Read Sudden--At Bay (A Sudden Western #2) Online
Authors: Frederick H. Christian
Tags: #pulp fiction, #outlaws, #westerns, #piccadilly publishing, #frederick h christian, #oliver strange, #sudden, #old west fiction, #jim green
Hight smiled and did not press
Sudden further. He dissolved Billy’s puzzled frown by saying ‘We’ll
manage. I have another man who I think will handle the job
admirably — Billy, here.’
‘Me?’ ejaculated the boy. ‘Town
Marshal? An’ who’s goin’ to look after the Lazy H?’ He looked at
his sister who smiled at him slowly and then looked towards the
doctor. Billy finally grinned. ‘Oh, I see he nodded. ‘It looks like
town Marshal or workin’ for Doc an’ Jenny. In which
case—’
‘Yu’ll take it, I suppose?’
finished Hight, joining in the general laughter at Billy’s
predicament. Jenny turned again to Sudden.
‘And you, Jim? Won’t you stay
awhile with us — at least for the wedding?’
‘I’d admire to,’ Green told her.
‘But I oughta be moseyin’ on, soon as Doc tells me I can
ride.’
‘Oh, David, tell him he can’t ride
until after the wedding,’ pouted Jenny Hornby,
charmingly.
‘I don’t imagine he’d believe me,
somehow,’ replied Hight. ‘He probably knows as well as I do that he
could be in the saddle a couple of days from now. The loss of
memory was purely temporary, and Jim’s as healthy as a horse. I
don’t think I could fool him — but I’m still hoping he’ll
stay.’
But in the end, their arguments
availed them nothing, and they reluctantly realized that their
friend was going to leave them. They had one final surprise left
for him, however, which Jenny whispered to him that evening as they
had supper.
‘They’re doin’ what?’ he asked,
amazed.
‘It’s true, Jim,’ she dimpled.
‘Ask David.’
‘Consider yoreself asked, Doc,’
Sudden said. ‘What’s this about changin’ the name o’ the
town’?
‘Oh, it was just an idea we had,’
Hight said airily. Billy stifled a giggle.
‘Come on, Doc — give!’ growled the
puncher threateningly, and Hight smiled.
‘They want to call the town Green
Valley, Jim — if it’s okay with you. As a permanent reminder to
those who were here of what happened.’
Sudden’s face was unreadable; his
friends looked puzzled.
‘Yu don’t like it?’ queried Billy,
anxiously.
Sudden’s voice, when he finally
spoke, was husky with emotion.
‘It’s a fine thought, Doc. But …
yu ought to name it for Davis, mebbe, or Blass. They belonged here.
They gave their lives for this town. Me, I was just ridin’ through,
like that Ishmael fella in the Bible — a born drifter. Not the kind
o’ jasper to name yore town after.’
‘I’ll tell the council,’ Hight
said, finally. ‘But I’m thinking they won’t change their
minds.’
‘Talking of changing minds, have
you changed yours, Jim?’ asked Jenny Hornby. ‘You promised to think
about staying for the wedding.’
Sudden shook his head. ‘The doctor
says I can ride in a couple o’ days, Jenny. I reckon I’ll
mosey.’
‘This town will find it mighty
hard to part with you,’ Hight told him. Sudden shook his
head.
‘Nobody’s indispensable,’ he said,
and Hight thought he detected sadness in the voice. He mentioned
the fact later, as he and Sudden sat on the porch smoking a last
cigarette before turning in. Inside the house, Jenny could be heard
squealing as her brother splashed water at her during the chore of
dishwashing.
‘I hate to see you go, Jim,’ Hight
ventured. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Leave it alone, now, Doc,’ Sudden
said quietly. ‘I’m shore.’
‘Hell, Jim, you may never find
those two men you’re looking for!’ snorted Hight,
disgustedly.
‘Not if I wait for ’em to come to
me. Doc’ Then his voice dropped. ‘Yu ain’t told Billy — about
me?’
Hight shook his head. ‘Never a
word. Why?’
