A Wolf in the Fold

Prologue

They didn’t hear me, which was how I wanted it. I slipped into the canyon well before the moon rose above the east rim and worked my way down to their shack. Gruff voices and an occasional laugh told me they were there. In the corral were the thirty head they had stolen.

I firmed my grip on the scattergun and stalked to within a pebble’s toss of a side window, which was covered by a piece of hide. No one could see in, and no one could see out either, unless they moved the hide. Training both barrels on the square of light, I cat footed to the corner.

So far, so good. But in my profession it’s the yet-to-do that can do you in. I crept toward the front door. With any luck I could kick it in and let them have both barrels before they so much as blinked.

I’m partial to shotguns for close-in work. Mine was a double-barreled twelve-gauge made by an outfit in England. I’d sawed off all but six inches of barrel and whittled down the stock to a stub so I could carry it under my slicker, or, for that matter, under my vest, with no one the wiser. All I had to do was loop a piece of rawhide over my shoulder so the scattergun hung free and easy, and I was in business.

I was maybe two steps from the door when I thumbed back the first hammer. With the noise they were making, I figured they wouldn’t hear. What I didn’t count on was Ned Wheatley having to heed nature’s call. Light spilled into the night, catching me in its glare, and it was hard to say who was more surprised, the old rustler or me.

To his credit Wheatley didn’t panic. He kept his wits about him and clawed for his Smith & Wesson, bawling over his shoulder, “It’s him, boys! Lucifer himself!”

I’ve been called a lot of things but never that, although when you think about it, it fits. The flattery aside, I let Ned Wheatley have the right barrel full in the gut, which had the same effect as cutting loose on a cantaloupe at that range. Wheatley was lifted off his feet and flew backward, his innards exploding every which way. I truly believe he was dead before he smashed into the table and upended it and a couple of chairs, besides.

The other three were caught with cards or glasses in their hands. Spike Thompson recovered first and snaked a hand for his Colt. I gave him the second barrel square, as much for the splatter as for the fact that Spike was the one who bragged in town that no so-called miserable excuse for a Regulator would ever make worm food of him. A person should be careful what they say.

Some of the gore caught Festus Blish in the face and Festus instinctively jerked away. It slowed his draw. My Remington cleared leather before his revolver. I shot him in the chest and he started to melt, but I was already spinning toward the last rustler.

Pettigrew was on his feet. He favored a cross-draw and he was pretty slick at it, too, but in his haste he snagged his long-barreled Whitney on the table. I shot him between the eyes, then crouched to finish off those that needed finishing, but they were all down and would stay down this side of evermore.

Folks say I’m a cold-blooded cuss, but with all the body parts and brains and whatnot lying about, I needed a drink as much as the next man. I leaned against the jamb, took out my flask, and treated myself to a healthy swig. The coffin varnish burned clear down to my toes.

I smacked my lips in satisfaction at a job well done. Of course, it doesn’t do to put the cart before the horse, and I had a lot of work left to do before I could collect. There’s another gent in the same business who likes to put rocks under the heads of those he kills, but me, I take their ears. That way I’ve got proof, yet I don’t have to tote the bodies all over creation. I shucked my boot knife and set to work, and soon my pouch bulged with eight ears.

I didn’t bury the deceased. Hell, why should I? It wasn’t likely anyone would pay their shack a visit before all the flesh rotted from their bones, so I let them be. That, and I’m as lazy as the next man.

Brisco was where I had left him. The roan knew better than to run off. The last time he pulled that stunt, I staked him out under the hot sun for three days without water. Nothing like a powerful thirst to teach a horse to mind its betters.

I headed for the Tyler spread. I admit I was feeling pretty good. Soon my nest egg would grow. But once again I was mixing my carts and my horses. Until you have the money in hand, never spend it in your head.

Judging by the North Star, midnight came and went by the time I drew rein in front of the main house. I was bone tired after a week on the stalk, so I wasn’t as alert as I should be. Which explains why the click of the hammer took me unawares. Naturally, I hiked my hands and said, “Hold on, hoss. Your boss is expecting me.”

