The Family Jensen

by William W. Johnstone

  “World travel is vastly overrated,” Maureen said. “At least, it is when you have to travel in steerage. I much prefer Nevada.” For the first time, her smile disappeared. “At least I did.”

  Matt wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but before he could do so, she brightened again and went on, “Now, what can I do for you?”

  “I need some supplies.”

  She nodded. “I’m not surprised. You have the look of a man who’s just passing through. Flour, sugar, salt, coffee, maybe some beans and bacon?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Couple weeks’ worth of each, I reckon.”

  “That I can do. I’ll put the order together. Can you come back in about an hour?”

  “I’ll do better than that,” Matt said. “I’m going to be spending the night here, so there’s no rush. I’ll just come by in the morning and pick the things up when I’m ready to ride out.”

  “That’ll be fine, if you’re sure it won’t inconvenience you.”

  “Not at all.” He gestured toward his clothes, which were coated with a fine layer of trail dust. “I think I’m going to get a hotel room, clean up a little, and try to act civilized for a night. Can you recommend a hotel?”

  “Of course. The Ferguson Hotel.”

  Matt tilted his head slightly. “Same name as yours.”

  “My Uncle Colin owns it, as he does this mercantile.”

  “The sign says Gibson’s.”

  “’Twas Mr. Gibson who started the store. My uncle bought it from him several years ago and didn’t see the need to change the name. The Fergusons are not vain people.”

  “Evidently not,” Matt agreed. He put his hat on and gave the brim a tug. “I’m obliged to you for the help. If you want to figure up what the bill will be, I’d be glad to go ahead and pay you.”

  Maureen shook her head. “That won’t be necessary. You can pay when you pick up the supplies in the morning.”

  “All right. Thanks.” He gave her a friendly nod. He wanted to tell her that he had enjoyed the flirting, but decided she would probably think that was a mite too bold.

  She might take that broom after him yet, and he didn’t want that.

  As Matt turned and walked up the aisle toward the double front doors of the mercantile a big shape filled the opening. Three men were coming into the store. The one in the lead was built like a mountain, tall and broad. He was sort of a dandy, wearing boots with fancy stitching on them, tight whipcord trousers tucked into those boots, an expensive shirt with mother-of-pearl snaps instead of buttons, and a cream-colored Stetson that looked like it had never seen much mud or sun. The only well-worn thing about the man was the butt of the revolver that stuck up from the holster on his hip.

  Matt disliked the hombre on sight.

  But he wasn’t looking for trouble, so he moved easily to the side of the aisle as if he were looking at the overalls stacked on the shelves. He gave the big gent and the man’s hard-faced companions a curt nod as they passed.

  The sneer on the big man’s face showed he thought Matt had stepped aside out of fear, and the man took that as his due. Matt had a good mind to point out to him just how wrong he was, but . . . he wasn’t looking for trouble and continued toward the door.

  He stopped when he heard the fear in Maureen’s voice as she asked, “What are you doing here, Mr. Talley? My uncle told you he didn’t want your business.”

  As Matt turned and walked up the aisle toward the double front doors of the mercantile a big shape filled the opening.

  “People don’t tell me when they want my business, Maureen. I tell them when I’m going to give it to them. And I’ve asked you before to call me Judd.”

  “Are you here to give me some business, Mr. Talley?” Maureen still sounded afraid. Matt paused in the doorway to listen.

  A burst of lewd laughter came from the two men with Judd Talley. He joined in with them. “I reckon you could call it that.”

  Matt’s jaw tightened until a muscle jerked. He swung around, and his voice rang out clear and strong, echoing against the high ceiling. “By God, that’s enough!”

  Chapter 2

  Like panthers, the two smaller gunmen whirled toward him. They reached for their guns, and Matt was ready to hook and draw. He figured he would have to kill them fast, to minimize the danger of Maureen getting hit by a stray bullet.

  But before anybody could clear leather, Judd was between his friends and Matt, holding out his hands in a placating gesture. “Hold it, boys, hold it,” he murmured. “No need for gunplay here.”

  Or maybe it was just a matter of if anybody was going to show off, it was going to be him.

