Shawn O'Brien Town Tamer # 1

by W. , Johnstone, William

“You taking a hand in this, Morrow?” Shawn said.

  “I don’t know yet. Like Hank, I’m a man who makes slow business decisions.”

  “But fast draws.”

  Morrow smiled and his glasses caught the sunlight and glittered.

  “Did Jake tell you that?” he said.

  “Him and others. When you make your decision, I hope you make the right one,” Shawn said.

  Like Morrow, he’d cleared his Colt and the gunman knew he wasn’t dealing with a pushover. No brother of Jake O’Brien’s could be a bargain.

  “When I do, you’ll be the first to know, O’Brien,” he said.

  Cobb didn’t want Shawn O’Brien to follow his eyes, so he bowed his head as though the low sun troubled him and stole a quick, flickering glance at the street.

  Good. His men were in position.

  “I’ve made up my mind, O’Brien,” he said.

  Shawn was on edge and beside him Platt tensed, sudden alarm showing tight in his face.

  “Let’s hear it, Cobb,” Shawn said.

  Cobb drew and fired.

  Shel Shannon stood still for a moment, and then stared at the red rose blossoming in the middle of his chest.

  “Boss . . .” he said. “Boss . . . why?”

  His made a sound as though he choked down a sob, then fell to the ground, his dead eyes wide open, still unbelieving.

  “No deal, O’Brien,” Cobb said.

  Behind Shawn Winchesters racked and he knew the game was rigged and he’d been outsmarted.

  He’d staked everything on Shannon, but the man had proven to be the joker in the pack and now Cobb lay down his cards and confirmed it.

  “Hell, O’Brien, did you really think I’d dicker for a piece of worthless crap like Shel Shannon?” he said. “Did you figure to play me for a fool?”

  A bitter taste in his mouth, Shawn said nothing.

  Cobb gave an exaggerated shake of his head.

  “Damn it, man, you’re an even bigger idiot than Shannon was.”

  He looked beyond Shawn and said, “Walsh, Dorian, relieve these gentlemen of their guns. Bowen, keep them covered.”

  His eyes moved to Platt. “What the hell kind of little rat are you?”

  Platt smiled and seemed almost relaxed. But he went for it.

  His hand streaked under his coat, but the rifle muzzle shoved under his rib cage and the grinning face of the rifleman looking up at him, froze him in place.

  “You’re even more stupid than O’Brien,” Cobb said as the little man was relieved of his gun.

  “Seems like, doesn’t it?” Platt said.

  “Walsh, Dorian, now assist the gentlemen from their mounts,” Cobb said.

  Shawn and Platt were dragged from their saddles and Cobb motioned with his gun toward the office door.

  “Get inside,” he said.

  “Still haven’t made up your mind, huh?” Shawn said to Morrow.

  “I’d say that right now you boys aren’t doing so great. I reckon I’ll stand pat,” the gunfighter said. “You must’ve known trying to trade with Hank Cobb was a dunghill play.”

  “If we didn’t know it before, we surely know it now,” Shawn said.

  Shawn O’Brien, a rifle prodding him, stepped into the sheriff’s office and the sight of Jasper Wolfden bloody and unconscious on the floor hit him like a kick in the teeth.

  He swung on Cobb, who had Platt by the back of the neck, pushing him inside.

  “Did you do this, you damned animal?” Shawn said.

  “Yeah, I sure did, and I ain’t finished with him yet,” Cobb said.

  He looked pleased with himself, like the man who found the hundred dollar bill in a huckster’s bar of soap.

  The man’s smug expression enraged Shawn and he made a lunge for Cobb’s throat.

  But before he’d taken a step Walsh’s rifle butt thudded into the back of his neck and drove him to the floor.

  Cobb straddled Shawn and lifted his shoulders from the floor by his coat lapels. “O’Brien, you escaped from my jail once before,” he said. “You won’t do it a second time.”

  Shawn tried to get his blurry eyes in focus, failed, but muttered, “You go to hell.”

  Cobb backhanded him viciously across the face and a lace of blood and saliva spurted from Shawn’s mouth.

  “I love cutting hard cases like you down to size.” Cobb grinned. “Now grovel on the floor where you belong.”

