The Lonely Gun by Gordon D. Shirreffs

Author:Gordon D. Shirreffs [Shirreffs, Gordon D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-4968-7
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 1987-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

The Kid whistled shrilly and a big bay walked up beside him, nuzzling his shoulder. The two of them came forward, and the young man’s head turned constantly from side to side as he watched the three silent men beside the grave and the moonlit mission with its dark empty windows and doors.

He stopped at last fifteen feet from the three men and glanced down at the grave. “Burial?” he asked quietly.

“No,” said Case.

“Grave robbers, then?” There was the faintest ghost of a smile on the man’s face.

Chip Gilbert spat. “Who are you? What do you want?” he demanded truculently.

“I’m looking for two women and a man,” said the Kid.

“Who are you?”

“The name is Steve Wallace. Most people call me the Kid.”

Chip raised his head. “The Conchos Kid.”

“Yes.”

Leonardo wet his lips. The stranger was as well known in Sonora as he was in Arizona. It was said that he had ridden with Lopez when he was only eighteen years old. If that was true, then he was indeed muy hombre, for Lopez and his men, both gringos and Mexicans, were the toughest corrida west of the Rio Conchos in Chihuahua.

Wallace eyed the mission. “Where are they?” he asked.

Leonardo wanted no part of this soft-spoken smiling gringo. “Inside,” he said.

“Go get them.”

“Wait a minute!” said Chip. “I’m running this show.”

“Maybe. You go about your business. I have mine to take care of.”

“Such as?”

The Kid slid a hand down alongside his holstered six-gun. “Phil Davis is going to face me.”

Case got out of the hole. “The man is badly injured, Kid.”

“So?”

“He might die.”

The smooth face darkened a little. “He will, but not naturally.”

There was a movement just within the rear door of the mission and the Kid turned a little, crouched, and his Colt seemed to leap into his hand. “Come out!” he said.

Madeline Davis appeared in the doorway. “Phil is badly hurt, Steve.”

“And Dulce?”

“She’s inside.” Madeline rubbed her wrists. “I got loose and untied her too.”

The cold eyes swiveled to look at the three men. “Who tied you, Sis?”

Leonardo swallowed. His eyes stared at the leveled six-gun. “Wait,” he said quickly. “I tied them. It was Chip who told me to … I swear it.”

“Chip?”

“Me,” said Gilbert. “No offense, Kid.”

Steve Wallace looked at Case. “I’ve seen you before.”

“Yes, in Globe, about a year ago. I’m Case Hardesty.”

“I’ve heard of you.” Wallace sheathed his gun. “Who else is in that building?”

“Sheriff Dade Maslin and his breed tracker,” said Case.

The Kid’s head jerked. He reached for his sheathed Winchester.

Chip grinned. “He won’t bother you, Kid. I got him and his boy tied up tighter than calf for the castrating.”

“What’s the game here?”

Chip waved a big hand. “Me and some of the boys did a job at Cottonwood Station. Case here double-crossed us, killed one of my men and run out here.”

“How much loot?”

Leonardo glanced at Chip. The big man was trying to run the show and the Kid had thrown a crowbar into the machinery. Now Chip Gilbert’s slow-working brain would have to figure a way out of this mess.

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