  Matt watched all three closely. If any of them made a move, he intended to burn powder.

  “Did you have something you wanted to say, friend?” Judd asked in a mocking drawl. He hooked his thumbs behind his gunbelt.

  “You heard me,” Matt snapped. “I said that’s enough. Miss Ferguson doesn’t want you here, and where I come from, a man doesn’t talk like that to a lady.”

  “Where you come from.” Judd repeated. “Where’s that?”

  “Colorado.” That was where Smoke’s Sugarloaf Ranch was located, and the ranch was as close to a home as Matt had. Smoke and his wife Sally, and the old mountain man called Preacher, were the only people in the world Matt considered family.

  “Well, you’re not in Colorado anymore, and around here, I say and do as I please. You’d better remember that if you don’t want to get hurt.”

  One of the other men spoke up, saying, “Yeah, you don’t know who you’re bracin’, saddle tramp. This here is Judd Talley.” He said the name like it ought to mean something.

  Matt shook his head and smiled faintly. “Sorry, I can’t keep track of every cheap, two-bit gunman west of the Mississippi.”

  Judd’s contemptuous grin vanished. He lost his casual stance and squared up toward Matt as he snarled a bitter curse.

  Matt knew he had pushed the confrontation right back into being a shooting matter. He didn’t regret it. He had seen dozens of men like Judd Talley. They were a blight on the Western landscape.

  Of course, he didn’t know how fast that fella might be, he reminded himself. It might be the day Matt Jensen crossed the divide, but his instincts told him otherwise.

  Before things could go any further, Maureen Ferguson came out from behind the counter and screamed, “Stop it! Stop it, you fools! I won’t have anybody dying in here!”

  Judd nodded toward the street and asked in a tight voice, “What say we take this outside, Colorado?”

  “Fine by me.” Matt backed toward the doorway.

  He had just stepped onto the high porch in front of the mercantile when a pair of hard metal rings pressed against his back. Even through his shirt, he knew the twin muzzles of a shotgun when he felt them. He stiffened. If both barrels of that scattergun went off, they would blow him in two, literally. His bottom half might fall one way and his top half the other.

  “Keep backin’, mister,” a man’s voice told him. “Just keep backin’, and keep your hand away from that gun.”

  Matt had no choice but to do as the shotgun-wielder commanded. The man sounded tense and nervous, even scared, and that was a mighty bad combination in a man who had a Greener against your back.

  “Take it easy.” Matt took a couple more steps backward. He kept his hands well away from his body.

  “That’s far enough.”

  Judd Talley and his friends came out of the store. “What are you doing, Sheriff?” Judd demanded. “This is none of your business. Just stay out of it.”

  “No, sir. Any blood spilled in my town is my business. When somebody told me there was fixin’ to be a shootout in Gibson’s store, I hustled right down here.”

  Judd sneered again. “It’s just some blasted saddle tramp. Nobody’ll give a damn if I kill him.”

  “No killin’.” The sheriff was trying to sound firm and in command, but Matt could tell it was hard for him. Even armed with
a shotgun, the lawman was a little afraid of Judd and the other two hardcases. “You and your pards just go on now, Judd.”

  “What about that smart-mouth drifter?” Judd demanded as he gestured with his left hand toward Matt.

  “I’ll lock him up for disturbin’ the peace. All right?”

  Maureen had followed the men out of the store. Stepping forward on the porch she said, “That’s not fair, Sheriff. Mr. Jensen didn’t do anything except chastise these hooligans for being disrespectful to me.”

  A crowd was gathering on the boardwalks on both sides of the street. Any potentially violent fracas always brought gawkers out of the woodwork in frontier settlements. From the corner of his eye, Matt saw one man separate himself from the crowd and walk quickly across the street toward the general store. The man moved awkwardly with a limp and used a cane, but despite that he didn’t waste any time.

  “It sounds to me, Sheriff, like it’s Talley and his bully boys you should be arresting,” the man said. “They were harassing my niece, and I won’t stand for it.”

  “Dadgummit, Mr. Ferguson, don’t get mixed up in this,” the sheriff muttered.

  “I already am. That’s my niece, and they were in my store.”

