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  * * *

  “I was wonderin’ if you were gonna give all your business to the Lost Coyote,” Wilson Bishop said when Pitt Ramsey walked in the Golden Rail.” He looked around him to make sure no one could overhear him before continuing. “I didn’t hear any gunshots while you were up the street.”

  “Just like I told your boss,” Ramsey said, “this job has to be set up, so that it don’t look like a planned assassination. It’s got to look like a face-off between the two of us, so nobody can lay it at Dalton’s feet, or say that I came to town just to kill him. You can tell your boss that I’ll finish the job at about this time tomorrow, and that’s when I’ll expect to get the rest of my money.”

  Wilson didn’t hesitate. Knowing how crucial this was to Dalton, he went to the back room to find Stump Jones. Hearing Wilson calling, Stump came out of the closet, where he was building some new shelves. “You wantin’ me?”

  “Yes,” Wilson replied. “Saddle your horse and ride out to the Double-D. I want you to give Mr. Dalton a message. Tell him that job will be done by this time tomorrow. On second thought, tell him by five o’clock tomorrow, since it’s gonna take you an hour to get out there.”

  “Will he know what job you’re talkin’ about?”

  “He’ll know,” Wilson assured him. He was sure Dalton didn’t want him to discuss it with Stump. “Just tell him what I said.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Just for the hell of it, Ben decided to stop by the sheriff’s office on his way to supper. He found Bragg in the office about to go to the hotel dining room, himself. “Trouble already?” Bragg joked. “You ain’t been back but half a day.”

  “No,” Ben responded, “I just thought I’d ask you if you’ve gotten any wanted papers on a man named Pete Wood.”

  “Don’t recall seein’ that name,” Bragg replied. “We can take a look through ’em, if you want to.” He went to his desk and pulled out a cardboard box. “This is everything I’ve gotten so far this year.” While he divided the papers into two stacks, so they could both search, it occurred to him. “Is this about that stranger in the derby hat I saw come outta the Golden Rail this mornin’?”

  “As a matter of fact,” Ben replied. He started going through the wanted papers. “Did you say he came outta the Golden Rail this mornin’?” Mack said he did. “And he ended up in the Coyote this afternoon, playin’ cards with Tuck and Ham and Jim.”

  “Cause you any trouble?” Bragg asked. When Ben said no, Bragg shrugged and said, “Sounds like the Golden Rail mighta been a little too rough for his taste.” They continued searching the WANTED notices with no luck. Then toward the end of them, Bragg said, “Look at this drawing on one I got two months ago. Don’t this remind you of that fellow you’re talkin’ about?” He handed the notice to Ben. “Derby hat and all,” he added.

  “Wanted for the murder of a man in a saloon in Dodge City, Kansas,” Ben read aloud. “Name’s Pitt Ramsey. Sketch sure kinda favors this fellow I just saw in the Coyote.” He handed it back to Bragg to take another look.

  “Hard to tell for sure,” Bragg said. “This drawin’ looks a little heavier than the man I was lookin’ at this mornin’. Maybe I oughta go see if I can find him and have a little talk with him. Accordin’ to this, he ain’t wanted for robbery or rustlin’ or anything but that one shootin’ in a saloon.”

  “He was in the Coyote for a couple of hours playin’ cards,” Ben said. “And he was just as quiet as could be—got along fine with Tuck and the others.”

  “Sounds like his name might be Pete Wood,” Bragg decided, “and he ain’t caused no trouble, so let’s go eat supper. I’ll keep an eye on him. I can’t arrest him till he breaks a law.”

  * * *

  “Well, well,” Lacy James announced when they walked in the door. “Look what the sheriff caught. You bringing your prisoners to the dining room now, instead of feeding them down at the jail?”

  “Good evenin’ to you, too, Lacy,” Ben replied.

  “Oh, that’s Ben Savage with you,” Lacy continued to jape. “He’s been gone so long I forgot what he looked like.” She favored him with a big smile. “Myrtle cooked pork chops tonight. She musta known you’d be back.”

