High Gun at Surlock (2006) Read online

  ‘I found a couple cans of coal-oil up the hill from my barn,’ he said, staring hard at Kyler. ‘I also heard some talk about how Strap and Mugs arrived in town this morning, tied over their saddles, showing off their long handles to anyone with a mind to look. You wouldn’t know anything about it?’

  ‘Sounds as if the two of them ran crosswise of some mischief.’

  ‘Where were you headed when you surprised my sister bathing in the stream?’

  Kyler shrugged. ‘I was on my way out to your ranch to ask if I could accompany Miss Jessie to the dance.’

  Mike didn’t speak again, but peeled off his gloves. As he walked to the watering-trough Kyler did likewise, shoving his gloves into his back pocket. The spectators who had gathered to watch realized that the fight was over and began to go about their business.

  Both men washed the blood from their faces. Kyler had a couple loose teeth and wasn’t sure his jaw would still work properly. Still, nothing seemed broken.

  ‘You’re pretty handy with your fists,’ Mike said eventually.

  ‘I learned how to box from a carnival fighter,’ Kyler replied. ‘Never fought anyone tougher than you.’

  ‘If you had anything to do with what happened to Strap and Mugs last night you might have to answer to Phoenix. Are you ready to do that?’

  ‘There ain’t a man alive ready to take him on.’

  Mike cast a sidelong glance at Kyler.

  ‘You’re more than you pretend, teamster. I don’t know your game yet, but I’ll figure it out.’

  ‘Let’s just say I’m not your enemy,’ Kyler told him seriously. ‘I was hired to do a job, but I won’t break the law or do harm to you or your outfit.’

  ‘That sounds a bit strange, coming from a man with his name already on a dodger.’

  ‘Mistakes of my youth,’ Kyler answered easily. ‘I’m not that man any more.’ Mike didn’t say another word. He walked over to

  Nipper, removed the package of Jessie’s clothes, then gathered up his own horse. He mounted easily, as if he didn’t have a sore or stiff bone in his body. Kyler couldn’t say the same for himself. Every muscle in his body ached, he was completely jaded and even his hair hurt.

  Jessie did not hide her fury. She dabbed at the cut above Mike’s eye so hard that it caused him to flinch.

  ‘Dang, girl! take it easy.’

  ‘Take it easy!’ she flared at him. ‘You big dumb lummox! I told you, if I hadn’t been singing Dane would have ridden right past the pool. You didn’t have to do this!’

  ‘He sent you home wearing nothing but a horse blanket.’

  ‘He left me my horse!’ she reminded him.

  Mike put an inquisitive look on her. ‘So why did he take your clothes?’

  ‘Because …’ She bit her lower lip and her cheeks darkened with shame. ‘I suppose it was partly because I put cactus under his saddle and got him thrown from his horse the other day! I wanted to get even with him for … for …’

  ‘For winning the horse-race?’

  ‘I let him win!’ she snapped. ‘I could have cheated and won, but I didn’t want to win that way.’

  ‘So that’s what this is all about, the race?’

  ‘Not entirely,’ she confessed. Mike gave her an impatient look and she offered him a subtle shrug of her shoulders. ‘I also tried to take a wagonload of ore away from him the other night.’

  ‘You what?’ Mike was stunned. ‘You did what?’

  ‘It was a dumb thing to do,’ she hurried to clarify. ‘I admit it. I took the shotgun and tried to stop his wagon. I was tired of us always being the victim over the past few months. I wanted to get even.’

  ‘You could have been killed!’

  She lowered her head again.

  ‘Mr Dane wasn’t the least bit intimidated. He took away my gun and gave me a ride to where I’d left my horse.’

  ‘That there fellow is a puzzle.’

  ‘He works for Huxton as a hired gun. That’s not much of a puzzle.’

  ‘When I got to town I learned that Strap and Mugs were found at the livery early this morning – tied over their horses, with their pants around their ankles.’

  Jessie frowned at the news.

  ‘What do you think happened to them?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  ‘You could have asked around,’ she said critically, ‘if you hadn’t been so intent on beating Mr Dane to a pulp.’

  ‘I didn’t beat him,’ Mike admitted. ‘I hit him with my best shots a dozen times, yet he stood his ground. The guy’s as tough as rawhide.’

