“Just play it cool, kid,” Dancer said. “We’ll get our chance.”

  They got back to the corral at the same time Slocum was returning from the range. Together, they unsaddled and took care of their horses, turning them loose in the corral. Then they walked toward the cook shack.

  “Have a rough day?” Dancer asked.

  “Not bad,” said Slocum. “How much longer are you two going to lay around getting paid for nothing?”

  “Hell, Slocum, we’re being paid for looking out for this place against the Double Cross. Why the hell should we bust our ass chasing cows? What the hell are you doing it for?”

  “Seems like the fighting’s over,” Slocum said. “I’m just trying to give the man an honest day’s work for my pay. That’s all.”

  “Well, you just go on and do that. Me and Levi here, we’ll keep watching the trails to protect you cowhands from any danger.”

  Slocum gave Dancer a look, but he did not bother responding to that remark. They found their places at the table and sat down to eat. Slocum ate enough for two men. It had been a rough day, but he would not admit that to Dancer. A long day of chasing half-wild animals through rugged terrain. They were about done with their meal. Most of the men had gotten up and left. Slocum had one more cup of coffee, and Dancer decided that he and Levi would stay, too.

  “You really think the fighting’s over and done?” Dancer asked Slocum.

  “We hit George hard three times,” Slocum said. “That’s not to mention the boys of his we got in town. If he had any strength left, he’d have come back at us by now. At least, that’s the way it looks to me.”

  “Yeah? Well, maybe you’re right about that. Maybe we should go back to being ordinary cowhands, like you done.”

  “What made you change your mind about that?”

  “Oh, I’ve just been thinking about what you said, that’s all. You know, about an honest day’s work for the old man. I never was one to take no charity.” Levi was giving Dancer a puzzled look, but he kept his mouth shut. “What do you say, kid? Shall we go back to work? Be honest cowhands like our ole pard here?”

  Levi gave a shrug. “Whatever you say, Dancer.”

  Dancer turned up his cup and drained it. Then he stood up. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go talk to the boss.”

  Levi got up to follow him. Slocum sat for a moment longer over his coffee, puzzling over Dancer’s behavior. Just what the hell was he up to? He was not that fond of hard work. Slocum had figured that much out about the man some time ago. He was a good man to have on your side during a fight, but beyond that, he wasn’t worth much of a shit. Slocum finished his coffee and got up to follow those two over to the ranch house.

  When he got there, he found them on the porch: Dancer, Levi, Talley and Annie.

  “Come on up and join us, Slocum,” said Talley. “The boys here was telling me that they want to go back to work.”

  “Yeah?” Slocum stepped up onto the porch and took a chair. He took off his hat. “Evening, Annie,” he said.

  “Good evening,” she said, with a smile.

  “Slocum,” said Talley, “do you think it’s safe for these two to go back to work the way you done? Do you really think we’ve won this war with George?”

  “Well, sir,” said Slocum, “right now, it looks that way to me. We hurt him pretty bad, and he’s not fighting back. He could go out recruiting some more hands, more gunfighters, but we don’t know that he’s been doing that. If we find out that he is, then we can go back to the way we been doing things.”

  “Well, that makes sense to me,” said Talley.

  “Uncle,” said Annie, “are you sure?

  “There won’t be nothing to worry about, miss,” said Dancer, leering at Annie. “Slocum, me and Levi, we’ll all still be right here on the ranch. We still got guards out, don’t we? If anyone’s coming, they can get word out to us fast enough.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Talley said. “In the morning, you two ride on out with Slocum. He’ll catch you up on where he’s at and what’s going on. Well, I’m going to turn in. It’s been a long day.”

  Talley got up and headed for the door, and the others all said good night to him. Slocum stood up. “We ought to be turning in, too,” he said. “Good night.”

  “Good night,” said Annie.

  Slocum walked down off the porch. He looked back at Levi and Dancer. “Go on, kid,” said Dancer. “I’ll be along.”