  He let go of Shawn, then Ford Platt said, “Cobb, be warned—I’ll live to see you hang.”

  “Mister, you won’t live to see the moon come up tonight,” Cobb said.

  He turned to his gunmen. “Put these two in a cell.” Then, with a gesture of the head toward Wolfden, “After you’ve done that, mix up a bucket of salt and water and throw it on his back.”

  “And bring him inside?”

  Dorian, slack jawed and slow of wit, had asked the obvious.

  “Yeah. Put him in a cell with the other two for a spell. Let them enjoy his stink before I start on him again.”

  “Can I watch this time, boss, huh?” Dorian said.

  “Sure, Lee, and you can even take a turn with the bullwhip.” Cobb grinned, showing his teeth. “Cutting a man to doll rags tires a person, don’t it?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “Something’s wrong,” Sally Bailey said. “They should be back with Wolfden by now.”

  “They say Wolfden is a shifter,” Hamp Sedley said. “Maybe he turned into a bird and flew away.”

  “They still should be back,” Ruby said. “Even if Shawn O’Brien had to ride in with a parrot named Jasper on his shoulder.”

  “Hamp, what do we do?” Sally said, lines of worry showing on her face.

  “Wait,” Sedley said. “That’s all we can do.”

  “Or we can go after them,” Sally said.

  Sedley’s laugh knotted in his throat and came out as a strangled snort.

  “Yeah, right, like two women are gonna take on Hank Cobb and his boys.”

  “There’s three of us, Hamp,” Ruby said.

  Sedley rapidly shook his head. “Count me out, ladies. I’m not a gunfighter. Hell, I can’t even shoot straight.”

  As though she hadn’t heard, Sally said, “So we have three. Ruby—”

  “Two!” Sedley yelled. “I ain’t going!”

  “Ruby, the whole town can’t be bad,” Sally said.

  “You’ve lived in Holy Rood. Can you think of anyone who might help us?”

  To Sally’s surprise, Ruby answered immediately.

  “There’s one man we can trust, or I think we can,” she said. “He owns the livery stable in town.”

  “Is he good with a gun?” Sedley said.

  “I don’t know. But he was with Sherman in Atlanta.”

  “Well, that settles it,” Sedley said. “I’ll have no truck with a damned Yankee, especially one who marched with that black-hearted butcher Sherman.”

  “The man’s name is Matt Rhodes, and back in the days when I was allowed to go out riding, he told me that Hank Cobb and his boys left him the hell alone.” Ruby smiled. “Or words to that effect.”

  “Why did Cobb stay away from him, Ruby?” Sally said.

  “Matt’s good with horses. Apparently, that was reason enough.”

  “Ruby, you said we might be able to trust him. But if Shawn and Mr. Platt are in trouble, will he help us?”

  “I don’t know. He’s pretty old.”

  Sedley yelped. “Oh, great, we go up against Hank Cobb, and maybe Mink Morrow, with a Yankee Methuselah. Sally, have you any other bright ideas?”

  “Yes, before we leave I’ll cast a spell that will protect us.”

  That statement went over like a dirty joke in a nunnery.

  Sally saw the stunned faces of Ruby and Sedley staring at her as though she’d suddenly grown two heads.

  Then she made matters worse.

  “The only real witch who ever stepped foot in Holy Rood was me,” she said.

&
nbsp; Ruby and Sedley exchanged looks, but neither could come up with words.

  Sally supplied them.

  “When we lived on the Kansas plains my mother practiced the Wiccan arts and she taught me,” she said. “She was a white witch, who cast spells to cure people of boils, the croup, morning sickness and a host of other ailments. She also worked magic to end droughts, storms, grasshoppers, blizzards, and all the rest of the calamities that beset sodbusters.”

  For a few moments Sally watched a hawk describe lazy circles above the tree canopy, and then said, “Thinking back, I don’t know how well those spells worked. In any case, my father was a poet and poets don’t make good farmers, no matter how many spells Ma cast.”

  Ruby was the first to recover from her shock. “So what happened? Why are you here?”

