagg said. “Maybe some of you boys could help out with that.”
The local undertaker already had his wagon parked in the street, and he and a helper were loading up the bodies of the outlaws that had been left behind.
The crowd in front of the jail began to disperse. Matt, Sam, and Flagg watched them go.
“Looks like you may not need our help after all,” Matt said.
“You did a good job of talking some sense into their heads, Sheriff,” Sam added.
Flagg shook his head sadly. “They listened to me for now, but once they get back in the saloons and take on a snootful o’ Who-hit-John, they’ll get mad again. They’ll egg each other on until sooner or later they decide not to wait for the judge. Might not happen tonight, but sooner or later they’ll make another try for Shade.”
“If they do, we’ll be here to stop them,” Sam said.
“But I’m gonna hate like hell to maybe have to shoot some honest folks just to protect a crazy polecat like Shade,” Matt added.
“You and me both, Bodine,” Sheriff Flagg agreed with a sigh. “You and me both.”
“They were waitin’ for us!” one of the outlaws raged. “We got the signal to come in, but the bastards were still waitin’ for us!”
“You ain’t tellin’ me anything I don’t already know,” Willard Garth growled. “And you all should’ve knowed there was a chance o’ that happenin’, since we heard those shots beforehand. Somebody caught our boys after they got rid of the lookouts that old desert rat told us about.”
“The reverend should’ve known that,” a man named Jeffries said. He was more educated than most of the gang, but just as ruthless. “We never should have attacked the town.”
“Don’t you say nothin’ bad about the rev’rend!” Gonzalez said. “He’s made us all rich men!”
In truth, they weren’t all that rich, Garth thought, but they had done all right for themselves. And it was Joshua Shade’s planning, as well as his sheer audacity and his ability to inspire the men, that had made it all possible. Gonzalez was right about that.
The members of the gang had scattered as they fled from Arrowhead, rendezvousing in the hills where their last camp had been, according to the plan laid out by Shade before the attack. Shade didn’t like the idea of acknowledging the possibility of defeat, but he was too smart not to plan for it in case it happened.
However, this was the first time one of their raids had not gone exactly the way Shade had told them it would. The men were upset because some of their fellow outlaws had been killed and their leader had been captured.
Garth himself had seen Shade being disarmed and knocked out, but hadn’t been able to get to him because of the heavy gunfire from the townspeople. He assumed that by now they had locked Shade up in the local jail, but he didn’t know that for sure.
He was confident that Shade was still alive, though. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that the reverend would come to such an ignominious end as to be killed by a bunch of pathetic townies.
Jeffries said, “The question now is, what are we going to do about this, Garth? Those yokels are liable to try to lynch the boss.”
“And they got to pay for what they did to us!” Gonzalez added.
“I know, I know.” Garth took off his high-crowned hat and wearily scrubbed a hand over his rough-hewn face. He didn’t like having to do a lot of thinking, which was the main reason he had starting riding with Joshua Shade in the first place. Over time, he had risen to the position of Shade’s segundo because he was tough and trustworthy, not because he was all that smart.
Now the rest of the men were looking to him to figure out their course of action, and it was an uncomfortable feeling. He took orders well, and he could give them, too, when somebody else came up with them. He could ride all day and all night when he had to, and he didn’t mind killing without mercy.
But he wasn’t a leader.
Not by choice anyway.
Even in the moonlight, Garth could see ambition gleaming in Jeffries’s eyes as the man crowded his horse forward. “Well, how about it?” Jeffries prodded.
Garth knew what Jeffries was thinking. Jeffries sensed an opening. He thought that
Garth was damned if he was going to let that happen, no matter how uncomfortable he was in the role.
“They’re ready for us down there,” he said harshly. “We go chargin’ back in tonight, they’ll cut us to ribbons. We got to wait. Bide our time and see what’s gonna happen.”
“You mean leave the rev’rend a prisoner?” Gonzalez shook his head. “I don’t like that, Garth.”
