by Saran Essex
The surprise in Lonzo’s eyes changed to a brief flare of anxiety. He trusted Leroy, and knew that he would not betray him, but he felt worried that someone else at the dance might also have seen him shoot down the oil lamps, and guessed that he was the Sundance Kid. He asked in a hard voice, ‘Did anyone else see me shoot down the lamps?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Leroy said, trying to reassure him, ‘I ain’t heard any talk of it, and I ain’t told a soul that I think you are the Sundance Kid, not even Emmett . . . I did tell Emmett about you shooting down the oil lamps, but he can be trusted not to tell anyone about that.’
Lonzo didn’t say anything, just lowered his head and stared down hard at the ground. He didn’t look up for several minutes, and Leroy began to worry that Lonzo might be feeling distrustful of him.
Leroy said, ‘My knowing that you are the Sundance Kid ain’t the reason that I agreed to you coming to the line shack with me – I wasn’t trying to take advantage of your shooting skills. . . .’
Lonzo said bluntly without lifting his head, ‘Had anyone else said that to me, I wouldn’t have believed them.’
Leroy smiled in relief. Lonzo’s trust in him meant a lot.
‘Anyway,’ Lonzo said, looking at Leroy with a slight roguish smile, ‘It was really because of my natural charm that you agreed, wasn’t it?’
Leroy laughed, ‘It surely was!’
They started riding again, and the ranch buildings were in sight when Leroy suddenly burst out cheerily, ‘Hey! I’m guessing that Caleb won’t want us to do any ranch work until some time tomorrow or even after that, so why don’t we just change our horses at the ranch, and then ride out to Jeremiah’s eating-house and saloon and enjoy ourselves?’
He didn’t know if Emmett would still be working at Jeremiah’s store, but if he was, then he could join them.
Lonzo thought it over for a few minutes, and then he shrugged and nodded. After all that he and Leroy had been through with Burdett and the other Cottonwood men, he didn’t like to disappoint him.
Leroy grinned. He hoped that this was the start of the two of them becoming real good friends.
As Leroy and Lonzo rode up to the ranch buildings, they were met by Caleb. The ranch owner had been working in one of the barns when he had spotted them riding up. Caleb, along with Marvin Kilbey and Cain Jago, had only ridden back to the ranch a couple of days earlier after delivering their prisoners to the sheriff in Vernal.
Caleb asked about Leroy’s health, then told them to relax for a couple of days before doing any ranch work. Leroy and Lonzo dismounted and let their horses loose in the corral. They took some of their stuff into the bunkhouse, then headed back over to the corral to choose some fresh horses. They were on the point of opening the corral gate when there was a shout behind them: they turned around and saw Emmett hurrying towards them.
Leroy ran up to meet his partner, and laughing and smiling, they hugged each other. As they pulled apart, Leroy rubbed his still slightly painful ribs. Emmett said, ‘I was just about to ride out to the line shack to check on you . . . I’ve only been back at the ranch myself for about thirty minutes, and I’ve just heard from Marvin about you being injured by Burdett.’
Lonzo stood by the corral gate watching and listening. He saw Emmett take Leroy’s arm, and heard him say, ‘I know I’ve only just got back from there, but I reckon you’re in need of a good time, so why don’t the two of us ride over to Jeremiah’s saloon and eating-house – and I’ll do all the paying!’
Emmett did genuinely want to spoil Leroy in some way after what his partner had been through, but he was also happy at the thought of seeing Annie again, even though he had not long parted from her.
Leroy smiled his agreement at Emmett, then turned back to Lonzo to ask him to join them. He frowned when he saw that Lonzo had already caught one of the horses in the corral, and that he had led it out through the gate and was putting on the saddle and bridle.
‘Lonzo!’ Leroy called to him.
Lonzo did not look at him, he just swung up into the saddle of the horse.
Leroy stepped hurriedly towards him before he could ride away. ‘Lonzo!’ he shouted out, ‘You are welcome to join us!’
This time Lonzo did look at him, and said impassively, ‘I’m going for a ride.’
A look of dismay appeared on Leroy’s face as Lonzo rode past him and away from the ranch. Emmett saw the way that Leroy was staring after Lonzo and asked, ‘Is anything wrong?’
