The Drifter (18 page)

“Wonderful,” Frank muttered.

 

* * * *

 

Frank finally got rid of the writer after assuring him that he would give some thought to helping the man write the story of his life ... something that Frank had absolutely no intention of doing.

“I've seen those books from time to time, Frank,” Jerry said with a smile.

“Don't start, Jer."

Jerry laughed at him and got to his boots. “Maybe this writer fellow could arrange for you to go back east on a tour. You could do some trick shootin' and twirl your guns. That ought to give the folks back there a real thrill."

Frank picked up an inkwell and moved as if to throw it at Jerry. Laughing, Jerry left the office. Luckily for Frank, the inkwell was empty.

Frank locked up the office and walked over to the Henson Office building. He walked in just in time to see and hear a well-dressed man really browbeating one of the office workers. Frank listened for as long as he could take it and then walked up and deliberately bumped into the man, almost knocking him down.

The man caught his balance and turned on Frank. “You damned clumsy oaf!” he raged.

“Back off, mister,” Frank warned him, “before you step into something you can't scrape off.” He looked at the employee who had been the brunt of the Eastern man's rage. “You go get a cup of coffee and relax, partner."

“You stay right where you are, Leon!” the dude told the employee. “Now you see here, Marshal!” the man said, turning to Frank. “I am Charles Dutton, Mrs. Browning's attorney. And I resent your interference in a company matter."

Frank smiled and pulled out his second pistol. “You ever fired a pistol, Leon?"

“Yes, sir. During the war. I was a sergeant in a New York regiment."

“Take this pistol."

Leon took the pistol and held it gingerly.

“Now you go get a six-gun,” Frank told Dutton.

“I beg your pardon?” the lawyer questioned.

“You speak to this man like he's some sort of poor cowed dog, mister, and you expect him to take it without him biting back or even showing his teeth in a snarl. That ain't the way it works out here. Now you go get a six-gun and meet this man in the street out front."

“I will not! Are you insane?"

Vivian's entrance into the building probably prevented Frank from knocking the Boston lawyer on his butt. Frank could not take an employer berating an employee in public. It was something that set him off like a firecracker.

Leon handed Frank's short-barreled .45 back to him, and Frank tucked it behind his gunbelt and turned to greet Vivian. The look that she gave Dutton was a combination of ice and fire.

“This is your friend, Vivian?” Dutton asked, referring to Frank. “This ... bully with a badge?"

Vivian ignored that. When she spoke, it was to Leon. “What is the problem, Leon? Speak freely, please. Charles Dutton has no authority here."

“It, ah, concerned the weekly reports on the grade of silver being taken from mine number three, Mrs. Browning,” Leon told her.

“The analysis of the purity of the silver?"

“Yes, ma'am."

“Give the reports to Mr. Dutton, Leon."

Leon held out the laboratory reports.

Dutton looked at the papers without taking them. “What is the meaning of this, Vivian?"

“The lab is about one mile out of town, Charles,” Vivian told him. “Anyone can point the way. Why don't you go up there and tell the engineer in charge that you are taking over, and will personally run the tests? Can you do that, Charles?"

“I am your attorney, Vivian, not a chemist or an engineer."

“Can you do it, Charles?” Viv persisted.

“No. I cannot, Vivian."

“Then why don't you shut up and tend to your business? Stay in your area of expertise, and stay out of areas in which you have no knowledge."

For a moment, Frank thought Charles was going to pop his cork. He turned red in the face, and his eyes bugged out. He struggled to speak and then, with a very visible effort, calmed down. “As you wish, madam,” he said, very slowly. “However, I was only trying to help."

“And any constructive help you might offer is certainly welcome, Charles. But I personally do not believe in berating employees in private, much less publicly."

“I shall certainly bear that in mind."

“Thank you, Charles."

“If by chance you should need me this afternoon, I will be at the hotel."

“I thought the hotel was full,” said Viv.

“Not the luxury suites at the end of the hall. They have private baths. I insisted upon that."

