by Neil Webb
‘You’re the feller who’s been killing off my riders, ain’t you?’ rapped Stott’s aggravating voice. ‘Your coming here like this has saved me a lot of trouble. I was going to send some men after you tomorrow.’
‘A man’s got to protect himself,’ Latimer said. ‘I like my skin so much I’ll kill to keep it whole. You should do something about your riders, Stott. They range like a pack of wolves and cause just as much trouble.’
‘I want a good man to boss them now Rand has got himself a full time job with my daughter. Do you think you could handle it? You must be mighty fast with a gun, knocking off my men like you did.’
‘I’m tolerably fast.’ Latimer grinned. ‘I was born with a gun in my hand. My folks were so poor when I was a kid they couldn’t afford toys for me. I used to sit in my cradle playing with my old man’s sixgun. I’ve never handled anything else.’
‘What about the job?’ Stott’s voice sounded dusty. It grated against the ear. The rancher’s hard eyes watched Latimer intently, and Latimer knew his lighthearted manner wasn’t fooling the man.
‘You’re a mite too late with the offer,’ Latimer said. ‘I got a deputy’s job this morning, and that’s why I’m here.’ He produced the paper that the sheriff had given him. ‘This is a Court Order signed by the Judge. You’ve got to be in town tomorrow morning for an inquest on your men; also to attend an inquiry into the deaths of Porter and his son.’
Stott’s gimlet eyes bored into Latimer. He glanced at Rand. ‘You didn’t tell me the boys killed Porter and his son.’
Latimer flashed a quick look at Rand. The gunman’s face was impassive.
‘There’s no need to worry you with every little detail,’ Rand said carefully.
‘But I said no gunplay.’ Stott turned to Latimer. ‘I fired those riders yesterday for disobeying orders. They were for killing a few of these nesters I’m troubled with. I figger they must have attacked the Porter place out of spite so that the blame would be laid against me. I don’t want needless bloodshed. Did you kill all my riders who went to Porter’s?’
‘Not all. One of them got a broken arm and leg. A deputy went out last night and fetched him into town. He’s in jail now, and will probably hang for his part in the killings.’
‘Yeah.’ Stott rubbed a podgy hand across his moist face. The hot weather must play hell with him, Latimer thought. The immense rancher was sweating profusely. ‘So you’re not going to take this job with me, eh? That means you’re against me.’
‘Give me time to think it over,’ Latimer said.
‘Oh no. A man fast like you doesn’t need time to make up his mind on other matters. I’ve heard about you, Latimer. You’ve got a bee in your bonnet about shooting killers, even though you are an outlaw yourself. You’d make a dangerous enemy. That means I’ve got to make you a friend or kill you.’
‘Both those courses would prove difficult,’ Latimer said easily. ‘I choose my own friends, and I aim to stay alive. You may try to kill me, but you won’t make that move now because most of Buffalo Springs know I’ve headed out here today, and if I don’t ride back tonight you’ll have a hundred guns out here at dawn. It’s a funny thing how a bunch of folks won’t act because they haven’t got a leader. But let someone give them an example and then there’s no holding them. I gave them an example yesterday, and this morning there were men on the streets talking of lynching you. You’ve had this range hog-tied for years, but you can see the change now. You’re smart enough for that.’
‘I don’t care about changes,’ Stott growled. ‘No one is going to take any of my range from me, not one blade of grass. I’ll kill if I have to.’
‘Suit yourself. But I’ve got to be on my way now. I’ve done what I came to do,’ Latimer said. ‘You’ve been served with Notice to appear before the Court tomorrow. If you don’t turn up, I’ll be back with a posse to fetch you in. That’s the law.’
‘Why not try my hospitality for the night?’ Stott offered. ‘I’ll ride into town tomorrow to attend that Court. A man should keep within the law. I shouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of the sheriff. So you can stay tonight and ride back with my party in the morning. This range being what it is today, I could do with some more protection.’
‘You’ve got Rand.’ Latimer grinned mirthlessly. ‘And I hear that you’ve taken on an army of outriders. I think that Rand is about the fastest gun I’ve ever seen.’
‘Except your own,’ Rand said quietly.
