movement of her throat as she drank, the rise and fall
of her chest. Their eyes tumbled all the way down
past the swell of her hips to the smallness of her feet.
Genius Jackson licked his lips without realizing
he was.
The Swede’s instincts were sharp, too. Trouble
was, his pistol was empty of bullets and no way to kill
this claim jumper.
“Yah, that’s some good water,” he said.
“Come out of the deep ground,” Jackson said.
The Swede walked around studying the place, as
though assessing it for its value.
“We got us a good house here,” he said to Martha.
“That fellow is looking at me like I’m a hambone
and he’s a yellow dog,” she said. “I think he aims to
steal me away from you.”
“Yah, yah,” said the Swede out of the side of his
mouth. “Maybe you make a little eyes at him, eh? Till
I can grab his gun.”
Jackson followed the pair around as they studied
his layout. He didn’t know whether to shoot the man
or just run him off and keep the woman. He hadn’t
had to make a hard decision in a long time. Until this
very hour, all he’d had to think about was how he was
going to get through the next hour of his life. Now he
had strangers in his yard and lust risen in his nether
parts like yeast bread setting in the sun. Then there
was that damn tooth worrying him all to hell.
A little time with the woman might just take away
some of his grief.
“I got whiskey in the house yonder, and victuals if
you all is hungry and thirsty.”
“Yah,” the Swede said. “Sure we are, ain’t we?” he
said to Martha as the old man led them inside the
house, his head full of evil plans, matched only by
those of the Swede.
The hansom’s tracks became fresher with each pass-
ing hour.
“We’re on them now,” Toussaint said once they’d
crossed a small feeder creek.
“Look,” Jake said. “I don’t want to have to shoot
this man if we don’t have to. I’d just as soon he stood
trial for his crimes—let the legal system have its way
with him.”
Toussaint looked at him.
“Squeamish ain’t a good trait for a man in the law
business.”
Jake looked at the badge he wore, said, “It’s only
temporary, this work. I’d like to keep the bloodletting
to a minimum.”
“Fine by me.”
“Just so you know.”
“Just so I know.”
Two hours more and they came within view of the
cabin, the sun low in the west.
“What do you think?” Jake said as they halted
their horses a quarter-mile distance.
“Seems likely they’d be there.”
“Yeah.”
“How do you want to do it?”
“Straight on is the only way I see, what about
you?”
“I don’t see any other way, no trees or nothing we
could sneak up on them behind.”
“He’ll have plenty of time to see us coming if he’s
in there.”
“Might shoot us out of our saddles.”
“I mean if we have to take his life, then we will. I
don’t want you mistaken as to where I stand on this,”
Jake said.
“Somehow twenty dollars doesn’t seem like enough
pay right now.”
“Well, if he shoots you out of the saddle, it won’t
matter, and if he doesn’t—it’s still twenty dollars.”
Toussaint broke open the shotgun and put in fresh
loads, then snapped it closed again resting the butt
against his leg.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be taking a nap,”
he said, judging the time to be around noon.
“We could wait until dark,” Jake said. “But I’m all
for taking them now.”
“You’re even starting to talk like a damn lawman.”
“I’m just tired of chasing this man. Let’s finish it,
get Otis’s wife back if she’s still alive.”
Toussaint walked his mule out wide to the south,
Jake rode his horse out wide to the north.
18
She knocked on the door and waited. When no
one answered, she turned to go. She wasn’t sure
why she was even bothering. She’d reached the end of
the hall when his door opened.
“Clara.”
She turned to see him standing there half dressed,
his hair uncombed, looking old and beat down.
“Come back, Clara.”
Reluctantly she walked back to his room.
“I can only stay a few minutes,” she said. “I’ve got
to open school.”