“What’s the catch?”
“No catch.”
“You say there is no catch, but when Pardeen hired us, he asked if we were willing to use our guns. Now he wouldn’t ask that if he didn’t think there was a chance we’d have to use them.”
“It’s not a catch exactly. It’s more like a complication,” Williams said.
“All right, what is the complication?”
“There may be some who don’t want us to do this,” Williams said. “They may try and stop us. I don’t intend to be stopped.”
“If any of you have a problem with that, walk away now,” Pardeen said. “Because when the shooting starts, I’ll kill anyone who tries to run away.”
“You say some people may try to stop us. How many people are you talking about?”
“One less than they started out with,” Pardeen said. “I killed one of them last night.”
“That was the fella in the saloon?” one of the men asked.
“Yeah.”
“I seen that happen. I was wonderin’ why you was bracing him so. Now I guess I know.”
“So, you still ain’t told us how many there are,” one of the others said.
“There’s only six of ’em,” Pardeen said. “And that’s countin’ both Jensen and his wife.”
“Jensen?” someone said. “That wouldn’t be a fella they call Smoke Jensen, would it?”
Pardeen stared at the questioner for a moment before he answered.
“You don’t be worryin’ about that,” he said. “I’ll take care of Mr. Smoke Jensen. And his wife,” he added.
“So what you are sayin’ is, while you’re takin’ care of Jensen, we’re to take care of the rest?”
“Yes. That would be nine of you, and four of them.”
“For one hundred dollars?”
“Yes.”
“Hell, sounds like easy money to me.”
“Me too,” one of the others said.
“Count me in.”
“What if the sheriff and his deputy get involved?” one of the men asked.
“Are you talking about Dawson and Titus?” one of the others asked. “Ha! If they think there’s likely to be shooting, they’ll both be hidin’ under a bed somewhere. You don’t have to worry about them.”
“McHenry,” Pardeen said. “How about wandering back up into town to see what you can find out?”
“All right,” McHenry said.
Leaving the undertaker’s establishment, Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, Cal, Mike, and Jules walked down to the sheriff’s office to find out what they could about the murder of Billy Cantrell, and to report the theft of their herd. Sheriff Dawson met them outside on the boardwalk.
“What can I do for you?” Dawson asked.
“Well, to start with, you can arrest the man who killed Billy Cantrell,” Smoke said. “Then you can serve a warrant on the man who killed Cephus Malone and stole my cattle.”
“Hold on there,” Dawson said. “What do you mean the man who killed Cephus Malone? How do you know who killed Cephus Malone?”
“I know because yesterday I sold my cattle to a man who claimed to be Cephus Malone. Obviously, he wasn’t Malone since Malone was already dead.”
“His name is Trent Williams,” Sheriff Dawson said.
“What? You already know about this?”
“You are talking about the man whose cattle are in the feeder lot right now?”
“Yes,” Smoke said. “Only they aren’t his cows, they are my cows.”
“Well, seems to me like that is a civil dispute. I don’t get involved in civil disputes.”
“You call murder a civil dispute?” Smoke asked incredulously.
“Murder? Well, now, that’s a serious accusation,” Dawson said. “You have no proof of that, though I admit it does look suspicious.”
“Suspicious?” Smoke replied. “Sheriff, how much evidence do you need? I have a receipt, signed by a man who claims to be Cephus Malone. Only it turns out that he isn’t Cephus Malone. That can only mean that he murdered Cephus Malone in order to get control of my cattle. I also think it is suspicious that Quince Pardeen, the man who murdered Billy Cantrell, has been seen down at the feeder lot this morning.”
Sheriff Dawson shook his head. “Titus and I both talked to the eyewitnesses; they all said that your man drew first.”
“Are you serious? Billy was forced into it,” Smoke said. “I talked to those same witnesses, Sheriff, and they said that Pardeen told Billy he was going to kill him at the count of three—then he began counting.”