Stott was about to comment when the door of the study was opened and the girl Latimer had seen ascending the stairs when he had been standing on the porch came in. She had changed out of her dress and donned riding gear; a black divided skirt and a well-thonged leather jacket. A small black Stetson with loose chin strap was perched upon a host of chestnut curls. Latimer gazed at the girl. Glory Stott, he guessed, and could not take his eyes from her lovely face. She was as brown as an Indian. Her teeth sparkled in her sun-darkened features. Her eyes were large and green, fringed by the longest lashes Latimer had ever seen. She paused in the doorway and returned his gaze.
‘Link Latimer!’ she ejaculated. ‘In the flesh. Link Latimer on KS range.’
‘How do you know me?’ Latimer was astounded. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting you before. If I had I wouldn’t have forgotten you.’
‘I’m Glory Stott.’ Her laugh tinkled. ‘Three years ago I picked up a wanted dodger with your picture on it. I fell in love with that picture. I was fourteen then. I guess I know better now. But I’ll never forget your face.’
‘It’s nice to know those pictures weren’t entirely wasted,’ Latimer said, and grinned at Rand. ‘How much are they offering for me now?’
‘The last poster I saw said fifteen hundred dollars,’ the girl told him.
‘And I’ve been riding in this direction hoping to find some spot to settle where I ain’t known. I’m too optimistic, that’s certain.’
‘Are you riding back to town now, Mr Latimer?’ she asked.
‘I am. Your father has been trying to get me to stay. But I’ve got to be moving.’
‘Then perhaps you’ll be good enough to escort me in. I’ve got some buying to do tomorrow.’
‘You know I don’t let you ride anywhere without Rand,’ bellowed Stott. ‘Colley will take you in and bring you back.’
‘I’ve had enough of Colley’s company. I want a change. Can’t you hire Mr Latimer, father?’
‘He’s going to consider an offer I’ve made him,’ Stott said. ‘Perhaps seeing you will help him make up his mind to accept.’
‘I hope so,’ the girl said softly. ‘He looks the type we need around here to liven things up.’
‘He’s already started,’ said Rand. ‘He killed six of our riders yesterday.’
‘And arrested two more today,’ said Latimer.
‘Oh, I didn’t see that badge,’ the girl cried. ‘You haven’t stopped being an outlaw, have you? I’ve heard say that you’re faster than most with a gun, and that your marksmanship is incredible.’
Latimer studied the face of the girl with Stott blood in her. She talked incessantly, giving the impression that she was an empty-headed young girl. But Latimer fancied there was more below the surface here. The girl’s intense green eyes bored into his with an earnestness that set him tingling. He got the feeling that she was trying to convey something to him without putting it into words before these two, but he could not interpret the massive impulses with which she was bombarding him.
‘I shall be perfectly safe in Mr Latimer’s company, father,’ she said coldly. ‘There’s no danger to me in this country. I’m sure the folk around here won’t hold me responsible for what you do.’
‘What about the shot someone took of you the other week?’ Stott was furious. ‘I pay Rand a lot of money to take care of you. He’s supposed to be my best gunman.’
‘Then he ought to be ashamed of himself for taking money for nothing. That shot at me was nothing mor
e than a hunter’s bullet. If you want, he can ride into town tomorrow and bring me back here. But for once I want to go out alone. You’ll look out for me in town, won’t you, Mr Latimer?’
‘I’ll be glad to Miss Stott,’ Latimer said gravely. ‘I’ll allow that you won’t be in any danger in these parts. Only enemies of Kenton Stott walk in danger in this country, and you’re no enemy.’
‘I’m likely to be just that,’ Glory said, flashing her eyes, ‘if I get much more wet nursing by a gunman.’
‘Alright, have it your way.’ Stott sighed. ‘You’d better take good care of her, Latimer. I’ll be in town tomorrow to see the Judge. Be ready to come home when I leave, Glory. Rand, go tell the men detailed for that little job to forget it until some other time.’
‘And don’t decide to ride out to Buffalo Springs tonight,’ snapped Glory. ‘I want some time away from you.’
‘I might just ride into town tonight for some pleasure,’ Rand said coldly in his quiet voice.
‘If you do,’ said Latimer, ‘come and look me up and I’ll buy you a beer. We can talk over old times.’
‘I’ll certainly come and look you up,’ Rand said tightly as he walked to the door.
