by John Glasby
‘You’re sorry!’ There was scorn in the lawman’s tone and he held his right hand just above the butt of his gun, fingers stiff-spread. ‘And how come you heard about it if you’ve just ridden in from Culver City? That’s a four-day ride, there and back.’ His eyes narrowed, flaring in sudden suspicion.
‘Easy there, Sheriff,’ Garth said, and there was a tight note of warning in his tone. ‘I stopped over with some old-timer in a shack this side of the desert. Seems he spotted you a couple of days ago when you rode the f ar side of the mountains. He noticed too that you never ventured into the hills after those killers.’
‘You’re talkin’ pretty smart, Martinue,’ snapped the other. His face was flushed with anger. ‘But I’ve got a damned good mind to run you into jail on suspicion of being in cahoots with that gang. Maybe I should, just to be sure you don’t ride out and join’em with information.’
‘And maybe you should try to think things out calmly and logically, Sheriff,’ said Garth, forcing evenness into his tone. ‘You could easily check if I’d been in Culver City by gettin’ in touch with Sheriff Cantry there, so if I were in cahoots with these outlaws I wouldn’t have told you that, would I?’
‘I’ve already decided to get in touch with Cantry,’ muttered the other. ‘But I’ve had a message from him in response to a telegraph I sent to him a few days ago and he’s never heard of you.’
‘I can understand that,’ Garth said. ‘I told him myself not to say anythin’ about me in his reply.’
‘Now why would you want to do a thing like that?’ There was a note of open disbelief in the other’s voice now. He opened his mouth to say something more, but it was never said, for at that precise moment another voice cut in from the boardwalk.
‘I think I can answer that, Jessup. If you’d both step into your office.’
Jessup whirled, saw Wayne Thorpe standing a few feet away. For a moment, he hesitated, then shrugged his shoulders, nodded tersely, and stepped up on to the plankwalk, preceded the two men into his office and closed the door behind them. Tossing his hat on to the top of the desk, he motioned them towards the chairs in front of the long desk.
‘All right, Thorpe. You seem to know a lot more about this than I do. Suppose you tell me what’s on your mind.’
The lawyer crossed his legs and leaned back in his seat, eyeing the other shrewdly. Then he said quietly: ‘No doubt you’ve been wondering, as a good many men in town have, who Martinue is, and why he’s here.’
‘And you know?’
‘Certainly,’ Thorpe nodded. ‘I wired and asked him to come. By that time, I’d already realized that the situation here was rapidly getting out of hand and that something had to be done to stop it. Recent events have only proved how right I was.’
‘And Martinue here?’ Jessup switched his gaze to Garth. There was still a hardness in it that the other noticed at once. Jessup was not an easy man to convince.
‘He’s a Texas Ranger — an old friend of mine. I’ve known him for several years, knew his father too. I reckoned that if I wired him, he’d come if he possibly could.’
Jessup’s gaze altered subtly. ‘I see.’ He leaned back, clasped his hands together, fingers tightly interlocked. ‘But I don’t see how you’re goin’ to help us. We don’t know where these men are hidin’ out and if we tried to ride into those hills after them, we’d be cut down from ambush before we knew where they were. There are too many trails yonder for us to have a hope in hell of smokin’ them out.’
‘I’m inclined to agree with that,’ Garth nodded. ‘That means we must employ some other means of catchin’ them. My idea is that we bring them out into the open, back into Triple Peaks. Then seal off every way of escape.’
‘Sounds good, but how do you figure on doin’ that?’
‘They’ve already robbed the bank here, so where do you think they may strike next?’
Jessup shrugged. ‘That could be anybody’s guess. They’re cunnin’. They will wait until they’re sure they can strike by surprise as they did the last time.’
‘Fine, Sheriff. But let us put ourselves into this man Turrell’s place.’
‘Turrell?’ inquired Jessup, leaning forward.
