Slocum and the Lady in Black by Jake Logan

Author:Jake Logan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

11

Slocum had only an instant to decide what to do. He was braced by two killers, and they had him in a narrow box from which there was no escape.

If he shot one, the other was bound to shoot him in the back. Which man was the better shot? Which was the faster? Slocum didn’t know, and there was no time to think about it.

Slocum threw himself facedown on the ground facing the gunman on the street. He drew his pistol and cocked it, just as the man fired his own pistol. The bullet sizzled over Slocum’s head. Slocum fired, and saw the gunman crumple. Then he heard a cry, and turned to see the gunman in the alley stiffen and throw up his arms. His pistol went flying as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground, a bullet high on his chest, near the throat.

“Big mistake,” Slocum said aloud, knowing neither man could hear him.

The gunman who had fired had not reckoned on Slocum being on the ground. His bullet had passed overhead and struck the second shooter in the chest.

Slocum got to his feet and walked toward the street. He looked down at the man who had been hired by Ferguson to kill him.

“What’s your name?” Slocum asked. He could smell whiskey fumes on the man’s breath.

“Roy Betz. I’m the town marshal.”

“You’ve got lead in your brisket,” Slocum said. “You might live if a sawbones can dig it out.”

“Damn you.”

“Who’s the other man? You shot him, you know.”

“My deputy, Frank Duggan. Is he dead?”

“You got him square in the chest. I doubt he’s breathing.”

“Fifty damn bucks,” Betz said.

“Which you won’t collect. Do you know where Ferguson is?”

“He—he headed toward Harrison this morning.”

A crowd began to gather. People looked at Slocum as if he were an assassin in their midst. He ejected the empty shell from its chamber and pushed a fresh cartridge in to replace it.

“This man tried to kill me,” Slocum told the crowd.

“Why, he’s the town marshal,” a woman said.

“And a piss-poor one at that,” Slocum said.

The woman’s mouth opened and she put a hand over it, obviously horrified by his crude language.

“Betz here shot his deputy. He missed me, and hit Duggan back there.”

“Well, at least neither of ’em was married,” one man said.

Slocum took one more look at Betz. His shirt was bloody around the hole just below his chest. Blood bubbled up out of his mouth. Slocum stepped over Betz and looked at the people who had gathered around. “Better get this man a doc if you want him to pull through,” he said. “I doubt much can be done for him, though.”

“Who are you, mister?” a man asked.

“Someone who wants to stay alive,” Slocum said, and passed through the crowd, which parted to let him through. He heard the buzz of conversation rise up behind him as he made his way across the street to the Red Fox Tavern. He was calm outside, but his belly was quivering from the close call.

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