Leroy shook his head.
Emmett, though, could see how unhappy Leroy felt, and he sighed. He had known for quite a while that the time would eventually come when Leroy would ask him how he felt about Lonzo joining into their partnership.
Emmett said, ‘Why don’t you ask him to join into our partnership if that’s what you want?’
Leroy turned to look at him in puzzlement, ‘What?’ he asked.
Emmett smiled, ‘I know you feel a kind of kinship with Lonzo, I’ve known it for a long time, probably even before you were aware of it, and I know you want to ask him to join into our partnership, so I’m saying, go ahead and ask him!’
Leroy just stared at Emmett in surprise, and for a very rare moment, he was lost for words.
Emmett laughed, ‘It ain’t often you don’t know what to say!’
‘Are you sure?’ Leroy finally managed to ask.
‘He did save my life – and yours!’
‘That doesn’t answer my question.’
Emmett smiled again, ‘Well, Lonzo ain’t the friendliest guy I ever met, but he’s got a lot of nerve, and I honestly don’t dislike him.’
Leroy smiled. He felt happier already: he had Emmett’s blessing to ask Lonzo to join their partnership, now he just had to find the right time to ask him – and he felt the sooner he did so, the better.
CHAPTER 10
It was just after sunset on the Baxter ranch, and dusk was gathering in the sky. Leroy and Emmett had finished all their jobs for the day, and Emmett was full of excitement – he couldn’t stop chattering as he and Leroy left the bunkhouse.
Emmett’s elation was because Annie had ridden over to the ranch that day to visit him. She was waiting for him in the ranch house and they were going for a walk. They often went for walks in the twilight when she visited him at the ranch, and she would then stay overnight at the ranch house.
Leroy smiled at Emmett’s happiness, but deep down, he was really feeling very dejected. Four days had passed since Leroy and Lonzo had left the shack and returned to the ranch, and Leroy had still not found the right time to ask Lonzo to join into his partnership with Emmett – in fact, even though they shared a bunkhouse, he hadn’t spoken much to Lonzo since they had arrived back at the ranch. Lonzo seemed to be purposely avoiding him – whenever he tried to talk to him, he always seemed to find some excuse to walk away, and every time that Leroy visited the library room, Lonzo had not been there. Inwardly, Leroy believed that Lonzo’s reason for avoiding him was because he did not want to get too involved with anyone.
Leroy broke into Emmett’s excited chattering, saying, ‘I think I’ll head down to the corral and take out one of the horses.’
Leroy would often go for a ride at night. He liked to ride through the scrubland beyond the ranch buildings. So the partners split up, Emmett hurrying off happily to the ranch house, while Leroy started to stroll down to the corral.
Outside the bunkhouse were a couple of wooden benches, and seated on one of these, Lonzo watched Leroy stroll past him on his way to the corral. Lonzo was dressed in his usual black attire, and wasn’t too visible in the growing shadows of dusk.
He had been deliberately avoiding Leroy ever since they had got back from the line shack, and he was doing this because he had made up his mind to leave the ranch in a few days’ time, and he didn’t want the bond that he had formed with Leroy to get any stronger. But as he watched Leroy wandering down to the corral, he could tell by the way he was walking that he was feeling very troubled abou
t something. He sighed, and guessed that it was probably his deliberate avoidance of him that was worrying him, and he decided to stay put on the bench and not walk away, not even if Leroy looked back and saw him.
Leroy suddenly halted in his strolling towards the corral and looked back at the benches outside the bunkhouse. He had felt someone was there, and through the growing darkness he recognized Lonzo sitting on one of the benches. Leroy stared at Lonzo for a few seconds, then began to walk up towards him. He expected Lonzo to get up off the bench and walk away, but to his surprise, he made no attempt to move.
‘Hey,’ Leroy said with a grin on his face as he approached Lonzo, ‘Have you run out of excuses to walk away from me?’
Lonzo grunted, ‘I’m sure I’ll think of one in a minute.’ But he didn’t move off the bench, and Leroy sat down beside him. He hoped that Lonzo would stay seated long enough for him to ask him to join into his partnership with Emmett. He waited for a second, then turned to Lonzo and said, ‘I want to ask you something, I’ve been trying to ask you this ever since we came back from the line shack. . . .’
