“Her?” Scanlan seemed surprised. “Oh, that there’s Zelda. She’s my sister.”
“Favors you,” I said. And then added, “My name’s Logan. I ride for an outfit over east of here.”
The coffee tasted almighty good, but already I was thinking of an excuse for getting out. No traveler in his right mind is going to pick up and leave a warm, dry place for the out-of-doors on a rainy night, and if I did that they’d been bound to get suspicious.
Meanwhile I was putting that beef where it would do the most good. Zelda brought me a healthy chunk of corn pone and a glass of milk to go with it.
“Lots of outfits east of here,” Hayes commented. “Any pa’tic’lar one?”
I decided I did not like Mr. Hayes. “The Empty,” I said. “I ride for Em Talon.”
“Talon?” Benton Hayes frowned. “I’ve heard that name. Oh, yes! Milo Talon. He’s on the list.”
“List?” I acted mighty innocent.
“He’s a wanted man,” Hayes replied.
“Milo? He’d never break no law.”
“He’s on my list, anyways. Somebody wants him wants him dead.”
“Well,” I said, smiling friendly-like, “don’t try it. Seems to me Milo Talon was kind of quite an light shooter.”
“Makes no difference,” Hayes said. “They can be had. All of them.”
“I’m sure he’s not the kind to break the law,” I said, still smiling. “Milo was a nice boy. Could it be somebody else wants him?”
“How do I know? He’s wanted, somewhere. There’s five hundred dollars on him.” He shuffled through some notes from an inside pocket. “There it is … Jake Planner, mayor of Siwash. He’ll pay it for him or his brother, Barnabas.”
“What do you know about that?” I said. Then I yawned. “I’ll bunk in the barn,” I said, “no use to bother you gents.”
“You can sleep here.” Scanlan had shot a quick look at the others before he made that offer, and he seemed a mite anxious.
“Zelda, fix Mister Logan a bed in the other room, there.” He glanced at me. “You can get to sleep without us botherin’ you with our talk.”
I taken up my rifle and followed the young lady into the next room where there was a better than usual bed. There was no window in the room, only the door I come through.
Zelda put the light down on a table, then looked at me quickly and whispered, “You watch it, mister. I don’t like that Mister Hayes. I don’t trust him.”
“Neither do I.” I grinned at her. “But I do like you, and if I get things straightened around a mite I may just come around this way again.”
She looked at me seriously. “Mister,” she said quietly, “I favor a man who is willin’ to settle down. I don’t want to marry up with no man who rides trails by night.”
“You’re a hundred percent right,” I said. “Can you make bearsign?”
“Doughnuts? Of course, I can.”
“Make some,” I said, “and keep them handy. When I come courtin’ I’ll expect a plate full of doughnuts.”
She went out and I taken a quick look around. The man who built this cabin built it to last. He also put in a trapdoor leading to an attic.
8
I put a knee on the bed so’s it would creak some, and then I dropped a book on the floor, hoping it would sound like a boot. After a moment, I dropped it again.
Taking the chair I tiptoed over to that trapdoor, put the chair down, and got up on it. Very carefully I put both palms under the door and lifted the least bit. Dust sifted down, and the door moved. Hadn’t been opened in a long time. More than likely they no longer thought of it being there.
Easing it aside I grasped the timber with one hand, laid my rifle up with the other, then chinned myself on the edge, hoisting myself up until I could wiggle over onto the floor.
The attic was dark and still and smelled of dust. There was a faint square of light across the room that looked to be a window. Very carefully, I eased myself that way. Near to the chimney I was stopped by a voice.
“He’s riding an MT horse, all right. And that’s the Talon brand.”
“I’m tellin’ you,” Jerk-Line was sayin’, “That’s got to be him Brannenburg is huntin’. I talked to that posse when they came to the Hoy place, an’ they were sore as hell. This here gent had really run their legs off, an’ then they lost him.”
“Will Brannenburg pay? I hear he’s a tough man to deal with.” Hayes was talking now.
“We’d better ride over an’ see,” Scanlan said. “You surely ain’t goin’ to bluff him into payin’ for something he never asked to pay for.”
“Jerk-Line,” Hayes said. “You ride over. He’s at the McNary place tonight. Find out what he’ll give for this man’s hide. You get him to offer a good sum and we’ll split fifty for me, twenty-five each for you.”
“Why not in thirds?” Jerk-Line wanted to know. Benton Hayes’s voice was cool “Because I’m goin’ to kill him. All you boys got to do is wait an’ watch.”
Well, I nearly went back down that trapdoor to give him his chance, but there was three now, and if Dutch did what he’d be likely to do he’d let this man take off on his return trip, then he’d follow. Dutch liked to do his own killing … or see it done.
After some more talk Jerk-Line went to the door and went out. I heard him slosh through the mud to the barn, and a moment later I heard his horse pounding off down the road.
I didn’t know how far he’d have to go to this McNary place, but I didn’t figure to wait. I tried to slip that window at the end of the loft up or down or sideways, but she was fixed in place. Taking out my Tinker-made knife I put the point into the frame and cut deep. That there knife was sharper than a razor. It cut deep, a sliver several inches long, then another. In maybe two shakes of a dog’s tail I had cut that window loose from its frame. Easing myself out I dropped to the ground and stood flat against the wall for a minute. Then I crossed to the barn and saddled my roan. Leading her out I put her in the edge of those aspen, and then I stopped.
That Benton Hayes back there. He was bound and determined to kill me if there was money in it. Well, I wasn’t near so greedy.
I walked back to the house and up to the back door. Easing it open, I saw Zelda staring at me wide-eyed. “Get your brother out here,” I said.
She hesitated only a moment, then went to the door and said, “Will? Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Scanlan came to the door and stepped in, closing it behind him. “Zel? Can’t you see I’m busy? Couldn’t this wait?”
“Not if you want to live,” I whispered. He looked at me and that pistol in my hand, and he swallowed. “Mister Scanlan,” I said softly, “you got you a fine sister here, but you’re trailin’ your spurs in mighty poor company. You give me that gun you got, and then you set down yonder, and don’t neither of you make a move until I’m gone … you hear?”
He nodded, handed me his gun, and edged to the chair. I shoved his gun behind my belt and dropped mine into my holster.
“He figures to hang my hide,” I said. “I’m going to see can he do it.”
I opened the door and stepped through. Benton Hayes looked up. His expression was kinda sour as he spied me standing there in the doorway.
“Mister Hayes,” I said, “you was talkin’ a minute ago about selling my hide for a few dollars. You said you would do the killin’. Well, you got you a gun there, let’s see you do it.”
He got up slowly. He was surprised and scared at first, then the scare left him. “Why, sure. One way is as easy as another, Logan.”
“Sackett’s the name,” I said, “Logan Sackett.” I might as well have kicked him in the belly. His face went taut with a kind of shock, then sick. He was a sure-thing killer who figured he was better than most he’d meet, but I could see he didn’t think he was better than Logan Sackett.
Trouble was, he’d already started to draw.
Well, he’d started. So I shucked my old hog-leg and let ‘er bang. He taken two of them through the middle button on his vest and just for luck I put another through his Bull Durham tag, where it hung from his left vest pocket.