Slip Gun (12 page)

‘
The
work is legal and honest, although it may involve you in heavy
toting, carrying drunks to jail. I want to employ you as part of
the town’s special police force during the week of the county
fair.’

‘
You
don’t have any law of your own?’

‘
We
do,’ Wil admitted, a touch defiantly. ‘And I may say that, under
normal conditions, our marshal runs an efficient
office.’

‘
Then
why—?’

‘
Do you
object to taking his place?’

‘
Lady.
For what you’re going to pay me, I don’t give a damn about
it.’

‘
But
you’re still curious,’ Wil insisted.

‘
A
mite,’ Smith conceded.

‘
I feel
that the local officers would not be able to enforce the law
adequately during the fair because they are just that, local men
with homes and
friends
in Widow’s Greek,’ Wil enlarged. ‘So I have arranged that
they be sent on vacation and am bringing in men with no local
connections—or friends—to run the law for the week. Does that
clarify the situation?’

‘
Well
enough,’ Smith admitted, seeing the lady mayor’s reasons more
clearly and wondering if the town marshal had an equal
understanding of her motives. ‘You-all said I’d be
part
of a special police
force. Who’re the rest of it?’

There was a knock at the door on
the left side of the room;
presumably the one from which Lily had seen Hardy
emerging. Excusing herself, Wil rose and went to open it. She
admitted a tall, handsome man about Smith’s age. Dressed like a
successful professional gambler, he wore a silver-concha decorated
gunbelt with a pearl-handled Colt Civilian Peacemaker in a
low-hanging Missouri Skintite holster.

‘
I’ve
sent for five good men, Mr. Smith,’ Wil stated and indicated the
newcomer. ‘This is Talbot Ottoway, the first of them to
arrive.’

‘
Howdy,
Wax,’ Ottaway greeted, white teeth gleaming in a smile which did
not reach his eyes. ‘Long time no see.’

‘
Could
be I’ve always seen you first,
Mister
Ottaway,’ Smith replied, remaining seated
and ignoring the other’s extended right hand.

‘
I
believe that you both left the Texas Rangers about the same time,’
Wil remarked as she returned to her seat.

‘
Same
time, different reasons,’ Smith replied. ‘I left with a clean
record.’

There was no doubting the
animosity of the two men.
Ottaway’s smile faded and he darted a glance at
Wil, then swung his attention back to Smith.

‘
So did
I!’ Ottaway growled. ‘And
I
can go back to Texas if I want to.’

‘
Gentlemen!’ Wil snapped, slapping her left palm on the
desk’s top. ‘I’m not particularly interested in your pasts. Nor do
I expect your previous differences of opinion to affect the
services I’m buying. If I’m speaking too plainly, say
so.’

‘
You’re
talking good sense, W— Miss Jeffreys,’ Ottaway assured her and
Smith kept quiet.

‘
Very
well,’ Wil said, without looking at the tall, seated Texan. ‘As he
arrived first, I thought that Mr. Ottaway should act as
marshal.’

‘
Thanks
for the cigar,’ Smith said, shoving back his chair ready to
rise.

‘
You
don’t agree with my suggestion?’ Wil inquired.

‘
I
flat-out refuse it,’ Smith stated, coming to his feet.

‘
Hell.
There’s no sense in stomping out in a tiz, Wax,’ Ottaway put in and
dipped his right hand into his jacket’s side pocket. ‘I’m game to
take a chance if you are.’

‘
What
kind of a chance?’ Smith asked cautiously, slipping
off his right glove
and staring pointedly at the other man’s jacket pocket.

‘
We’ll
spin a coin for it,’ Ottaway suggested, producing a nickel and
balancing it on his thumb and forefinger. ‘Call it, Wax. If you
win, you’re marshal.’

‘
How do
you feel about it, Miss Jeffreys?’ Smith inquired.

‘
Go
ahead, if it will settle things,’ Wil authorized.