  “After a few years, the isolation and loneliness of the plains got to my mother. She missed her native Ireland so much that one day Ma walked into the prairie during a snowstorm and screamed and screamed and screamed. I was lying in bed and heard her. Pa and I went out to get her, but by then it was too late.”

  Sally stared down at her folded hands and said, “Ma died a week later. Of exposure, the doctor said. But it was the loneliness of the Great Plains that killed her. My father buried her and then he saddled the plow mule and left.”

  “Left you all alone?” Ruby said.

  “When I woke one morning, there was some money on my dresser and that was it. No note. Nothing. He just . . . left.”

  “You poor thing,” Ruby said. “When was this?”

  “Two years ago when I was fifteen. I was found wandering the prairie by a cavalry patrol, and I’ve been wandering ever since, taking any odd jobs I can find. Surviving, I guess.”

  Sedley smiled. “All right, can you cast a spell that will bring us twenty U.S. marshals into camp?”

  “Or bring you a spine, Hamp,” Ruby said. She pulled back her hair. “Or bring me the ear that Hank Cobb took.”

  Disregarding the horrified look on Sedley’s face, she said, “Makes it kinda personal, don’t it, Hamp? Makes you want to kill the man who did that, huh? Or see him hung.”

  Ruby smiled at Sally. “Cast your spells, honey, but make them fast. The longer we sit talking, the more daylight we’ll lose.”

  “Now see here,” Sedley said. “I’ve listened to all the nonsense about witches and ha’ants an’ sich I can stand for one day. We set tight right here for a few days until O’Brien and them get back.”

  “He’s not coming back, on his own that is,” Ruby said. “We’ve got to help him. And besides, if we stay here, what do we do for food? Hell, you and Sally are starving as it is.”

  “If we’re dead, we won’t need food because that’s what we’ll be if we show face in Holy Rood,” Sedley said. “We’ll get gunned down in the street—and that’s a natural fact as ever was.”

  He jabbed a finger at Ruby. “Get it through your head, lady, when Hamp Sedley says a thing he means it. And the thing he’s saying right now is that he’s staying put right here until O’Brien gets back. I’ll wait two whole days. Then, if he don’t show, I’m lighting a shuck for Silver Reef.”

  Sedley sat back, a smug smile on his face, as though he’d fairly stated his case and there could be no more argument.

  But Ruby stared at him, blinked once or twice, and then came up with a mighty powerful argument.

  She tugged open her drawstring purse, produced a Sharps .32 caliber pepperbox revolver, pointed the gun at Hamp’s face and said, “Saddle the horse and get ready to leave. And be warned, Hamp—unlike you, I generally hit what I aim at.”

  Sedley stared into the stinger’s four muzzles, as black and merciless as spider eyes, and said, “Ruby, do you know what you’re doing?”

  “Yes, Hamp, I do. I’m planning to save Shawn O’Brien’s life if it can be done. And I’m planning to scatter your brains if you say it can’t.”

  “All right, Ruby, I won’t say it can’t be done, but I can sure as hell think it.”

  “We have to try, Hamp,” Ruby said. “If it was you, Shawn would do everything he could to save your life, even though you’re a crooked gambler and probably should’ve been hung a long time ago.”

  “You sure don’t take it easy on a man, Ruby. Do you?”

  “Why should I? Apart from Shawn, I never met a man yet who took it easy on me.”

  Sally stepped out of the pines and said, “I’ve implored Diana, the moon goddess, for her protection. If she heard me, she will protect us day and night.”

  Sedley’s face drained of expression and his shoulders slumped.

  “Oh, good,” he said. “Now I feel much better.”

  “Saddle the damned horse, Hamp,” Ruby said.

  It was midafternoon when Hamp Sedley and the two women made their way from the trees onto the wagon road.

  Sally and Ruby rode double on the horse and Sedley walked, much against his will, declaring that the women should take turns walking.

  But Ruby wouldn’t hear of it, and Sedley trudged along the hot, dusty trail with ill grace, cursing under his breath.

  For a while there was no sound but the wind in the pines and the endless squabbles of jays and squirrels that never seem to agree about anything. The sunbaked land shimmered and the back of Sedley’s coat was dark with sweat.

  “You know what?” he said, looking up at Ruby.

