Authors: Robert J. Randisi
When Sam woke up the first thing he saw was Serena’s face.
“Thank God,” he said.
“What?” she asked.
“I thought when I opened my eyes I’d see one of my brothers,” he said. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.
“I much prefer this.”
“Sam,” she said, “I think that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“I must be delirious,” he said, and passed out again.
The next time he woke up he saw Evan.
“I knew it was too good to be true.”
“Serena sat up all night with you,” Evan said. “But now she needs some sleep.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“You want to tell me what happened?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, “they improved by one.”
“What?”
“Eight of ’em this time.”
“Eight?”
“Yeah. They were running me down, feeling brave. I killed one of them…” He trailed off, his mouth going dry.
“Put the fear of God into the others, huh?”
“Yeah, fella I killed got off a shot, though. I must be gettin’ old.”
“That’s more than a lot of people can say,” Evan said.
“You want some water?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
Evan lifted his brother’s head and held the water glass to his lips.
“Thanks.”
“Get some more rest, Sam,” Evan said. “You lost a lot of blood.”
“Gotta get up…”
“Yeah, sure,” Evan said, “later.”
“Later…” Sam said.
When Serena walked into the room Sam was sitting up, reaching for his pants. It was a clean pair that had come from the Miller
store.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I think I’m tryin’ to reach my pants,” Sam said.
“When I reach them I’m gonna try to put them on. Do you wanna watch?”
She folded her arms and said, “What happened to that sweet man who was here last night?”
He looked up at her and let his arm drop because he couldn’t hold it out any longer.
“He’s here someplace,” Sam said. “Will you help me get my pants?”
“I would help him,” she said, “but I don’t know about you.”
“Please…”
She dropped her arms and approached the bed.
“Sam, you shouldn’t be getting up.”
“If you don’t help me, I might fall once or twice, but eventually I’ll make it.”
“You’d do that, wouldn’t you?”
“Serena,” Sam said, “it’s just a leg wound. I’ve been shot before.”
She stared at him and then said, “I don’t know why that hadn’t occurred to me before. How many times have you been shot?”
“Serena—”
“How many?”
“Four, maybe five.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“You don’t even remember?”
“Okay,” he said, “it was five.
Now
will you help me get dressed?”
“I’ll get you your clothes,” she said, picking up his pants and flinging them at his face, “but you can dress yourself.”
As she stalked from the room he pulled his pants from his face and said, “That’ll do.”
Serena had already alerted Evan and Jubal that Sam was dressing. Dude Miller had gone back to work full time and was at his
store.
“Maybe one of you should go up and help him,” she said, “so that he doesn’t fall down too many times.”
“He’ll be fine,” Evan said.
She stamped her foot, surprising them, and said, “That’s what you said last night, and was he all right?”
“I only meant—”
“I know what you meant,” she said. “I’ll be in the kitchen making coffee.”
“What is she so mad about?” Jubal asked.
“She’s a woman.”
“What does that mean?”
“Jube,” Evan said, “you’ve made it to twenty-four and you don’t know what that means?”
Jubal was about to answer when they saw Sam coming down the steps. He looked steady enough and they both remained seated rather
than offer him a hand.
“You’re looking fit,” Evan said.
Sam reached the floor and limped to a chair.
“I feel like hell.”
“You should have stayed in bed.”
Sam settled himself in the chair and said, “I’d feel worse up there.”
“I’ve told Jubal what happened,” Evan said. “Is there anything you’d like to add?”
“Yes,” Sam said. “I don’t believe there’s any gold on Pa’s old land.”
“No gold?” Jubal asked.
“Then what do they need a geologist for?” Evan asked.
Sam told them about the mud he’d found at the stream and the water hole.
“There was black mud on your pants and your boots.”
“Yes.”
“What does it mean?” Jubal asked.
“Oil,” Evan said.
“Oil?” Jubal asked.
Evan looked at Sam.
“Am I right? Is that what you’re thinking?”
“Yes,” Sam said. “I saw the geologist run some tests, and then he took some of the mud back to the ranch with him.
“Oil,”
Evan said. “No wonder Burkett wanted that land so badly.”
