Sudden--At Bay (A Sudden Western #2) by Frederick H. Christian Page A

I’ll help you.
If they’re the right reasons, that is.’
    ‘ Help me? How can yu help me?’
Green looked puzzled.
    Hight leaned forward eagerly.
    ‘ I’ll go over to the jail on some
excuse, and find out how many men are in there.’
    Green looked at him in amazement,
then shook his head, smiling. An’ I thought this town was spineless
he murmured. ‘Yu’d do it?’
    ‘ If you tell me what I want to
know.’
    Green hesitated for a moment, then came to a
decision.
    ‘ I’m lookin’ for two men. Mebbe
yu’ve heard o’ them. Their names are Webb an’ Peterson.’
    Hight pondered for a moment. ‘Can’t
say the names are familiar, but names don’t mean much in these
parts. What do you want them for?’
    ‘ I want to settle a
debt.’
    Somehow, the way in which these
words were spoken put a chill in the medical man’s veins. Green’s
eyes were cold and ruthless, and Hight did not envy the two men,
whoever they were.
    ‘ Who are you, Green?’ he asked
bluntly.
    ‘ My name’s shore ’nough Jim
Green,’ the puncher told him. ‘But in Texas, they’ve given me
another: there, men call me “Sudden”.
    Sudden! Remote though this corner of the West was, it was not so cut
off from the world outside that Hight had not heard of the outlaw
and gunfighter who bore the name of Sudden. So this quiet-spoken
man with the level gaze, watching him now unperturbed, was the
fantastic wizard whose genius with the six-gun had already earned
him a place among the famous —-or the infamous —-of the frontier!
Sudden, the man who had cleaned out Lawless, the man
who…
    Green had been watching his host
carefully and saw the dawning hesitation in the Doctor’s
eyes.
    ‘ Yo’re wonderin’ if mebbe I ain’t
tarred with the same brush as them jaspers Cotton hires, ain’t yu?’
he said harshly. ‘Yu reckon anyone with a reputation like Sudden’s
couldn’t possibly be anythin’ but what they say about him. Well,
yo’re goin’ to hear the whole story. Doc. After that, I’m in yore
han’s.’ Without ado, Green proceeded to recount the circumstances
which had led to his infamous notoriety. The medico listened in
amazement to the story of a promise made to a man on his death-bed,
of the blind search for two murderers that the promise bound him
to, and the false accusation of murder that had sent a boy alone
into the wild frontier country with a price on his head, a target
for every bounty hunter and reputation-builder who crossed his
track.’
    ‘ Most o’ what yu’ll have heard
about me is lies,’ Sudden told the doctor. ‘But some of it ain’t.
Yu’ll jest have to make yore own mind up which is
which.’
    Hight did not hesitate. He thrust
out his hand and grasped the other’s. ‘Jim, if you’re Sudden, then
I’m guessing most of what’s said about you is lies. And —–’ he
grinned, ‘since half the world are liars, anyway, it isn’t really
surprising.’ He limped into his study and returned with a stout
walking stick. ‘I think I’ll just go over and see that the boy is
in good health. Tell him his sister is doing fine.’ He turned at
the door to face Sudden. ‘Stay here, Don’t show yourself. I’ll be
back as soon as I can.’
    Sudden nodded, saying nothing, and
Hight limped out into the street. So that was Sudden! The quiet,
drawling voice and the casual air hardly jibed with the lurid tales
he had heard about the famous outlaw. He tried to recall some of
them in detail, but found he could not. Something about the Hell
City business down in Arizona. ‘But on which side: right or wrong?
Good or evil? Hight squared his shoulders.
    ‘ I know where my bet’s going,’ he
announced to nobody in particular. The gray dog in the shadow of
the livery stable looked up at the sound of Hight’s voice, and
watched disinterestedly as the Doctor limped across the street and
knocked on the door of the jailhouse.
    Hight was gone about fifteen
minutes. Watching through the window of the medico’s