Frank rolled his eyes and looked heavenward.

Viv caught his eye movement and fought back a smile. “Of course you did, Charles."

“It's so primitive out here,” Dutton complained. “I don't understand how you tolerate these barbaric conditions, Vivian.” He plopped his hat on his head and walked toward the front door without another word.

“Nice fellow,” Frank remarked.

Leon muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘He's a turdface!'
But surely not
, Frank thought.

“Frank,” Vivian said. She had dropped the “Marshal Morgan” when addressing him. There was no point in any further pretense. The whole town knew they were seeing each other socially. “Could I see you in my office, please?"

Seated in Viv's office, Frank asked, “How's Conrad?"

“He's all right, but I insisted that he stay home today. I've just about convinced him that he should return east as soon as possible."

“I'm not sure about that now, Viv. As long as he stays here, there are plenty of us to keep an eye on him. Back there, he would have little if any protection."

Viv frowned, then slowly nodded her head in agreement. “You're right, Frank. I hadn't thought about that."

“Might be a good thing to keep him here until we get this situation straightened out and decide who's trying to kill us both. As if we didn't already know."

Before Viv could reply, they heard the sound of running boots in the outer offices. Jerry burst into the room. “Frank! Outlaws just hit the Lucky Seven. Got the payroll and killed the owner and his foreman."

Frank was on his boots instantly. “That's the mine about four miles from town, right?"

“That's it."

“Get a posse together. I'll get my horse and meet you at the office."

“Will do.” Jerry left the office in a run.

“Be careful, Frank,” Viv cautioned.

Frank winked at her. “Long as I got you to come back to, Viv."

“I'll be here."

 

 

 

Twenty

 

 

Frank looked at the bodies of the mine owner and his foreman and shook his head in disgust. The men had been shot to ribbons, each one more than a dozen times. Their faces had been deliberately shot away. He ordered the bodies taken back to town in a wagon.

“Marshal,” said one of the men in the posse. “Those robbers used them men for target practice. They made a game of it."

“I know,” Frank replied. “They shot them in the knees, then the arms, then in the belly. They tortured them for the fun of it.” Jerry walked up and Frank asked him, “How about the workers—did any of them see anything?"

“One did,” Jerry said. “The other three were in a secondary shaft of the mine ... looking for gold,” he added. “It was part of the Pine and Vanbergen gangs. The man is sure of that."

“How can he be sure?"

“He knows a couple of them. Was in jail with them once. They broke out, or was broke out. One or the other. He done his time for drunk and fighting, and hasn't been in trouble since."

“Those two gangs just keep getting more and more vicious,” Frank said. “This is not the first time they've done something like this. It's fortunate that no women were out here. We all know what happens to women they take captive. Which way did they head out of here?"

“Straight into the mountains, Marshal,” a posse member said. “They're long gone through the pass now. And I ain't goin' into the pass."

Frank did not have to question any of the others about that. He knew without asking none of the men would be willing to enter the outlaw-controlled pass through the mountains. And he really didn't blame them one bit

“Take the posse back to town, Jerry, and look after things until I get back. I'm going to prowl around some."

“You goin' to the pass, Frank?"

“I'm going to look it over, yes. I might not be back tonight. If that's the case, I'll see you late tomorrow."

After the posse was gone. Frank made sure his canteen was full of fresh water. Then he looped an ammo belt over his shoulder and across his chest. The belt was filled with .44-.40 rounds. Every loop in his gunbelt was full of .45 cartridges, and he had more rounds for the rifle and pistols in his saddlebags.

He began slowly tracking the outlaw gang through the rocky terrain. It wasn't that difficult, for the outlaws had made no effort to hide their tracks.

It took Frank a couple of slow-riding and very cautious hours to reach a good vantage spot about a hundred yards from the mouth of the pass. There he dismounted in a small patch of grass, eased the cinch strap, and let his horse blow and then graze. Frank took a pair of binoculars from his saddlebags, looped them around his neck, then slipped his .44-.40 from the boot. He climbed up the rocky ridge for about a hundred feet or so and settled himself in for a long, careful look-see.

