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  RED RIVER VENGEANCE A PERLEY GATES WESTERN

  WILLIAM W. JOHNSTONE

  AND J. A. JOHNSTONE

  PINNACLE BOOKS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Also by

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  Teaser chapter

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  PINNACLE BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2021 J. A. Johnstone

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

  Following the death of William W. Johnstone, the Johnstone family is working with a carefully selected writer to organize and complete Mr. Johnstone’s outlines and many unfinished manuscripts to create additional novels in all of his series like The Last Gunfighter, Mountain Man, and Eagles, among others. This novel was inspired by Mr. Johnstone’s superb storytelling.

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  PINNACLE BOOKS, the Pinnacle logo, and the WWJ steer head logo are Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-0-7860-4739-0

  Electronic edition:

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-4740-6 (e-book)

  ISBN-10: 0-7860-4740-2 (e-book)

  CHAPTER 1

  “Reckon we’ll find out if Beulah’s cookin’ tastes as good as it did when she called her place the Paris Diner,” Sonny Rice announced as he drove the wagon carrying supplies behind Perley, who was riding the bay gelding named Buck.

  “How do you know that?” young Link Drew asked. “He just said he wanted to see the new hotel.”

  “I know ’cause he always eats at Beulah’s place when he comes to town for supplies,” Sonny replied. “Why do ya think I volunteered to drive the wagon in?”

  “I bet the food won’t be a whole lot better’n what Ollie cooks,” Link said. It was his honest opinion. The gangly orphan had never eaten as well as he did now, ever since Perley brought him to live at the Triple-G after his parents were killed. Although most of the crew at the Triple-G complained good-naturedly about Ollie Dinkler’s lack of compassion, they had to admit that he had taken a special interest in the welfare of the young lad.

  “It’ll be a whole lot fancier,” Sonny said, “and it’ll look better comin’ from a pretty woman, instead of an old man with tobacco juice in his whiskers.”

  Ahead of the wagon, Perley reined Buck back to a halt and waited for Sonny and Link to come up beside him. “They built it right next to the railroad tracks,” Perley stated the obvious. “That’ll be handy, won’t it? Get off the train and you can walk to the hotel.” He nudged his horse and rode up to the rail in front of the hotel and stepped down to wait for the wagon. “Park it on the side, Sonny,” he directed. “You and Link go on in and get us a table. I’m just gonna walk through the hotel and take a look.” The hotel had been completed while Perley and Possum Smith were down in Bison Gap, and he was curious to see what kind of place it was going to be. According to what his brother Rubin told him, the fellow who built it made his money in cotton. Amos Johnson was his name, and he thought the little town of Paris was ready for a first-class hotel. Rubin said he had talked Beulah Walsh into moving her business into the hotel. Perley figured what Rubin had told him must have been right because the little Paris Diner building was vacant when they had ridden past.

  When Sonny drove the wagon around to the side where the outside entrance was located, Perley walked in the front door. He was greeted by a desk clerk, smartly dressed in a coat and vest. “Can I help you, sir?”

  “Howdy,” Perley replied. “I’m on my way to your dinin’ room and I just wanted to get a look at the hotel. My name’s Perley Gates. I work at the Triple-G, and your hotel opened while I was outta town.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” the young man said. “I’m David Smith. If you’re looking to see the owner, that’s Mr. Johnson. He’s in the dining room eating his dinner.”

  “Oh no,” Perley quickly responded. “I don’t need to bother him. I just wanted to see what the hotel looked like on the inside. It looks like a first-class hotel.”

  “Would you like to see what the rooms look like?” David asked. “I’d be glad to show you one.”

  “No, no thanks,” Perley replied. “I won’t have much occasion to rent one, anyway. I’ll just go on to the dinin’ room, but I thank you for offerin’.” He pointed to the entrance to a hallway. “That way?” David nodded. “Much obliged,” Perley said, and headed down the hall.

  The first door he came to wore a sign that said it was the entrance to the dining room. Perley stepped inside and stood there a moment to look the room over. Still looking and smelling new, it was about half again bigger than Beulah’s original establishment. Unlike Beulah’s original location, there was no long table in the center of the room, only little tables with four chairs at each one. He saw Sonny and Link sitting at one of them over against the outside wall. He started toward them but stopped when Sonny waved his arm and pointed to a table beside the outside entrance, holding several weapons. Perley nodded and unbuckled his gun belt, looking toward the kitchen door as he walked over to leave his weapon with the others.