‘That’s the real name of this man who called himself Smith when he was here. He led a band of outlaws down on the Texas border about a year ago until it was smashed by the Rangers. He was the only one to get away. The others were either killed in the gunfight, or taken prisoner and hanged. We’ve been lookin’ over a dozen states for him, for a long time now. Until this moment, he’s given us the slip.’
‘And what do you think he’ll do?’
Garth smiled tightly. ‘I think he’ll ask himself the question: where is the one place where the law will never expect him to strike? And there is only one answer to that, particularly if we can make things seem easy and tempting for him. Here, at the bank in Triple Peaks.’
Jessup stared at him, his jaw slackly open, a look of surprise on his bluff features. Even Thorpe seemed a little stunned by the other’s statement.
‘Here in Triple Peaks! But surely they — ’
‘They won’t take us for fools. But I reckon it’s obvious that nobody would expect them to hit the same place again, just after taking all of its gold.’
‘And how are you goin’ to convince them that it might be worth their while to come back here?’
‘I’m sure they have somebody in town who feeds them news. You suspected it was me a little while ago, so the thought has obviously crossed your mind as well and I’m sure it’s the truth. We must spread it around that a further consignment of gold has been brought and deposited in the bank here from Culver City for safe keepin’. That ought to convince them too that we’re reasonably certain this is the one bank they won’t attack again. But we must do this discreetly. Whatever happens, we mustn’t make it too obvious or they won’t fall for it. And there will have to be a shipment of some kind into the bank to back it up. Then we set the trap and wait for them to spring it.’
‘I like the idea,’ said Thorpe after a brief, reflective pause. ‘I’m sure it’s our only chance of getting them.’
‘I’m not so convinced. If it doesn’t work and we concentrate all of our men here, it could be givin’ them the chance to hit someplace else and they would be able to rob and loot against no opposition at all.’ Jessup frowned.
‘I feel that’s a calculated risk,’ Garth said quietly. ‘Unless you can think of a better idea. And you said yourself we’d have no chance at all goin’ into those hills after them.’
Jessup was silent for a long moment, brows drawn close in furrowed thought. Then he allowed his shoulders to slump fractionally. ‘Very well, I agree. But I still feel that we’re makin’ a big mistake.’
*
Two days later, a heavily guarded stage rolled into the main street of Triple Peaks. Five armed men rode with it and there was another riding shotgun on the box alongside the driver. Three more men rode inside the stage. It would have been obvious to anyone watching it along the trail from Culver City that it carried something mighty valuable and that no chances were being taken with outlaws attacking it on this particular trip.
Instead of proceeding to the way station, it pulled up outside the bank and five heavy boxes were carried inside under the watchful eyes of the armed guards. There was a small crowd gathered that early evening watching the proceedings with interest, the way in which Jessup fussed around the men carrying in the boxes like a broody old hen.
Fifty feet or so from the bank, the man lounging against one of the posts, his hat drooping over his eyes, seemed to be taking no interest at all in what was going on. He was, however, more interested than anyone there. Ten minutes after the stage had arrived in front of the hank, the driver climbed up on to the box, cracked the long whip over the backs of the horses and drove off to the depot while the guards waited until the bank had been securely locked and then moved off in a noisy hunch to the saloon to slake their thirst and wa
sh the dust of the long journey out of their throats.
The man in the shadows waited patiently. He smoked a cigarette, ground the butt out in the dust at his feet and lit another as if he had all the time in the world. Then, casually, he dropped the second cigarette on to the street and turning, made his way to the stables, vanishing into the dark interior. Less than three minutes later, he rode out on a chestnut gelding, paused for a moment to look up and down the street and then rode off at a steady, unhurried trot out of town.
He rode out of town unnoticed, except for one man. Standing near the window of his room at the hotel, Garth watched the man ride out of Triple Peaks and there was a thin smile of satisfaction on his face as he turned away after watching the dark figure being swallowed up by the encroaching night.
The man rode hard once he left the town behind, taking the trail that led east. He rode through the night without stopping once, until he reached the dark foothills and then cut up along a twisting trail, splashing through half a dozen narrow streams before he finally came out on to the bare hillside that lifted steeply in front of him in long runs of loose gravel and shale. Here, he was forced to ride more slowly, knowing that one wrong move on the part of his mount and he could go plunging headlong down the slope, to end up at the bottom with a broken neck.
