George rubbed his chin. “Well,” he said, “maybe they did. Come to think of it, them two you killed in town today was out last night. Do you know where they went, Shorty?”

  “You mean Silas and Bert? All I know is they said they was going into town to do some drinking. They was pretty well armed though. I seen them when they left. It was just before dark.”

  “Maybe they done it, Sheriff,” said George. “But if they did, they was on their own. I never give no order like that.”

  “It’s awful handy, ain’t it,” said Slocum.

  “What’s that?” said George.

  “Accusing the dead.”

  7

  At the main gate onto Talley’s ranch, Slocum and Harman stopped their horses. They sat for a moment without speaking, and then Harman said, “I’ll just be heading on back into town, Slocum. I’m sorry, but tell ole Talley there don’t seem to be a thing I can do. My hands are tied. Now, if you could catch one of them doing something—”

  “Like killing someone?” said Slocum.

  “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

  The sheriff turned his horse and went toward town. Slocum sat and watched him go for a while. Then he turned his Appaloosa onto the main road into the ranch. Along the way, he thought about the law. Oh, he believed in it all right, but usually, it seemed that out west, the law was useless. A man had to stand up and fight for what was right or get run over. And it seemed like Talley was in that position right now. Well, he wouldn’t get any more arguments from Slocum. Slocum had gone to the law. He had gone through the motions. Now the law knew what was going on, and it had stepped aside. Its hands were tied, it had said. Wasn’t that the same as to say, handle it yourself? Well, Slocum took it that way.

  Riding along, he tried to think of what would be the next best move. He knew that Talley had the men primed for an all-out attack on the Double Cross, but he wasn’t sure that was the best way. It might be best to just get ready for a surprise attack at sunrise. If the fighting, the killing, was all done on Talley’s property, then it would be that much more obvious who was to blame. Maybe he would make that suggestion to ole Talley when he got back.

  He found Talley sitting alone on the porch of his big ranch house, and he rode up to the porch and dismounted. He walked up the steps and stood looking at Talley.

  “I see the boys broke it up,” he said.

  “They’re ready to ride soon as I give the word,” Talley said.

  “Sheriff says his hands are tied. There’s no proof.”

  “I could a told you he’d say that.”

  “We rode over to the Double Cross. That Roy George said he had nothing to do with it. Said maybe the two I killed in town did it on their own.”

  “Yeah?” said Talley. “I could a told you that, too. You wasted your time, Slocum.”

  “Well, Mr. Talley, I don’t think so. I think that now Harman knows what’s going on, and when we do something, he’ll just kind of look the other way. I don’t think it was a waste of time.”

  “Maybe you’re right. Well, are you with me then?”

  “I’m with you. I have been all along.”

  “Then we’ll attack those sonsabitches at sunrise. You can tell the boys.”

  “I’ll tell them,” Slocum said. He turned to go down the steps, but the voice of Annie Talley from the front door stopped him.

  “Tell them what?” she said.

  Slocum turned. He took the hat off his head.

  “That we’re gonna attack the Double Cross first thing in the morning,” Talley said.

  “I see,” said Annie.

  “The sheriff said there was nothing he could do, ma’am,” Slocum said. “I gave it a try. I rode out to the scene and then over to the Double Cross with him. When we left, he said his hands were tied.”

  “Well,” said Talley, “mine ain’t.”

  “But are you sure about this attack?” Annie asked.

  “It seems like the only thing left to do,” said Slocum.

  “I see,” Annie said. “Well, all right then.”

  “Good night, ma’am,” said Slocum.

  “Good night.”

  “I’ll tell the boys, Mr. Talley.”

  Slocum went down off the porch, mounted his Appaloosa and rode over to the corral. There he unsaddled his horse and turned it loose. He walked on to the bunkhouse. Inside, he found most of the hands. Dancer and Levi were seated on the edge of a bunk studying a Colt revolver. When Slocum stepped in the door, all talk stopped. Everyone looked at him.

  “The boss says we go first thing in the morning,” he said. “Everyone be ready.”