  ‘Being tough isn’t far removed from being just plain stubborn and stupid.’

  Mike put a curious look on her.

  ‘You’re real upset about this.’

  ‘Worthless no-good that he is, you shouldn’t have fought with him! He’s only been after me because he wanted to …’ she didn’t finish.

  ‘To what?’

  ‘To dance with me on Saturday night!’ She blurted it out.

  ‘He mentioned that to me,’ Mike mused, recalling their earlier meeting. ‘He told me it was his excuse for being on our land.’

  ‘Yes, that, and to tell me a poem he had tried to memorize.’

  Mike laughed at the thought. ‘He didn’t!’

  ‘It isn’t so funny!’ She defended the idea. ‘It was a verse from Tennyson. It was – would have been – sort of romantic, if he hadn’t messed up the words.’

  ‘I didn’t know you had been reading Mom’s books.’

  ‘A person wouldn’t have had to read Tennyson to know the teamster only took bits and pieces out of the composition. He cut words from the middle so the whole thing hardly made any sense.’

  ‘The guy has it bad for you.’

  ‘Yes, and it got him a beating.’

  ‘I didn’t break his nose or knock out any teeth,’ Mike replied. ‘Besides which, he wasn’t much to look at before we got after it.’

  She finished with the cleaning of the cut and began to wrap his head with a bandage.

  ‘I suppose, as hired killers go, he’s not as bad as most of the Huxton men.’

  ‘He told me he wasn’t our enemy.’

  She tore the strip of cloth at the end and tied it off.

  ‘Keep that on tonight in case it starts to bleed again. I think it’ll be OK to take it off in the morning.’

  ‘You don’t sound near as upset with Dane as you were yesterday when I seen you scooting across the yard, clad only in a horse blanket.’

  She ducked her head.

  ‘It was partly my fault. I shouldn’t have been so harsh about his poetry. And he certainly didn’t deserve a beating for trying to court me.’

  ‘I never figured you would jump my hide because I defended your honor.’

  ‘I’m only saying I was partly at fault too.’

  ‘Yeah.’ He displayed a narrow smirk. ‘Sounds more like a lover’s quarrel to me.’

  ‘Oh, go to bed!’ Jessie threw her hands up into the air and stormed off toward her room. ‘Or go hang yourself! I don’t much care which!’

  Mike laughed to her back, but Jessie did not look round. She was furious at him, at Kyler, at herself – at the whole blasted world!

  The man moved like a ghostly shadow, not a walk or stroll but a glide along the walkway. There was an aura about him, a dark foreboding. As Phoenix Cline approached the wagon, Kyler suffered the sinking sensation that he was confronting the Grim Reaper, a bringer of death.

  Pausing from checking the team’s harness, Kyler looked up to make eye-contact with the deadly gunman. His was an icy gaze, as if he lacked human warmth, while the body merely offered a shell to house his lethal purpose.

  ‘Dane, isn’t it?’ he asked, coolly appraising Kyler from boot-sole to the top of his weather-worn freighting hat.

  ‘And you’d be Phoenix,’ Kyler replied, concealing an inner shudder.

  ‘I hear you’re a man with a price on his head.’ Phoenix was abrupt.


  ‘Just a misunderstanding at a saloon over Colorado way.’

  Phoenix frowned. ‘You look familiar. Where else do you hail from?’

  ‘I’ve been down a few trails,’ Kyler evaded. ‘I don’t recall seeing you before, but I’ve heard of you.’

  ‘Trouble with a name like Phoenix,’ the man replied, ‘everyone remembers it.’

  ‘Sounds like something you borrowed from one of those Greek myths.’

  ‘It’s an Egyptian myth, actually,’ Phoenix corrected Kyler, ‘and I’ve used it for a good many years. It’s who I am now.’

  ‘And were you raised from your own ashes?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  Kyler allowed the subject to drop.

  ‘So, what’s on your mind, Phoenix? Did you come to offer me some tips about how I could keep my deliveries safe?’

  ‘I’m curious as to where you were night before last.’

  ‘That part of your job,’ Kyler evaded, ‘to tuck in Huxton’s men at night?’

  The cold eyes narrowed. Phoenix studied him for any sign of guilt.

