The Gun Fight (1993 ) by Richard Matheson

Author:Richard Matheson [Matheson, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780765362285
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2010-04-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

David James O’Hara could be a very impressive young bully when he tried. His face was lean and hard beneath a short crop of reddish hair. He moved with a catlike swiftness, swaggered convincingly, swore and gambled, wore a Colt .44 low on his hip, thonged to his leg, and spoke deprecatingly of every gunman who ever rode within a hundred miles of Kellville.

There had been a few shootings in the little town but, somehow, Dave O’Hara was never around when they occurred. He was twenty-three years old and still believed in his own courage because it had never been tried. The one man who had challenged O’Hara had left town without fighting and thus strongly increased O’Hara’s opinion of himself.

It was about two-thirty in the afternoon. O’Hara was sitting at a back table in the Zorilla talking to Joe Sutton who was losing at cards and arguing.

“You kiddin’, Sutton?” O’Hara said, putting down his card with a slap. “He’s cold-footed. If he ain’t scared o’ Robby, why don’t he wear a gun?”

Sutton swallowed. “Well, why don’t he?” O’Hara challenged.

“He wouldn’t say,” Sutton answered.

“Y’mean you asked him?” O’Hara looked up in surprise from his hand.

“Yeah,” said Joe Sutton, “I ast him yestiday mornin’ but—”

“But he wouldn’t tell ya,” O’Hara finished. “Course he wouldn’t tell ya. Think a man’s gonna come right out and admit he’s yella? Play your card.”

Sutton licked his lips and looked worriedly at his hand, deeply troubled by the impending crumble of faith.

“Well, you should’ve seen him,” he said then, looking up. “You should’ve seen him do the border roll and . . . and the shift. You know, tossin’ his iron from one hand to the other. It was so fast I couldn’t hardly see it.” He swallowed at O’Hara’s unresponsive stare. “That’s how fast it was,” he repeated weakly.

“So what does that mean?” O’Hara asked. “Anybody can do tricks with a gun when they’s no one facin’ ’em. I’d like t’see him do gun tricks with another guy throwin’ down on him.”

Sutton swallowed. “Well . . .” he said but that was all. He swallowed again and played the wrong card.

“Him and that cocklebur outfit o’ his,” O’Hara muttered. “He’s no better’n a sheep herder.” His fingers tightened on the dog-eared cards. “Livin’ on his repitation, that’s what he’s tryin’ t’do. Thinks he can play around with any girl he wants cause he has a repitation. Well, Robby’ll show ’im.”

Joe Sutton shook his head. “Y’think he’ll really go after Benton?” he asked.

O’Hara pointed a finger at Sutton. “You bet ya damn life he will,” he said. “Then we’ll see how good ol’ law-dog Benton is. Bet he won’t even put on a gun!”

“What else could he do?” Sutton asked, faintly.

“Hide, most likely,” O’Hara said. “Hide on his ranch like a yella hound.”

Sutton looked pained. Then he looked up and said, “Uh-oh. Watch out.”

O’Hara looked toward the doors which were just swinging shut behind John Benton’s tall form.

“Whataya mean, watch out?” he said, a little more loudly than he’d intended.

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.