away, before somebody else does.”
“Con,” I said, “I don’t believe we’ll find it.”
He studied me, then he smiled. “You’re learning, Shell. You think the others took it along?”
“Figure it out for yourself. From what I know of them I’d say they’d steal from each other as quick as from me and pa. Doc was going to lay for me with a shotgun. They figured he’d get me, but in case he didn’t—”
“And if he did? And found his money gone?”
“They’d give it back. He wouldn’t dare brace Bob Heseltine and call him a thief. They’d just say they took care of it for him.”
“So what are you going to do?”
I shrugged. “Sleep. In the morning I’m going to put most of this in the bank. I’m going to keep two hundred dollars as part of my share and use it to live on whilst tracking them down.”
Before I went to sleep I sat down, and taking some paper the hotel provided, I struggled through the writing of a letter. I addressed it to Burton J. Ely, who was our neighbor, and who’d had a share in the herd.
Chapter 6
----
B Y NOONTIME EVERYBODY in Leadville seemed to have heard about the shooting. Doc Sites was alive and might remain so, and I hoped he would. I had no need in me to kill Doc Sites, despite the fact he’d laid for me with a shotgun.
Because I had dropped on the steps, my shots had gone high, and his double charge had gone right past my head, a little high and to the right. At that close range the shots hadn’t begun to scatter, but they blew a hole in the step you could put a fist through.
At breakfast men stopped by the table where I sat with Con Judy. “Served him right,” they said. One added, “Only next time make it a mite lower. We don’t need his kind.”
We heard nothing of Heseltine or Reese. It seemed likely they had pulled their freight. Con had business in town so I nosed about, keeping the thong off my six-shooter just in case.
Con cautioned me, “Let them run and hide. Ruby won’t like that, and we both know it. Money’s no good unless they can spend it, and she will get tired of being holed up with two jumpy outlaws.”
“What I can’t figure,” I said, “is why they’re so scared. Heseltine is surely better than me with a pistol, and for that matter, Reese must be too.”
Con shrugged. “When they knew you back in Texas you were just a shave-tail kid, and when they braced you back on the trail you weren’t much more. They had only contempt for you, Shell. Men will often take advantage of anyone they believe is helpless to retaliate.
“The change in their thinking started when you took after them. That worried them, because it showed you weren’t afraid to meet them. They probably didn’t know who I was, and they were worried because you were no longer alone.
“Despite all the talk you hear about gunmen, most of them stay in their own district and avoid people on the other side of town. When you came to Leadville you seemed to have connections, and that would worry them. You can bet they heard talk; they knew you had cleared yourself with Duggan, and you seemed to be friendly with businessmen around town. You were no longer somebody to be treated with contempt.
“Then after somebody took that shot at you, that put them in the wrong. It was a shot from the dark—and it was a damn fool thing to do because it put them on record for the kind of men who would dry-gulch a man, and it also showed they weren’t sure of their own position.”
It made sense, of course. Nevertheless, I was worried about that money. If they had hit the trail I might never get any more of it, and I didn’t like the thought of that. Anyway, town was a-fretting me.
I’d been raised where the long wind blows and the short-grass plains roll away to the edge of the sky. I was used to the smell of a buffalo-chip fire and the feel of a saddle. I’d had it in me too long to get quickly weaned away by fancy grub and store-bought clothes.
So I said nothing, but
“Con,” I said, “I don’t believe we’ll find it.”
He studied me, then he smiled. “You’re learning, Shell. You think the others took it along?”
“Figure it out for yourself. From what I know of them I’d say they’d steal from each other as quick as from me and pa. Doc was going to lay for me with a shotgun. They figured he’d get me, but in case he didn’t—”
“And if he did? And found his money gone?”
“They’d give it back. He wouldn’t dare brace Bob Heseltine and call him a thief. They’d just say they took care of it for him.”
“So what are you going to do?”
I shrugged. “Sleep. In the morning I’m going to put most of this in the bank. I’m going to keep two hundred dollars as part of my share and use it to live on whilst tracking them down.”
Before I went to sleep I sat down, and taking some paper the hotel provided, I struggled through the writing of a letter. I addressed it to Burton J. Ely, who was our neighbor, and who’d had a share in the herd.
Chapter 6
----
B Y NOONTIME EVERYBODY in Leadville seemed to have heard about the shooting. Doc Sites was alive and might remain so, and I hoped he would. I had no need in me to kill Doc Sites, despite the fact he’d laid for me with a shotgun.
Because I had dropped on the steps, my shots had gone high, and his double charge had gone right past my head, a little high and to the right. At that close range the shots hadn’t begun to scatter, but they blew a hole in the step you could put a fist through.
At breakfast men stopped by the table where I sat with Con Judy. “Served him right,” they said. One added, “Only next time make it a mite lower. We don’t need his kind.”
We heard nothing of Heseltine or Reese. It seemed likely they had pulled their freight. Con had business in town so I nosed about, keeping the thong off my six-shooter just in case.
Con cautioned me, “Let them run and hide. Ruby won’t like that, and we both know it. Money’s no good unless they can spend it, and she will get tired of being holed up with two jumpy outlaws.”
“What I can’t figure,” I said, “is why they’re so scared. Heseltine is surely better than me with a pistol, and for that matter, Reese must be too.”
Con shrugged. “When they knew you back in Texas you were just a shave-tail kid, and when they braced you back on the trail you weren’t much more. They had only contempt for you, Shell. Men will often take advantage of anyone they believe is helpless to retaliate.
“The change in their thinking started when you took after them. That worried them, because it showed you weren’t afraid to meet them. They probably didn’t know who I was, and they were worried because you were no longer alone.
“Despite all the talk you hear about gunmen, most of them stay in their own district and avoid people on the other side of town. When you came to Leadville you seemed to have connections, and that would worry them. You can bet they heard talk; they knew you had cleared yourself with Duggan, and you seemed to be friendly with businessmen around town. You were no longer somebody to be treated with contempt.
“Then after somebody took that shot at you, that put them in the wrong. It was a shot from the dark—and it was a damn fool thing to do because it put them on record for the kind of men who would dry-gulch a man, and it also showed they weren’t sure of their own position.”
It made sense, of course. Nevertheless, I was worried about that money. If they had hit the trail I might never get any more of it, and I didn’t like the thought of that. Anyway, town was a-fretting me.
I’d been raised where the long wind blows and the short-grass plains roll away to the edge of the sky. I was used to the smell of a buffalo-chip fire and the feel of a saddle. I’d had it in me too long to get quickly weaned away by fancy grub and store-bought clothes.
So I said nothing, but
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