  Maybe she’s got the same kind of powers Annie’s got, he thought. In response to Lacy, he said, “It’ll be my pleasure to get rid of some of ’em for her.” He unbuckled his gun belt and left it on the table by the door, then followed Mack to the sheriff’s favorite table in the back corner of the room.

  The cooking was every bit as good as he had built it up to be during his ride back from Austin, while living on bacon and hardtack. When the meal was finished, they remained to have another cup of coffee. It was then that the stranger walked in the door, and it was obvious that he had not eaten there before. “I believe that’s our Mr. Pete Wood,” Bragg commented quietly.

  “That’s him,” Ben said. “Lacy’s gonna have to lay down the law to him.” He and Mack watched Ramsey’s reaction when Lacy stopped him from going directly to a table. They were close enough now for Ben and Mack to hear the conversation.

  “This is your first visit to our dining room,” Lacy said. “So, if you don’t mind, we’d like to ask you to leave your firearm on the table placed there for that purpose.”

  Ramsey looked around then and saw the table. “What if I do mind?”

  “Then I hope you find another restaurant with food as good as ours, and they’ll let you eat with your gun on,” she said.

  He laughed. “All right, I’ll take it off.” He had started to unbuckle his belt when he noticed Ben and Mack sitting at the table in the corner. “Wait a minute,” he said, “feller back there is wearin’ a gun. How come?”

  “He’s the sheriff,” Lacy said with a sassy smile. “He can keep his on. Show me your badge and I’ll let you wear your gun.”

  Ramsey returned her smile. “Oh, that does make a difference, don’t it? Gives you a good feelin’, too, to know the sheriff is protectin’ us while we eat. Matter of fact, I’d like to go say a word to him.”

  “I’m sure he’d be glad to meet you,” she said. “He always likes to meet newcomers. And after you say hello to him you just sit yourself down at any table and Cindy will be there to take care of you in a minute or two.”

  Ramsey selected a table toward the middle of the room, removed his derby and hung it on the back of the chair, then walked back to their table. “Don’t wanna interrupt your supper Sheriff, but I’d like to introduce myself. My name’s Pete Wood. I’m a gambler by trade, an honest one, and I always like to let the law know what I’m doin’ in their town.”

  “All right, Mr. Wood,” Bragg responded. “We don’t have any problem with professional gamblers in this town. So, if you’re playin’ an honest game, good luck to ya.”

  Ben was aware that Ramsey’s eyes seemed to be studying him while he talked to the sheriff. After Bragg wished him good luck, Ramsey said, “’Preciate it, Sheriff.” Then he addressed Ben. “You’re the owner of the Lost Coyote, right?”

  “One of ’em,” Ben answered.

  “Right,” Ramsey said, “I saw you in there today. I promised those boys I’d be back tomorrow to play cards. Will you be there?” Ben nodded. “Good, I’ll see you tomorrow. Nice talkin’ to you, Sheriff.” He returned to his table.

  “Now, tell me why I feel like I oughta check my pocket to see if my wallet is still there,” Bragg commented as they watched him walk away. Ben responded with a chuckle, but he knew what Mack was referring to. The name, Pete Wood, just didn’t seem to fit the man they were looking at.

  * * *

  “Maria!” Daniel Dalton yelled from his study, and when she didn’t arrive immediately, he yelled again. He was suffering another one of the severe headaches that had recently begun to attack him for no reason at all. When the weary little woman appeared in his doorway, he scolded, “Where the hell were you? I’ve got another damn headache.”

  “I am sorry,” she explained, “I was in the señora�
��s bedroom, fixing her tea. I will make you some strong coffee.” There was nothing else she knew to help his headaches. She wondered if they had anything to do with his recent bouts of dizziness. There was a doctor in town, but Dalton would not go to see him. His stubbornness would kill him, she sometimes thought. He would probably call her to come into his bedroom when he was ready to go to bed, and she always hated that. He should call his wife to do that. She knew that Estelle was suspicious of what she thought the two of them were doing in there with the door closed. Maria didn’t know if she should tell the señora what she was doing in there. She was not convinced that massaging the old man’s feet gave him the relief he claimed, anyway. His wife should have to be the one to rub his crooked old feet. Her thoughts were distracted then when she heard someone knocking at the kitchen door.