  He headed for his own bunk, and Dancer got up and followed him. Levi tagged along. “So we’re going after them in the morning,” Dancer said.

  “That’s what the old man says,” said Slocum.

  “You going?”

  “How come you to ask me that?”

  “Well, you didn’t seem so hot on the idea earlier.”

  “I thought the sheriff ought to be told. Well, I told him. He ain’t going to do anything. It’s up to us.”

  “I see,” said Dancer. “I didn’t think you was yellow.”

  Slocum looked hard into Dancer’s face, but he made no response.

  “Well, it’s late,” Dancer said. “I reckon we ought to turn in. We got early morning killing to do.”

  “Yeah,” said Levi, nervously. “Good night, Slocum.”

  “Sleep well, boy,” Slocum said.

  The morning came early, but everyone was up and dressing, checking weapons at the last minute. The cook shack served up an early breakfast, and everyone ate hearty. For some, it would be a last meal. Then they all went to the corral to saddle horses. Soon they were all mounted and ready to go, waiting in front of the ranch house. A saddled horse stood waiting at the porch. In another minute, Talley came out with a rifle in his hand. He stepped down off the porch, shoved the rifle into the scabbard at the side of the horse, and mounted up. Then he shouted over his shoulder as he turned his horse, “Let’s go, boys.”

  Slocum rode at Talley’s right, and Dancer rode at his left. Levi rode to Dancer’s left. Elgie Lay rode on Slocum’s other side. The rest of the boys came on behind. It was still dark when they rode under the Double Cross sign at the main gate. The sun was just beginning to light up the horizon in the east as they topped the slight rise off to the front of the ranch house. There was no sign of life down there. Talley held up a hand to halt the march.

  Dancer glanced over at Levi. “Ever shot at a man, kid?”

  “No,” Levi said. “I ain’t.”

  “It’s not hard. Just think of them as targets, and you’ll do all right.”

  “Boys,” said Talley, “it looks like they’re all still asleep down there. We’ll ride in as close as we can get. Don’t shoot till I do, unless someone spots us and starts shooting first. When we do start shooting, make all the noise you can. We don’t want to give them time to wake up.”

  The old man cranked a shell into the chamber of his Winchester and started riding. The others moved right along with him, some chambering shells in rifles, others pulling six-guns out of holsters. They rode slowly at first. Then Talley picked up the pace. By the time they were within shooting range of the ranch house and bunkhouse, they were riding fast. Talley fired a shot through the front window of the ranch house, and then everyone started shooting. Any semblance of organization faded away, as riders circled the ranch house and others raced for the bunkhouse. There was nothing really to shoot at, so they shot out windows.

  Soon, however, shots were returned from both houses. One cowboy dropped off his horse. Some kept riding and shooting. Others dismounted to seek cover and continue the fight. One foolish Double Cross hand came running out of the bunkhouse and was dropped immediately by several bullets. Gradually the shooting slowed down. Men were picking their targets more carefully. Now there were men at the windows shooting back at them, and the men outside were trying to hit them.

  Dancer and Levi were down behind a wagon in front of the ranch house. Levi fired again and again into the windows and the front wall of the house.

  “Hey, kid,” said Dancer, “slow it down. Pick your targets now. Look at that window to the right of the front door. Watch it, and wait for that bastard to show himself. Then shoot.”

  Levi sat still, his heart pounding. Then the man popped up and leveled a rifle out the window. Levi fired, and the man dropped. Levi looked at Dancer with astonishment on his face. Dancer grinned.

  “See?” he said. “What’d I tell you. That’s the way to do it.”

  Back at Talley’s ranch house, Annie paced the floor. She wondered what was happening. She worried about her uncle. She worried about all the boys. She was glad that they had Slocum and Dancer on their side. They were real gunfighters. She had known that about them from the beginning. But then, Roy George had several such men in his employ. It was true that when Slocum and Dancer had faced any of them, they had come out ahead. So far. She prayed that things would continue to go that way.

