by Tabor Evans
Longarm nodded with understanding. “A gut wound is fatal,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of them and no one who had a gut wound ever survived.”
“It may have just missed his stomach and come to rest in his abdominal muscle,” Addie said, wiping the wound clean. “These other wounds are obviously into muscle, and I can dig the lead out after we see to this one.”
Longarm gazed down without sympathy at the young gunman. “Do you want me to hold him down on the table?”
“Yes,” Addie said. “He might come awake due to the pain and start fighting me.”
Longarm pinned the man’s arms to his sides and watched as Addie doused the wound with some antiseptic that she had in a corked blue bottle. “I’ve got to get this out fast or he’s going to bleed to death,” Addie said more to herself than to Longarm.
Addie had long, supple fingers, and now she gripped the silver forceps and slipped them into the wound. She frowned with intense concentration, and Longarm could see that she had begun to sweat even though it wasn’t all that warm in the kitchen.
Addie closed her eyes and said, “I was taught by a very good surgeon that these little pieces of lead go deep and the only way that you can possibly extract them out is to close your eyes and concentrate on feel.”
“You can feel the lead shot?”
“I hope so,” Addie told him. “I’ve never done one that is this deep. My thinking is that, if I feel my forceps close on something solid, it has to be the lead from your shotgun’s blast.”
“If he dies, it’s nobody’s fault but his own,” Longarm told her. “But we sure could use his testimony.”
Addie wasn’t really listening because she was concentrating so hard. After several minutes, a very slight smile touched her lips and she whispered, “I think I’ve got it!”
“Well, pull it out and let’s see.”
Addie squeezed the forceps and slowly extracted a piece of twisted lead about the size of a flattened pea.
“You did it!” Longarm said, genuinely impressed. “Do you think that lead was inside his gut?”
“No,” Addie replied, dropping the lead shot onto the table and leaning forward with relief. “It was embedded in muscle.”
Addie found bandaging in her medical kit and stuffed some cotton in the hole, and then she went to work on the other less critical wounds. Longarm kept expecting the young killer to come awake and begin to thrash, but he never did.
“How hard did you hit him over the head with your gun?” Addie asked when she had examined and extracted shot from all five wounds and then closed them up with either sutures or bandages. “I am wasting my time if you scrambled his brain like you almost did poor Jed’s.”
“I just gave him a good, solid tap on the skull. If he doesn’t make it, it won’t be because of my pistol-whipping.”
“I certainly hope not,” she said, finishing her doctoring.“He’s a handsome young man and if he lives, maybe he’ll take this as a lesson and change his ways.”
“Maybe,” Longarm said, though he doubted it. “All I want is for this fella to live long enough to testify in Cheyenne against Wade Stoneman. If he does that, he can die or go to prison and live; it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.”
“Well, I want him to live,” Addie said with conviction. “I never had a patient that was shot as badly as this young man. I’m just glad that the pattern from that shotgun hit him low and not in the head. If it had, he’d have been killed on the spot.”
“Just like Casey and the others,” Longarm said, thinking about all the bodies outside that would need burying. “I told you when I bought that shotgun in Cheyenne that it would make all the difference if we got in a tight spot and were outnumbered.”
Addie finished up her work on the unconscious young man and said, “Did you check this man’s pockets to see if he had anything personal that would tell us his name or where he came from? If he dies, it would be nice to notify his next of kin. This man probably has a mother who loves him. It’s the least we can do.”
Longarm disagreed. “I haven’t got time to notify the next of kin. Casey and three other gunmen are lying dead out there in Jed’s ranch yard, and all of them deserved what they got after they ambushed old Jed. Besides, if I tried to contact all their next of kin, I’d never get to what really needs doing and that’s bringing Stoneman down.”
“I understand,” Addie said patiently. “But . . . but, well, this young man might have been spared for a good purpose. Who are we to say that he couldn’t turn over a new leaf and become a fine citizen?”