Latimer’s eyes narrowed. He detected a threat in Rand’s soft tone. What was going on here? he wondered. He was sensitive enough to feel the intangible grip of strong emotional undercurrents.
‘Well,’ said Stott, when Rand had gone. ‘I want to see you as soon as I ride into town, Latimer, before I got to see the Judge. Think about that job with me. It would be to your advantage. A man of your prowess ought to be making more than a deputy sheriff’s pay.’
‘I’m known as Frank Latimer in town,’ Latimer said, ‘for obvious reasons.’
‘I’ll be there about noon,’ Stott said. ‘Come and see me at the hotel.’
‘I might do that,’ Latimer said. ‘Now I must be leaving. Are you ready to ride, Miss Stott?’
The girl walked out of the house in front of Latimer, and his hands touched his gun butts as he stepped off the porch because a dozen of Stott’s gunmen were standing around where his horse was hitched. His prisoner, whom he had arrested at the gate, and the man’s horse were gone. Latimer’s lips tightened. Perhaps this was how Rand was feeling him out. Latimer turned to the gunman, who was talking a dozen feet away with two others.
‘Colley, the man who was standing here when I entered the house is under arrest. I’m taking him back to Buffalo Springs. Tell him to get his horse and come with me. You know I don’t play games. If I have to go after him there will be gunplay. I want to get back to town. Where is he?’
‘He’ll be back in a minute, Link.’ There was hidden steel in Rand’s tones. ‘He’s gone to get some grub. I told him to take ten minutes.’
‘Okay.’ Latimer turned to his mount and swung into the saddle. He unhitched the animal and turned it towards the spot where Glory Stott was already sitting a big, hammer-headed bay. He rode close to the girl. ‘Hey,’ he called. ‘That’s some piece of horseflesh. I’d say he’s a handful sometimes. You been riding him long?’
‘Long enough for him to know who’s the boss,’ she replied, laughing. Her voice was deliberately loud enough for all the watching gunmen to hear. ‘Horses are like men, Mr Latimer. They can be handled if you know how.’ She swung her mount. ‘Colley’, she called. ‘Tell the prisoner, whoever he is, to ride into town and surrender himself. I’ll pay his fine tomorrow.’
Latimer saw a scowl flit across the gunman’s face and vanish quickly. The thin-featured gunnie was making a play for Glory Stott, Latimer reflected, and smiled at the thought. There was plenty to go with the girl. All Stott’s land would come under the control of a son-in-law. Rand was playing for high stakes, and the price was marriage to a lovely girl. Very nice! Latimer wondered if Rand was afraid that serious competition had turned up in the person of Link Latimer. If that was so then Rand would become a deadly enemy to whom the friendship of past days would mean nothing.
‘Come on, Mr Latimer,’ the girl called. ‘We ride alone. I want you to tell me if some of the stories I’ve heard about you are really true.’
Latimer gigged his mount as the girl set her heels into the flanks of her big bay and took off along the trail in a cloud of dust. He turned in the saddle as he started to follow and lifted a hand to Rand, then fed steel to his own animal, riding hard to come up with the girl. He turned his head once more and saw that the gunmen were still standing in a group, and several of them seemed to be arguing fiercely.
Three miles flashed under their fleeting hooves before Latimer managed to draw level with the speeding girl. Her Stetson had blown back from her head and hung down her back suspended by the chin strap hugging her slender neck. Latimer studied her closely, watching her luxurious chestnut curls streaming in the breeze. Her brown cheeks were heightened by twin spots of red, and her eyes flashed with the exhilaration of the run.
‘It looks to me like that bay is running away with you,’ Latimer shouted, and she immediately curbed the animal and pulled it down to a canter. Latimer smiled to himself. If he’d asked her to slow down she would have ridden the bay flat out clear into town. ‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘Now perhaps you’ll tell me what was going on back there.’
‘So you noticed.’ She laughed.
‘I don’t recall anything funny,’ he retorted soberly. ‘Me and Colley Rand are old friends. It seemed to me you were trying to rile him, using me as a weapon. Now I believe I’m a mite faster than Rand, but I wouldn’t stake my life on that belief. I want to leave Rand alone, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to tangle with me unless he has to. So what was your intention? You knew nothing stirs up trouble between two men quicker than a woman. What kind of a game are you playing?’
