detachment.
Sheriff Dawson suddenly appeared, stepping out into the street. He held his hand up to stop Smoke and the others.
“Stop right there,” he called. “I don’t intend to have a bloodbath in my town.”
“You want to go down there and arrest them, Sheriff?” Smoke asked.
Dawson looked at Smoke and the others for a moment. Then, shaking his head, he stepped back out of the street. “No,” he said. “You folks are on your own now. I wash my hands of it.”
Sally chuckled. “Why not?” she asked. “It worked for Pontius Pilate.”
As Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, Cal, Mike, and Jules approached, Williams, Pardeen, and the others stepped out of the livery barn and stood facing them. The two groups stood no more than ten feet apart. Williams, Pardeen, McHenry, and the others were now boxed in, for the feeder lot was behind them, the livery barn on one side, and a house on the other. Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, Cal, Mike, and Jules were standing out in the open close to the street.
There was a moment of silence as the two parties confronted each other.
“Williams, this doesn’t have to happen. You and your men lay your guns on the ground, then walk away and leave my cattle here, and this will all be over,” Smoke said.
“Oh, it has to happen,” Pardeen said. “Yes, sir, it has to happen.” Pardeen allowed a snide smile to spread across his face.
“Pardeen, you aren’t a part of this offer. I was talking to Williams,” Smoke said. “You killed Billy, so I’m going to kill you, no matter what Williams does.”
The smile left Pardeen’s face. Then he made the first move, reaching for and pulling his .45 so fast that to some of the bystanders, it appeared as if he had been holding the gun all along.
“No!” Williams suddenly shouted. He took a couple of hesitant steps backward. “No, wait! We’ll be killed!” Williams turned and ran through the open door of the barn behind them. “No, don’t shoot us, don’t shoot us!” he begged.
“Williams, you lily-livered coward!” Jarred McHenry shouted.
Although Pardeen had drawn first, the first shot came from Smoke’s gun. He fired and the recoil kicked his hand up. Pardeen called out in pain, then grabbed his stomach as blood spilled between his fingers. But even as Pardeen went down, Magee shot at Smoke but missed. Sally shot Magee, hitting him in the chest. Smith fired at Mike as Pearlie fired at Coleman, hitting him between the eyes.
After that, guns began to roar in rapid succession. Both Parkers went down, then three other gunmen, leaving only Smith and McHenry. Smoke killed Smith, while a bullet from Cal’s pistol tore through McHenry’s right hand. Another hit him in the chest.
McHenry staggered back against a window of the vacant house, then slid slowly to the ground. He switched his pistol to his left hand. Sitting there on the ground with his legs crossed, and resting his pistol on his shattered arm, he shot with his left hand. His bullet hit Sally in the arm, spinning her around. Smoke shot McHenry again, this time in the forehead, knocking him back against the house.
“Sally, are you all right?” Smoke shouted.
“Yes,” Sally answered. “It’s not much more than a nick.”
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Sally saw Williams reappear in the door of the barn, holding a rifle. Williams fired, and Mike went down. Smoke, Pearlie, and Cal all fired at the same time and their bullets slammed into Williams’s chest. He stumbled out into the street and lurched over toward the people who had crowded around to watch. Unable to shoot for fear of hitting someone in the crowd, Smoke held his fire.
Williams grabbed onto the post that supported the roof over the boot repair shop. He coughed once and blood bubbled from his lips; then he fell back, dead in the dirt.
Of all those involved in the fight, not one of the gunmen with Williams was left alive. Smoke, Pearlie, Cal, and Jules were unscathed. Sally had a bullet in her arm, and Mike was dead.
“Mike!” Sally shouted. “Oh, Smoke, they got Mike.”
Smoke went over to look down at the young man, then shook his head sadly.
The fight had been witnessed by scores of people, and now Smoke could see them moving closer to look at the bodies of the slain. None of the townspeople said anything. Their looks weren’t of pity, or compassion, or even hate. Most were of morbid curiosity, as if they were experiencing a sensual pleasure from being so close to death while themselves avoiding it.
“Did you ever seen anythin’ like this?” someone asked.
“Never,” another answered.
“It was over in a hurry, wasn’t it?” someone asked.
“Thirty-seven seconds,” another said, holding a watch in his hand. “I timed it.”
One of them came over to look down at Mike.
“Get away from him,” Smoke said.
“I don’t mean nothin’ by it, mister. I’m just goin’ to look.”
“I said get away!” Smoke shouted, pulling his pistol and pointing it at the curious townsman. The citizen backed away quickly, holding his hands up.
Two days later, Smoke, Sally, Pearlie, Cal, and Jules were standing on the platform at the depot, waiting for the train that would take them back home. Sally had been treated by a doctor and her arm was in a sling. The bodies of Mike and Billy were in coffins, and would be put on the baggage car of the same train. The cattle were gone, and Smoke had a certified bank draft for $97,250.00, the amount he and Colin Abernathy agreed upon after Abernathy came personally to take delivery of the cattle. They heard the sound of the train in the distance.