“I’m not saying he couldn’t,” Longarm replied, “but I am saying that a leopard doesn’t change its spots and that if this young fella lives, don’t you expect him to become a Bible-thumping solid citizen. That’s just not being realistic.”
I know, but he’s such a handsome lad.” Addie’s fingers touched his pale cheek. “You know something? I’ll bet he’s broken a few hearts in his short life, and he might even have a sweetheart waiting somewhere. Check his pockets, Custis.”
Longarm retrieved the man’s bloody pants and shirt. He rummaged through his pockets, and danged if there wasn’t a bloodstained but readable envelope and letter.
“It’s addressed to a Mr. Joel Crawford in Cheyenne.”
“So his name is Joel,” Addie said, looking pleased. “Open up the letter inside,” Addie urged, spreading a blanket over the man. “Let’s find out who sent him that letter.”
Longarm unfolded the letter, and damned if it wasn’t from the man’s sweetheart, a girl in Omaha, Nebraska, of all places.
“She says that she misses him a lot and that she wants to leave her parents’ farm before Christmas so that they can be married. She says that she would love being his wife and living in Cheyenne, but thinks that she would rather live in California . . . if they could get the money to travel that far.”
Addie grinned. “California, huh?”
“Yep,” Longarm said, scanning through the letter. “His girlfriend doesn’t say where she got the notion that California would be a good place to live, but she says that she’d live almost anywhere except Nebraska after they were married.” Longarm tried to wipe away a spot of blood that was blotting out a few of the girl’s words.
“Go on,” Addie urged.
“There’s a little part here too smeared with blood to read, but later on she says that she loves him and wants them to have a lot of children, mostly boys because they would all be tall and handsome like their father.”
Tears sprang to Addie’s eyes and she scrubbed them away. “Did she leave a return address so that we could contact her?”
“Nope. She just signed the letter Betsy.”
“Too bad,” Addie said, obviously disappointed. “If Joel Crawford dies, we will never know how to contact Betsy and tell her what happened to the young man she loves.”
“That would be a mercy for Betsy,” Longarm reckoned aloud. “Why would she want to know that her lover was gunned down by a lawman after he was in on something bad like he was?”
“I guess you’ve got a good point,” Addie said, adjusting the blanket. “But I sure hope our Joel doesn’t die.”
“Yeah,” Longarm agreed. “If you plan to practice medicine around here, it wouldn’t be good if your first gunshot patient shipped out.”
“That wasn’t why I was hoping he’d make it,” Addie told him with some exasperation.
“Maybe not,” Longarm said, “but this fella would be a real good advertisement for your skills, if he makes it and testifies.”
“I expect he probably would,” Addie agreed. “We’ve got a lot of burying to do.”
Longarm nodded. “I’ll start digging a grave for Jed beside his wife Rebecca. But I’m not planting Casey and those other three riddled bastards anywhere near Jed and his wife.”
“We probably ought to take them into town and have the undertaker bury them, but I can’t leave Joel in his critical condition.”
“And
I’m not going to do it either,” Longarm said. “I’ll plant Casey and his friends in shallow graves up on the ridge. If someone ever wants to claim the bodies, they can dig them up and do what they will. But I’m not going to any extra trouble.”
“Let’s get Jed buried properly and then we can take it from there,” Addie suggested.
“Okay.”
Longarm went out, and it took him an hour to catch the horses that Casey and his men had owned. He hid those animals out of sight in the barn. After that, he fed and watered them, and then he found a shovel and went to the little cemetery where Rebecca Dodson lay long buried.
“I’m bringing your husband back to you,” Longarm said as he shoveled dirt. “We’re gonna lay Jed down beside you just like he wanted. And for what it’s worth, Mrs. Dodson, I hope you and Jed are already holdin’ hands in heaven.”
It was mid-afternoon before Longarm had finished all the burying. Five graves, four of them shallow and one deep, and with words from the Holy Bible said over that grave so that Jed was sent off properly.