Propelled by
Ottaway
’s
thumb, the coin flipped spinning into the air. Smith waited until
it reached the apex of its flight, then called, ‘Tails!’

A flicker of annoyance crossed
Ottaway
’s
face. Stabbing out his right hand, he caught the coin and dropped
it, without looking at it, into his pocket. Once more the friendly,
mouth-only smile came to his face.

‘
I only
said it to see if you’d take a chance, Wax,’ the man announced and
looked at Wil. ‘Anyways, ma’am, it wouldn’t be right for me to be
over him. He was a sergeant in the Rangers and I never made higher
than private.’

‘
And
there’s nothing but “tails” on that nickel,’ Smith went
on.

‘
Huh?’
Wil gasped, showing emotion for the second time since the Texan had
entered the office.

‘
It’s
an old trick, ma’am,’ Smith continued. ‘He makes the offer and
spins the coin, counting on me doing like maybe ninety-nine folks
out of a hundred and saying “Heads”. When I didn’t, he caught it
and made out he’d only been funning.’

‘
Is
that true, Mr. Ottaway?’ Wil demanded.

For several seconds, Ottaway did
not reply. Hatred showed on his face, although only an experienced
reader of human emotions might have detected it. Smith had the
necessary experience. So he stood with a relaxed attitude which did
not fool the other man.
There was an unspoken, open challenge in the
Texan’s demeanor all too plain to anybody who knew Waxahachie
Smith—and Ottaway had bitter reason to know him. It had been
Smith’s findings which caused Ottaway to be ‘requested’ to hand in
his resignation from the Texas Rangers. If the Fuentes brothers had
not intervened, Ottaway knew that the resignation would have been a
dismissal and probably worse.

Ottaway faced a difficult
decision. To answer in the negative would amount to calling Smith a
liar. There was only one reply to that. Looking at
Smith
’s bare
right hand, Ottaway recalled the speed with which it could once
draw and shoot a Colt. Nor had Smith lost his skill, if all the
rumors making the rounds be true. Sucking in a breath, Ottaway
reached a decision. Forcing an ingratiating smile to his lips, he
nodded his head.

‘
Sure.
Only it’s not such an old trick. Seeing’s Wax caught me out good
and square, I’m willing to work under him. You’re smarter than I
thought, Wax.’

‘
You’re
not, Mr. Ottaway,’ Smith replied and sat down, but he did not
replace the glove. ‘Who’re the other fellers you’ve asked,
ma’am?’

‘
Frank
Straw—’ Wil began.

‘
He
won’t be coming,’ Smith commented. ‘Didn’t you know that he’d took
lead in that railroad fuss over to Kansas?’

‘
No!’
Wil admitted.

‘
Wasn’t
you in that same fuss, Mr. Ottaway?’ Smith challenged.

‘
Frank
must’ve got his after I’d pulled out,’ Ottaway replied. ‘And I
don’t recall hearing about it happening.’

‘
Then
Mr. Straw won’t be here,’ Wil said, eyeing Ottaway in a coldly
calculating manner. ‘The other two are C. B. Frith, who has wired
his confirmation, and Seaborn Tragg.’

‘
I’ve
never had dealings with Frith,’ Smith remarked. ‘But Seaborn
Tragg’s married up and gone to live peaceable down to Rockabye
County, Texas.’

‘
So old
Seaborn’s give up being a tin-star, has he,’ Ottaway put in with
false joviality. ‘I’d’ve thought being a John-Law runs in the Tragg
family’s blood.’
^v

‘
The
question is,’ Wil said, ignoring the comment, ‘do you gentlemen
think that three of you can handle the work, or shall I try to
bring in more men?’

‘
I
don’t see that it’ll need so all-fired many more,’ Smith declared.
‘The town’s not Dodge City, nor even Laramie’s far’s size goes.
Against that, you’ve laid on races for horses, chuck-wagons and
fellers on foot. There’s roping contests and a
prize
fight
among her things that’ll bring in the cheaters and sharks. On top
of them, you’ll have the town packed out with visitors all aiming
to have a good time. There’ll be work in plenty, but three of us
ought to be able to handle it. What do you reckon,
Ottaway?’

