Halliday 9 by Adam Brady

Author:Adam Brady
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gunfighters, colt 45, range wars, piccadilly publishing, western story, best western ebook, westerns 1880s, buck halliday western, edge the loner, wild west advenures
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter Seven – “Shoot to Kill!”

The shadows were lengthening, giving promise of a cool evening after the long day of heat, dust and hard riding.

The lawman had made it clear to the posse that he wanted to reach the Prewett ranch in daylight.

Drawing rein now on a narrow rise that looked down into the well-grassed Prewett valley, the sheriff removed his hat and rubbed his scalp in irritation. Then he said;

“We got a half-hour at most before dark. I want you men to remember one thing ... Tom Prewett killed Will Stone in cold blood. For that, he’ll hang. But before we string him up, we’ve got to take him alive. Close in from all sides. When I put it to him to surrender, we’ll see what he does. If he gives himself up and comes quietly, well and good. If he doesn’t ...”

The lawman shrugged.

“If he doesn’t, then what, Sheriff?” Abe Gordon asked. Buck Halliday had kept close to Gordon for a reason he did not fully understand himself. Now he was positioned to the man’s left, one rider back.

The lawman’s look hardened. He waited a long moment, then said carefully;

“Then we go in for the kill, Abe. We’re dealing with a murderer here and I don’t aim to let him add another notch to his gun with a bullet that might have my name on it. But all that is up to him.”

“You’re callin’ Tom a murderer without a jury findin’ him guilty, Sheriff,” Gordon said in his quiet, self-assured way. “I don’t see that a man can hang until a jury brings in a verdict agin him. I know Tom Prewett. He ain’t a murderer. I think I can talk him into comin’ quietly.”

The lawman turned slowly, blinking into the setting sun. He waited another moment and then said impatiently;

“I ain’t givin’ a sodbustin’ murderer a chance to get away, Abe. I don’t aim to waste anymore sweat chasin’ him across a hunnerd miles of badlands, neither. We’ll do it my way. We’ll close in and give him his chance.”

“Your way will be givin’ him no chance a-tall, Sheriff,” Gordon said stubbornly.

Anger flared in the lawman’s slitted eyes.

“You sound like you’re on his side, Abe.”

“I know the man, Sheriff.”

“He worked for him for three years,” Red Dank put in. “When Prewett couldn’t afford to keep him on, he came beggin’ to Mr. Cowley for a job. I reckon he still has some time for this murderer, Sheriff, which is maybe why he wants to do things different. I think we’ve wasted enough time already. Let’s get it over with.”

“I agree,” another rider said.

Halliday saw Gordon switch his gaze to the country below, then to the house at the end of the valley. Halliday made his own check on the valley and saw there were plenty of men to prevent Prewett from escaping. In fact, as he saw it, no one down there would have the slightest hope of getting away unless he could climb like a mountain goat.

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