  Levi joined Slocum walking back to the bunkhouse. Annie started to stand up.

  “You don’t need to be in a hurry,” said Dancer, “do you?”

  “Well, no,” she said. “I guess not. Do you have something on your mind?” Dancer looked at her, and it became suddenly obvious what was on his mind. Annie got nervous. She stood up. “It has been a long day, Mr. Dancer. I’ll say good night.”

  Dancer stood quickly and grabbed her by the arm. “Don’t rush off,” he said. “We got a lot to talk about.”

  “We have nothing to talk about,” she said.

  “Maybe you’re right. Talking’s a waste of time.” He took hold of her by both her shoulders and pulled her toward him, bending his head to try to force a kiss. Annie twisted her face away from him.

  “Stop it,” she said. “Let me go.”

  Dancer slipped one arm around behind her back. He pulled her close to him. She put both hands on his chest in an attempt to push him away. Dancer’s other hand went behind her head and his fist closed with a handful of hair. Still, she twisted her face, but Dancer pressed against her. He managed to get his lips on hers, and while she clamped her mouth tight and continued to struggle, he slobbered a wet kiss over her mouth and face.

  Annie slipped one hand loose and pulled Dancer’s head away from her by his hair. With her other hand, she slapped him hard across the face. Surprised, he let go of her, and she stepped back, glaring at him.

  “Get out of here,” she said. “Stay away from me.”

  “Ain’t that the way you like it?” he said, rubbing his face where she had slapped him.

  “Not like that,” she said, “and not any other way from you.”

  “I suppose you’ll go tell Uncle about this and get me fired,” Dancer said.

  “No,” she said. “I won’t do that. But if you ever touch me again, I’ll kill you.”

  She turned and went into the house, slamming the door behind her. Dancer stood on the porch and laughed.

  10

  The next day passed without incident. Dancer and Levi rode out with Slocum, and they did their share of the work. Slocum was uneasy with them, however. Trying not to be too obvious about it, he kept his eye on them. He kept them in front of him. Now and then, one or both of them got behind him, but as quickly as was possible without giving himself away, he changed the situation. They made small talk, the way men will do when they work together.

  Slocum had dismounted to untangle his rope following a bout with an ornery cow, and he was not paying too much attention to the other two. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Levi pull out his six-gun. Quickly, he went for his own, but he had it only halfway up when the blast from Levi’s revolver made his ears ring. The shot had come close to him, but it did not hit him. Slocum sensed that something was wrong. He held his own gun, not quite up and pointed at Levi, while Levi re-holstered his. Slocum looked down to see a dead rattler not far from his feet. He put away his own gun.

  “Thanks, Levi,” he said.

  “If you were any faster,” said Levi, “you might’ve killed me.”

  “Yeah,” said Slocum. “Sorry about that. It was just a reflex action.”

  Slocum went back to his work, and Levi rode over to the side of Dancer, out of earshot of Slocum. “Good shooting, kid,” said Dancer.

  “Not bad, I guess.”

  “You could’ve taken him, you know.”

  “I beat him all right,” Levi said, “but I drawed first.”

  “Even so, he wouldn’t have come close. You can take him, kid. You can take him.”

  “You want me to do it?”

  “Not now, and not here. We’ll wait a bit.”

  It was Friday evening, and Slocum volunteered to take the place of the lookout who was watching the front entrance. Most of the boys would be going into town, and Slocum figured that if he went, he would just sit and drink with Dancer and Levi. He was not in the mood for that. The man he freed from duty was very appreciative, and Slocum was content. He waved at the boys as they rode past him on their way to town. Among them were Elgie Lay, Dancer and Levi.

  “We’ll drink a few for you,” said Dancer as he rode by.

  Slocum leaned back on the stack of hay bales after the riders had all gone their way. He thought about Dancer and Levi. He wondered if he should have left well enough alone when he first set eyes on Charlie Dancer. He wondered if he should have let him hang. He’d seemed all right for a time, but then he had gotten a hold on young Levi, and Slocum did not like what he was seeing happen to the kid.

