by Ralph Cotton
Outside the livery barn, Ellis sat atop his big bay and held a lead rope to the big silver stallion behind him. He looked down at Randall and Delphia Turner and said, “I wouldn’t stay too much longer if I were you. These people have a lot to go through, getting out from under Jessup and getting back on their own feet. Things could still be tricky here for a while.”
“What?” Randall asked, unable to hear anything in his left ear.
Ellis started to repeat himself, but Delphia said, “He can’t hear you, Ellis. But don’t worry. We’re getting away from here before dark ourselves. I want nothing more to do with this place.”
“I understand,” said Ellis. He looked once again at Randall and said to Delphia, “I know you two are going to take good care of one another.”
“Yes, we will,” said Delphia, “and we’ll never forget how you helped us.” She gazed off toward the end of town and said with a wary look, “I’d feel better if Barr wasn’t out there somewhere. Randall said he is as sneaky as they come.”
“I’ll keep an eye peeled,” said Ellis. He looked away at Jim Heady and said, “Much obliged for your help, Heady.”
Heady only smiled, looking a bit embarrassed, and waved Ellis away. Putting the bay forward, Ellis did not look back on Paradise. He rode across the edge of Wolf Valley in the direction of the Mosely place until his trail led him upward into a stretch of rocky hills. As darkness drew around him in long shadows of rock and scrub juniper he twice thought he heard the sound of quiet hooves on the trail behind him. When he stopped and clearly made them out, he thought of Delphia’s warning about Lewis Barr, and he pulled up into the cover of rock above the trail.
“I never should have let him go,” he whispered to the big bay. A full five minutes passed before he saw the single rider move forward with caution on the trail beneath him. The dark figure lay low in his saddle, as if to stay bowed and out of sight. Ellis eased the bay and the silver down at an angle until he stepped the horses right out onto the trail, facing the man from less man fifteen feet away. He held his gun cocked and pointed, having taken the gun and his holster rig off Falon’s body.
“You were too busy slipping up behind me,” Ellis said. “You should have been looking up.”
“What the…?” The rider jerked a tired-looking dun to a halt and sat limp, staring at Ellis in the grainy darkness.
Ellis looked at the rider close enough to know that this wasn’t Lewis Barr. After a pause, Ellis said aloud, “Oh no,” as recognition set in.
“CC? Is that you?” said a strained voice.
“Yep, it’s me,” Ellis replied. “Sloane?”
“Yeah,” the voice replied, “but keep my name to yourself for awhile.”
“We all thought you hanged,” said Ellis. As he spoke he, felt his plans for Callie Mosely and himself coming apart.
“I almost did,” said Sloane Mosely. “Hadn’t been for the best damn attorney in Texas I would have.”
“You mean Snake Warley got you off from that murder charge?” Ellis asked.
“Get me off? Hell no!” said Mosely. “What he got me was a gun! And he paid some whore to slip it to me. Said she was my sister come to see me one last time. Ellis, I’m hot off a jailbreak. I took a bullet in my right forearm. I can barely lift it, let alone draw my gun. Lucky for me it’s you, and not some bounty hunter.”
“Can’t even lift your gun hand, huh?” Ellis asked, letting the thought run through his mind. “Well, at least you’re alive. I’m getting over some wounds myself.”
“Yeah?” Mosely stepped his horse closer and asked, “What are you doing out here anyway?”
“We came to take that bank you told us about,” said Ellis.
“In Paradise?” Mosely didn’t seem to recall ever mentioning it.
“Yes, and it all went to hell on us,” said Ellis. “Rudy, Orsen, Ernie and the Gun are all dead.”
“Damn, I’m sorry to hear it,” said Mosely. “How bad are you wounded?”
“I’ll be all right,” said Ellis. “I got wounded on the way here.” He paused for a moment, wondering how much he should tell. Finally he said, “Hadn’t been for your wife and son, I wouldn’t be alive right now. They took me in, nursed me along.”
“Callie did that?” Mosely asked.
“She did,” said Ellis, “and I’m forever obliged.”
After a silence, Mosely asked in a flat tone, “Ellis, is there anything you want to tell me?”
“No,” Ellis said. “Is there anything you want to ask?”
“I don’t like the idea of you being there, with me off waiting to be hanged. It sets up a bad possibility.” He recognized his silver stallion and said, “Hey, that’s my stallion! What are you doing with him?”
“You did everything you could to get Rudy to come rob this bank, Sloane, so don’t point a finger of blame at me.” He moved closer and handed Mosely the lead rope to the stallion. “I was bringing him home to Callie. Now I reckon I don’t have to.”
“I was worried about that damned preacher in Paradise,” Mosely said, taking the lead rope and looking the stallion over. “I was afraid he might take over my family.”
“Well, stop worrying. He’s dead,” said Ellis.
“You killed him?” asked Mosely.
“No, but he’s dead,” Ellis said, feeling worse by the minute now that all was said and done. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“I can’t say I’m sorry he’s dead,” said Mosely. “I want you to look at this from where I saw it. I was looking out for Callie. Can you blame me?”
“No, I can’t blame you, Sloane. She’s a good woman,” Ellis said, hoping Mosely didn’t notice the wistfulness in his voice.
“Then everything is all right?” Mosely asked.
“As far as I’m concerned, it is,” said Ellis. “I might have done something I shouldn’t though. I told her about what we do for a living.”
“Damn it,” said Mosely, “that’s no way to treat a pard, Ellis.”
“You should have told her before, Sloane. You knew she’d find out someday.”
“Are you sure nothing happened between my wife and you?” Mosely asked more pointedly.
“Are you sure you want to ask?” said Ellis, not backing down an inch.
Another pause. Then Mosely said, “Forget it. I’m going to lay low for a while. What are you going to do now that Rudy and the others are dead? Are you still in the business?”
Ellis sighed, and tapped his bay forward. “I’m still in the business, Mosely. Come find me after you’re rested up. I bet you owe Warley enough to keep you busy for the rest of your life.”
“Ha! You can believe that.” Sloane Mosely watched the bay pull away slowly along the trail, headed out of Wolf Valley. “Long riders, huh?” he called out to CC Ellis.
Without looking back, Ellis smiled wryly to himself, nodding, and said, “Yeah, long riders.”
