Way of the Gun

by Ralph Hayes

  They went outside together, and Cahill was waiting for them on the porch. ‘All business settled?’ Cahill asked.

  ‘All done,’ Sumner told him. ‘Hope to see you around somewhere, Jake. Provost.’

  Cahill clapped him on the shoulder. ‘You were a Godsend,’ he said quietly.

  Just at that moment Dulcie came hurrying out on to the porch. Face slightly flushed. Auburn hair down long, vest gone, looking very feminine.

  ‘You would have left without saying goodbye, wouldn’t you?’

  Sumner stared at her beauty. ‘Of course not.’ He put a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m going to miss you, Dulcie.’ Then he walked out to the stallion at the hitching rail.

  He shoved the leather poke into a saddlebag, and was about to mount, when Dulcie suddenly came running out to him and threw her arms around him and kissed him.

  Sumner was caught off guard, but he let it happen. Holding her to him. Allowing himself to enjoy the moment, despite Provost’s presence.

  Her eyes were damp. ‘I’ll always love you,’ she said quietly.

  Her words carried to the porch, and Provost and Cahill exchanged a knowing look.

  Sumner finally released her. Despite his instincts to the contrary, Dulcie had finally moved him over some invisible line. He studied her lovely face for a moment. ‘Maybe you are a woman,’ he said. ‘You sure showed some maturity out there on the trail. And here.’

  She gave him a smile that he felt inside him.

  ‘Tell you what. I have a few wanted dodgers in my saddlebag that I want to follow up. But I’ve been thinking. Maybe a man can change who he is. Under the right circumstances.’ He paused. ‘Maybe I might just be ready to hang this Peacemaker on a wall in a year or so. And if you’re so inclined, I could stop back past here to see if you’re married yet.’

  Dulcie couldn’t believe what he had just told her. ‘You mean it? You’d come back here? Just for me?’

  ‘You’ll be more grown then. Inside.’

  ‘Oh, my God! I’ll be here, Wesley. Waiting.’

  Provost called to Sumner from the porch. ‘You’ll be welcome here any time you’d care to return!’

  Sumner smiled at him. Giving Dulcie another long look, he mounted the stallion. In another moment he was riding out through the big gate, with several ranch hands waving him off.

  When he was out of sight, Dulcie returned to the porch, her eyes still moist.

  ‘Well, well,’ Provost grinned at her.

  She just kissed him on the cheek, and went inside to be by herself.

  A short time later, at the Wolf Creek crossing, Sumner reined up and sat there for a moment, remembering. He and Dulcie had come through a harrowing adventure together. Those dangerous moments, and the way Dulcie had handled them, had put something between them. Something that had permanence to it. He spurred the stallion across the creek.

  For the first time in his life, he decided, he owned an acceptable future for himself.

  Some day soon he would take possession of it.