  She fixed herself a cup of coffee and drank it, and then she began to pace some more. She looked at the clock. Then she walked out onto the porch and saw that the sun was high in the sky. She didn’t think that she could take much more of this waiting. She walked off the porch and headed for the cook shack. Cookie would be there. He was the only other one on the ranch who had stayed behind. She found Cookie washing dishes.

  “Here,” she said. “Let me help you with that.”

  “Oh, no, ma’am,” said Cookie. “It’s all part of my job. I can manage all right.”

  “I want to, Cookie,” she said. “I’m about to go crazy waiting for Uncle and the boys to get back. I’ve got to do something.”

  “Well, all right, ma’am,” Cookie said. “If you put it that way. I got to peel some taters.”

  Cookie moved over to a table with a stack of potatoes on it and took up a knife. He started whittling on a big potato. Annie was scrubbing dishes and had her back to Cookie.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much, ma’am,” Cookie said. “Your uncle is a tough old man. He’s come through aplenty fights in his time. He’ll come through this one.”

  “I’m sure you’re right, Cookie. It’s just the waiting around. Sometimes I wish I were a man.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t be wishing that,” said Cookie. “You’re a fine woman. Just you wait. They’ll be riding back in here soon.”

  “Pass the word around, Slocum,” said Talley. “Let’s go, but don’t leave anyone behind.”

  “All right,” said Slocum, and he hollered out the order from where he crouched. Then he ran to call it out again. At last, he jumped on the back of his Appaloosa and began to ride around the main house spreading the word. He rode around the bunkhouse the same way. Finally he rode up to the body lying on the ground, and he picked it up and threw it across his saddle. Then he remounted. A shot whizzed past his ear, and he turned and snapped off a shot at the nearest window.

  In a short while, the entire Talley crew was back on the road riding toward home. As far as Slocum knew, he had the only body that needed to be brought back. He knew that there were several wounded. A couple of them had to be helped. He also knew that the George side had suffered more casualties than had Talley’s. Levi rode up beside Slocum.

  “How come you called us off?” he said. “We didn’t get them all.”

  “They had enough,” said Slocum.

  “We shouldn’t a stopped till we’d killed them all,” Levi shouted.

  “They were my orders,” said old Talley.

  Levi shut up and dropped back to ride along in silence beside Dancer. Dancer let him go on like that for a while. At last he said, “Hey, kid, there’ll be other times.”

  “I just don’t see why we didn’t finish it when we had the chance.”

  “We were running low on ammunition, and we got wounded. Two good reasons to quit while you’re ahead. Don’t worry.”

  Slocum was worried though. He was worried about what Dancer was making of the kid. He was afraid that if something did not slow Levi down, and that real soon, the kid would be in for a short life. He might make a good gunfighter, given time, but he was not exhibiting the kind of patience required for that to happen. He was a good enough kid, too. He was just too taken with Dancer, that was all.

  When they rode into the yard in front of the house, Elgie was sent to town for the doc. In the meantime, Annie, Cookie and Slocum were busied with the wounded. They patched them up as best they could. Cookie made a big pot of coffee, and when they had done all they could for the wounded, they sat and drank coffee. The day was only half-gone, yet Slocum felt like he had put in a full day of work.

  The doc showed up to patch the wounds, and because he had to unwrap them to check them, he also had to rewrap them. He declared, though, that he hadn’t really been needed. A good job had been done in the first place. He packed his bag back up and left to go back to town. At last, Talley, Annie, Dancer and Levi were sitting on the porch. Talley and Slocum smoked big cigars. They had coffee all around.

  “Levi,” said Talley, “I want to explain something to you.”

  “Oh, you don’t need to explain nothing to me, Mr. Talley. You’re the boss. What you say goes. I shouldn’t a spoke up the way I did.”

  Slocum raised his eyebrows. He was pleased. Maybe there was hope for the kid yet.