“But…how did he know there was oil?”
“Probably the same way we found out,” Sam said. “He probably did a lot of looking around before deciding what land he wanted.”
“Did Pa know, I wonder?” Evan said.
“I was wondering about that myself,” Sam said. “I have a theory.”
“What theory?”
“We all knew Pa,” Sam said. “We all agree he wouldn’t kill Ma and then kill himself.”
“That’s right,” Evan said, and Jubal nodded.
“But if he thought his life was in danger, what would he do?”
After a moment Evan said, “I think he’d try to leave us a message.”
“A message?” Jubal asked. “How?”
“Yes,” Sam said, looking at his brothers, “how? That’s for us to figure out.”
At that moment Serena entered, carrying a tray with three steaming cups of coffee on it.
She offered the tray first to Evan, then to Jubal, and finally walked over to where Sam was seated. For a moment he thought
she was going to dump it in his lap, but in the end she held the tray out to him until he took the cup from it.
“Thank you.”
“Hmph,” she said, and went back to the kitchen.
“What’s she so mad about?” he asked.
“She’s a woman,” Jubal said.
“Ah,” Sam said, “our little brother is becoming worldly, isn’t he?”
Jubal smiled, and Evan frowned at him.
“Sam, where should we look for this message?”
“As I said, that’s something we’ll have to figure out together.” “What about the house?”
“What house?” Sam asked Jubal. “The big one?”
“No, I mean the house they were living in when they were…killed.”
“That’s certainly a possibility,” Sam said. “We should check the house.”
“And where else?” Evan asked.
They all thought about that for a while and then Sam said, “There might be a couple of places.”
Sam and Evan exchanged a rather meaningful glance that Jubal caught.
“What?”
“Well,” Evan said, “there was a certain area where Pa used to take us hunting when we were younger—uh, Sam and me.”
“Could be he’d leave a message there someplace, figurin’ we’d find it.”
“Out in the open?” Jubal asked. “Rain might ruin it, or an animal.”
“Under a rock, maybe,” Evan said.
“Or in a hollowed-out log,” Sam said. “I suggest we check the house first.”
“And I suggest we do it together, Sam,” Evan said. “I don’t know if Burkett’s men were acting on their own this time, but
there certainly seems to be a lot of people who want you dead.”
“I agree, Sam,” Jubal said, grinning. “It looks like you need more guarding than Serena.”
“Serena can take care of herself,” she said, entering the room with a cup of coffee of her own. “I have a gun in my room.”
“What kind?”
“A two-shot derringer.”
“That’s not going to stop anyone with any real resolve,”
Evan said. “You’d have to place both shots just right.”
“Evan, why don’t you take Serena to the gunsmith’s shop today and get her a real gun—something she can handle, but something
with stopping power.”
“You’re the gun expert,” Evan said. “Why don’t you take her?”
They all seemed to ignore the fact that only the night before he’d been shot in the thigh.
“All right, I will,” Sam said. “My leg could use the exercise.” “Your leg,” Serena said, “could use some rest. Evan will take
me.”
Sam looked at Evan, who simply shrugged.
“We might as well go now,” Serena said, “before he closes.”
“What time is it?” Sam asked.
“It’s almost five,” Serena said. “I’ll fix dinner when I get back.”
“Almost five?” Sam asked, dismayed. “The whole damned day is gone. Why didn’t you get me up sooner?”
“You needed the rest!” Serena said as a parting shot. She and Evan went out the front door.
When they were gone Sam rubbed his aching leg and glared at Jubal.
“Don’t look at me. She wouldn’t let us wake you up.”
“Big, strong men,” Sam said, still rubbing his thigh.
“Who patched me up?”
“Doc Leader. I had to drag him over here to do it, and he charged—well, a lot.”
“Who paid?”
“Me and Evan.”
“I owe you.
“Yes, you do.”
Sam finished his coffee, set the empty cup aside, and stood up.
“What are you going to do?”
“Go upstairs,” Sam said. “When Evan gets back we can ride out to the house.”
“You going to sleep?”
“No,” Sam said, “I’m gonna clean my guns.”
