the Rider Of Ruby Hills (1986) (15 page)

Ross smiled wryly. "That will make it worse! A thousand dollars is money enough to start the blood hunters out.

"Now listen: I'm going to Scott, and I'm going now. Mabry and Burt will be in soon, and they'll hide either here or close to here. They will be standing by in case of emergency, I'll try to communicate with you in case of really serious trouble, and then you can get word to them. If the worst comes to the worst, I'll give myself up to the state officials and make them hold a preliminary hearing right here. I can talk them into that, I think. Then we can get facts in front of them."

"Ross, don't plan on anybody siding with you," May said quickly. "Chubb has been around town with Hanson, and they have frightened everybody. You can't depend on a soul. I don't even know whether I'd have nerve enough to back you up, but I'm afraid Allan will. He's that kind."

The street was dark when Ross Haney stepped out of May's cabin. He did not try to keep out of sight, realizing that such an attempt, if seen, would be even more suspicious. He walked rapidly down the street, staying in the deep shadows, but walking briskly along. Old man Scott was the man he must see. He must get to him at once, and he would know what to do. Also, it would be a place to hide.

Glancing across the street, he saw a half dozen horses standing at the hitch rail in front of the Bit and Bridle. There was light flooding from the windows, and the sound of loud laughter from within.

A man opened the door and stumbled drunk- enly into the street, and for a moment, Ross hesitated, feeling uneasy. The street was altogether too quiet, there was too little movement. He turned at right angles and went between a couple of buildings, starting for the back door of Scott's place. Once he thought he glimpsed a movement in the shadows and hesitated, but after watching and seeing nothing more, he went on up to the back door and tapped gently. The door opened, and he stepped in.

Scott glanced at him, and alarm sprang into his eyes.

"Set down!" he said. "Set down! You've sure been stirrin' up a pile of trouble, Haney!"

He poured a cup of coffee and placed it on the table. "Drink that," he said quietly. "It will do you good."

Scott stared at him as he lifted the cup. "Big trouble's goin' to break loose, Scott," Haney said. "I hope I can handle it."

His ears caught a subtle whisper of movement outside, and his eyes lifted, and then his face went to a dead, sickly white.

Old man Scott had a shotgun, and its twin barrels were pointed right at his stomach.

"Sit tight, son," he said sternly. "A move an' I'll cut you in two!"

He lifted his voice. "All right, out there! Come on in! I've got him!"

The door burst open and Emmett Chubb sprang into the room, and with him were Voyle, Tolman, and Allan Kinney!

Chubb's eyes gleamed, and his pistol lifted. "Well, Mr. Ross Haney, who's top dog now?"

"Hold it!" Scott's shotgun made a sharp movement. "You take her easy, Emmett Chubb! This man's my prisoner. I'm claimin' the reward, right now. Moreover, I'm holdin' him alive for Levitt!"

"You will not!" Chubb snarled. "I'll kill the dirty dog!"

"Not unless you want a blast from this shotgun!" Scott snapped. The old outlaw's blue eyes sparked. "Nobody's beatin' me out of my money! Kinney here, he has a finger in it, maybe, because he tipped me off, but you take him away from me over my dead body."

Baffled, Chubb stared from one to the other. "He's right, Emmett," Kinney agreed. "He got him first."

Ross Haney stood flat-footed, staring from Kinney to Scott. "Sold out!" he sneered. "I might have suspected it!"

Kinney flushed, but Scott shrugged.

"A thousand dollars is a lot of money, boy. I've seen men killed for a sight less."

"Let's take him off to jail then," Chubb said. "This ain't no place for him!"

"He stays right here!" Scott said harshly. "He's my prisoner until Levitt gets him, an' then Levitt can do what he's a might to. Nobody's beatin' me out of that money! Stay here an' help guard if you want, but don't you forget for one minute that he's my prisoner! This shotgun won't forget it!"

Kinney slipped around behind Haney and lifted his guns. Reluctantly, Haney backed in a corner and was tied to a chair. Shocked by the betrayal, he could only stare from Allan to Scott, appalled by the sudden turn of fortune.

