The Man From Nowhere

Chapter 36

Oates passed Rivette at a gallop, jerking his rifle from the scabbard. He’d seen a sudden puff of gray smoke from the top of an aspen-covered rise just ahead of him. He threw his rifle to his shoulder and fired as he rode, dusting shots along the top of the ridge.

Still at a flat-out gallop, Oates hit the incline and urged the paint higher. Among the trees a man struggled to his feet, bringing up a Winchester. Oates fired, then fired again. The man staggered, dropped the rifle and crashed backward into the frosted underbrush.

Oates swung out of the saddle, hit the incline at a run and reached the top of the rise. He dived into the aspens, where the man he’d shot sat up and lifted a hand in supplication.

“Don’t shoot me no more, Mister,” he gasped. “I’m done.”

Oates turned, lifting his Winchester as he heard footsteps behind him. When he saw it was Rivette, he relaxed. “I thought you’d been hit,” he said.

“Bullet came damned close, that’s why I lit out of the saddle,” Rivette said. “I was looking for a hole to crawl in. Then I saw you ride past like a Comanche.” He looked down at the wounded man. “This the bush-whacker?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” Oates answered.

“Let me be,” the man whispered. “I’m all shot to pieces.”

“You should have considered that possibility before you tried to rob the stage,” Rivette said.

The puncher looked to be no more than eighteen years old, a redhead with freckles across the bridge of his pug nose. He had a fresh wound in his left shoulder and an earlier one just above his belt buckle. The front of his shirt was covered in black blood.

“Where’s Darlene and them?” Oates asked.

“I dunno,” the kid said. “They told me they’d be back with a doctor. Then as they walked away, I heard Clem laugh and I knew they wasn’t planning on coming back ever.”

“What happened at the Circle-T?” asked Oates. “Where is Tom Carson?”

“Speak truthfully boy, your time is short,” Rivette said. “You’ll meet your Maker soon and this isn’t the time to lie, no.”

“You two lawmen?”

“Yes, we are,” Rivette answered without hesitation. “And we don’t take kindly to lying.”

“My name is Randy Collins and my ma lives in El Paso, Texas. Her—her name is Agnes.” The boy lifted pleading eyes to Oates. “Tell her . . . tell her I’m sorry I was buried in foreign soil.”

“I’ll tell her,” Oates said. “Now, what happened at the Circle-T?”

A flurry of snowflakes landed on Collins’ face. Oates gently wiped them away.

“Tom Carson is dead,” the kid said. “Charlie killed him. He tried to make it look like an accident, but nobody believed him. He said that Mr. Carson fell off his hoss and hit his head on a rock, but everybody knowed that Tom Carson didn’t fall off hosses.”

“Darlene wanted it all in a hurry, huh?” Rivette asked.

“Yeah, an’—an’ I made the mistake of throwin’ in with her. Charlie said once the ranch belonged to Miss McWilliams, I’d be made top hand.” A frown gathered between Collins’ eyes. “Well, now look at me.”

“Why did Darlene and her brother leave in such an all-fired hurry?” Oates asked. “Carson was dead and the ranch was hers.”

The boy shook his head. “I’m hurtin’ real bad. My belly’s on fire. I—I need a drink of water.”

“I’ll get the canteen,” Rivette said.

“Warren, is that wise? I mean giving a gut-shot man water?”

“Do you really think it matters a hill of beans, Eddie?”

“No. No, I guess it doesn’t.”

Rivette returned with the canteen, lifted the boy’s head and let him drink. Collins coughed, then said, “It was the hands that done for Darlene. The only law at the Circle-T is cowboy law. That’s how Mr. Carson set it up, and that’s how it was with him.

“The boys knowed that Charlie had done for their boss and that Darlene had give the order. About thirty Circle-T hands gathered at the bunkhouse and they’re a hard, unforgiving bunch. It didn’t take them long to pass sentence on Darlene and her brother They were all for hanging them right there and then.”

The light was fading from Randy Collins’ blue eyes and as he stepped to the threshold of eternity, he was scared. “You boys will stay with me until . . . until . . .”

“We’ll stay,” Oates said.

“The pain is getting worse all the time and I don’t want to die out here alone.”

“We’ll be here,” Oates assured him. “And we’ll see you off in fine style, I promise.”

“How did Darlene and Charlie escape?” Rivette asked.

“One of the hands who was agin lynching warned her in time. Darlene and Charlie lit a shuck in a big hurry and me, Mash Halleck and his son Clem covered our back trail. We had a running fight with the Circle-T that lasted most of the day. Then we lost them at night in the Gila. Far as I know, most of them boys are still hunting us. They’re fired up.”

“Why did you try to rob the stage, boy?” Rivette asked. “Speak plain now.”

“A road stake. That was all, just a road stake. We didn’t count on the crazy old coot of a guard and his scattergun.”

“The crazy old coot was Ethan Savage,” Rivette said. “He’d already killed his share before you were born.”

“Did you hear Darlene say anything about a town called Heartbreak?” Oates asked.

Collins shook his head. “I don’t know nothing about that.” He groaned deep in his throat. “I’m hurting real bad,” he said. “I can’t stand this much longer.”

“Take your medicine, boy,” Rivette said, his face grimmer than Oates had ever seen it.

“I can’t,” Collins whispered. His white lips were peeled back from his teeth in a silent scream. “My gut is being torn apart by claws.” He looked up at Oates. “Mister, I’ve told you what I know, so I’m dying clean. He . . . the Man upstairs will take that into account, huh?”

“He’ll study on it for sure.”

Oates rose to his feet and turned to Rivette. “What do we do with him, Warren? He’s hurting more than any man should.”

Rivette nodded. He drew his gun and fired once. And the kid’s hurting was over forever.

“I didn’t mean that!” Oates said, horrified.

“It’s all we could do for him. I hope if I’d been lying there, you would have done the same for me.”

Oates looked down at his feet and shook his head. “Lordy, but we’re living in hard times.”

“And there’s worse coming down,” Rivette said. “We better head back to Heartbreak.”

“Darlene?”

“Count on it.”

“What are we going to do about the dead kid?”

“Nothing.”

Oates nodded. “Well, I guess that answered my question.”

“Eddie, it was the only answer to your question.”