It was almost dawn when he finally rode through the timber, came out on to the upgrade that led to the mine workings, dimly seen in the pale light. He walked his mount now, knowing that the chances were he was being watched from the shacks directly ahead of him. He was less than thirty yards away, however, before a harsh voice rang out.
‘Stay right there, mister.’
With an effort, he found his voice. ‘It’s me, Miguel,’ he called back.
A pause, then a rock rattled down the slope and a dark shape materialised out of the gloom. Kreb slithered down the rock face, still gripping the Winchester in his huge paws.
‘So it is, Miguel,’ he said. ‘We were expectin’ you earlier. What kept you? Trouble in town?’
‘No. But it is a long way here, and a long climb from the valley.’
Kreb laughed hoarsely. ‘All the better for us to keep watch,’ he said grimly. ‘You’d better come along with me. Turrell is waitin’ for your news.’ He led the way up the slope, called out as they neared the low-roofed assay hut.
‘Miguel is here, Turrell.’
‘Bring him in.’
Thrusting open the door, Kreb ushered the Mexican into the hut. There was a lamp burning on the table and Turrell, the patch over his eye making him look more terrible than ever, was seated on the edge of one of the low bunks. He had evidently just wakened from sleep.
Motioning Miguel to a chair, he poured a drink from the whiskey bottle. When the other had downed it, he said sharply: ‘What did you find out in Triple Peaks?’
‘The stage came in last evening. I don’t know what it was they were carrying, Senor Turrell. But they had nine men guarding it and they took five boxes into the bank, locked them away there. Jessup was keeping an eye on the proceedings.’
‘I can imagine that,’ muttered Turrell grimly. He nodded his head, however, and there was a look of intense satisfaction on his face. ‘That was gold they were shippin’ into Triple Peaks from the bank at Culver City.’
‘Gold.’ There was astonishment in Miguel’s voice as he stared at the other and then poured himself a second drink. ‘But that is impossible, señor. They would not be such fools. The gold was taken out of the bank in Triple Peaks by you only a few days ago. Surely they, would not be so stupid as to — ’
Turrell shook his head. ‘They’re not stupid, Miguel. They’re bein’ as clever as they know how. They reckon that we’ll not attack that bank a second time, so soon after the first. They think that we do not know of the stage, but they were not too careful when they passed through the mountains. I have ways of knowin’ everythin’ that goes through the trails here. We saw the stage pass through early yesterday afternoon. Now you’ve told me everythin’ I want to know.’
‘Then we are goin’ after that gold,’ said Kreb thinly. It was more of a statement of intent than a question.
Turrell gave a quick nod. ‘We’ll take it tonight. Before they expect anythin’,’ he said. ‘Wake the others.’
‘And Tragge. Does he ride with us. That shoulder of his — ’
‘That shoulder is healed sufficiently now for him to be able to stay in the saddle. I need all of you. This will be the last raid we make. After this, we head south for the border. Once we’re in Mexico, nobody can touch us. We’ll live like kings.’ There was a note of muted excitement in his tone.
*
All afternoon, Garth had been holed up with Jessup in the other’s office. Slowly, the heat-filled hours had passed and still there had come no word from the men watching the trails into town that Turrel and his men were on their way. Gradually, he was beginning to feel the first stirring of doubt in his mind, knew that Jessup had already decided that his plan had failed, that Turrell had been too smart again to fall for the trap they had so carefully laid for him.
‘You’re sure that man who rode out of town was headed east?’ Jessup asked, the same question he had put to the other for the dozenth time that afternoon.
Garth gave a quick nod. ‘I’m sure of it. He was standin’ there at the corner pretendin’ not to be interested, and yet he was noticing everythin’ that went on. My bet is that he rode out to tell Turrell.’
‘Then if that’s so, why hasn’t he shown up? Unless he’s outsmarted us, knows it’s a trap. A trick to lure him here.’