From the high, if desperate, hopes of the day, he was suddenly smashed back into hopelessness, a prisoner, betrayed by the men he had had most confidence in. How could they have known he was in town? There was only one way. May must have betrayed him! She and Allan must have planned together, and when he left her house, she must have gotten word to him at once.

Chubb dropped into a chair and pulled one of his guns over into his lap. "I'd like to blast his heart out," he said sullenly. "What you frettin' so about, Scott? You get the money, dead or alive."

"Sure!" Scott said. "And if you kill him you'll lay claim to it. I wouldn't trust you across the street where that much money was concerned! Nor any of you!"

He chuckled, his eyes sneering at Haney. "Anyway, Levitt's top dog around here from now on, an' he's the boy I do business with! I'm too old to be shoved out in the cold at my time of life! I ain't figurin' on it! I'll work with Star an' he'll work with me!"

"I never heard of you bein' so thick with him!" Chubb's irritation was obvious.

Scott chuckled. "Who got him into this country, do you suppose? I've knowed him for years! Who told him this place was right for a smart man? I did! That's who!

"Haney, here, he figured on the same thing. He figured on takin' over when Reynolds an' Pogue were out of it, but he was leavin' too much to chance. Star doesn't leave anything to chance."

Bitterly, Ross Haney stared at the floor. This time he was finished. If Mabry and Burt had gone to May's they would have been sold out, too. He listened, straining his ears for shots, hoping at least one of them would manage to fight it out and go down with a gun in his hand.

The situation was all Levitt's now. The man was a front rider, and these others were with him. He stared at Kinney, and the young man's eyes wavered and looked away. How could he have guessed that such a man would sell him out? And Scott? Of course, the old man was an admitted outlaw, or had been. Still, he had felt very close to the old man and liked him very much.

There was no chance for Sherry now-unless. . . . His eyes narrowed with thought.

What would they do with him? Would they get word to Star that he was a prisoner and then smuggle him out of town to be killed? Or would they bring him out in the open with evidence arrayed against him, or kill him "trying to escape"?

If only there would be some break, some chance to talk to Ward Clymer or the sheriff! Of course, held as a prisoner, with reward posters out and the stories Star and his men would tell, he would find himself in a bad position even before they talked to him, for they would be prejudiced against him and everything he might say. And what evidence had he? Star Levitt would have plenty, and as May had told him, no one in town would testify for him against Star.

They were frightened, or they were getting on the band wagon.

He was through.

Unless-there was a vague hope-Mabry and Burt had not come in. If they could somehow free him. Knowing the manner of men they were, he knew they would not hesitate to make the attempt.

Chapter
XVI

Back to the Wall

In the back room of the store the night slid slowly by and crawled into the gray of day, slowly, reluctantly. The rising sun found the sky overcast, with no opening in the clouds through which it could shine down on the clustered false-fronted frame buildings and adobes of Soledad. A lone Mexican, a burro piled twice its own height with sticks, wandered sleepily down the town's dusty street.

Pat walked out of the Bit and Bridle, stared at the sky, and then turned and walked back within. A pump rattled somewhere and then began a rhythmical speaking.

Half asleep in his bonds, Ross Haney heard the water gushing into the pail in spouts of sound. He stirred restlessly, and his chair creaked. He opened his eyes to see four pairs of eyes level at him. Emmett Chubb, Voyle, Allan Kinney, and Scott all sat ready and watchful. His lids fluttered and closed. Behind them his mind began to plan, to contrive.

No man is so desperate as a prisoner. No man so ready to plan, to try to think his way out. If only his hands were free! In a few minutes, an hour at most, the stage would rattle down the street and halt in front of the Cattleman's Hotel, and the passengers would go into the cafe to eat. Later they might go upstairs to sleep. During that interval, he would know his fate. He touched a tongue to dry lips.

"Al," Scott said suddenly, "you take this here shotgun. I'll throw together a few ham an' eggs. I'm hungry as a hibernatin' bear in the springtime!"

Tolman, who had left earlier, returned now and stuck his head in the door. "Stage a-comin!" he said. "An' Syd Berdue just blowed in!"

"That VV bunch in yet?" Chubb asked, without turning his head. "When Dolph Turner gets in, you tell him about this. He'll see that Levitt knows first of all!"