  While he was thus musing, he heard the sound of another horse approaching from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Annie riding toward him. He stood up, took off his hat and waited for her approach. She stopped her horse beside his Appaloosa and dismounted.

  “Howdy, Annie,” he said. “What brings you out this way? Not headed for town, are you?”

  “I came out to see you,” she said. “Brought some sandwiches and coffee. You interested?”

  “I sure am, and thanks.”

  She settled down beside him there against the hay bales, and took out the stuff she had in a basket. Slocum ate a sandwich. Then he sat back to sip a cup of coffee. He could still watch the road from his position. “That was mighty good, Annie. I appreciate it. Do you do that for all the boys on watch?”

  “You’re my first,” she said.

  “How come me?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I just like you.”

  “That’s a dangerous thing for a lady to say.”

  “Because you’ll just take what you can and then ride away?” said Annie.

  “Something like that.”

  “That’s no big surprise. It shows in you. A woman would be a damn fool to expect to hold you for long.”

  “And that doesn’t bother you?”

  “No. It doesn’t.”

  She put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to give him a kiss. He responded, gently at first. Then he put both his arms around her and kissed her hard and passionately. Finally, they broke apart. Annie was panting for breath.

  “I am on duty here, you know,” Slocum said.

  “You won’t always be on duty,” she said. “There’ll be another time. Other times.”

  “Yeah. There will be. You don’t have to go yet though, do you?”

  “Not just yet.”

  Slocum took her hand in his. “I’d like for you to stay. You’re pleasant company for a lonely man.”

  In town, Levi and Dancer were getting drunk. Elgie Lay was at the bar with a couple of the hands from Talley’s. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. As far as anyone knew, there were no Double Cross hands in the place.

  “I reckon they’re scared to come in,” Elgie said to the men with him. “We’ve whipped them too many times.”

  “Hell, Elgie,” said one of the boys with him, “there may not be any left over there to come into town at all.”

  Elgie laughed. “You might be right about that. This fight was damn near over before it begun.”

  “And I suppose it was all your doing, Elgie,” said Dancer, in a loud voice, intruding himself into the conversation.

  Elgie and the others got quiet. Elgie turned to face Dancer. “I never said that, Dancer. Course, I done my part all right.”

  “I don’t recall seeing you in the fight,” Dancer said. “You was back in the bunkhouse waiting for us to get the job done, wasn’t you?”

  “I was in it all right. I was right there.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “What the hell are you doing, Dancer? You trying to provoke me into a fight? I don’t want to fight you. Ain’t no reason for it. We’re all on the same side here.”

  “I don’t see that it makes much difference what side you’re on.”

  “Well,” said Elgie, turning his back on Dancer, “I ain’t gonna fight you. That’s all.”

  “You’re a chicken shit,” said Dancer.

  “No, I ain’t.”

  “I say you’re a chicken shit, and you either agree with me or go for your gun.”

  “Let’s get out of here, Elgie,” said the cowhand next to him.

  “No, by God,” Elgie said, whirling and pulling out his revolver at the same time. Dancer’s was out before Elgie could get his level, and it barked death. The slug tore into Elgie’s chest. He sagged against the bar, and then he sat down heavily on the floor. He was dead. The cowhands who had been with him picked up the body and left the saloon. Dancer put away his gun and sat back down.

  “That’s one less, kid,” he said.

  “You’ve give us away though,” Levi said. “We can’t go back to Talley’s tonight after that.”

  “Sure we can. I didn’t give nothing away about our new situation with George. My fight with Elgie was over the way he acted during our gun battles. It was a personal fight. That’s all. We’ll go back to Talley’s all right. Don’t worry about that.”

  “Well, hell,” said Levi with a shrug, “whatever you say.”

  “I say let’s have another drink.”

  “That’s all right, pard,” said Levi, “but I’m thinking about going upstairs with Sugar, here in just a little bit.”