What he saw was the nearly impassable entrance to the pass, and he had no doubts about it being guarded by at least two men around the clock. It was as he had been told: if you didn't know your way through, you would be in deep trouble. Even if you did know the tricky route, one of the Pine and Vanbergen guards would surely nail you if you tried.

The ways around the range were about forty miles east or west, and by the time a posse reached the outlaw stronghold they would be long gone.

“Damn,” Frank muttered. He knew that north of the pass and the outlaw stronghold the terrain was badlands for miles and miles. A railroad spur line came down to a small town just north of the badlands, and that is where the mines in Barnwell's Crossing took their silver to be shipped out ... providing they could get it to the spur line by wagons, which meant rolling right through outlaw territory on the single road that led to the tracks. Only about half of the silver-laden wagons had made it through thus far.

Frank watched the pass for half an hour before deciding he was accomplishing nothing by staying there. The only way the outlaw stronghold could be taken was with an army, and that would still mean a terrible loss of life.

Frank climbed down to his horse, tightened the cinch strap, and swung into the saddle, holding his rifle in his right hand, across the saddle horn. He headed back to town, feeling that he had accomplished very little with his long ride to the pass.

He rode into town just after dark, stabled his horse, and walked over to the jail. Jerry had fed the prisoners after Doc Bracken had made his daily visit to check on the wounded, and he had just made a fresh pot of coffee.

“Didn't expect to see you back this early, Frank."

“I looked over the entrance to the pass and decided this was not a good day to die,” Frank said, pouring a mug of coffee. “The place is a death trap."

“The south entrance sure is. The best way in is from the north."

“But we don't have any authority up there,” Frank told him, “I wonder why Colorado won't deal into this game with us?"

“I don't know if they've even been asked."

“I know there's a few small towns just north of the border with us. On the edge of the badlands. But Pine and Vanbergen are smart in that they don't pull anything up there, so they're not wanted in those areas."

It was a policy that was slowly dying out in the West, but for many years if a man was not wanted in a specific area or community, the local lawman would, in many instances, leave him alone as long as he did not cause trouble within that lawman's jurisdiction.

“Was either the mine owner or the foreman married?” Frank asked.

“Yes. Both of them. Wives are here. But neither of them had kids."

“That's good ... that is, if anything about this mess can be called good."

“What about this Charles Dutton fellow, Frank? I just don't like that uppity bastard."

“Neither do I, Jer. I think something is going to break loose here in town very quickly now."

“Because this Dutton dude is here?"

“Yes. And Big Bob Mallory and Kid Moran, and those four assassins who came after Viv and me, and all the rest of it. Dutton is tied in with it all. I'm sure of it. I just don't know the big picture yet."

“This is gettin' mighty complicated, Frank."

“A fellow named Sir Walter Scott wrote some verse once that went something like: ‘O, what a tangled web we weave.' I don't remember the rest of it. But that much did stick in my mind."

“This mess is sure all tangled up, for a fact."

A citizen stuck his head in the office. “Marshal, sorry to disturb, but I thought you ought to know that Kid Moran is back in town. I was usin' the privy—just steppin' out, that is, after I—finished my business—when I seen him coming down the back way of the hotel. Usin' them steps that lead up to the fancy rooms. He was sort of slippin' down them, real quiet like, if you know what I mean."

“Thank you,” Frank said. “I appreciate it."

“It's my pleasure, Marshal, for shore. If I see anything else suspicious like I think you should know about, I'll get right over to you with it."

“Thanks."

After the citizen had closed the door and walked on, Jerry asked, “What was that all about?"

“Charles Dutton has the most expensive suite in the hotel rented for his stay here."

“You think he's tied in with Kid Moran? A fancy Dan rich man like that?"

“It wouldn't surprise me any. Way this situation is shaping up here in town nothing would surprise me anymore."