  He was curious to see if Becky and Lucy had come to the hote
l with Beulah, but if they had, they must all be in the kitchen right now. He rolled his holster up in his gun belt, and when he put it on the table, he noticed there were three others there. One he recognized as Sonny’s six-gun. It was easy to guess who the other two belonged to. He glanced at a table near the center of the room where two men were attacking the food in front of them as if they were afraid someone might try to take it away from them. One of the holsters caught his eye. It was a well-oiled fast-draw holster. He glanced again at the two strangers and tried to guess which one belonged to that holster before going over to join his friends. “I thought you would already be eatin’,” he said when he sat down at the table.

  “It’s on the way,” Sonny replied, and nodded toward the kitchen just as Lucy Tate, carrying two plates, came out the door. “We’re havin’ the pork chops, since we don’t get much pork at the ranch. It’s either that or stew beef today. You don’t usually have a choice at the midday meal, but Lucy said today you do because it’s Beulah’s birthday.”

  “Well, how ’bout that?” Perley replied. “Don’t reckon she said how old she is today.”

  “Nope, and I sure ain’t gonna ask her,” Sonny responded. Perley had to laugh at his response. Beulah had reached the age where she was no longer young, but she didn’t consider herself old. And only she knew how many notches she had actually acquired.

  “Well, there you are,” Lucy Tate greeted him. “You haven’t been to see us in so long, I figured you’d found someplace else to eat.”

  Before Perley had time to answer, one of the men at the table in the center of the room blurted, “Hey, Red, where the hell’s that coffeepot?”

  “Keep your shirt on, cowboy,” Lucy yelled back at him. “Got a fresh pot workin’ and it’ll be ready in a minute.” Back to Perley, she said, “I heard you had been gone for a while. You back to stay?”

  “Far as I know,” he answered. “At least I ain’t plannin’ to go anywhere right now.” He looked at Link and winked. “I expect my brothers are thinkin’ it’s about time I did my share of the chores at the ranch.” Back to Lucy, he said, “Those pork chops look pretty good, I expect I’ll try ’em, too.”

  “Right,” Lucy replied, “I’ll tell Becky to bring you a cup of coffee.” He hadn’t asked, but she figured he was wondering where Becky was.

  As she walked past the table with the two strangers, one of them stated loudly, “The coffee, Red.”

  “I told you,” she replied, “it’s making. And don’t call me Red. I don’t have red hair, and my name’s not Red.”

  “I reckon she told you what’s what,” Leonard Watts japed, and reached over to give his partner a playful jab on his shoulder.

  Not to be put down by the cocky waitress, Jesse Sage called after Lucy as she continued on to the kitchen. “What is your name, Sassy Britches?”

  There were only a few other patrons in the dining room, but Lucy didn’t respond to Jesse’s last attempt to rile her, sensing an air of discomfort among those diners already. When she went into the kitchen, she met Becky Morris on her way out with a cup of coffee for Perley. She knew the young waitress must have recognized Perley’s voice when he joined Sonny and Link. “He wants the chops,” Lucy said.

  “I heard,” Becky said, “but I thought I’d take him some coffee while Beulah’s fixing up his plate.”

  Lucy chuckled, unable to resist teasing her. “You do have good ears,” she japed. “I could have waited on him.”

  Accustomed to her friend’s joking, Becky didn’t respond while she went out the door, hurried over to Perley’s table, and placed the cup of coffee down before him. “I know how you like your coffee,” she said, “so I brought it right out. It’s the first cup out of a new pot. Beulah’s fixing your plate right now.”

  The warm smile she always caused to form on Perley’s face blossomed into a beaming grin of embarrassment as he tried to think of something intelligent to say. Failing to come up with anything, he settled for, “Howdy, Becky.”

  His response was not loud, but it was enough to be heard at the table several feet away. “Yeah, howdy, Becky,” Jesse demanded, “where the hell’s my coffee? If anybody got the first cup, it oughta been me. Hell, he just walked in.”

  Leonard chuckled. “I swear, Jesse, you sure are feelin’ ornery today, ain’tcha?”

  “Damn right I am,” Jesse said. Then to Becky, he ordered, “Tell that other gal, Miss Sassy Britches, I want some fresh coffee right now.”

  It had already gone too far. Perley was not happy with the obvious disrespect shown the two women, and now he could see that same resentment building in Sonny’s eyes. Afraid Sonny might get into an altercation with the two drifters, he thought he’d better try to see if he could defuse the situation before it blew up. “Hey, there ain’t no problem, friend,” he called out to Jesse. “Becky, here, didn’t know you were supposed to get the first cup. You can take this one and I’ll wait for the next one. We don’t talk to the ladies here in the dinin’ room like you might talk to the ladies in the saloon, so it doesn’t set too well with ’em. Whaddaya say? You want this cup of coffee?”