Garth shook his head very slowly. ‘I don’t think so. Besides, we’ve got to remember that this man would not reach their hide-out in the hills until about dawn even if he rode his hardest all the way. They may not have set out right away, although I have a feelin’ that this time, Turrell will wait until it’s dark before he attacks.’
‘And that’s why you had men workin’ in the bank after dark? To give the idea they were checkin’ the gold after normal opening hours.’
‘Exactly.’ Garth rose to his feet, went over to the window and glanced up and down the street. It looked deserted. There was an expectant hush lying over the whole town, as if it were waiting with bated breath for something to happen. So long as Turrell didn’t notice it when he came riding in.
Jessup took out his watch and glanced down at it, then shoved it back into his pocket with a loud sigh. He hitched his gunbelt higher about his waist, walked over to the door. ‘I’m goin’ along to the saloon for a drink,’ he said harshly. ‘If anythin’ should come up you can send one of the men over for me.’
Opening the door, he stepped out on to the boardwalk, then paused. There was the unmistakable sound of a rider spurring his mount at full speed into town. Garth was at the door beside the sheriff before the rider had reached them. The other slid from the saddle on the run letting the reins droop over his horse’s neck.
‘Bunch of men headin’ for town, Sheriff,’ he called excitedly. ‘I spotted them from the top of the ridge.’
‘How far?’ asked Garth before the sheriff could speak.
‘About three miles, I reckon.’
‘Good. And you’re sure they didn’t see you?’
‘Not a chance, Mister Martinue. The sun was in their eyes and I kept down all the time.’
‘Could you judge how many there were?’ broke in Jessup.
‘Not accurately, Sheriff,’ replied the other. ‘Maybe half a dozen. Not many more, I’d say.’
‘Sounds like them,’ agreed Jessup. He pressed his lips tightly together. ‘I’d better go and warn the rest of the boys.’
‘Do they all know what to do as soon as I give the signal?’ Garth asked.
‘They’ve all been told,’ Jessup nodded. ‘We’ve got every damned road and alley leading off from the area of the bank sealed off with men. A fly couldn’t get out without bein’ seen.’
‘I hope you’re right. We want to get ever
y goddamned one of them this time. Especially Turrell. He’s the brains behind the outfit. With him dead or in jail, the others won’t amount to anythin’.’
Jessup strode off along the street to warn the rest of his men. Garth paused for a moment outside the sheriff’s office, then turned to go in the direction of the bank. He had taken only a dozen steps when a voice said softly: ‘Be careful, Garth. These men are dangerous. They’ll shoot it out when you trap them at the bank and — ’
‘I’ll be careful,’ he said, his voice equally soft.
‘Does it have to be this way?’ Rosarie asked, almost breathlessly.
‘I’m afraid it does. It’s the only way we can rid the territory of them. If we don’t act now, then they’ll grow and in a few short weeks nothin’ we can do will stop them.’
‘Somehow I knew when you came into town that it would end this way.’ Her tone sounded strangely helpless, as though she recognised that there were forces acting here against which she could not possibly fight. She looked down at her clasped hands, then lifted her face shyly to his. ‘Can I ask a favour of you, Garth?’
‘Of course.’ He nodded, wondering what was on her mind.
‘When all this is over, stay here in Triple Peaks and take over the post of sheriff from Jessup.’
He smiled a little at that. ‘Now what makes you think that Jessup would want to give up this job even if I was willing to take it?’ he asked.
‘I know he would. He isn’t cut out to be a lawman, even though he often tries hard. We need a man who isn’t afraid to stand up to trouble when it comes, who doesn’t sit around and try to figure out which is the best way of avoiding it, but goes out and meets it head-on. A man like you, Garth.’
His smile widened just a little. ‘Maybe you don’t know it, Rosarie, but I already have a job as a Texas Ranger. I’m a little far from my stamping grounds I’ll admit, but — ’
‘But nothing. If we need you here, on the frontier, then I’m sure you could come.’
