Ralph Compton Brother's Keeper

by Ralph Compton

  Chapter 35

  Thal couldn’t help overhearing what his sister and the Southerner were saying. They were talking in low tones, but he was only a few feet away. When they embraced and Ursula whispered into Jesse Lee’s ear, he moved to the rear door of the saloon and put his ear to it. All he heard was the drone of voices, and the piano.

  About to go back behind the pile of bottles and whatnot, Thal stiffened in alarm. He’d heard another sound—from the gap between the buildings. Footsteps, he was sure. Someone moving quickly, noisily.

  Drawing his six-shooter, Thal glided over near the gap, cocked his revolver, and waited. None too soon.

  A figure emerged out of the ink. Dyson, one of the special deputies. His revolver was out but pointed at the ground.

  The moment Dyson stepped from the gap, Thal jammed the muzzle of his Colt against the man’s ribs. “Don’t move.”

  Dyson started to raise his six-shooter, and froze. “Damn!” he blurted.

  “Drop it,” Thal said, “or I put a hole in you.”

  Dyson’s face was hard to read in the dark. “Easy on that trigger, cowboy,” he said, and his six-gun thumped to the ground.

  Thal listened for more footsteps. “Are you alone?”

  “The others are out lookin’ for you,” Dyson said. “I came back here on a hunch.” He smirked. “Looks like I was right.”

  The man was much too calm for Thal’s liking. “Any tricks, and I’ll shoot you. So help me.”

  “You do, and you’ll be in more hot water,” Dyson replied. “It’s bad enough Bull got shot. Mr. Galt isn’t happy. Mr. Galt isn’t happy at all.”

  Thal stepped back and motioned toward the rear of the saloon. “Move. And keep your hands where I can see them.”

  “Sure thing, cowboy,” Dyson said mockingly, and raised his arms halfway. “Enjoy this while you can.” He laughed as if it were a joke.

  Thal warily moved around behind him and pressed the Colt to his spine. “You’re awful cocky with a gun held on you.”

  “Cowboy, you have no idea what you’re in for.”

  “Quit callin’ me that,” Thal said, irritated that Dyson made it sound like an insult.

  “Whatever you say, cowboy,” Dyson said, and laughed.

  Jesse Lee appeared as they came up, his Colt leveled. “You caught one of the varmints.”

  “Ah,” Dyson said. “The gun hand.”

  The others surrounded him, Ned exclaiming, “We’ve got one, by gosh.”

  “You’ve got nothin’, cowpoke,” Dyson said.

  Ursula stood back a little, studying him. “This is wrong, don’t you see that? You shouldn’t be hunting us down. You should let us leave in peace.”

  “Are you serious, girl?” Dyson said. “Or just stupid?”

  “Be polite to her,” Jesse Lee warned.

  Dyson looked from Ursula to the Southerner and back again. “So Bull is right. You’re sweet on each other, and have been the whole time. Mr. Galt doesn’t like that you played him for a jackass.”

  “We did no such thing,” Ursula said.

  “Like hell,” Dyson said. “He put you up at his hotel and took you out to eat, and you never once told him that you and this Reb were sweethearts.”

  “I wasn’t trying to deceive him,” Ursula said.

  “That’s not how he sees it,” Dyson said. “He thinks you tricked him, and he’s mad as hell.”

  “If he’ll give me a chance to explain, I can smooth things over,” Ursula said.

  “It’s too late for talkin’, girl,” Dyson said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re lawbreakers, and you deserve what’s comin’.”

  “Who are you kidding?” Ursula retorted. “American City doesn’t have any laws. Anything goes, remember?”

  Dyson gave her a sharklike grin. “We’ve got a few, girl. No killin’ unless it’s necessary. No robbin’ the banks.” He paused. “And no harm is to come to a special deputy. Not ever. That drunk who shot your brother, Myles? We hanged him. After we dragged him into the middle of the street and beat him until half the bones in his body were broken and bits and pieces of his teeth were leakin’ out of his mouth.”

  “That’s horrible,” Ursula said.

