Bannerman the Enforcer 4 by Kirk Hamilton

Author:Kirk Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: bannerman, cleveland western, the wild west, western frontier fiction, kirk hamilton, western adventure 1800s, cowby ebook, old west 1800s ebook, western action advenuture
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Chapter Six – The Shaft

When Yancey came round he was lying on the floor in a room in Dekker’s house. He came out of it slowly, the men’s voices filtering through the waves of pain and unconsciousness and stirring him until finally, hand to a duck-sized lump on his forehead over his right eye, he sat up with a groan.

He blinked in the lantern light, trying to get his bearings. It came back to him with a rush and he squinted, looking around at the hard faces watching him. He recognized Cato, some of the men from the bunkhouse, and Dekker. He stopped, focusing his eyes on the rancher and waiting.

“Just what were you planning, Bannerman?” Dekker asked harshly. He nudged him with a boot, pushing him back to the floor with a jar. “What did you think you were doing?”

Yancey kept his eyes on the rancher, not wanting to look at Cato and maybe somehow implicate him in this, too. He shrugged, his head pounding, neck seeming to creak every time he moved.

“I told you earlier I didn’t fancy cooling my heels here for a week,” Yancey said, his speech slurred. “So I figured to light out for town and some brighter lights.”

“Told you that’s what it would be,” Cato said. “Yancey Bannerman’s a man who likes a little female company.”

Dekker totally ignored Cato, kept his cold gaze on the tall Enforcer on the floor. “What happened with Fargo?”

“You might’ve known him as Fargo,” Yancey said, his voice stronger. “I knew him as Chuck Bendix. We had a bit of a score to settle from a place called Rondo. I gunned down his pard there. He was waiting in the stable with his rifle and he damn well aimed to blow my spine apart. And I didn’t aim to stand still for it. He went for his gun first, got off a shot while my Peacemaker was still in leather ...”

“Otherwise you’d have ridden out and we wouldn’t have known anything about it.”

Again Yancey shrugged. He had skirted the truth but thought he had come close enough to satisfy Dekker. The rancher sat down on the edge of a desk, swinging a leg as he lit a cigar, looking at Yancey coldly.

“I told you I wanted you here,” he said flatly.

“And I told you I didn’t want to stay,” countered Yancey.

“Difference is, what I say goes, Bannerman!” Dekker snapped. He pointed at Yancey with the cigar. “You need to be taught a lesson, mister.”

Cato stirred slightly but Yancey didn’t look at him. He kept his bleak gaze on the rancher.

“Yeah,” Dekker went on slowly, standing up. “A lesson.” He gestured to the three men from the bunkhouse as they kept Yancey under their guns. “Lock him up for the night. We’ll take him out to the shaft in the morning.”

“Wait a minute!” Cato protested but Yancey shook his head swiftly and Cato caught the warning. He fought to keep the anger out of his voice as Dekker looked at him coldly.

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