Slip Gun (13 page)

‘
Likely,’ Smith agreed. ‘Only I don’t see how we can stop it
happening.’

‘
I’ve
called a meeting between the ranchers and the head of
the Grange in this
area. They’re all reasonable men and know what’s at stake. It’s the
hot-heads and agitators we have to watch for. Not on the range, but
in town, stirring up bad feelings. That’s where you come in. I’m
counting on you to keep things peaceable.’

‘
Where
do the extra men come from?’ Smith asked.

‘
I
hoped that you—and Mr. Ottaway—could help me hire them.’

‘
Won’t
your local officers give up their vacations and help?’

‘
No,
Mr. Smith,’ Wil replied and, for a moment, she looked embarrassed.
‘It’s been suggested, but they—’

‘
Don’t
cotton to the notion of working with hired guns,’ Smith finished
for her when the words tailed off. ‘Can’t say’s how I blame them
for it, ma’am. I don’t myself.’

‘
Can
you help raise the men?’ Wil insisted.

‘
There’s not a heap of time for us to gather ’em,’ Smith
pointed out and, on an impulse continued, ‘I might be able to raise
one man, though.’

‘
Do I
know him?’ Ottaway asked.

‘
How
would I know who you know?’ Smith countered. ‘Thing being,
I
know
him.’

‘
That’s
a good recommendation,’ Jeffreys sniffed, ‘going by the quality of
some of your friends.’

‘
That’s
enough, Stanley!’ Wil snapped.

‘
Boy’s
got something stuck in his craw, it’s better out,’ Smith drawled,
eyeing Jeffreys with cold disdain. ‘Could be, happen I met ’em, I’d
not reckon much to
his
choice of friends. And, you rile me too much, I’m liable to
tell your sister just how we met at the Happy Bull.’

‘
All
right, Wax,’ Ottaway drawled as Jeffreys relapsed into a sulky
silence. ‘We’ll count your
amigo
in. Come on, Stan. Let’s you and me go around town
to see if anybody’s come in who’s worth hiring— We’ll let you see
’em first, Miss Jeffreys.’

‘
Sure,’
Jeffreys agreed. ‘I might even take the job myself. Let’s
go.’

Watching Wil
’s lips tighten, Smith knew that
he had read her earlier emotions correctly. Yet, although she
clearly disapproved of her brother’s association with Ottaway, she
made no attempt to stop him leaving with the other man. Letting out
a
low sigh as
the door closed, the girl turned a mask-like face to the
Texan.

‘
When
can you start, Mr. Smith?’

‘
As
soon as we’ve talked about money.’

‘
One
hundred dollars on top of the two hundred I’ve already advanced for
the week. Your accommodation, ammunition and reasonable expenses
covered by the town. If you take any wanted men, the reward money
goes whichever way you and the other officers decide to deal with
it.’

‘
Sounds
reasonable,’ Smith admitted. ‘How much do I get for working the
rest of this week?’

‘
Another hundred and the same terms,’ Wil
offered.

‘
You’ve
just hired a man,’ Smith declared.

‘
Arid
this friend of yours?’ Wil wanted to know.

‘
I
reckon he’ll come in,’ Smith replied with a grin. ‘He reckons to be
a pretty good salesman.’

‘
I’ll
not ask what that means,’ Wil decided, without smiling. Opening the
top drawer of her desk, she took out a marshal’s badge and a bible.
‘If you’re ready, I’ll swear you in now.’

‘
How
about your regular marshal?’

‘
He
agreed to start his vacation from the time I appointed a temporary
successor.’

Taking the badge, Smith pinned
it on to his vest
’s left breast. He tried to recall how many times he had
performed such an act since taking up his new profession. With his
right hand on the bible and left raised, he repeated the oath of
office after Wil. One thing he knew for sure. No matter how she
tried to hide it, he had never been sworn in by a prettier person.
Not until the ceremony had ended did he realize that Wil had not
put on her spectacles before reading the words for him to
repeat.

