the Rider Of Lost Creek (1976) (10 page)

It had been the way of Kilkenny to go right to the heart of any trouble, and Apple Canyon looked to be in the very center.

Lance did not underrate Bert Polti. The gunman was quick as a cat, as dangerous as a weasel. He would kill and kill until he finally went down. He would kill from ambush, but there wasn't a cowardly bone in him. He would simply kill in the most efficient way. He had faced many men with guns and no doubt he would again, if that was the only way.

Neither Webb Steele nor Chet Lord were killers.

They were rough, tough men, a bit on the bullheaded side, no doubt, but probably kindly men on most occasions. Lance had known many of their kind, and in fact, Mort Davis was very much like them in every sense.

Bert Polti, however, could only be a tool. His was not the mind to plan what seemed to be happening. He was a keen-edged tool, but a tool nonetheless. Whose tool he was, Kilkenny could not guess.

Whoever was behind this was a man or woman relentless and evil, someone with intelligence and skill, someone who knew the country, the situation, and the elements involved.

Someone also, who knew Lance Kilkenny. Or knew about him.

Above all, somebody who did not fear him.

If he came out of this alive there would once again be the long night rides, the scant food, brackish water, and the harsh living of the fugitive or one who was almost that and then a new attempt to find new peace in new surroundings. Sometime he might succeed, but sooner or later his past always seemed to catch up with him.

Several times he had considered leaving the west and going back east, but he was no longer fitted for that life.

The skills needed for life in the east had left him; his knowledge of their ways had been blunted. Nor could he bear to leave the lands of immense distances, the purity of the air, the vast sweep of the mountains, plains and forests, the smell of his lonely campfires, the feeling of a good horse under him, and the song of the lonely winds. It was in his heart now, in his blood and bones, and in all the convolutions of his brain. Lance Kilkenny was a western man, and he would stay a western man until one day on some lonely mountainside, or on some lonely western street, he would die with a bullet in him.

Even now he was in danger. By now the person he opposed, a man or woman unknown to him, would be aware that he had taken cards in the game, and the greatest risk lay not in what Steele or Lord might do, but what he, Kilkenny, would almost certainly do.

He must force the play. He must keep moving. He must try to get his enemies off-balance. His approach to Steele had been the real beginning of this ride to Apple Canyon.

The direct attack. It was always best with the plotter, the conniver, the adroit man. Such a man wanted time in which to plot, to make his moves upon the board, and the best way was simply to keep pushing.

To attack, always attack, until the unknown man was forced to reveal himself and come out into the open.

Kilkenny had foiled such plots before, but could he break this one?

Looking over the situation, he realized he was not entirely sure. His enemy was cool, deadly, and dangerous. Knowing Kilkenny, while he himself was not known, he could see or anticipate Kilkenny's moves. And, from the shelter of his ghost-like existence, could hunt him down... or have him hunted.

Kilkenny looked thoughtfully at the
country before
and around him. Without doubt this would be an easy route by which to take cattle into Mexico, and if one man controlled the way south, he could appear an innocent rancher, with no stolen stock ever appearing on his range.

With millions of cattle on the range in Texas, many could be stolen and taken out of the country before anyone realized what was going on, and then if due precaution was taken to cover the trail left by the moving cattle, it might be months, even years-before it was realized.

It was midaftemoon when the two riders rounded a rocky bend and looked down the street of the rickety settlement of Apple Canyon, so named because of an orchard once planted, and now almost gone.

There were four buildings on one side of the street, three on the other.

"The nearest one is where the doc lives. He's a mighty good sawbones, but a renegade from somewhere and something. Next is the livery stable and blacksmith shop, all in one. That long building next door is the bunkhouse, and Bert Polti's place is just beyond. He lives there with Joe Deagan and torn Murrow."

"On the right side is Bill Sadler's. Bill is a gambler. He did a couple of stretches for forgery, and he'll cook up any kind of documents you want. Right alongside is the big joint of Apple Canyon ... the Border Bar. That's Nita's place and she runs it herself.

"The last house, the one with the flowers, is Nita's.

They say no man has ever entered the place."... Rusty glanced at Kilkenny. "Nita's straight, though from time to time some have bad their doubts.

Nita soon sets "em right on that."

"And the place on the hill beyond the town?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Kilkenny pointed. On a rocky hill beyond the town, in a place mat seemed secure from all but circling eagles, he could dimly perceive some kind of a structure. Even with the sunlight falling on the cliff it was but a suggestion, yet as he looked he could see a flash of light reflected from something.

"Whoever lives there is mighty careful
... Kilkenny commented. "He's looking us over with a field-glass."

Til be damned
... Rusty was disgusted. "I been here three or four times an" stayed five days once, and I never knew that place was there!"

Kilkenny nodded. Til bet a pretty penny it can't be seen from the town. I'm just wondering who it is that wants to be so careful? Who is it who watches all who come to Apple Canyon? Who can manage to live up there and remain unknown?"

"Do you think?"

"I don't think anything yet. There's just somebody up there with a glass, far as I know. But I'm a kind of curious man, Gates, and I mean to find out."

He glanced right and left, and spotted a dim trail off to the right "Let's just kind of circle around, Gates, and keep something between us and that man up there."

"Take a good rifleman to hit anything that far, and especially when we're so much lower down."

"But he might be a good rifleman, Gates, and he might have fired some test shots at one time or another. I think I'll suppose he could cover the entering of the town from up there."