Lonzo chuckled, and he said without looking at Leroy, ‘Is this another favour you want to ask me . . . I mean like the one when you wanted me to play the fiddle for Maria?’
‘No,’ Leroy said, ‘I . . .’ he paused, trying to find the right words. Lonzo was a difficult man to deal with.
‘I promise I won’t bite,’ Lonzo said in amusement.
‘Well . . .’ Leroy began casually, ‘I have a hunch that you won’t be staying working at the ranch for much longer, and me and Emmett will be leaving the ranch soon, too, so I was thinking that maybe. . . .’ he paused again.
Lonzo turned his head to stare at Leroy. He suddenly had a feeling that he knew what Leroy was trying to ask. ‘OK, so what is it that you are trying to ask me?’ he demanded with irritation.
Leroy decided to come straight out with it, and said, while still keeping his voice casual, ‘I’m trying to ask you to join into my partnership with Emmett.’
There was an intense silence after he said this, so much so that he felt uncomfortable and turned away.
Lonzo just stared impassively at Leroy: his feeling had been right, he had sensed that this was what Leroy was going to ask him. The silence was eventually broken by Lonzo saying tersely, ‘I thought you said that a partnership between us would be a disaster?’
‘I did say that,’ Leroy turned to look at him, ‘But maybe I was wrong. I’m willing to give it a try if you are, and so is Emmett.’
Lonzo’s eyes flashed in annoyance, ‘I told you before!’ he snapped, ‘The last thing I want is a partner, I don’t like getting too friendly with anyone!’
Leroy said sadly, ‘An attitude like that makes for a lonely future.’
‘It’s my future!’ Lonzo snapped again, ‘What do you care?’
Leroy turned away with a heavy sigh, thinking maybe he should forget about a partnership with Lonzo and just walk away – but he wasn’t ready to give up yet, it was too important to him.
He turned back to Lonzo with a smile and a compelling gleam in his eyes. He said cheerily, ‘Let me put it to you another way. I know you like taking risks, and so do I – so why don’t you take a risk now, and give a partnership with me and Emmett a try? You can always walk away if it don’t work out.’
Lonzo was still feeling annoyed. He really did not want to enter into a partnership with anyone, not even with Leroy and Emmett, but he did feel a kinship with Leroy that was hard for him to ignore, and so was the compelling gleam in Leroy’s eyes. He said slowly, ‘Well . . . maybe I’ll think about it. . . .’
Leroy’s face lit up with a happy smile; he glanced towards the horses down in the corral and said, ‘Want’a come for a ride with me, partner?’
‘No,’ Lonzo answered gruffly, ‘And I said I’d only think about it.’
Leroy grinned, then got up off the bench and started to walk down towards the corral.
Lonzo stayed seated on the bench. He was already thinking that a partnership was too much of a commitment for him to make. He looked round as he heard voices, and saw Emmett and Annie sauntering past him. They were holding hands and clearly lost in a world of their own. The young couple were going for a walk. Lonzo, and almost everyone else at the ranch, knew that Emmett and Annie’s usual route was along a narrow and little used track to the west of the ranch buildings, which led to the base of the low-lying hills.
From the shadows of the ranch house, someone else was watching Emmett and Annie walking hand-in-hand: it was the ranch foreman, Deke Hogan. A dark scowl was on his face. For a long time he had felt a strong attraction to Annie, but she had always spurned his advances in favour of Emmett. He had tried to flirt with her several times during the day while she had been at the ranch waiting for Emmett to finish his jobs. She had been polite, but distant with him. She had eventually joined Caleb’s wife, Elizabeth, inside the ranch house to get away from the foreman.
Hogan’s lustful craving for Annie, and his fury at her rejection of him, had been building all day, and he now began to follow her and Emmett.
Leroy was still in the corral, talking softly to a chestnut-coloured quarter horse, and he smiled as he saw Emmett and Annie walk past. They were oblivious to everything except each other. Leroy watched them walk out of the ranch yard, and then turn west on to the narrow track that led to the base of the hills.
Leroy turned back to the horse, thinking that he would choose this one to ride, when one of the other horses near to him suddenly neighed uneasily. Leroy looked round to see Hogan following rather furtively behind Emmett and Annie.