  “I called off the fight because I knew that we had men hurt. We lost one killed, and that’s a shame. I didn’t want more men hurt or killed. The purpose of this morning’s raid was to serve notice to George. If he wants a war, we’re ready to give him one. Well, he’s got that message now. If he’s willing to call it off now, that’ll be all right with me. I figure we’ve evened the score with him. But if he wants to keep it up, well, we’re ready and willing, and he knows that now.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Levi. “I understand. It’s just that—”

  “It’s just that you were still hot from the battle,” said Talley. “I know the feeling, and I appreciate it. You showed yourself good this morning, young man. I’m proud to have you with me.”

  “Thanks,” said Levi.

  “Now, Slocum, Dancer, what do you two think we ought to do next? Maybe I should ask, if you was in George’s shoes, what would you be doing?”

  “I’d be gathering my forces to strike back,” said Dancer.

  “How soon?” asked Talley.

  “I’d say right now,” Slocum said.

  “Right now?” said Annie. “So soon?”

  “That’s how he’ll be hoping we’ll think,” Slocum said. “We’ve just been through the same fight as him. We got men hurt. We ain’t ready for another fight just yet. What better time for him to hit us.”

  “But can he pull together fast enough?” asked Talley.

  “That’s the question,” said Dancer, “but if he can, Slocum’s right. He’ll be coming.”

  8

  They made hasty plans. According to old Talley, there were only three practical approaches onto his property from the direction of the Double Cross. They decided to place lookouts at each of those locations. Two men would watch, and if they were to see anyone coming, one would stay, while the second man rode as fast as he could back to the ranch house to warn the others. The whole force of cowhands would not go out at once, however, in the event of some kind of trick, such as attacking with a divided force from two different directions at the same time. The rest of the men were to remain ready to go at a moment’s notice. They were to be armed, weapons ready, horses saddled.

  Slocum, Dancer and Levi stayed at the ranch house, on the porch waiting for word from any of the lookouts. The air was tense. Dancer and Levi talked about guns and their use. Slocum lit a cigar. Old Man Talley came out of the house to sit with them, and just after him, Annie brought out a tray of coffee and cups and passed it around. She put the tray on a table and sat down on the porch with the men.

  “Mr. Slocum?” she said.

  “I’d appreciate it if you’d drop the mister, ma’am,” said Slocum.

  “I’ll do that if you’ll drop the ma’am. My name’s Annie.”

  Slocum smiled. “All right, Annie,” he said. “What is it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were about to say something to me.”

  “Oh, yes,” she said, blushing slightly. “I was just going to ask you if you really believe they’ll attack us right away.”

  “I only believe that they’ll attack us. It could be right away, and it could be several days from now. We got to stay ready, whenever it comes.”

  “I see. How strong do you think they are? I mean, how are we matched?”

  “Judging from what I’ve seen so far, I’d say we’re about even. We could be in for a long war, if that’s what you’re asking me.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I was afraid of that.”

  “I ain’t sure either, ma’am—uh, Annie, how bad we hurt them this morning. That’ll have a lot to do with how quick they come back at us.”

  “Well, we’ll be ready for them,” said Talley. “They’re going to get more fight than they ever counted on.”

  “That’s for sure,” said Levi. “We’ll wipe them out.”

  A rider came fast toward the porch, coming in from the north. As he came in close enough, he shouted, “They’re coming down the north pass.”

  They all jumped to their feet. Talley called out to the rider, “Change your horse and get back out there.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Let’s go, men,” said Talley.

  “Hold on, Boss,” said Slocum. “We can’t all of us go on this one. Remember our plans. What if they split their force? Someone has to be here to go with the second crew.”

  “Slocum’s right,” said Dancer. “You and Slocum stay here. Me and Levi will go out with this first bunch.”

  “But I—”

  Slocum shrugged and sat back down. “Guess we’ll sit this one out, Mr. Talley. I haven’t finished my coffee anyhow.”

  “Damn it to hell,” Talley grumbled as he sat back down. Dancer and Levi hurried for their horses. Other hands came out from the bunkhouse, and soon about half of the ranch crew was headed out for the north pass ready to fight. Dancer rode in the lead. Levi rode beside him. Elgie Lay was right there with them.