Hangtown by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480488410
Publisher: Open Road Media

SIX

Laredo was into leather before the echo of the shot had died away. He touched spurs to the buckskin’s flanks and raced the length of the street. He was only a few seconds too late. He saw the backs of three men as they hied the army horses out on to the desert, running their ponies at full speed. Several soldiers had come out on to the porch of the saloon. Half-dressed, their senses blurred with drink they could do nothing but stand there and mutter curses as their horses were taken. One of their company was lying flat on the boards of the walkway, quite dead.

Darkness swallowed up the men Laredo was pursuing. The long desert was pitch black. He could see a thin veil of settling dust ahead of him, and continued on, riding by guesswork. After a mile or so he could no longer see the dust or smell it as it settled earthward. Either they had outdistanced him, which seemed unlikely, or they had stopped. Laredo drew his Winchester from its saddle scabbard and went on, slowing the big buckskin to a walk, wary now of an ambush.

Star shadows laced the sand beneath a stand of tall, thorny mesquite shrubs. There was no wind. The only sounds were the creaking of leather and his own horse’s clopping hoofs, though these were barely audible even to Laredo on this soft surface.

Where were they headed? Nowhere, he decided. They had not stolen the horses for profit. Ponies wearing the US brand could not be easily disposed of anyway. No, they had it in mind only to scatter the horses to keep the soldiers out of the game.

And what was their game? Simply to ride away from Hangtown. There were only three of them, though. That meant that a fourth had been left behind – unless they had decided to cut one man. out. It was a little puzzling, and Laredo let it go. He continued on aimlessly. He was basing his chosen direction on common sense – these men had no reason to zig-zag, to attempt to lose their pursuit. They would ride in a straight line, scatter the horses and then continue on. He held to the course he had been following, using the stars as his guide.

He heard the sound of hoofbeats and he halted his buckskin, cocking his rifle. The horse came out of the darkness, wide-eyed and confused. Laredo smiled thinly and lowered his rifle. It was one of the army ponies, saddleless, running in a random direction. They could not be far ahead, then, and they had stopped now to slip the bits and shed the saddles from the rest of the stolen ponies.

He walked his horse forward. He heard a muffled thump, a muted curse, and he tensed. It would have to be on foot, he decided, if he were to have a chance of slipping up on the Champion gang, and so, reluctantly, he slid from the buckskin’s back and left it ground-hitched as he crept ahead, his boots whispering against the desert sand.

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