  “Mr. Galt can be downright mean when his dander is up, and his dander is up now.”

  “At us?”

  “No, the Sioux,” Dyson said, and laughed scornfully.

  “It’s all a misunderstanding, I tell you.”

  “Is that what you call it? You attacked Bull for no reason—” Dyson began.

  “He wouldn’t let us leave when we wanted to,” Ursula interrupted.

  “You knocked him out and tied him up and hid him, then lied to Mr. Galt when Mr. Galt asked if you knew where Bull had gotten to. Then you snuck off. And when some of us came after you, the gun hand here shot Bull in the shoulder.” Dyson shook his head. “No, girl. This is no misunderstandin’. You assaulted a special deputy, and shot him, and now you’ll pay the price.”

  Thal had a question of his own. “How did Bull get loose and come after us?”

  “That was my doing,” Dyson said. “I was out front of the hotel, watchin’ your window, and saw movement. It got me curious. I came up and found all of you gone, and Bull tryin’ to get free behind that bed. I cut him loose and we came after you.” He smiled. “And here we are.”

  “You make it sound like this is all our fault,” Ursula said. “But your precious Mr. Galt treated us as if we were his prisoners. Bull wouldn’t let us leave when we wanted to, and by your own admission you were spying on us.”

  Dyson laughed. “That’s the funny part.”

  “What is?”

  “Mr. Galt did all that for your own protection. Bull and us were to make sure no one bothered you. Bull wouldn’t let you leave because Mr. Galt didn’t want you roamin’ the streets at night. They’re not safe.” And Dyson laughed again.

  “I don’t care what you say,” Ursula said. “We’re not in the wrong here.”

  “Wrong or right doesn’t matter,” Dyson said. “You have to pay for what you did to Bull. That’s what this is about now. Nothin’ else.”

  “What if we agreed to pay a fine? Or serve time in jail?” Ursula proposed.

  Thal almost spoke up. Under no circumstances would he allow Galt to throw them behind bars. They’d be completely at Galt’s mercy, which was the same as being at the mercy of a rabid wolf.

  “What jail?” Dyson said. “We deal with lawbreakers with lead or hemp. As Mr. Galt put it, he can’t be bothered with feedin’ and housin’ criminals.”

  “We’re no such thing.”

  “You are now, girl. All of you.” Dyson glanced at each of them in that smug way he had. “Don’t you get it yet? Mr. Galt has given orders that none of you are to make it out of American City alive.”

  “Even her?” Jesse Lee said, nodding at Ursula.

  “Especially her,” Dyson said.

  “But she’s female,” Ned said.

  “She’s a lawbreaker. Her being a woman is beside the point.”

  “It’s the whole point,” Ned said angrily. “In Texas we never harm a female. It’s just not done.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, cowboy,” Dyson replied, “you’re not in Texas anymore.”

  “No,” Ned said. “We’re in hell.”

  Thal moved around in front of the deputy. “What will Galt do to her? Have her beaten like he did that drunk? Hang her? Have her shot? What?”

  “We’re to take her alive if we can,” Dyson said. “After that, I don’t rightly know. But it won’t be pretty.”

  “And where will my brother Myles be in all this?” Ursula asked. “Surely he won’t stand for my being harmed.”

  “Mr. Galt asked him if he wanted to bow out, with y
ou two being his kin, and all. Myles said he’d like to see it through. That you shouldn’t be treated any different than any other lawbreakers.”

  “No,” Ursula gasped.

  “Girl, your brother Myles is as cold as they come. He’s blown more than a dozen men apart with that scattergun of his. All Mr. Galt has to do is point at someone and say shoot them, and Myles will drop them dead. And now Mr. Galt is pointin’ his finger at all of you.”

  “I refuse to believe my own brother will shoot me.”

  Thal didn’t share her conviction. Myles had turned to the dark side in life, to the worst in human nature. Whatever goodness had once been in Myles had been smothered by the ugliness and vice Myles had willingly embraced.

  “You keep on believin’ that, girl,” Dyson was saying. “You keep on believin’ it even as he points both barrels at you and squeezes both of those triggers.”