  Slocum was still on guard when the two boys came back to the ranch with the body of Elgie Lay. He heard them approaching and stood up with his rifle. It was way too early for any of the boys to be coming back, but as they drew closer, he recognized them. Then he saw what they were bringing along, slung across a third horse. Slocum thought that he recognized the horse as the one Elgie had ridden to town, but he wasn’t sure, or he did not want to be sure.

  “Who’ve you got there?” he said.

  “It’s Elgie, Slocum. Dancer shot him dead in the saloon.”

  “Dancer?”

  “Picked a fight with him on purpose, he did. Elgie said he didn’t want to fight, but Dancer finally egged him into it.”

  “Who drew first?”

  “Elgie did.”

  “Damn,” said Slocum.

  “We best get him up to the ranch house and let the boss know what happened.”

  “Yeah. Go on ahead. Damn it.”

  Slocum watched them ride on until they were out of his sight. Then he sat back down. He was still holding his rifle in his left hand. With his right, he shoved back the hat on his head. What the hell was Dancer up to? Was he just bored with a few days of peace? Did he need a fight that bad? Why the hell did he have to kill Elgie? He would say, of course, that it had been a fair fight, that Elgie had pulled first and he had only defended himself. It was his pattern, and it would work, of course, with the law.

  Slocum wondered though what Talley would do. If Dancer had the gall to come back out to Talley’s, would Talley buy his story, just like the sheriff would, and let him stay on? And what was Levi doing all the time Dancer was starting a fight and killing Elgie? Suddenly Slocum wished that he would be relieved. He felt as if there were things he needed to be checking on. He needed to see Talley, and he wanted to confront Dancer.

  There was nothing he could do though. He was on duty. And he would likely still be on duty until everyone else was asleep. He guessed it would all have to wait till morning. He wondered though if he would be able to sleep. He wondered if anyone would. Anyone other than Dancer and Levi. They would sleep just fine, wherever they chose to bed down for the night.

  Slocum stood up and paced for a few minutes. Then he mounted the Appaloosa and rode the trail from his post to the main gate and back again. At last, he settled down again at his post. There was nothing he could do anyhow. Not till he was relieved from this duty.

  It was late, near time for the relief man, when two riders came from town. Slocum made himself ready for just about anything. It was dark, so they were nearly on him before he recognized Dancer and Levi.

  “What the hell are you doing back here?” he said.

  “This is where we work,” said Dancer. “Where we live.”

  “You think that’s still true, after what you done?”

  “You mean killing that fella?”

  “You know that’s what I mean.”

  “Hell, Slocum, it was a personal argument that led to a fight. He went for his gun. What could I do?”

  “That ain’t the way I heard it.”

  “Anyone who says Elgie didn’t go for his gun first is a damn liar,” said Levi.

  “That’s not what I meant,” said Slocum. “He provoked it.” Slocum pointed an accusing finger at Dancer as he spoke those words. “He started that fight deliberately.”

  “All I need to say is that he drew first. You wanta make something out of it, Slocum?”

  “I ain’t the boss here,” said Slocum. “We’ll see what Talley has to say.”

  Dancer smirked and rode on. Levi followed him. Soon Slocum’s relief showed up, and Slocum mounted his horse and rode toward the ranch house. Under the circumstances, he was not surprised to find Talley awake. There was no sign of Dancer and Levi. Slocum went up to the house and knocked on door. Annie let him in.

  “Have you seen Dancer?” Slocum asked Talley.

  “I saw him,” said the old man.

  “Well?”

  “Well, what? The sheriff wrote it down as self-defense. What else can I do but accept it?”

  “You mean you let him stay on?”

  “I got no other choice, Slocum. Damn it. Besides, we don’t know what the hell George is up to. He might be bringing in more gunfighters for all we know. I might need Dancer and his little buddy. Let it go.”

  “I guess if you don’t give a damn, there’s no reason I should. Hell,” said Slocum. He turned and stomped out of the house. He was about to go down off the porch when Annie stepped out and stopped him.