Lonzo was still seated on the bench where Leroy had left him. He had also seen Hogan walking cautiously behind the young couple. The ranch foreman was trying to keep in the shadows and Lonzo felt uneasy about what might be on Hogan’s mind.
Holding hands and smiling at each other, Emmett and Annie strolled along the narrow path, not realizing that Hogan was stealthily following behind them. The path they were following was narrow and winding, and bordered by boulders, tall, tangled bushes and various trees. They sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree at the side of the path.
Emmett looked into Annie’s glowing eyes and pulled her closer to him, and she lifted her face to his: they were both trembling with happiness and desire as he bent his head to kiss her – but then their magical moment was cruelly interrupted. Crazy with jealousy, and from seemingly out of nowhere, Deke Hogan flung himself at Emmett, and dragged him to the ground. In seconds he was straddling Emmett, pounding unmercifully at his face and body.
Annie screamed at Hogan to stop, and tried to pull him off. Emmett tried desperately to fight back, but he was no match for the heavy and muscular Hogan.
Ignoring Annie’s screams and futile attempts to pull him off, Hogan’s fists continued to pound away at Emmett. Emmet lost consciousness, but Hogan carried on hammering blows down on him – until he was dragged off by Leroy, who had rushed as fast as he could to help.
Hogan furiously turned on Leroy as Annie knelt over the unconscious Emmett with distraught cries. Leroy and Emmett were no strangers to fist fights, and they were usually able to hold their own in a physical contest, but they were only young men compared to Hogan, and as yet did not have the solid muscular strength of the foreman.
Hogan swung a huge, bunched-up fist at Leroy, but Leroy sidestepped to avoid the punch, and managed to land a few good blows of his own – but then Hogan struck him twice in the side of the face with terrific force, and he fell to the ground.
Leroy’s head was spinning as he hit the ground on his back, and pain seemed to sweep through his whole body. He had still not fully recovered from being dragged along behind Burdett’s horse.
Hogan immediately lunged down to straddle Leroy, and his huge hands fastened round Leroy’s throat, his thumbs pressing down on the young man’s windpipe.
Leroy writhed weakly on the ground as he tried to pull Hogan’s hands away from his
throat. The spinning sensation that he had felt only moments ago had diminished, but he was in agony from Hogan’s stranglehold. His strength was failing, his vision was fading and he couldn’t breathe, while Hogan pressed down on his windpipe harder and harder.
Annie, who was kneeling beside Emmett and trying to stem the bleeding from his wounds with pieces of material that she had torn from her dress, screamed out to Hogan in horror, ‘No, Deke, don’t kill him!’
Hogan again ignored her. He had despised and resented Leroy Parker for a long time. He was resentful that all the residents of Browns Hole seemed to like Leroy, and of the way that Leroy always excelled in everything that he did at Caleb’s ranch.
Leroy’s strength was almost gone and his consciousness was clouding over as he still tried weakly to tear away the throttling hands at his throat – then suddenly, through his pain, weakness and diminishing awareness, he heard the sound of running footsteps and of a voice, which he was vaguely aware was Lonzo’s, yelling out something.
Lonzo was racing towards Hogan, yelling at him to get his hands off Leroy.
As soon as Lonzo had seen Leroy leave the corral and hurry after Hogan, he had jumped up off the bench and hastily followed him. He now quickly tackled Hogan from behind: grabbing hold of his shoulders, and with all his strength, he tried to haul the big man off Leroy – but he only managed to pull him back a few inches.
Nevertheless Hogan was surprised and disconcerted, and for a brief second his tight grip on Leroy’s throat relaxed.
Leroy tried frantically to gulp in some air. But Hogan almost immediately pulled his shoulders free from Lonzo’s grasp, and at the same time drove an elbow backwards with tremendous force into his ribs. Lonzo fell back gasping and clutching his side, while Hogan tightened his grip on Leroy’s throat again.
But Lonzo was in desperate fear for Leroy’s life, and overcoming his own pain, he scrambled to his feet, drew out his gun, and hit Hogan twice, hard across the skull with the barrel. Hogan gave a low moan, and his hands went limp around Leroy’s throat as he lost consciousness. His shoulders slumped and his head dropped down – but he did not fall over.