I reckoned it was one of the hands. But no, it was the big sugar himself, Bryce Tyler, who strode out of the shadows into the moonlight, a level Winchester at his hip. “Am I, now?” he said with a grin.

I relaxed and started to lower my hands.

“Keep reaching for the sky,” Tyler said.

“What is this?” I was mighty confused.

“Is it done?”

“Of course it’s done,” I snapped, annoyed by his treatment. “And I’m here to collect the rest of my fee.”

“Five hundred in advance and five hundred after,” Tyler quoted our agreement, his bald pate bobbing. “Did you bring them?”

I started to reach under my vest for the pouch but thought better of the notion. “The ears? Yes.”

“Are you sure you’re not part Apache?”

“Whatever gave you that notion?”

“How else can you do the things you do? What does this make? Twenty-nine? And you without ever so much as a scratch.”

I couldn’t decide if he was serious or poking fun.

“Then there’s this business with the ears. What kind of depraved human being mutilates folks like that? What sort of man are you, Lucius Stark? How is it you’re so fond of killing?”

Forgetting myself, I shrugged. “It’s a job. I do what I have to. Now, suppose I give you the ears and you give me the rest of the money I’m due, and we part company and go our separate ways?”

That was how it should be. When we first met, we shook hands, sealing our word. Nine times out of ten those who hire me prove trustworthy. But there is always that tenth time, that tenth hombre, who thinks that giving his word to a Regulator is not really giving his word at all.

“I’ve been thinking,” Tyler said.

I swore.

“Now, now. Let’s keep a civil tongue. Five hundred is more than enough for four measly rustlers.”

“We agreed to a thousand.”

“Yes, we did, but that was before I sat down and talked it over with my wife.”

There it was. He had come right out and admitted it. “We also agreed no one else was to know you hired me. It was one of the conditions I set. Remember?”

Tyler took another step, the Winchester’s muzzle pointed at my head. “Conditions change. I didn’t feel right not telling her. She has as much of a stake in this ranch as I do.”

“You gave your word,” I reminded him. I always reminded them. Not that it ever did any good.

“Don’t lecture me, assassin,” Tyler spat. “Just take the five hundred and go. Take the ears, too, because I sure as hell don’t want them.”

By then I was good and mad. If there is anything I hate worse than a no-account who goes back on his word, I have yet to come across it. “What about your missus?”

The question caused him to blink. “What about her?”

“Maybe your wife wants the ears to hang over the mantel. Trophies of the time you hired a Regulator and made a damn fool out of him by cheating him and sending him skulking away with his tail between his legs.”

“I don’t much like your tone,” Tyler said. “And I’ll thank you not to speak ill of my wife. She is the salt of the earth, my Mildred. It was her brainstorm to hire you in the first place.”

I was flabbergasted. He had lied all along. He and the missus had planned the whole thing, including their swindle of me. I gave him one last chance, though. Folks say I don’t have a shred of decency in me, but they don’t have to put up with the nitwits I have to put up with. Like the Tylers. “Please. I’m asking you nicely. Give me my money and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“Haven’t you been listening? Five hundred is all you are going to get.” He wagged the Winchester. “Were I you, I’d light a shuck while I still can.”

“Do you have any sprouts?”

Tyler cocked his head as if he was not quite sure he had heard the question right. “Do you mean children? No, we don’t.” Then he added, lowering the rifle an inch or so, “Not for a lack of trying. We’ve been to the doc and tried a few patent medicines, but nothing seems to work.” He paused. “Why did you want to know, anyway?”

“Because I don’t shoot kids.” I snapped my left wrist out and down and the derringer slid into my palm as neatly as you please. The shot wasn’t that loud. He stood there a full thirty seconds before it occurred to his brain that his forehead had a hole in it. Buckling at the knees, he sprawled at my feet.

I swung down and was across the porch in a twinkling. Sure enough, Mildred had been listening just inside. When I yanked the door open, she recoiled in horror with a hand to her throat.

“You shot him!”

“I damn sure did.” I held out my left hand. “The rest of the thousand, lady, and you can bury him come morning.” I admit her red hair got to me, the way it shimmered so; otherwise I would not have been so charitable.