  ‘Two of Huxton’s boys arrived in town strapped over their horses. They said they were jumped by a gunman over near the Yates ranch boundary.’

  ‘I heard about it.’ Kyler showed a grin. ‘There have been a few jokes at those boy’s expense going around town.’

  ‘You wouldn’t know anything else about it?’ Phoenix asked.

  Kyler arched his brow. ‘Nothing more than what I’ve heard.’

  Phoenix regarded his innocent look with a chill scrutiny. Then he let the matter drop.

  ‘I hear you and Big Mike had quite a fight.’

  ‘We didn’t see eye to eye over my trying to ask Jessie to the dance.’

  His confession caused Phoenix’s expression to soften.

  ‘That female is going to be tougher to corral than a Texas tornado.’

  ‘You’re not telling me anything new. She about bit my head off in person, then sends Big Mike to pay me a visit. There’s a man I don’t want to cross a second time.’

  ‘I’m told you fought him to a draw.’

  Kyler laughed. ‘I was still on my feet, but that doesn’t mean the fight ended even. I’m pretty sure I got the worst of it.’

  ‘The way you wear your gun is familiar.’ Phoenix was curious again. ‘I saw a man at a carnival once. He had two people stand several feet apart and drop beer-mugs at the same time. He drew and shot both mugs before they hit the ground.’

  ‘Sounds pretty amazing.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be him?’

  Kyler chuckled. ‘If I was that good with a gun, I wouldn’t be shagging freight for a living.’

  Phoenix studied him again. Kyler had worn a handlebar moustache and a ridiculous outfit when working the carnival. There was little similarity between his carnival character and the man he appeared to be now.

  ‘Yeah.’ Phoenix finally grunted the words. ‘You wouldn’t be him.’

  ‘Why the questions?’ Kyler asked. ‘Don’t those two fellows know who it was who got the drop on them?’

  ‘They never seen his face and didn’t recognize the voice.’

  ‘Maybe Big Mike has hired himself a watchdog for his place?’

  ‘Maybe.’ Phoenix regarded Kyler with another long look. ‘I can usually see it in their eyes,’ Phoenix said.

  ‘What’s that?’ Kyler asked.

  ‘Fear.’

  Kyler smiled to hide the tremor of alarm which shot through his body.

  ‘Why should I be afraid of you? We’re on the same side.’

  ‘Yes, we are … for the present,’ Phoenix replied. Then he turned about and lifted a hand in farewell. ‘I’ll be seeing you.’

  Kyler watched the man walk away. He moved like a slinking wolf, never looking in any one direction, yet constantly surveying all that was around him.

  ‘What did the honcho want?’ Nat asked, having walked up without Kyler hearing his approach.

  ‘He was wondering where I was the night Mugs and Strap came into town tied over the backs of their horses.’

  ‘He buy your innocent act?’

  Kyler tossed a quick look at Nat.

  ‘Somewhat.’

  ‘I admire how you risked your neck to stop those two from burning down the Yates place. But if Phoenix finds out, I’ll be stomping dirt over your final resting-box.’

  ‘I should think the bruises on my face from Big Mike’s beating ought to remove the doubt of anyone else. Most fellows don’t beat up the man who saved their barn from being burned to the ground.’

  ‘Unless it has to do with his sister,’ Nat pointed out. When Kyler did not reply, Nat continued: ‘The boys have always been protective of the only girl in the family.’

  Talking about Jessie only made Kyler wish things were different between them. He turned back to business.

  ‘You’re the one who sent for help, Nat. How do we prove Huxton is behind trying to run the Yates family out of business?’

  ‘I’m only a hostler, son. You’re the smart jack who has to figure that out.’

  Kyler thought for a moment. ‘Once they trust me, they might ask me to do a job.’

  ‘You’re doing the job they want,’ Nat replied. ‘You make sure no one messes with their deliveries while they raise the devil with every load of freight or stagecoach the Yates bunch tries to move.’

  ‘We can’t help the Yates family if we can’t prove anything against Huxton.’

  Nat rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘The local banker threw in with Huxton right off and has cut off any financial help to the Yates family. If he is involved in the overall scheme, he might be the weakest post along the fence.’

