Authors: Brett Halliday
The Smoking Iron (20 page)
Pat said, “That's a lie an' you know it.” The ford across the river was almost directly on their right.
Jake said, “Don't be callin' me a liar ⦔
And Pat cut him off shortly, “Go for yore gun if you don't like it.”
Jake went for his gun.
Pat waited until it was half-drawn, then killed him with a bullet through the heart.
Jake's horse snorted and leaped sideways as his rider fell. Pat whooped loudly and turned the riderless horse down toward the ford. He whirled and rode in front of the herd, shooting into the ground in front of them and hazing them off the road to follow the horse.
He heard shooting and saw yellow flashes of flame in the night from behind. The startled animals became panicky and broke into a run, bawling with terror and swinging off the road behind their leaders across the water and through the gate which Pat had left open a couple of hours earlier.
He kept his place there in the road to turn every animal across the river.
The last remnants of the stolen herd were galloping by with tails high in the air when Ezra and Dusty rode up excitedly.
“We got both them fellers that was behind,” Ezra shouted. “What do we do now?”
“Nothing.” Pat grinned at him in the moonlight. “Except ride across and close the gate on three hundred an' seventy head of fat stock.”
Ezra's jaw sagged. Then he waggled his shaggy head at Pat. “You had it figgered this way all the time. That's why you left that gate open. So we could run 'em back into the Katie pasture easy.”
Pat said, “I hoped it'd work out this way.” The last frightened animal had floundered through the water and found the open pasture gate on the other side. Silence settled down upon the Rio Grande.
Dusty said, “Miss Katie will be glad to get her stock back.”
“Why don't you go tell her about it?” Pat turned his horse toward the river. “Ezra an' me have got a date with a
tequila
jug.”
Dusty remained where he was. “I better stay on this side of the Border where I belong ⦠where there ain't no law.” His young voice was heavy with hurt and bitterness.
Pat stopped and said, “Yore hawses are waitin' for you at the Katie.”
“They'll have to stay there. I'm ridin' south.”
“Miss Katie'll be mighty disappointed,” Pat warned him. “She's done lost two men she was expectin' to marry in the last twenty-four hours. It'll go mighty hard on her if she ain't got a man to comfort her now. An' she needs somebody to take hold of the Katie an' see there ain't no more rustlin'.”
“
I
can't go back,” Dusty cried out angrily. “You know why I can't. It's better this way. If I go back there I'll never get up the nerve to leave again. An' then some day ⦠when everything looks good ⦠I'll be recognized for a sheriff killer.”
“Oh, that?” Pat laughed and said to Ezra, “Can you imagine that? We done forgot to tell him.”
“Tell me what?” Dusty's voice broke.
“That you ain't no fugitive no more,” Pat chuckled. “That gal, Rosa, killed the sheriff her ownself. You don't have to hide out.”
“Then,” stuttered Dusty, “maybe I better ⦠ride up to the ranch an' tell her about the rustled stock.”
Pat said gravely, “Sounds like a good idea.”
Dusty stammered something further and spurred his horse down the bank to splash into the water.
Ezra and Pat followed more slowly. As they let their horses drink, Pat sighed and muttered, “For no good reason at all, I feel sort of old tonight.”
“We're a couple of damn fools,” Ezra muttered disgustedly. “We ain't got nothin' outta this trip.”
Fading into the night silence they could hear the faint thud of Dusty Morgan's eagerly galloping horse.
“I feel sort of good inside,” Pat Stevens said simply.
“An' I feel sorta empty,” Ezra growled. “Le's go see how much
tequila
there is left at the X L ranch. An' then,” he added hopefully, “why don't we clean out the rest of Boxley's riders?”
Pat said, “We'll do 'er ⦠if there's enough
tequila,
” and they rode on across the river.
About the Author
Brett Halliday (1904â1977) was the primary pseudonym of American author Davis Dresser. Halliday is best known for creating the Mike Shayne Mysteries. The novels, which follow the exploits of fictional PI Mike Shayne, have inspired several feature films, a radio series, and a television series.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1944 by William Morrow and Company, Inc.
Copyright renewed © 1971 by David Dresser
Cover design by Andy Ross
ISBN: 978-1-5040-2492-1
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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