Climax by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480487390
Publisher: Open Road Media

EIGHT

The town looked familiar: dry, dark and dingy as ever when the two men approached it in the waning glow of twilight. The uproar of Climax could be heard long before they reached the town limits. Shouting, banging, glass breaking. Along Main Street the town was rollicking. Climax, which had formerly been deep with gravelike shadows at this time of the evening, was now very much alive. Its revival, however, had not been natural and healthy. Some dark magic had revived it.

The Alhambra Saloon, of course, was brilliantly lighted. It was the focus of the activity. Men fought and yelled obscenities. In front of the saloon a knot of men, marginalized by the space limitations within, raised beer mugs and whiskey glasses, whistled and whooped at nothing Frost could see. Four mounted men riding abreast raced up the street wildly, their ponies lathered. Frost and Lando were forced to jerk their horses aside as they met them.

A man on the roof of the Alhambra fired his pistol into the air and then hurled a whiskey bottle at the knot of men in front of the saloon. From an alley near Waxy’s stable more shots could be heard. Men firing at targets or randomly discharging their firearms. The horses stabled there could be heard complaining. Frost heard enough cursing to last an army regiment a month as they rode past. Hardly a man looked their way. They were just two more shadows in the night.

Frost and Lando had reached the end of the street when they paused to talk opposite the Genesis Restaurant. Inside, a pair of rambunctious men had begun to tussle, knocking over a table. Irene, one of the waitresses Frost knew, could be seen holding her hands to her head in dismay.

Halted in the shadows of the oak grove across the street, Lando asked, ‘Does it look like you left it?’ There was no answer from Frost. Lando added, ‘It seems you weren’t doing that bad a job for the town after all.’

‘I don’t know what I could have done about all of this,’ Frost said, leaning on his saddle horn as he appraised the wild street of Climax.

‘It wouldn’t have happened all at once. With a few good deputies you could have kept them moving on.’

‘Maybe,’ Frost said quietly. ‘What have you got in mind, Lando? What are we to do now?’

‘The first thing I need to do is try to find Barrett Tate, if he’s alive. To do that I think I’ll have to go to the saloon where men are bound to be talking and see what I can pick up.’

‘I’m known there,’ Frost said. ‘The bartender, or maybe the regulars, or the owner, Charles Toledo, might call out my name. That would be the end of that.’

‘Yes, it would,’ Lando agreed. ‘I didn’t mean for the two of us to go together. You’re in no shape to do so, anyway. I’m going by myself. No one knows me, at least I hope not, and with the influx of so many men, a stranger won’t be noticed.

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