  ‘The banker, huh?’

  ‘George Glenn is his name. He’s a weasel. Got his stake from marrying a wealthy woman … who died shortly after H and B Freight came to town.’ At Kyler’s inquisitive look, he shrugged. ‘It might have only been a coincidence.’

  ‘They have a good marriage did they?’

  ‘George’s wife dug her spurs into him at every jump seven days a week. He opened the bank, but she was the one who ran the household.’ Nat squinted intently. ‘She had herself an accident while riding in her buckboard,’ he related. ‘Her scarf became tangled in the wheel and she was strangled to death.’

  ‘Anyone see it happen?’

  Nat grunted his disgust. ‘A couple of H and B employees … Skinny and Mugs.’

  ‘Sounds suspicious. I wonder if there is a way to get to the truth of the matter.’

  ‘You just met Mr Death, sonny,’ Nat alluded to Phoenix. ‘You sure you want to test your luck against a man like him?’

  ‘That’s the last thing on earth I would want to do, Nat.’

  The old gent laughed. ‘Yep, it would be the last thing you would do too!’

  CHAPTER SIX

  Kyler had just dropped off his dirty laundry when he came face to face with Jessie.

  ‘I’m glad I found you,’ she said, while blocking his path.

  ‘Funny.’ He tried to lighten the tension between them. ‘I didn’t know I was lost.’

  No smile. Jessie was obviously concentrating on what she wanted to say.

  ‘I want you to know that I didn’t ask Mike to beat you up.’ She skewed her face into a frown. ‘Not that you didn’t deserve a thrashing for taking my clothes.’

  ‘I was going to return them.’

  ‘Yes, Mike brought them home clean and neatly pressed.’ Her words were crisp, and she appeared poised like a deer about to spook – one foot in the air, ready to plant it for traction and sprint away.

  ‘That all you wanted to see me about?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes,’ she was again abrupt, ‘What else would I have to say to you?’

  ‘Hum-m,’ he said. ‘Sure a long way to ride just to say you’re sorry.’

  ‘I didn’t say I was sorry,’ she countered defensively. ‘I merely wanted you to know I didn’t ask my brother to pick a fight with yo
u.’

  ‘Why should it matter what I think?’

  Jessie threw up her hands. ‘It doesn’t matter!’ she snapped. ‘Not one tiny bit!’

  He smiled at her flash-fire temper.

  ‘I was about to get some breakfast. I’d be right proud if you’d join me for a bite to eat.’

  ‘I didn’t seek you out for a social call.’

  Kyler displayed a serious mien.

  ‘You don’t have to constantly keep your guard up around me, Jessie,’ he said easily. ‘My only aim is to court you proper.’

  ‘You’re one of Huxton’s gunmen!’ She spat out the words. ‘I could never feel anything but contempt for you! Not in a million years!’

  ‘Only a million?’ He grinned. ‘At least there’s hope for the future.’

  ‘You’re an insufferable dolt, Kyler Dane!’

  He ignored the insult. ‘What would it take to impress you, Miss Yates? There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.’

  ‘You could go take a dive off of the nearest tall cliff!’

  He chuckled at her pluck. ‘Well, almost nothing I wouldn’t do.’

  She gave him another once-over, obviously taking note of the bruises on his face, the swelling around his jaw and the lump over one eye. Mike had dealt him a fair amount of punishment.

  ‘At least this is one contest you didn’t win,’ she said with a grim satisfaction.

  Kyler arched his brows.

  ‘Didn’t win?’

  ‘You know, you won the horse-race and you embarrassed me at the creek. You even made a fool of me when I stopped your wagon. It’s nice to know you can lose too.’

  ‘You’re here, aren’t you?’ he asked pointedly. At her scowl, he smiled. ‘What makes you think I didn’t allow Mike to pound on me some, just so you would be forced to come and express your regret?’

  ‘Don’t hand me that garbage! You had no choice about taking a beating!’

  ‘And it’s right satisfying too.’ He ignored her argument. ‘It was worth getting a few bruises, just to have you apologize.’

  ‘Apologize!’ she screeched. ‘I don’t know why I thought I had to come into town and humiliate myself. I should have known my brother didn’t do you any real harm – he kept hitting you in the head!’