‘
Excuse
me, Miss Jeffreys,’ the teller said, poking his head around the
door after knocking. ‘Mr. Hopkirk and Mr. Wood-stole are waiting to
see you.’

‘
Ask
them to come in,’ the girl replied. ‘Don’t go, Mr. Smith. I would
like you to meet these two gentlemen.’

Smith nodded his agreement. That suggestion
had saved him trying to invent an excuse to remain. He wanted to
meet Poona Woodstole, whose name had been on a message carried by a
man sent to kill him.

In appearance,
the two men who
entered Wil’s office could not have been different. First of them
to come through the door was a short, leathery old Texas rancher.
One of the breed who, in the depression-dark days following the War
Between The States, had helped Texas grow from hide and horn and
reach prosperity,
^vi
and who, later, had
seen the potential of the Wyoming range lands which had been
spurned by the homesteader to whom it had originally been
offered.

Keen eyes twinkled in a seamed,
oak-brown face. To show that he did not hold with new-fangled
contraptions, Charlie Hopkirk carried a cap-and-ball
1860 Army Colt in
his holster. Smith did not regard it as a relic or a
decoration.

Like his partner, Poona Woodstole wore the
dress of a working cowhand. Tall, slim, good-looking, there was an
air of neat, calm ability about him. Balancing the holstered Colt
Peacemaker, a long, wide, curved knife of Oriental aspect swung in
a metal-tipped black leather sheath at the left of his gunbelt.
Directing his attention to the knife, which had a length and heft
that beat even the fabled James Black bowie, Smith saw two smaller
knives fitted into the sheath behind its fancy, quillon-less
hilt.

No matter how Poona Woodstole
dressed, to Smith he looked like a fine example of the British
upper-class; and the Texan had reason to feel gratitude to one of
them. Woodstole was the type of man whose courage, initiative,
self-sacrifice and ability had built a tiny island into what, in
the 1880
’s,
was the most powerful and respected nation in the world.

‘
It’s
here, Wil,’ Woodstole announced, taking a telegraph form from his
vest pocket. ‘Cousin Basil’s bringing them—’

‘
Howdy,
young feller,’ Hopkirk boomed, directing his words at Smith. ‘Don’t
recollect seeing you around.’

Despite the welcome, Smith
guessed that the words had been uttered as a warning and to direct
Woodstole
’s
attention to the fact that there was a stranger in the
office.

‘
This’s
Mr. Waxahachie Smith, Poona, Charlie,’ Wil introduced. ‘Mr. Smith,
meet the owners of the C Lazy P ranch. Charlie Hopkirk and Poona
Woodstole.’

‘
Do we
say “Mister” or “Waxahachie”?’ Woodstole inquired cheerfully,
transferring the paper so that he could extend his right
hand.

‘
Try
“Wax”,’ Smith offered, trying to read any hint of guilty knowledge
on the other’s face and failing. The hand which closed on his had
strength, without deliberately trying to impress him by that
quality.

‘
I mind
ye pappy when he was running the law in Houston,’ Hopkirk stated,
clearly satisfied with the Texan’s
bona fides.
‘Wasn’t you going to tell Wil something,
Poona?’

‘
I
wondered if I’d ever get the chance,’ Woodstole replied with a
smile.

‘
Blasted young whippersnapper!’ Hopkirk sniffed. ‘And don’t
ask me what one of ’em is, Wax. He taught me to say it. Blasted
Britisher.’

‘
Ignoring the ribald peasantry, Wil,’ Woodstole
began.

‘
I
ain’t bald!’ the old timer protested.

Raising his eyes to the roof in
a resigned manner, Woodstole continued,
‘Cousin Basil is bringing them. He’ll
be at Laramie on Friday.’

‘
At
Laramie?’ Wil repeated. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘
Just
one of Basil’s precautions,’ Woodstole explained. ‘He’s not let us
know when he’s coming until the last moment. We’ll meet him at
Laramie and bring him the rest of the way.’