‘I despise Colley Rand. He follows me everywhere I go. I don’t like him.’
‘He’s only following your father’s orders.’
‘My father didn’t tell him to propose marriage to me.’ The girl tossed her head. ‘I know what Colley Rand is after. He wants KS for himself. I’m sure Rand has been aggravating my father to attack these neighbours of ours.’
‘That’s a mighty grave accusation. Your father must have had proof before going to war.’
‘That would be easy to arrange, wouldn’t it?’ She reined in and Latimer pulled up his mount. ‘I heard Rand talking to my father about you. He knew you from the description one of our riders gave when he told us about the men you killed yesterday. He told my father all about you; how you hated killers and would help the law to dispose of them, even though you are an outlaw yourself. My father said he would try and buy your service, but Rand said he couldn’t at any price. I heard him convince my father that you should be killed when you rode out of the yard. That’s why I asked you to take me into town. It was the only way you could leave Stott range alive.’
Latimer stared at the girl. He looked back in the direction of Stott headquarters. The range was empty. He returned his eyes to the girl’s solemn face.
‘It takes some believing,’ he said at last.
‘Then ride back to the house now without me and see what happens,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve just saved your life.’
They rode on again. Latimer slumped his tall figure in the creaking saddle.
‘Now why should Rand upset himself about me?’ he mused aloud.
‘That’s easy. He’s afraid of you. It sticks out a mile. Rand is my father’s top gunman. After you had killed six of our riders it was obvious that the next thing my father would do would be to order his best gunman to kill you.’
‘I can’t stomach that,’ Latimer said, shaking his head. ‘Colley Rand, the man I knew, wasn’t afraid of anyone.’
‘That was ten years ago,’ Glory Stott prompted. ‘I have spent a lot of time with Colley Rand. He’s told me a lot. I know he is causing all this trouble. Folks blame my father, but I know it’s Rand at the back of it.’
‘Well.’ Latimer glanced around. ‘I’ll thin
k that over. But I’m inclined to believe the people in town, and Aggie Porter. I’ve spoken to your father, and I’d say he isn’t easily led by anyone.’
‘There’s a much easier way of getting people to do what you want them to. A little poison here and there. Rand is subtle. He’s done a good job on my father. You saw, didn’t you, how my father is afraid to ride out alone? That’s all Rand’s work.’
‘It’s obvious that your old man is afraid for your life, even if he’s only done half the things folk around here say he has. Your father’s pegged to be lynched if he isn’t careful.’
‘He’s only taking the blame for what men on his payroll have done in his name. But he doesn’t know where some of these men are some of the time. Rand runs the outfit. He’s done so ever since he rode in.’
‘You’re asking me to believe that Colley Rand is the big wheel and not your father?’ Latimer looked into the girl’s soft eyes. ‘Maybe you’re playing some deep game of your own.’
‘I love my father. He’s always given me everything I’ve wanted. He was a good, kind man to everyone on this range. The smaller ranchers used to come to him for help, and they never went away empty-handed. Colley Rand changed all that. My father is a man of strong passions. Rand rigged it so it seemed that Art Fuller had asked for help from KS, then robbed us of stock. Fuller was a proud man. He found it difficult to humble himself sufficiently to come here in the first place. Rand arranged for Fuller to learn that my father was supposed to have said that he owned men and range if he helped to maintain them. That’s what started the war, and Fuller is dead now and my father is a very bitter man because he thinks that Fuller tried to bite the hand that helped him.’
Latimer was silent for a time. He sighed, and although he kept his face to the front he could feel Glory Stott’s eyes boring into him.
‘How do I know you’re not just swinging me along?’ he asked suddenly. ‘If your father is under Rand’s influence, and isn’t responsible for all that has happened, then I’d like to try and straighten matters. But to get to the bottom of it I’ve got to trust someone. All my life I’ve made a practice of distrusting everyone. I know there isn’t such a thing as a friend. Leastways, that’s been my experience. But I’ve got to trust someone now, it seems. I’ve promised Aggie Porter I’ll help her, and that’s what I’m going to do. Now there are three people who can help to lay the cards straight; you, your father and Colley Rand. Of the three I’d rather pin my faith on you. So if you want to help your father, granting that you’ve told me the truth, then we’ll have to work together.’