Mildred sputtered and made sounds that reminded me of the time I strangled a cat. Then she poked a finger at my chest and lit into me in female fury. “I’ll see you hang! The whole countryside will be after you! Find a hole and crawl into it, but it won’t help. Your days are numbered!”

“The money, lady.” I was losing my patience.

Mildred made the mistake of glancing at the ceiling. Then she poked me again and said, “All I have to do is holler and our hands will rush to my aid.”

The bunkhouse was a hundred yards or more from the main house. Odds were, the cowpokes had not heard the derringer, but a woman’s scream was something else. “Are you going to give me what’s due me or not?”

Mildred drew herself up to her full height. “You can go to hell, sir.”

“Damned contrary critters.” I jammed the derringer against her chest about where her heart should be, and shot her. She collapsed in a tidy heap without another sound. Eventually folks would tie the dead rustlers to me and me to the Tylers, and the newspapers would brand me as vicious and vile, as they always did, and demand that something be done about the notorious Lucius Stark. They had been demanding it for quite a spell, but so far no one had been able to oblige them.

I went up the stairs three at a bound. The bedroom was directly over the parlor. I looked in the jewelry box and the closet and opened every drawer but did not find the money. I tried under the bed and in the pillowcases and under the mattress and was about to give up when I noticed a pair of boots between the night table and the bed. Her boots, not his, boots so new, I doubted she’d ever worn them. I shook each and upended the second and out tumbled a roll. Evidently the Tylers did not trust banks and Mildred had not trusted Bryce to hold on to their savings. I stopped counting at four thousand, rolled the money back up, and slid the roll into my pocket. It made a nice bulge.

Mildred was still alive. As I stepped over her she stirred and moaned, so I placed my boot on her throat until she was still.

About to climb on Brisco, I heard a sound from the direction of the bunkhouse. A lamp had been hit and figures were spilling outside.

“Mr. Tyler?” a cowboy called out. “Is that you?”

“Yes,” I answered, reining Brisco around.

“It doesn’t sound like you!”

“I have a cold.” I gigged Brisco. Shouts broke out. By the time the cowboys reached the main house I was safely shrouded in darkness. Some of the lunkheads began shooting at the sound of the hoofbeats, and some of their slugs came uncomfortably close. Bending low over the saddle, I lashed Brisco into a gallop.

All in all, it hadn’t been a bad night. The job got done, I got paid, and the son of a bitch and his conniving wife who intended to cheat me got their due.

Then other hooves drummed. Tyler’s hands were after me. I tried to recollect the lay of the land, but I had only been over it once. There was a creek to the north sprinkled with stands of trees. It wasn’t much cover, but it was all that was to be had.

I reined Brisco north, and to add sugar to the pie, I let out with a whoop that the cowboys were bound to hear.

Excited yells greeted my outcry. They reckoned I was heading for the creek, exactly as I wanted. But I only went a short way before I cut to the west and slowed Brisco to a walk. After a hundred yards I drew rein and slid down. I did not have much time. Gripping the bridle, I tugged on Brisco’s mane. It had taken me the better part of a month to teach him this trick back when he was knee-high to the stallion that sired him, and on more than one occasion it had saved my hide.

Brisco sank onto his side and I shucked my rifle from the saddle scabbard and hunkered behind him, just in case. The thunder of pursuit grew louder and louder, and soon I saw them, eight or nine, riding hell bent for leather. They passed within fifty or sixty feet of me and did not spot me. As soon as the night swallowed them, I shoved the rifle back into the scabbard, brought Brisco up off the ground, and cantered south.

Ten days later I reached Denver. I took my usual room. Several letters were waiting for me. One was a job offer from Kansas. A sodbuster wanted some Indians killed. They had taken his milk cow, and he offered me a hundred dollars to wipe out the whole blamed tribe. I tore his letter up. My fee was a thousand dollars. Everyone knew that.

The next offer was from Utah. A Mormon gent was upset that another Mormon gent married all three of his sisters and promised me a thousand plus one of his sisters if I would fill the other Mormon gent with more holes than a sieve. I liked the idea of the sister and set the letter aside.

The third letter interested me more, though.

I decided to give myself two days to rest up and then head out. The plain truth is, a Regulator’s work is never done.