  She opened the door to find Spade Gunter standing there. “I need to give the boss a message from Wilson Bishop,” he said. “Has he gone to bed yet?”

  “No, he is in his study,” she answered, “but his head hurt, he say.”

  “Well, Stump Jones just rode in from town and he said Wilson told him to make sure the boss got this message tonight.”

  She shrugged. “I tell him.” She turned and went back to the study. In a couple of minutes, she returned and said, “He said for you to come in.”

  “What is it, Spade?” Dalton asked when his foreman stuck his head in the door.

  “Sorry to bother you, Sir, but Stump said you’d wanna know. It ain’t much of a message. He just said to tell you that the job will get done at about five o’clock tomorrow. Said you’d know what that meant.”

  “Okay, Spade,” Dalton said, “I know what he means.” Spade started to pull the door closed again, but Dalton stopped him. “And, Spade, I’ll be going into town again tomorrow.”

  “Yes, Sir, I’ll have your horse saddled. Just tell me when you’re ready.”

  * * *

  Annie came in the next morning to find that Ben had already started the fire in her stove, even though she was a little earlier than usual. “Give it another minute of two,” he told her, “and that coffee oughta be about ready.”

  “I reckon I’m gonna have to get here about midnight to beat you to the coffeepot,” she said. She was feeling a little jumpy this morning for some reason and she attributed it to all the talk yesterday about a gift horse. Now, she purposefully made no mention of it to Ben, thinking that he may have had more to drink than she knew about. And maybe this morning he would realize he had promised to give a horse away. If that was the case, she could not in good conscience, hold him to his word. Best not to mention it, she decided.

  “Why don’t you sit down and have a cup of coffee before you get started?” Ben suggested. She hesitated. “You afraid to drink my coffee?” he teased. She said she wasn’t and promptly poured herself a cup along with one for him. “Did you tell Johnny you were gonna ride home this afternoon on your new horse?”

  She flushed with excitement at that, realizing that it had not been whiskey talking the day before. He was really giving her a horse! “Yes,” she said. “I told him, but I don’t believe he thinks it will happen. I wasn’t sure,” she confessed. “He asked how much you had been drinking. I told him that he could ask you that when he comes in to breakfast.”

  He laughed. “I talked to Tuck last night. He’ll have your tack ready, and he said he’d saddle your horse and bring it here after dinner.”

  “I declare, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do anything proper today or not. How can I ever thank you enough? And Tuck?” she remembered.

  “That’s easy,” he grinned. “Just keep fixin’ breakfast and dinner like you’ve been doin’.”

  “Well, after I treat myself to this cup of coffee you made, I’ll do just that. I’ll fix you a big breakfast. You’re gonna need it.”

  “Good.” He paused, then asked, “Why’d you say I’m gonna need it?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered, wondering herself. “It just popped out.” Even in her excitement, she still felt troubled about something. Maybe it was because she didn’t think she deserved a present she hadn’t worked for. Later, when Johnny came in to breakfast, Ben told him all about the sorrel gelding and the fact that the horse seemed to be in sound condition. He guessed the age to be about four years old. “She said she was gettin’ a saddle, too,” Johnny joked. “I told her I wished you’da gave her a plow instead.”

  “Just for that crack, I’m not gonna let you ride him,” Annie told him.

  Rachel showed up before they had finished eating, but Tiny, Ruby, and Clarice trailed in a little later, as usual. Johnny Grey left as soon as he finished eating, and Ben sat there until he had all the coffee he could hold for the time being. Then with nothing better to do, he walked up to the stable to check Cousin’s and the sorrel’s shoes. The shoes weren’t bad on either horse, but he decided to take Annie’s horse to Jim Bowden to be shod. Might as well start her out ready to go, he thought.

  He waited and talked with Jim while he shod the horse and when he was finished, he climbed on the sorrel and rode it bareback up the north road out of town for about a mile before returning it to the stable. He wanted to make sure the horse had no objection to being ridden. Reassured as to the gentleness of the sorrel, he felt it would make Annie a good horse. Almost before he knew it, he had used up the morning, so he walked back to the saloon, leaving the horse with Henry until Tuck came with the new saddle.