  A strained silence gripped them.

  Thal had hoped there might be a chance, however slim, of reasoning with Trevor Galt and making it out of American City without having to fight for their lives. That hope had been dashed.

  “What do we do?” Ned said, more to himself than to them. “How do we get out of this fix?”

  “You don’t,” Dyson said.

  “That’ll be enough out of you,” Jesse Lee said.

  “Or what? You’ll shoot me?” Dyson sneered.

  “Don’t think I won’t,” Jesse Lee replied.

  Dyson wasn’t the least bit intimidated. “Oh, I know you can, boy. You’re a natural-born shooter. I saw that out in the street. But if you do, the shot will bring the others. So go ahead. Shoot me.”

  Crawford had been quiet this whole time, but now he said, “I have an idea. We use this one as a hostage. March him in front of us to the livery, and warn them that if they cut loose on us, he’ll be the first one to die.”

  “That might just work,” Ned said.

  “You’re graspin’ at straws,” Dyson said. “Mr. Galt won’t let you get away. He’ll shoot me himself to stop you.”

  “And you work for a man like that?” Ursula said.

  “For a thousand dollars a month,” Dyson said, “I’d work for the Devil himself.”

  “Then we fight our way out,” Jesse Lee said.

  “You can try,” Dyson said. “The others will like the sport of it. Bull can’t wait to do a few of you in. He owes you for the conks on his noggin and the hole you put in him.”

  “God help us,” Ned said. “We’ve stepped in it up to our necks, and it’s root hog or die.”

  “It’s sinkin’ in at last,” Dyson said.

  “I’ve heard enough out of you,” Jesse Lee said, and taking a quick step, he slammed his Colt against Dyson’s jaw. There was a crack and a crunch, and the special deputy sprawled at their feet.

  “More cause for Galt to want us dead,” Ned said gloomily.

  “It had to be done,” Jesse Lee said. “This one would have given us away if he could.”

  “Forget about him,” Thal said. “We have somethin’ more important to work out.” Namely, how to get out of there.

  “Blunderin’ around in the dark didn’t get us anywhere,” Crawford said. “I vote we stay here and make a run for it at first light.”

  “Good idea,” Ned said. “We’ll be able to see what we’re shootin’ at.”

  “And they’ll be able to see us,” Jesse Lee said, and shook his head. “It’s smarter to try now, while we have the dark for cover.”

  “Thal?” Ned said. “Which do you like?”

  Thal had already made up his mind. In the daylight the special deputies could easily pick them off from the rooftops, or from a distance, with rifles. “I like the dark. It works in our favor.”

  “Then do we do it now or do we wait a bit?” Ned said.

  Jesse Lee answered him. “What use is waitin’? We go while we can, and don’t stop this side of the grave. If those special deputies try to stop us, we kill every one.”

  “Big words,” Ned said.

  “I’m through with words,” Jesse Lee said, and held up his ivory-handled Colt. “This will do my talkin’ from here on out.” He looked at each of them. “There can’t be any holdin’ back. Make up your minds, here and now, or you’ll be useless in the fight.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Thal said. “It’s us or them.”

  “It was never anything else,” Jesse Lee said.

  Ned swallowed and stared at the figure on the ground. “God help us.”

  “Amen to that,” Ursula said.

  Chapter 36

  Thal and the others started toward the gap between the buildings, only to be brought up short by Jesse Lee.

  “Where are you goin’?”

  “Out to the street,” Thal said.

  “Not that way.” Jesse Lee stepped to the rear door, tried the latch, and opened it far enough to peer in. “Through the saloon.”

  “Were you nicked in the head?” Ned said. “There are people in there. Lots and lots of people.”

  “So?” Jesse Lee said. “They don’t know who we are. Or that the special deputies are huntin’ for us.”

  “You hope,” Ned said.

  Thal was skeptical too. He wouldn’t put it past Trevor Galt to have his deputies go from saloon to saloon and warn everyone to be on the lookout for them. “I don’t know about this.”