‘
Both
of you?’Wil asked.

‘
Just
me,’ Hopkirk corrected.

‘
I
believe that Cousin Basil’s strong enough to stomach the sight,’
Woodstole informed the girl. ‘So Charlie’s going. Of course, I’m
sending four of the boys along to lessen the blow.’

‘
You’re
probably wondering what all this is about,’ Wil remarked to
Smith.

‘
Yes’m.’

‘
P
oona’s cousin, Sir Basil Houghton-Rand, is British
Ambassador in Washington. He’s bringing his family jewels, worth
five hundred thousand dollars, for us to put on display at the
fair.’

‘
That’s
something I hadn’t heard about,’ Smith said quietly.

‘
We
haven’t been spreading it around,’ Wil admitted. It’s to be in the
newspapers around the Territory on Saturday and will be mentioned
on the posters I’ll have passed around the town
over the weekend.’

‘
Five
hundred thousand dollars!’ Smith ejaculated. ‘That’s a whole slew
of money to have on display.’

‘
Pinkertons are guarding it,’ Woodstole put in. ‘We’re only
sending the extra men to cover the last part of the journey so that
I can get this old goat out from under-foot for a few
days.’

‘
Ranch’ll be in ruins and belly-deep in nesters time I get
back,’ Hopkirk declared in a mournful voice. ‘Still, I’ve told him
so.’

‘
Yes,’
Wil said to Smith. ‘They go on like this all the time.’

‘
Sounds
that way,’ the Texan grinned, having caught the undercurrents of
mutual respect and affection in the caustic comments and
abuse.

Smith had also noticed the
change which had come over Wil Jeffreys since the arrival of
Woodstole. Gone was much of the business-like severity and
efficiency. Although she seemed to be trying to avoid it, she
showed something of the vibrant beautiful woman that lurked beneath
her cold exterior. Almost as if reading the
Texan
’s
thoughts, Wil picked up her spectacles and brought herself back to
the level on which he had first made her acquaintance.

‘
I’ve
arranged for Mr. Bilak—’ she said in an impersonal tone.

‘
Blasted nester!’ spat Hopkirk.

‘
To
come and talk with us,’ Wil continued as if the interruption had
never been made. ‘He will be meeting us at the mayor’s office at
noon. I hope that you remembered to bring documentary proof of your
title to the C Lazy P land, Poona?’

‘
I
did,’ the Englishman assured her, tapping a slight bulge on the
left side of his vest. ‘I fetched the deeds with me.’

‘
You’ve
no objection to Mr. Smith being present at the meeting?’

‘
None,
Wil,’ Woodstole confirmed. ‘How about Bilak, will he be
alone?’

‘
No,’
Wil admitted. ‘He sent word last night that he’s bringing one of
the Grange’s organizers from Cheyenne.’

‘
There
ain’t but one way to deal with that blasted Grange crowd!’ Hopkirk
announced, slamming on his Stetson to emphasize his statement. ‘And
it ain’t to go sitting guzzling Limey tea ’n’ soft-talking all
loving with ’em.’

‘
Bloodthirsty old devil, isn’t he?’ Woodstole sighed, with a
languid, disdainful glance at his bristling partner. ‘Thinks all
the world’s problems can be solved with war-whoops, shooting and
scalp-lifting.’

‘
You
can’t talk peaceable to the son-of-a-bit— Grange!’ Hopkirk warned,
hurriedly revising his final words. ‘All they want’s to grab off
land’s somebody else’s come in, tamed and’s proved worth
having.’

Listening to the old timer,
Smith could scent trouble. Maybe Wil Jeffreys had tried to import
five known gun-fighters to handle the law so that she could compel
peace between the ranchers and the homesteaders during the fair. If
Woodstole and Hopkirk had learned of his coming, they might have
sent Hardy
’s
party to stop him. Except that neither had given any hint that they
might object to his presence. Nor did they appear to have taken any
action against Ottaway.