Bloody Trail of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2019-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Pearlie and Leo stepped out of the saloon and stood facing each other for a moment.

“Are we going straight back to the office, or are we going to walk around the block again?” Leo asked.

“Ha,” Pearlie said. “You may wind up being a pretty good deputy after all if you put duty before pleasure. Or, is it that you are just afraid to face me across a checkerboard?” he teased.

“Afraid? I’ll show you who’s . . .”

Leo stopped in midsentence because that was when he saw someone move out from the side of the building with a gun leveled toward Pearlie’s back. It was the same man who had been standing at the end of the bar.

“Pearlie!” Leo shouted, drawing his gun as he pushed Pearlie aside.

The man fired just as Leo shoved Pearlie and as a result he missed what should have been an easy shot.

Just a second after the man fired, Leo pulled the trigger and saw a little squirt of blood in the middle of the gunman’s chest. He watched as the shooter dropped his gun and grabbed his chest.

“I thought you . . .” the gunman said with a strange, almost disbelieving expression on his face.

Whatever he thought, his comment was left incomplete as he pitched forward, facedown.

By now Pearlie had his own gun out, but it was not necessary that he take a shot, because the danger was over.

“I wonder what he was trying to say,” Leo said.

“I don’t know, it was kind of strange. Do you know him?” Pearlie asked.

Leo shook his head. “I ain’t never seen him in my life.”

“He was watching us when we were inside.”

“I wonder why he wanted to kill you.”

Pearlie shook his head. “It’s like I said when we walked into the saloon a while ago, I’ve made more than a few enemies in my life. I expect this was one of them.”

By that time the patrons of the Brown Dirt Cowboy, having heard the two gunshots, one on top of the other, hurried outside to see what was going on. They saw both Pearlie and Leo with pistols in hand, and a man who, but a few minutes earlier, had been standing at the bar, now lying facedown. Dusty went over to squat down beside the prostate figure and put his fingers to the man’s neck.

“Is he . . . is he dead?” Leo asked.

“Yep. He’s deader’n a mule-kicked bobcat,” Dusty said.

“Dead,” someone said.

“He was goin’ to shoot Pearlie in the back,” Leo said, believing it was necessary to defend himself. “I didn’t have any choice. I had to shoot ’im.”

“That’s true,” Pearlie said. “If it hadn’t been for Leo, I’d be a dead duck by now.”

“Well, kid, I reckon you’ve earned the right to wear that star,” Dusty said. “No more thinkin’ of you as just someone that keeps the jail swept out.”

“I killed him,” Leo said in a quiet and disbelieving voice.

“And saved Pearlie’s life,” one of the saloon patrons said.

“Why was he after you, Pearlie? Why would he want you dead enough, to shoot you in the back?” Dusty asked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.