  “In a crowd we’re less easy to spot,” Jesse Lee argued, “and the deputies are less likely to open fire.”

  “You hope,” Ned repeated.

  Shoving his Colt into his holster, Jesse Lee opened the door, hooked his thumb in his gun belt, and strode in.

  “Where he goes, I go,” Ursula said, hastening after him.

  “He’s my pard,” Crawford said, and was on their heels.

  Ned looked at Thal. “Well, hell.”

  “Get goin’,” Thal said, and gave Ned a push. He went last. Since he wasn’t Jesse Lee and couldn’t draw and shoot in the blink of an eye, he slid his own revolver into his holster but kept his hand on it so he’d be ready, should the need arise.

  A narrow hallway led to the front. A hubbub of voices and music, and the clink of glass and of chips, grew louder with every step.

  Thal blinked in the sudden glare of the saloon proper. As late as the hour was, dozens of drinkers and gamblers and doves were having a grand time. Over in a corner, a tipsy piano player tickled the ivories.

  Jesse Lee made straight for the batwings, ambling along as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  The rest of them followed. Ursula and Crawford were calm enough, but Ned’s face twitched from the strain on his nerves.

  When a poker player at a table gave a whoop of delight at winning a hand, Thal nearly jumped. It eased his jitters a little to see that no one seemed interested in them. Still, the walk to the batwings seemed to take forever. He was the last to push outside. The others were to his right, hugging the wall.

  The people in the street didn’t give them a second glance.

  “No sign of the deputies,” Ned whispered.

  Several riders were coming down the street, close to the boardwalk. Prospectors, by the looks of them, out on the town.

  “Stick close,” Jesse Lee said, and before they could divine what he was up to, he was off the boardwalk and fell into step near the riders.

  “Quick. Do as he’s doin’,” Thal said, and took Ursula’s arm. It was a clever ruse, using the prospectors and their animals to screen them from anyone on the other side of the street. “Your man doesn’t miss a trick, sis.”

  “He doesn’t, does he?” Ursula said in admiration.

  Thal scanned the buildings on their side. The coast appeared momentarily clear. The special deputies, save for Dyson, must have moved on to the next street.

  “Thalis?” Ursula
said softly.

  Thal was still looking for trouble and didn’t want to be distracted. “What is it?”

  “Don’t let anything happen to him.”

  Thal looked at her.

  “I couldn’t bear it if something did. I love him, Thal. It might seem strange, your little sister saying that, but I do, with all my heart. Promise me you won’t let him come to harm.”

  Thal was taken aback. She was asking a lot. He was no gun hand. But for her sake he said, “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Thank you,” Ursula said, and squeezed his hand.

  They came to an intersection. Jesse Lee broke away from the riders and headed up the other street, which was almost empty of people. He didn’t skulk or make an attempt to hide.

  A saloon was open, but it wasn’t as popular as the last. A townsman staggered past them, slurring the words to a song. Two doves, older gals with a lot of powder and rouge on their faces, came out of the saloon arm in arm and merrily made their way homeward.

  “I could never do what they do,” Ursula remarked. “Mingle and mix with men to get them to buy me drinks.”

  Thal marveled that she’d think of such a thing at a time like this. “People do what they have to.”

  “I’d rather do what I want than what life makes me do.”

  Thal glanced back and caught sight of a middling-sized man in a bulky coat who appeared to be following them. Another late-nighter? he wondered. Or someone more sinister? He got his answer when the man ducked behind the post to an overhang. “We’re bein’ tailed,” he quietly warned the others.

  “Don’t look back or he’ll know we’re onto him,” Jesse Lee said without breaking stride.

  It was hard for Thal to do. He half expected to take a slug in the back, and his skin prickled.

  At the next corner Jesse Lee turned right. The instant their shadow couldn’t see him, he darted into a doorway and motioned for them to keep going. “Take your time. Let him see you.”

  Thal assumed the lead. He pretended to be interested in the windows they were passing, only so he could catch a glimpse of their stalker out of the corner of his eye.