Trail of McAllister (A Rem McAllister Western) by Matt Chisholm

Author:Matt Chisholm [Chisholm, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Piccadilly
Published: 2023-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Aaron’s head was aching. It had been clipped by a bullet and he didn’t like the sensation it left. Usually he just followed his brother, but now he was really mad. He wanted to get the man who had done this to him. It felt as if the side of his skull had been cracked wide open. The rag around his head still leaked blood.

The rest didn’t like the look of the situation. That didn’t mean that they had forgotten what they had come here to do. Their loyalty to the imprisoned Joe Lessing had not waned. It was just that supreme caution had come into their reckoning.

‘What you aim to do now?’ Roy Manning said.

Johnny spoke—

‘He’s in there. He has to be. We go in there an’ we get him fast. It had better be fast. Folks come here. There’s shootin’, somebody hears it an’ rides for help. So we get McAllister.’

‘First man ‘at kills him,’ said Charlie Roberts, ‘has all the free beer he wants.’

The thought of cool beer made them all salivate.

‘No,’ said Johnny. ‘We give him a real good trial. Then we hang him.’

Roy looked at him admiringly.

‘Say,’ he said, ‘I like the sound of that. He sent a lot of men for their hangin’. That’d be right an’ proper. I always said you had a good mind, Johnny.’

They sat their horses and calmly surveyed the scene. They were old campaigners and this kind of thing wasn’t new to them. They eyed the surrounding land with experienced eyes, seeing the chances, measuring out lines of fire.

Johnny said: ‘A man could cover the front of the house from over yonder.’ He pointed to some high ground forward and to their right.

‘I’ll take that,’ said Aaron.

‘Go ahead.’

Aaron slipped from the saddle, rifle in hand. He filled his pockets with shells and sneaked along the edge of the corral. They half-expected a shot from the house, but one didn’t come. Maybe the folks inside were really scared and were hopeful of avoiding a fight. There was no call for a fight if they gave McAllister up.

Johnny thought he would get the house well contained and then make his offer. Everybody in there could go free if they gave McAllister up. They’d be fools to pass up the chance.

‘Job,’ he said, ‘you take the horses back a ways, then you stay down canyon and work your way up behind that wagon yonder. You can see the front and side of the house from there.’

‘My pleasure,’ Job said, stepped down from the saddle and started gathering lines. Every man got down. Job started leading the horse back down the canyon.

Johnny said: ‘Roy, you work your way forward from here. You keep the men busy at the front of the house. Work your way to the other side of the corral. There’s cover enough there. Go careful with your shots, we don’t have all the ammunition in the world.

‘How about you?’ Roy demanded. ‘What do you do?’

‘I’m goin’ around the river side. They won’t expect me there.

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