  “No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me,” the woman said.

  “I’m giving odds that we don’t last an hour in Holy Rood.”

  “I wouldn’t take any odds on that, gambling man,” Ruby said.

  Sedley’s eyebrows drew together, signaling his worry.

  “How come?” he said.

  “We’ll be putting a lot of trust in Matt Rhodes, and I hardly know the man,” Ruby said.

  “Hell, now you tell me,” Sedley said. “Why did I let myself get talked into this?”

  “Because you dug deep, Hamp, and found what was left of your manhood,” Ruby said.

  “Well, thank you,” Sedley said. “I do appreciate that.”

  “You’re welcome,” Ruby said.

  “You two are worse than the jays,” Sally said. She closed her eyes and intoned:

  “Goddess shining bright,

  Protect us all by day and night.”

  “I’ll remember to say that when Hank Cobb’s putting a rope around my neck,” Sedley said.

  He kicked a rock that skittered over the road ahead of him and ended up in the brush where the insects made their small music.

  When they saw that the skulls had been taken from the posts and left by the side of the road, Sally declared this an excellent sign and that surely it proved that the moon goddess had heard her plea.

  Ruby and Sedley stayed silent, though the woman managed a half-hearted nod and smile that seemed to please Sally, because she clapped her hands and said, “Now I have a good feeling about this.”

  As soon as Holy Rood appeared in the distance through the heat haze, Ruby said that they should leave the wagon road and strike out across country.

  “It’s just possible that Hank has a man watching the road,” she said.

  Sedley led the horse into a sandy, open country studded with mesquite and bunch grass. Here and there stunted juniper and piñon struggled to survive and by using the cover of the trees and a few scattered boulders, Sedley told the women that they’d manage to stay hidden from sight.

  “Well, more or less,” he said.

  The livery stable, unlike every other building in town, was not painted white. Its warped, rough-cut timbers had weathered to a silvery gray and the entire structure showed a dramatic tilt to the left, a legacy of the prevailing winter winds that spiked across the flat.

  Sally, with young sight, was the first to make out the crowd of people on the slope of the ridge above town.

  Sedley removed his hat and held it up against the sun to shade his eyes.

  After a while, he said, “Hell, it looks like they�
�re picking berries.”

  “No berries grow on the slope, only thornbush and cactus,” Ruby said. “They’re up to something else, and it could have something to do with Shawn O’Brien.”

  “Then what are they doing?” Sedley said. “Searching for him . . . or his body?”

  “No, bent over like that, I think they’re looking for something else,” Sally said. “A man’s body would be easy to find.”

  “Well, no matter what it is, we’d better get into the livery stable,” Ruby said. “We’re sure to be spotted if we stand around out here gawking.”

  They went in through the empty shacks behind the livery and Ruby led them to a back door.

  It was locked.

  “Then I guess we go round front,” Sedley said.

  “In full view of the whole town?” Ruby said.

  “The whole town’s up on the ridge, looks like,” Sedley said.

  “Maybe so, but we can’t take a chance on being seen,” Ruby said. “Hamp, kick the damned door down.”

  “Ruby . . . this is private property,” Sedley said.

  “We could get shot at any minute,” the woman said. “Do you care?”

  Sedley stared at Ruby for a moment, and then said, “I guess not.”

  He raised his booted foot and slammed it into the door near the lock. The door shuddered and there was a sound of splintering wood, but it remained shut.

  Sedley tried again. This time the door slammed open, ripped away from its top hinge and hung ajar.

  There was just enough space to allow a bearded, hard-eyed rifleman to step through.

  He pointed his Winchester at Sedley, and said, “What the hell did you do that fer? I warn you, boy, there’s gonna be shooting going on around here in a New York minute.”

  “Matt, it’s me, Ruby. Surely you remember.”

  Rhodes peered at the woman, and then said, “Sure, I remember you, but you ain’t kept a hoss here in quite a spell.” He motioned to Sedley with the rifle muzzle. “Why you keepin’ such low company?”

  “I’m sorry about the door, Matt, but we’re desperate,” Ruby said. “We need your help.” She wrung her hands and then said, “It’s a matter of life or death.”