Scott was working around the room, and soon it was filled with the pleasant breakfast smell of frying ham and eggs and the smell of coffe. Despite his worry, Haney realized he had been hungry, and for the first time recalled he had eaten nothing the night before.

Emmett Chubb got up. He was a stocky, swarthy man with a square jaw and a stubble of beard. His hair was unkempt, and when he crossed the room to splash water on his face and hands, Ross noted the worn guns had notches carved in them, three on one gun, five on the other. Eight men.

"The only thing I'm sorry for," Chubb said as he dried his hands, his eyes on Haney, "is that I didn't get the chance to shoot it out with you in the street!"

His black eyes were sneering and cold. "I'd like to put you in the dust," he said. "I'd like to see you die!"

"Well," Haney said dryly, "my hands are tied, so you're safe enough to try.

"You're a lot of yellow-backed double- crossers. You, Chubb, are a cheap murderer. You blew town fast enough after killin' Vin Carter or you'd have had a chance to draw on me-or run."

Chubb walked across the room and stopped, his feet apart, in front of Haney. Lifting his open palm, he slapped Ross three times across the mouth. Scott did not turn, and Kinney shuffled his feet on the floor.

"Maybe Levitt will give me the job," he said harshly. "I hope he does!"

The door opened suddenly and three men stood there. Ross Haney's head jerked up as he saw Levitt. Star Levitt glanced from Chubb to Scott and then indicated the men with him.

"Neal an' Baker, of the rangers. They want the prisoner!"

Chubb stared, disappointment and resentment struggling for place in his eyes. "Here he is! Scott's been holdin' him."

Neal bent over Haney and cut the ropes that tied his arms. "You come with us. We're havin' the hearin' right now."

Haney turned and as he started toward the door, he saw Scott smiling. The old outlaw looked right into his eyes and winked, deliberately.

What did that mean? Scowling, Haney walked across the street toward the hotel. Neal glanced at him a couple of times. "You know a man named Mabry?"

"Bill Mabry?" Ross turned to Neal, astonished. "Why, sure. He works for me, an' a mighty good man!"

"When Clymer asks the questions," Neal said, "give him the information you have straight! honest, and without prejudice."

Puzzled by the suggestion, Ross Haney walked into the room and was shown to a chair.

A big man with a capable, shrewd-looking face glanced at him sharply and then went back to examining some documents on a table. Several other men trooped in, and then Sherry and Bob Vernon walked into the room. More and more astonished, Ross stared from one to the other, trying to see what must have happened.

He had never believed that Levitt would allow Clymer to confront the Vernons or himself, if it could be avoided. Yet here they all were, and it looked like a showdown. Allan Kinney was there, and May. The pretty waitress glanced at him, and he averted his eyes. Scott had come over, and Star Levitt was one of the last to come into the room.

From the dark expression on Levitt's face, he decided all could not be going well for the big man, and the thought cheered him. Anything that was bad news for Levitt was sure to be good news for him.

Ward Clymer sat back in his chair and looked over the room, his eyes noncommittal. "Now, friends," he said briskly, "this is an entirely informal hearing to try to clarify the events leading up to the battle between the Reynolds and Pogue factions and to ascertain the guilt, if any, of those who are here with us."

"Also," he glanced at Haney, "I am informed that Ross Haney, the cattleman, is held on a charge of murder for the slaying of one Kerb Dahl, a cowhand from the VV. If such is the truth, and if the evidence warrants it, Ross Haney will be taken south to the county seat for trial. In the meantime, let us examine the evidence."

"Mr. Levitt, will you tell us the events that preceded the fight between Reynolds and Pogue?"

Star Levitt got to his feet, very smooth, very polished. He glanced around, smiled a little, and began. "It seems that before I arrived in the Ruby Hills country there had been considerable trouble over water and range rights, with sporadic fighting between the two big outfits. The VV, owned by the Vernons, was not involved in this feud, although there seemed to be some desire on the part of both outfits to possess the VV holdings and water. On the day the fight started, there was some minor altercation over branding, and it led to a shooting which quickly spread until most of the hands on both sides were involved, with resulting deaths."