Matt Jensen: The Last Mountain Man Purgatory #3

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Duke, Warren, and Gates are in jail,” Bascomb said. “Soon as the folks comin’ out of the saloon told us what was goin’ on, we figured them boys would probably be goin’ down there to help out Cummins. So we just waited for ’em, and got the drop on them.”

“You got a doctor in this town?” Jensen asked.

“Yeah, we do,” Bascomb answered.

“Well, quit standing here palavering. Go get the doctor for the marshal.”

“Oh,” Bascomb said. “Oh, yes, I didn’t think about that.” Turning, he yelled up the street. “Get Dr. Urban up here! Get Dr. Urban up here to tend to the marshal.”

“To hell with tendin’ to the marshal, let the son of a bitch die!” someone called back.

“I’m talkin’ about U.S. marshal Kyle,” Bascomb replied. “Marshal Cummins is already dead.”

Matt waited until Dr. Urban arrived, then stood by as the doctor examined the wound.

“How bad is it, Doc?” Matt asked.

“Not bad at all,” the doctor said as he began cleaning the wound. “Looks like the bullet just left a little crease. If it doesn’t putrefy, it should heal up quickly.”

“That’s good to know,” Matt said. He took the badge off his shirt and handed it to the marshal.

“You are welcome to keep that deputy’s badge,” Kyle said. “I can always use a good man like you. The law can always use a good man like you.”

“I appreciate it, Marshal,” Matt said. “But I think I’ll just be getting on.”

“Where are you headed?”

Matt paused for a moment, then smiled. “You know—I haven’t really given that any thought.

“What about me?” Odom asked.

“What about you?” Matt replied.

“Ain’t you goin’ to let the doctor look at me?”

“It wouldn’t do any good for the doctor to see you. You’re going to die no matter what he does,” Matt said.

“But you can’t just leave me here to die on the floor,” Odom said.

Matt thought of Suzie Dobbs, and all the others, killed and injured in the train wreck caused by this man.

“You can’t leave me like this!” Odom shouted again.

Matt started for the door. Then, just before he left, he looked back at Odom. “Yeah, I can.”

“You son of a bitch! I’ll see you in hell!” Odom shouted.

“Not likely,” Matt replied. “I’ve done my time in Purgatory.”

 

TURN THE PAGE FOR AN EXCITING PREVIEW OF

Sidewinders

An Exciting New Western Series by William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone

In frontier literature, the name “Johnstone” means big, hard-hitting Western adventure told at a breakneck pace. Now, the bestselling authors kick off a rollicking, new series—about a pair of not-quite-over-the-hill drifters.

Meet Scratch Morton and Bo Creel, two amiable drifters and old pals. Veterans of cowboying, cattle drives, drunken brawls, and a couple of shoot-outs, Scratch and Bo are mostly honest and don’t go looking for trouble—it’s usually there when they wake up in the morning.

Now, in remote Arizona Territory, they’re caught up in a battle between two stagecoach lines. The owner of one, a beautiful widow, has gotten both Scratch and Bo hot and bothered—each trying to impress her as they fend off the opposing stage line aiming to destroy her. But nothing is what it seems to be in this fight, and two tough sidewinders are riding straight into a deadly trap.

Sidewinders

by William W. Johnstone with J. A. Johnstone

Coming in September 2008

Wherever Pinnacle Books are sold.

 

Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.

—Job 14:1

We’re peaceable men, I tell you.

—Scratch Morton

Chapter One

“All I’m sayin’ is that a man who ain’t prepared to lose hadn’t ought to sit down at the table in the first place,” Scratch Morton argued as he and his trail partner, Bo Creel, rode along a draw in a rugged stretch of Arizona Territory.