  “I’m not gonna arrest Judd and his pards. Wouldn’t do no good. You know Mr. Longacre’d just bail ’em right out and pay any fine the judge levied against ’em.”

  “And I know that Judge Hiram Dunwoodie, venerable jurist that he is, would probably just dismiss the case with a stern warning, seeing as those men work for Cyrus Longacre.” Ferguson sighed. “All right, then. Don’t arrest anyone. Just order the combatants to disperse.”

  Judd threw his hands in the air in disgust. “God, this is stupid!” he burst out. “All you people do is talk, talk, talk. It makes my head hurt. Come on, boys. Let’s get back out to camp.”

  He stalked to the end of the porch, stomped down the stairs to the street, and went to a hitch rack in front of the next building. His steely-eyed companions followed him.

  “You’re going to let them go when they’re the ones who caused the trouble, Sheriff?” Matt asked in a low voice.

  “Dang right I am,” the lawman replied without hesitation. “That way nobody gets killed, includin’ me.”

  The three men mounted up, Judd onto a silver-decorated saddle on a magnificent black big enough to support his weight. He galloped out of town with the other two following him. As soon as they were gone, the crowd started to break up.

  The man with the cane climbed to the porch. “You can take that shotgun out of the poor man’s back now, Sheriff Sanger.”

  “All right,” the sheriff said, lowering the twin muzzles, “but I don’t want no more ruckuses around here.”

  “You should tell that to Cyrus Longacre and his gun-wolves,” Ferguson said with a nod toward the east, the direction where Judd and the other two men had disappeared. The cloud of dust that had boiled up from the galloping horses had all but dispersed.

  Matt sighed in relief, turned, and saw that the sheriff was a round-faced, middle-aged man with a drooping mustache. Sanger glared at him and asked, “What’s your name, mister?”

  “Matt Jensen.”

  “What brings you to Helltown . . . I mean, Halltown.”

  “Just passing through,” Matt told him honestly. “I’m on my way to the mountains. When I saw there was a settlement here I thought I’d pick up some supplies.”

  “Well, get ’em and get gone. We don’t need no saddle tramps in town stirrin’ up trouble.”

  Matt could tell that Sanger knew good and well who had started the trouble. The lawman was just trying to hang on to a shred of self-respect by blaming Matt for it, since he had let the real culprits go.

  “Mr. Jensen was planning to spend the night, Sheriff,” Maureen said. “He was about to go over to Uncle Colin’s hotel and rent a room.”

  “Well, he won’t have to do that now.” Ferguson stuck out his hand. “The best room in the house is yours, Mr. Jensen, at no charge. I’m Colin Ferguson.”

  “Matt Jensen,” Matt introduced himself as he shook hands with the man. Ferguson was lean, with a look of sardonic humor on his face below a thatch of graying dark hair. “But I should warn you, by extending your hospitality to me, you risk offending that fella Longacre, whoever he is.”

  Ferguson snorted in contempt. “The day I worry about offending Cyrus Longacre is the day you can box up my remains and ship me back to County Cork. Come along, lad. I’ll see that you’re well taken care of. What would you say to a tub full of hot water to soak away the dust of those long trails you’ve obviously been riding?”

  “I’d say that sounds like a little bit of heaven,” Matt replied with a grin.

  Chapter 3

  He was right about that. Hot water and soap went a long way toward making Matt feel human again. After he dried off, he put on the one change of clothes he owned. Colin Ferguson had promised to have the dirty garments cleaned at the Chinese laundry down the street.

  Still interested in having that drink he had thought about earlier, Matt went downstairs from his room on the second floor of the solidly built frame-and-stone hotel. Colin Ferguson was in the lobby, and it quickly became apparent that he’d been waiting for Matt.

  “Come back to my office and have a drink with me, Mr. Jensen,” he invited.

  “I was just about to head over to the saloon—”

  Ferguson scoffed. “My whiskey is better than any of that who-hit-John you’ll get over there.”

  “That’s a hard offer to turn down,” Matt said with a smile.

  “Then don’t. Come along. As an added incentive, I’ll tell you all about what sort of hornet’s nest you’ve stepped into by making an enemy out of that brute Talley.”