‘
Being
a man who likes to sleep now and then, I’d go for two or three
more,’ Ottaway replied. ‘Leave us not forget Governor Moonlight and
some important folk’re coming. They need careful
watching.’

That
’s true,’ Wil admitted. ‘In addition
to the Governor, Mr. Smith, there will be members of the
Congressional Committee which is examining Wyoming’s request to be
made a State. If they see the fair carried off peacefully and
without trouble, it will be a big point in our favor.’

Before any more could be said, the door
through which Smith had entered the office was opened.

‘
Hey,
sis,’ greeted Stanley Jeffreys, strolling in. ‘I heard Tal Otta—’
He slammed to a halt, the words trailing away as he caught sight of
Smith. Stabbing his left forefinger in the Texan’s direction, he
demanded, ‘What’s this jasper doing here?’

‘
Mr.
Smith is one of the men I’ve brought in to keep the peace during
the fair,’ Wil answered, her chilly tone showing that she
disapproved of the intrusion.

‘
You
know him from some place, Stan?’ Ottaway inquired.

‘
He was
at the Happy Bull last night—!’ Jeffreys commenced.

‘
Make
sure the rest of it’s as truthful as that,’ Smith
advised.

‘
Well,
Stanley?’ Wil demanded when her brother showed a reluctance to
continue with his statement.

‘
Seems
strange, way you and her don’t get along,’ Jeffreys finally
announced. ‘Him and Lily Shivers was acting real
friendly.’

‘
That’s
right enough, ma’am, ’cept it was more friendly than real,’ Smith
confirmed. ‘One thing you should know. No matter whose pay I’m
drawing, I pick my own friends.’

‘
Even
if the friends’ interests clash with those of your employer?’ Wil
asked, eyes looking with the Texan’s.

‘
If
they do, I change my friends—or employers,’ Smith declared. ‘Only
not necessarily in that order.’

‘
It
needn’t come to that,’ Wil stated. ‘My feelings towards Li—Miss
Shivers are personal and involve only the two of us. Did you want
to see me, Stanley?’

‘
Like I
told you,’ Jeffreys answered, ‘old Ryall said that Tal was in here.
So I came in to ask him when he’s going to let me win the five
dollars back that he took from me pitching horseshoes
yesterday.’

‘
We
won’t be long,’ Wil told him.

Listening to her, Smith formed
the impression that she did not approve of her
brother
’s
friendship with Ottaway. That might be caused by nothing more than
snobbery, but he felt that Wil showed right good sense. From what
he had seen of Jeffreys, Smith doubted if the young man approached
the lady banker in the matter of intelligence. Let a
self-opinionated yack like him keep company with a man of Ottaway’s
kind and he would be liable to wind up in bad trouble. Smith
figured it was none of his affair and kept the thoughts to
himself.

‘
Well,
gentlemen,’ Wil went on. ‘I would like to reach a decision as the
fair starts on Monday. We only have five days left. Do we need
extra men?’

‘
I’ve
been around town for longer than you, Wax,’ Ottaway remarked. ‘And
I say we do.’

‘
I’m
listening,’ Smith replied.

‘
So far
there’s been no trouble around here between the farmers and
ranchers. But some of ’em are fixing to homestead north of the Big
Elk Fork. While Moonlight’s down here’d be a good chance for the
nesters to rile up the cowhands. Then the Grange can start
screeching about what bad
hombres
the ranchers are.’

‘
That’s
one of the reasons I tried to hire you five gentlemen,’ Wil
admitted. ‘Poona Woodstole and Charlie Hopkirk won’t sit back and
let homesteaders take the land they’ve developed and paid for. So,
if nesters cross the Fork, there’ll be trouble which won’t stay
outside town.’