  He got back in time to join Rachel and Ruby for dinner, Tiny and Clarice having already eaten. When Annie brought the coffeepot for refills, she commented to Ben, “This might not be as good as yours was first thing this morning.”

  He only chuckled in response. When she went back into the kitchen, Rachel joked, “We might be buying some new dishes before long. I think I heard two hit the floor in there this morning.”

  “She is nervous about something today,” Ruby said.

  “She’s just excited about that horse,” Rachel declared. “If Tuck gets here too soon, we might have to clean up the kitchen for her.”

  Tuck’s timing was good, however, because Annie had just finished her work for the day when he walked in the door. “Hey,” he blurted, “anybody know who owns this little sorrel out front?” He was answered by a little squeal of excitement as Annie ran by him. She was followed at once by Rachel and Ben.

  They found her outside at the hitching rail. She was holding the horse’s bridle with one hand and stroking its neck with the other. “Oh, he’s beautiful,” she cooed.

  “Step up in the saddle and we’ll adjust the stirrups,” Tuck said. Ben offered a hand and she jumped right up on the horse. “We’d best shorten ’em a little,” Tuck suggested and adjusted them. “There you go, just right,” he decided. Rachel couldn’t help thinking if they were shortened a little more, they’d probably be just right for Tuck. She had better sense than to say it, however. “I ain’t got no sidesaddle,” Tuck declared. “I didn’t think you’d wanna ride that way, even if I had one.”

  “I don’t,” Annie said, “and I wore my long knickers this morning, anyway.”

  “Take him for a little ride,” Ben said, “and see how he feels.”

  She turned the sorrel away from the rail and started down the street toward the hotel at a trot. Halfway down the street, she urged the horse to lope, causing Ben to comment that she knew how to ride. Past the hotel, she turned around and came back up the street at a gallop. Almost even with the front door of the saloon, she reined the horse to a sliding stop and cried, “I love him!” She hopped down, put her arms around the sorrel’s neck, and hugged him.

  “I swear, if I didn’t know how old that woman is, I’d think we were watching a kid on Christmas morning,” Rachel commented aside to Ben.

  “That was some fancy ridin’ for a little lady like you.” They all turned to see who made the remark. Pitt Ramsey stood on the boardwalk, smiling at them. “Yes, ma’am, that was some fancy ridin’.” He turned a
nd walked into the Lost Coyote.

  The look of joy on Annie’s face turned immediately to a troubled frown and she placed her hand on Ben’s forearm. “You be careful,” she said.

  Puzzled by her remark, he was about to question her when he was interrupted by Ruby, who came out of the saloon carrying Annie’s cotton sack she brought back and forth from home every day for her personal items. “You don’t wanna forget these,” she said.

  Annie took the bag and tied it on the saddle horn. “Thank you, everybody, especially you and Tuck,” she said to Ben. “I’m gonna ride home to show Johnny. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  She rode away at a lope, passing Ham Greeley and Jim Bowden on their way to the saloon. Ben and Rachel stood there watching her until she rode out of sight. “I don’t care what they say about you, you did a really nice thing there, partner.”

  “Every once in a while,” he came back and they filed back into the Coyote behind Ham and Jim.

  “You couldn’t find no big card game, I reckon,” they heard Tuck razzing the stranger called Pete Wood. “You shoulda tried the Golden Rail. Mighta found a bigger game.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed a chance to set down with you boys again,” Ramsey said. “I left a little on the table here yesterday, and I plan on gettin’ it back today.”

  “All right, then, let’s get her goin’,” Tuck said. “Everybody chip in for the bottle.” Tiny brought a bottle and four glasses over to the table and collected the money for it, and the game was underway.

  CHAPTER 24

  Everything went as it had the day before, with a lot of boastful talk and complaints of bad luck until Pete Wood said, almost casually, “That last card came off the bottom of the deck.”

  Since Tuck was dealing, he naturally jerked his head back in surprise. “What are you talkin’ about?”

  “I’m just sayin’ you dealt that last card off the bottom of the deck,” Ramsey said, his voice absent any emotion. “I want one off the top.” Jim and Ham both looked at Ramsey, astonished by his charge.