“And you’re after these two gangs?”
“It’s one gang,” Thomas said, “run by two brothers.”
“Wait a minute.” The lawman stopped pacing and faced Thomas. “Are we talkin’ about…the Langer gang?”
“That’s right.”
“Oh my God,” Holcomb said. “I should have guessed. The leader of the first group…he must have been Aaron.”
“I guess,” Thomas said. “We’ve been trailing Ethan Langer and his men.”
“All the way from Texas?” Holcomb asked. “Because of a…a bank job?”
“Not just a bank robbery,” Thomas said. “They killed a woman…my mother.”
“Oh,” Holcomb said. “Well…I guess that’s worth travelin’ all this way.”
“Are they all here?”
“I guess,” Holcomb replied. “Like I said, eighteen, maybe nineteen. How many hit your bank?”
“About eight, maybe nine.”
“So four of you tracking eight. I guess the odds didn’t seem so bad then.”
“How many deputies have you got?”
“Two.”
“So now it’s seven against nineteen,” Thomas said.
“Not so good, eh?”
“I guess not,” Thomas said with a shrug, “but we’ve got somethin’ they don’t.”
“What’s that?”
“My pa.”
49
James came up next to Shaye and handed him a cup of coffee. “Worried about Thomas, Pa?”
“Yeah, I am, James.”
They had camped about half an hour before, and James was making them something to eat. The coffee was ready first. They’d made good time and had managed to camp before dark.
Shaye was standing away from the fire, looking off in the direction of town.
“He’ll be okay, Pa,” James said. “Thomas is smart.”
“Yes, he is.”
“And he’s good with a gun.”
Shaye turned to look at his youngest son. “He’s good at shooting at tin cans and bottles, James,” he said, “and varmints. He’s never had to face another man with a gun. None of you has.”
“But we’re gonna have to, ain’t we?”
“Yes,” Shaye said, “yes, it’s unavoidable…unless we just quit and go back.”
“We can’t do that, Pa,” James said. “Not after what they did to Ma. We can’t! Matthew and Thomas, they’ll tell you the same thing.”
Shaye hesitated a moment, then said, “Yeah, I know they would.”
“Pa,” James said, “you told us we couldn’t think about this too much. Don’t you start doing it.”
“You’re right, James,” Shaye said. “Thank you.”
“I better get the food ready,” James said. “Matthew’ll just burn it all up.”
“Okay.”
James went back to the fire, and Shaye went back to staring off into the distance, waiting for some sign of Thomas.
“So what do you plan to do?” Holcomb asked, looking out his window. It was starting to get dark.
“I have to ride out and get my pa and my brothers,” Thomas said. “We’ll come back under cover of darkness.”
“And then what?”
“Then it’s up to you and my pa,” Thomas said. “You’re in charge here, but I think if you listen to my pa, everything’ll go okay.”
Holcomb hesitated.
“They probably won’t do anythin’ tonight,” Thomas said. “We’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“All right,” Holcomb said. “I’ll wait here.”
“Pull your men in,” Thomas suggested.
“Why?”
“It’ll make them think they’re in the clear. Give them a false sense of security.”
“A false sense of security?” Holcomb asked. “With their numbers, I don’t think it’s so false.”
“My pa will figure out somethin’, Sheriff,” Thomas said. “Just pull your men in and wait for us here.”
“Okay, Deputy,” Holcomb said, “okay. We’ll wait for you and your father and your brothers here, but I hope you’re right about your father comin’ up with somethin’.”
“Don’t worry, Sheriff,” Thomas said, “he will.”
Shaye was the first one to hear the horse, and he looked up from his plate.
“It’s Thomas, Pa!” Matthew said.
Both James and Matthew started to rise but Shaye waved them down and stood himself, his hand on his gun.
“Let’s make sure,” he said. “Just be still.”
They both settled back down, their hands on their guns, like their father. The sound of the horse came closer, and then Thomas came bursting into the light of their campfire, his horse kicking up dust as he reined it in.
“They’re there, Pa!” he said excitedly. “They’re all there.”
James and Matthew jumped up and joined their father in rushing to Thomas’s side.
“Calm down, Thomas,” Shaye said, “and tell me everything.”
50
“What are we waitin’ for, Aaron?” Ethan demanded after his brother had kept him talking for hours. The other men in the saloon were wondering the same thing. “Let’s compare our hauls and get the split done.”
Ethan reached for the saddlebags, but Aaron slammed a big hand down on them.
“We’ll do the tally and the split when I say so,” he hissed at his brother. “You’ve got somethin’ on your mind, somethin’ botherin’ you, and I wanna know what it is!”
They had finished the bottle of whiskey and started on another one. Morales was the only one in the room who knew that the brothers’ capacity for liquor knew no bounds. The others thought the two of them would get so drunk they wouldn’t be able to tally until tomorrow. In fact, Branch had sent one of Ethan’s men out to get them hotel rooms. Now it was pitch-black out and they were all still there, with two men sitting outside.
At least, the deputy on watch across the street had been pulled off, Morales thought. Now the brothers had their heads together across the table and no one could hear them.
“Tell me what’s botherin’ you, Ethan,” Aaron said. “You look like you ain’t slept in days.”
Ethan tried to match his brother’s glare, but as usual, he was unable to. “Aaron—”
“We ain’t leavin’ this saloon tonight until I find out what’s goin’ on,” Aaron said. “You killed Petry! That’s crazy. What else have you done?”
Ethan stared at Aaron, wet his lips and said, “I went to see Vincent.”
“So you got the sheriff to pull his men in and wait?” Shaye asked. “That was good work.”
“It wasn’t hard, Pa,” Thomas said. “He really doesn’t know what to do.”
They had listened to what Thomas had to say and then broke camp and headed for Salina. Shaye was riding