  Both drifters looked at Perley in disbelief for a long moment before Jesse responded. “Mister, in the first place, I ain’t your friend, and it ain’t none of your business how I talk to a woman anywhere. So you’d best keep your mouth shut and mind your own business. I don’t want your damn cup of coffee. If I did, I woulda already come over there and took it. Whaddaya say about that?”

  Remaining unruffled, Perley paused and shrugged. “Well, I’d say that wouldn’ta been necessary, since I offered to give it to you, anyway.”

  Jesse looked at Leonard and asked, “Do you believe this mealymouthed jasper?” Looking back at Perley then, he warned, “Like I told you, keep your nose in your own business and stay the hell outta mine.”

  “Don’t fret yourself, Perley,” Becky said. “I’ll run get the man some more coffee. There’s no reason to have any trouble.”

  Jesse didn’t miss hearing the name. “Pearly, is that what your name is?” When Perley nodded, Jesse declared, “Well, it sure as hell suits you. Pearly,” he repeated, laughing. “What’s your last name? Gates?” He looked over at Leonard and gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.

  “Matter of fact, it is,” Perley said.

  That caused Jesse to pause for a moment. He was so surprised to find he had guessed right when he thought he had made a joke of the fellow’s name. He looked at Leonard again, then they both howled with laughter. “Pearly Gates,” he repeated a couple more times. “If that ain’t a perfect name for a jasper like you, I don’t know what is.” He paused then when it occurred to him that the innocent-looking cowhand might be japing him. “Or maybe that ain’t really your name and you’re thinkin’ you’re pretty funny.” He was about to threaten Perley but was interrupted by Lucy, who came from the kitchen at that point, carrying two fresh cups of coffee.

  “Sorry to make you boys wait,” she said. “I had to clear my throat first.” She glanced at Becky and winked. “Now, I hope you two will settle down and act like you’ve been around decent folks before.”

  Having caught Lucy’s quick wink at Becky, Jesse was at once suspicious. “I don’t reckon there’s anything in that cup but coffee, right?”

  “Of course, that’s right,” Lucy answered. “Did you want something else in it?”

  He looked at his friend and gave him a wink. “Then I don’t reckon you’d mind takin’ a little drink of it first,” Jesse said.

  Lucy shrugged and without hesitating, picked up the cup and took a couple of sips of coffee. Then she graced him with a broad smile as she placed the cup back on the table. “Fresh out of the pot,” she said. “Satisfied?” She turned to Becky then and said, “Come on, Becky, let’s let ’em eat so they can get outta here. Perley’s plate is ready now, anyway.”

  Becky started to follow her to the kitchen, but Jesse grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. “To hell with Perley’s plate. You can
stay here and keep company with me and Leonard.”

  That was as much as Perley could abide. “I reckon you’ve gone far enough to make it my business now,” he said as he got up from his chair. “We don’t stand for that kinda treatment to the ladies in this town. Let her go and we won’t send for the sheriff. You can just finish your dinner and get on outta here and let decent people eat in peace.”

  Jesse gave him a big smile as he released Becky’s wrist. She shot one worried look in Perley’s direction before running out the door to find the sheriff. “Well, well,” Jesse asked Leonard, “did you hear what he called me?”

  “He called you a dirty name I can’t repeat in front of these citizens settin’ in here eatin’. And he said you was a yellow-bellied, scum-eatin’ dog,” the simple man answered, knowing what Jesse was fixing to do. Judging by the foolish grin on his face, it was easy to guess he possessed mere childlike intelligence.

  “I’m thinkin’ a man ain’t no man a-tall, if he don’t stand up to a yellow snivelin’ dog callin’ him names like that. Whaddaya think I oughta do about it?”

  “I reckon you ain’t got no choice,” Leonard said. “A man’s got a right to stand up for his honor. If he don’t, he ain’t got no honor. Ain’t that what Micah always says?” They both got to their feet and stood grinning at Perley. “Maybe if he said he was sorry and admitted he was a yellow dog and crawled outta here on his hands and knees, you could let him get by with what he said,” Leonard added, excitedly.

  Perley patiently watched their little parody for a few minutes before responding. “You two fellows are puttin’ on a good little show over one cup of coffee. If you think I’m gonna participate in a gunfight with you, you’re mistaken. I came in here to eat my dinner, just like the rest of these folks. So why don’t you sit back down and finish your dinner? Then you can go to Patton’s Saloon and tell everybody there how you backed me down. That way, nobody gets shot, and we can eat in peace.”