After that, Longarm went into the house and washed the dirt off himself, and then he lay down to take a much-needed nap.
“Stand the watch, Addie. By now, Stoneman must be wondering why his boys haven’t returned to Buffalo Falls.”
“Do you think he’ll come out here to find out why they didn’t return?”
“I sure as hell hope so,” Longarm answered as he pulled the brim of his Stetson over his eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.
Chapter 15
“Custis!”
He awoke with a start. “What?”
Addie had her Winchester clenched in her fists. “There are some horsemen coming!”
Longarm swung his legs off the bed and struggled to shake off a long, deep sleep. He grabbed his six-gun and hurried into the living room still in his stockings. “Four of them. And damned if one of them isn’t the big man himself, Wade Stoneman!”
Longarm had a little time, so he went back into the bedroom and pulled on his boots and then gathered his hat. He reloaded the eight-gauge shotgun and said, “Addie, just stay back out of sight and don’t make a peep. If shooting starts, then you know how to use that Winchester and don’t hesitate to do it, because Stoneman wouldn’t dare let you live to tell how he and his men shot down a federal marshal.”
“Do you think they’ll do that?”
“When they learn what I’ve done, they might just try,” Longarm said. “Then again, Stoneman knows that I won’t back down or waver for an instant if the bullets start flying.”
“Are you going to tell him about Joel Crawford still being alive and our plans to take him to see a judge in Cheyenne?”
“I’d best not,” Longarm said after giving the question a moment’s thought. “But I’m sure he’ll figure out that’s what I intend to do if he knows the kid has survived.”
“Be careful!”
Longarm finished loading and cocking back both hammers on the shotgun. “You know I will be, and that this big gun almost evens the fighting odds.”
Addie kissed him on the lips.
“What was that for?” he asked with surprise.
“For luck. If you die out there, I’m going to die, and I’d like to see us buried side by side like the Dodsons.”
Longarm was touched by the sentiment. It was something that he hadn’t expected to hear from a woman he still did not know all that well, and he didn’t have any words to give her back, so he stepped outside onto the porch and waited for the riders.
Stoneman didn’t recognize Longarm until he was less than fifty feet from the ranch house, and when he did he gaped, but then quickly recovered his composure and grinned.
“Well, as I live and breathe, if it isn’t my old friend and student Marshal Custis Long!”
Longarm nodded. “I’m no student anymore, Wade. I wasn’t when you left Denver.”
“Yeah,” Stoneman said, reining in his horse as the three men he’d brought did the same. “I can see that you’ve really filled out those boots. Are you still working for Billy Vail?”
Longarm nodded. “I am.”
“How is old Billy? Probably fatter than a hog after a few years sitting behind a government desk.”
“Billy is fine,” Longarm said. “He sent me here.”
Stoneman blinked. “Billy sent you?”
“That’s right.”
“Why? Did he think you missed your old friend and mentor?”
“I don’t think that’s the reason,” Longarm answered. “Billy got word that you were doing some things that go against the law.”
Stoneman feigned surprise and hurt. “I can’t believe that Billy would think bad of me.”
“He and a lot of other people in this neck of the woods think bad of you, Wade. From what I hear, you’ve managed to scare everyone into either selling out or making you emperor of Buffalo Falls, or else you’ve killed them off. Three city councilmen?”
Wade’s smile died. He was a big and handsome man, but too much money and good food had put forty extra pounds on his frame and he looked older and dissipated. Under the brim of his Stetson, there was now silver instead of black hair. Yet when Longarm looked into Wade’s black eyes, he saw a familiar unyielding intensity and resolve. And the same lack of compassion. Longarm had always thought that gazing into Wade Stoneman’s eyes was like staring into the eyes of a mountain lion.
Wade turned away from Longarm for a moment and surveyed the ranch yard.
Longarm knew that he was looking for the men he’d sent to kill Jed Dodson. “Wade, are you looking for something you might have lost?”