"What are we going to do?"

"Ride right in ... but not on the trail. Well just k circle those rocks and hit the street from back of that barn."

They turned their horses and rode down through the rocks by a dim trail obviously made by cattle and into the arroyo, then across it into the mesquite that lay beyond. Kilkenny led the way, and he took his time.

Of course, they had seen him, and of course they'd be ready for him. But he didn't believe they'd try to dry-gulch him as he rode into town.

He walked the buckskin past some old corrals and the barn and then turned into the street.

They came in together but Kilkenny was a dozen paces in the lead as the two men rode slowly along the street. A man sitting in front of the Border Bar turned his head to say something through an open window, but aside from that there was no immediate movement.

A man loafing in front of the Border Bar had a rifle in his hand. And in the rocks at the end of the street there was another. "This ain't just for us
... Rusty commented. "This here's the way it is. There's some folks hereabouts who don't wish to be caught with their chaps down."

At the hitching rail, Kilkenny swung his horse and stepped down quickly, rifle in hand. He looked across his saddle at the man loafing by the window. The fellow was a sandy-haired man with a rough look about him, but a half-humorous glint in his hard blue eyes. "Howdy
... He said. "You boys passin" through?"

"Depends on the climate. Maybe we'll set a spell."

"Gets right chilly around here sometimes
... The fellow said cheerfully. "Right chilly. I've heard some folks just can't stand it."

"Well, now. Do tell."... Kilkenny grinned at him. "Lucky I brought my gun along to keep me warm, ain't it?"

"Lots of guns around here, amigo."... Big ones and little ones. They don't count for much, most times."

"Here an" yonder I've found things warm up considerable
... Kilkenny said, "given the chance.

Seems a right nice little valley, and the folks here seem to be were mighty friendly, country-like people. I figure I could probably get to like it."-

"Your funeral
... The puncher said, shrugging.

Kilkenny grinned at him again. "Most generally
... He said, "it isn't."... And he walked inside, letting the doors swing to behind him.

Rusty Gates paused on the walk.

"Traveling a dry business
... He commented.

"Risky, too, when you're in the wrong comp'ny.

You're askin' for trouble comin' here with him. The words out."

"They better take it in again
... Rusty replied shortly. "As for me, I'm ridin' with him."

"On your own then. Can't help you none."

"Ain't asked. Now you just stay out of the way."

Rusty stepped inside to see Kilkenny standing at the bar. The bartender was idling down the bar, doing nothing, paying no attention.

In a deceptively mild voice, Kilkenny said, "Td like a drink."

The bartender did not move, nor give any indication that he had heard.

"I'd like a drink
... Kilkenny said, just a shade louder.

Three men seated in the room were covertly watching.

Two of them sat against the south and west walls. The third man was across the room almost directly behind Kilkenny and against the east wall. The bar covered most of the north wall except for a door at each end that led into rooms back of the bar.

"Once more
... Kilkenny suggested mildly. "I'd like a drink."

The burly bartender walked nonchalantly down the bar. He stared at Kilkenny with hard eyes. "I just don't hear you, stranger. And I don't know you."

What happened then was to make legend in the border country. Kilkenny's hand shot out and grasped the bartender's shirt collar in a tight grip and jerked ... hard enough to bring the bartender right over the bar and to the floor, where he sprawled in the sawdust "Let's get acquainted
... Kilkenny said mildly, and as the bartender came off the floor he lanced his cheekbone with a straight left A right to the chin made the man's knees sag.

Before he could recover his balance, Kilkenny grasped his shirt front and landed a stiff uppercut to the windpipe that made the man's mouth drop open, then pushed him away and hit him in the face with both fists. Kilkenny stepped back. The bartender slid toward the floor, caught at the bar, and tried to pull himself up.

Kilkenny watched him and said quietly, "Now we know each other, don't we? Get back of that bar and let's have a drink for myself and my partner. Or you can have the second barrel."

As the bartender started to weave toward the end of the bar, Kilkenny turned. Rusty was standing to one side of the door facing the man against the east wall.

Kilkenny glanced at the other two. "The name is Kilkenny."... He paused a moment to let the name sink in. "If you want me, turn loose your dogs."

The name rang like a challenge in the room, but the three men made no move. The gunman against the west wall put a nervous tongue to dry lips. In his own mind he was sure of one thing, and one thing only. If they went through with their plan he himself was sure to die. No one had warned him the man they were to face was Kilkenny.

The name had caught an three of them flatfooted.

They stood deathly still,
then faces
stiff with shock.

Slowly, the man against the south wall began letting his hands ease away from his guns.

"Now that's over
...
said
Lance (the bartender was spilling whiskey as he poured their drinks), "let's talk a little. It was mighty nice of you folks to welcome us like this, but how can I express my feelings about it unless you tell me who sent you?"

"We weren't going to kill you
... One man said, "just make you a prisoner."

"Sorry, boys, I just don't take to becoming a prisoner. Now you know where Mexico is, so why don't you just head on down that way before I get nervous and go to shooting?"

The three men headed for the door and ran into the street.

Kilkenny turned toward the bar. The bartender had stepped back, the bottle in his hand, listening.

There was a shot, then two more. Kilkenny stepped over to the window and looked out.

One man was halfway across the street, sprawled in the dust. The other two had just stepped off the stoop when they were hit.

"Who the hell did that"..."... Rusty asked.

"Seems their boss doesn't like failure
... Kilkenny said.