  Matt nodded. “All right. Thanks. And call me Matt.”

  “All right, I will. I’m Colin.”

  They went through a door at the end of the registration desk and along a short hallway to Ferguson’s simply furnished but comfortable office. Ferguson waved Matt into a red leather chair and moved to sit behind the desk. Taking a bottle and a couple glasses from one of the drawers, he poured drinks for both of them.

  “Slainte,” Ferguson toasted as he and Matt lifted their glasses.

  “To your health,” Matt said. He drank, enjoying the smooth fire of the liquor. Leaning back in his chair he went on, “I got the idea Talley works for this Cyrus Longacre you mentioned.”

  Ferguson took another sip of his whiskey and nodded. “That’s right. He’s Longacre’s chief troubleshooter. And by that I mean—”

  “Anything troubles Longacre, Talley shoots it,” Matt finished for him.

  Ferguson sighed and nodded. “That’s exactly right, my boy. Talley’s a hired gunman. And don’t let the fact that he’s such a hulking brute fool you. He’s fast on the draw. He doesn’t have to demonstrate that fact very often, though. He’s so big that mostly he just pounds his opponents in submission, or cows them into going along with what he wants.”

  “I’ve seen men like him before. They can be whittled down to size.”

  Ferguson shook his head. “Not by the likes of the men we’ve got around here. Halltown has always been a pretty peaceful place.”

  “I saw the sign outside town.”

  “Helltown, you mean? I suspect that was the work of Roscoe Goldsmith, one of our local attorneys. Roscoe thinks he’s funny, you see, especially when he’s in his cups, which he frequently is. Talley was angry when he saw the sign and was going to tear it down, but Longacre ordered him to leave it alone. I think it appeals to Longacre’s twisted sense of humor. Either that, or he thinks it functions as a warning for people not to cross him.”

  “You still haven’t told me who Longacre is,” Matt pointed out.

  “That’s right, I haven’t. He’s become such a dominant figure around here in the past six months, it’s difficult to grasp the concept that somebody doesn’t know who he is.” Ferguson leaned forward and clasped his
hands together on the desk. “Longacre is the railroad, and the railroad is Longacre. He owns it, lock, stock, and barrel.”

  “The railroad that’s coming to Halltown, you mean.”

  Ferguson nodded. “You know about that?”

  “I saw the building going up at the edge of town and thought it looked like a depot,” Matt explained. “I take it there’s a spur line coming up this way from the Union Pacific, and Longacre owns it.”

  “That’s right. The line is under construction now and is supposed to be here in another month or so. After that, Longacre plans to extend it even farther toward the mountains, into all the rich rangeland between here and there. He has a problem, though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Paiutes,” Ferguson said.

  Matt shook his head in confusion. “I thought the Paiutes were pretty much friendly these days. I haven’t heard anything about them being on the warpath.”

  “They’re not. This particular bunch has signed a treaty, and they’re trying to abide by it. The agreement gave them the land for several miles along either side of Big Bear Wash. It’s not particularly good country, but the Paiutes seem satisfied with it.”

  Matt wasn’t sure why Ferguson was telling him all this, but he gave in to curiosity and asked, “Why is that a problem for Cyrus Longacre?”

  “Because Big Bear Wash lies between here and the big stretch of rangeland where the finest ranches in this part of the state are located. If Longacre could extend his railroad line that far, he’d stand to make a small fortune. But he’d have to build a bridge over the wash in order to do that, because it would cost too much to go around.”

  “And the Paiutes won’t let him build it,” Matt guessed.

  Ferguson nodded. “That’s exactly right. Longacre sent surveyors and engineers to take a look at the ground and figure out the best way to handle the job, and some of the young Paiute warriors chased them off. A couple days later, some of the elders from the tribe rode into town and hired Roscoe Goldsmith to file a motion in court preventing Longacre’s men from trespassing on their land to build his bridge. Judge Dunwoodie ruled against them right away, of course, since he didn’t want to cross Longacre, but Roscoe managed to contact Carson City by wire and got a lawyer friend of his to file an appeal with the federal courts before the telegraph mysteriously went dead.”