“No,” Wade said, still not looking back at Longarm. “I was just thinking that this is a fine little ranch. A ranch I’d like to own. I think I’ll buy it from Jed the next time I see him. Make him a fair offer and send him on his way to Cheyenne, where he can sit in a rocking chair and get regular visits from his son. How does that sound, Custis?”
“Sounds kind of like you’ve made up your mind to have this ranch no matter what Jed wants.”
“Boss?”
It was one of Stoneman’s hired guns, and he was looking as if he wanted to go for his gun.
“What?”
“You want me to ride around and maybe look in the barn?”
“No!” Stoneman lowered his voice and said to his men, “Let’s all relax and sit tight for the moment.”
His mounted gunmen nodded with understanding.
Now Stoneman turned back to study Longarm. “What in the hell are you doing here?”
“I made friends with Jed.”
“You should be more careful choosing your friends, Custis. I hear that Jed was saying some unpleasant things about me in the saloon last night. I’m afraid that Jed has misjudged me and I wanted to sort of . . . well, clear the air with him today. Is he inside?”
“No,” Longarm said.
“Then where is he?”
“Jed is around,” Longarm answered. “I’ll tell him that you came to make him another offer for this ranch, but don’t expect him to sell.”
“Why not? Every man has his price. Even you.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why don’t I see if that is true or not?” Stoneman suggested. “How much money are you making by now working as a federal marshal?”
“Deputy marshal,” Longarm corrected.
“Ah, you haven’t advanced up the career ladder?” Stoneman made a face reflecting disappointment. “Too bad, but to be honest, I’m not really surprised. I know from firsthand experience that you are brave and resourceful, but I also remember you had little or no ambition.”
“I’ve got ambition,” Longarm countered. “I get real ambitious when it comes to arresting someone for murder.”
Stoneman took a deep breath, and Longarm could see that he had really rankled the former lawman. “And are you here to arrest me?”
Longarm lifted the barrel of the huge shotgun so that it was pointed right
at Stoneman. “Not yet. But if you or one of your men even drop your hands a little, there won’t be any need to arrest you or them . . . because you’ll be deader than cans of corned beef.”
Stoneman was fearless and cunning. And he damned sure wasn’t going to make a false move and get himself blown to pieces. “Now just settle down there, Custis! That’s mighty hard talk for an old friend that saved your life more than once, as you seem to have forgotten.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Longarm told him. “And I also remember saving your life in Santa Fe when you tried to rape that little Mexican girl that had served us supper.”
“Ah,” Stoneman exclaimed, “you do remember a thing or two from our storied past.”
“Most of those memories are bad, Wade.”
Stoneman placed both of his big hands on his saddle horn. “So where exactly is Jed Dodson?”
“Like I said before, Jed is around.”
Stoneman frowned and seemed to think hard for a few moments. Finally, curiosity got the better of him and he asked, “You haven’t by any chance seen any of my riders today, have you?”
“What would they be doing on Jed’s ranch?”
“Oh,” Stoneman said, broad shoulders shrugging off the question. “Sometimes my cowboys tend to wander a mite.”
“How many of them were there?” Longarm was almost starting to enjoy this cat-and-mouse game.
“Five.”
“Hmmm,” Longarm murmured. “That’s a lot of men to lose. Are you sure you sent them over here?”
“I didn’t send them anyplace,” Stoneman countered. “But they might have been looking for cattle and ridden in this general direction. One of them was a top hand named Casey.”
“And that would be the new town marshal? Is he one of your lost cowboys, Wade?”
Stoneman realized that he’d made his own trap and now he was angry. “Listen, Custis, don’t even start to play games with me! If you have something to say, then say it now and let’s get down to brass tacks. You know I’m not the kind of man that likes to put unpleasant things off until later.”
“All right,” Longarm agreed, deciding to lay his cards on the table. “I’m here to take you down, Wade. I can kill you right now, but I’d rather see you go to trial and then the gallows.”