As Sam negotiated the steps slowly Jubal thought that sounded like a damned good idea.
Evan and Serena argued and finally settled on a .34 caliber Colt Paterson. It had stopping power but was light enough for
Serena to control. They bought her a holster for it.
“I feel silly,” she said, trying it on.
“Better to be silly than dead,” Evan said.
“I’m not a fast gun.”
“A holster is just something to carry a gun in,” Evan said. “You’re not required to get it out quickly, just efficiently.”
“Did Sam tell you that?”
“Actually, no,” Evan said. “It might surprise you to know that I’ve had a few gun battles of my own and survived. I was always
able to make my first shot count by not rushing it.”
“You’ve killed people?”
“You forget what happened earlier this week.”
“That was different.”
“It was? How?”
“It was self-defense.”
“I’ve only ever killed in self-defense, Serena.”
“I don’t know if I could—”
“Serena,” Evan said, “what do you suppose would have happened if you’d been wearing that gun the night those three men dragged
your father from the house?”
Without hesitation she said, “I would have killed them!”
She looked shocked at her own words and he grinned.
“See?”
“Shut up.”
Sam had his guns laid out on the bed and was cleaning the rifle when Evan entered the room. The rifle was his own Winchester,
and not one from the gunsmith shop.
“Did you get her fixed up?”
Evan sat on the bed and watched his brother work on the rifle.
“Yes. We got her a Colt Paterson, .35 caliber.”
“Good choice.”
“She wanted something bigger, and I wanted her to have something smaller. We compromised.”
“Compromising with a woman is a real bad habit to get into.”
“Don’t worry,” Evan said. “I don’t intend to make a habit of it.”
He took out a deck of cards and began to deal a game of solitaire on the bed while Sam picked up his pistol and began to clean
it.
“You know,” Sam said, “I always envied your ability with a deck of cards.”
“What?” Evan asked, surprised.
“I like to play poker,” Sam said, “but I’m no damned good at it. I haven’t got the patience to sit out a hand and wait for
the next one.”
“You can work on that.”
Sam shook his head and said, “I’m too old a dog for that.”
There was a few moments of silence and then Evan said, “That’s funny.”
“What is?”
“That you should envy me.”
“Why?”
“Well, more than once since we arrived I’ve felt sort of…resentful of you.”
Sam looked up from what he was doing, then put the gun down and sat across from his brother.
“Resentful? Why?”
Evan told Sam what had taken place in the saloon at the poker game, with the loser backing down because Evan was “Sam McCall’s
brother.” Then he told him that the same thing had happened when he ran into John Burkett, Chuck Conners, and the geologist.
Sam stared at his brother and then said, “I guess there ain’t much I can do about that, Evan.”
“I know,” Evan said. “It’s just that it hasn’t happened very often. Now, I sort of wonder why.”
“I suspect you’ve always been able to take care of yourself,” Sam said. “In the circle you travel in, you must have a rep
of your own.”
“I guess I do,” Evan said. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to carry the rep you do.”
“It keeps people at a distance,” Sam said. “I can count my friends on the fingers of one hand.”
“Well, so can I, and I don’t have a rep to blame it on.”
“Maybe it just runs in the family. Pa never had that many real friends that I can remember.”
“No, and I don’t guess that Jube does, either,” Evan said. “I suppose we’re lucky to have one another.”
Sam laughed and said, “Maybe we just like each other because we never see each other.”
“That could be.”
Sam stood up, picked up his gun, and slid it into the oiled leather holster. He strapped the gun on and then picked up the
rifle. Sensing what was coming, Evan collected his cards and put them away.
“Let’s take that ride out to the house,” Sam said.
“Can you ride?”
“Don’t worry,” Sam said. “I’ll manage to stay mounted.”
In the end, gun or no gun, they decided that Serena would go with them. When they reached the house and dismounted they all
heard Sam groan as he put his weight on his right leg. He’d managed not to moan aloud when he mounted, but this time the sound
escaped from him before he could stop it.
Evan and Jubal ignored the sound. Serena opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it.
They entered the house and took the place in at a glance.
“There aren’t many places something could be hidden,”