‘Don’t yu. Not for a long, long
time. Mebbe if yu ever hear I’ve done what I’ve set out to do, tell
him then.’
Many years later, when the news
finally reached this sheltered valley that Sudden’s quest was
indeed over, Hight was to recall their quiet conversation, sitting
on the darkened porch beneath the brilliant stars.’’
‘You want to tell me why the boy
shouldn’t know, Jim?’
‘Shucks, that’s easy, Doc. If he
was to hear some o’ the tales that are told about Sudden, he might
just want to defend me —in my absence, like. It ain’t worth
it.’
‘Jim, your thinking does you
credit,’ Hight told him, ‘but you sell yoreself short. Why, I’d be
proud to stand up and tell the world I know you.’
Sudden’s smile was wry. ‘Well …
don’t do it in Texas,’ was all he said.
A few days later, the three men
rode into town, gathering for their final farewell on the porch of
Hight’s little house. The busy sound of hammering, and the yells of
working men came from the skeleton frame of a new stable, being
built upon the cleared site of the charred ruin.
‘When she’s finished, nobody’ll
know that any o’ this ever happened,’ Billy Hornby remarked almost
petulantly.
‘Just as well, that way,’ Sudden
replied. ‘The town’s had its operation. Now the scar’s healin’. The
sooner folks forget the Cottons, the better the place’ll be.’ He
thrust out his hand, the other on the boy’s shoulder.
‘So long, Billy,’ he said,
gruffly. ‘An’ don’t pick any more fights until I’m long gone, yu
hear?’
‘So long, Jim,’ muttered Billy. He
could not, finally, meet the level eyes of his friend without
revealing the tears lurking in his own. Billy watched as the medico
and his protector clasped hands, neither speaking. Then Sudden
mounted the big black, the magnificent stallion impatient to set
out on to the open road after his enforced idleness. Sudden looked
down at his good friends.
‘Green Valley, huh?’ he grinned.
‘Shore is a hell of a name to give a town.’
He lifted a hand in final farewell and turned the
horse towards the north. They watched him thunder up the street,
and within moments the curve hid him from their view. Before them
lay the everyday bustle of the town, with people going about their
business in complete normality. Hight nodded to himself.
Had Green been sent to help them?
Was it possible that the infamous gunfighter Sudden was perhaps
some kind of undercover trouble-shooter? Nonsense, he told himself.
He turned to find Billy frowning at him.
‘I was just wonderin’ about what
Jim said, Doc,’ Billy started. ‘Yu reckon he was agreein’ to us
callin’ the town Green Valley or not? Like he said: it’s kind o’
out o’ the ordinary, ain’t it?’
Hight nodded in agreement.
‘You’re right, Billy,’ he told the
youngster. ‘But the name stays. It’s out of the ordinary, all right
— but so is the man we’re namin’ it after.’
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If you enjoyed this book we recommend others in the
series:
SUDDEN STRIKES BACK
SUDDEN AT BAY
SUDDEN -APACHE FIGHTER
SUDDEN -DEAD OR ALIVE
Also by Frederick H Christian
the Angel series
FIND ANGEL!
SEND ANGEL!
TRAP ANGEL!
HANG ANGEL!
Frederick Nolan, a.k.a. 'Frederick H. Christian', was
born in Liverpool, England and was educated there and at Aberaeron
in Wales. He decided early in life to become a writer, but it was
some thirty years before he got around to achieving his ambition.
His first book was
The Life and Death of John Henry
Tunstall
, and it established him as an authority on the history
of the American frontier. Later he founded The English Westerners'
Society. In addition to the much-loved Frank Angel westerns, Fred
also wrote five entries in the popular Sudden series started by
Oliver Strange. Among his numerous non-western novels is the
best-selling
The Oshawa Project
(published as
The
Algonquin Project
in the US) which was later filmed by MGM as
Brass Target
. A leading authority on the outlaws and
gunfighters of the Old West, Fred has scripted and appeared in many
television programs both in England and in the United States, and
authored numerous articles in historical and other academic
publications.