CHAPTER XVII
EDWARDS' ULTIMATUM
Edwards slid off the counter in Jackson's store and glowered at thepelting rain outside, perturbed and grouchy. The wounded man in thecorner stirred and looked at him without interest and forthwith renewedhis profane monologue, while the proprietor, finishing his task, leanedback against the shelves and swore softly. It was a lovely atmosphere.
"Seems to me they've been gone a long time," grumbled the wounded man."Reckon he led 'em a long chase--had six hours' start, the toad." Hepaused and then as an afterthought said with conviction: "But they'llget him--they allus do when they make up their minds to it."
Edwards nodded moodily and Jackson replied with a monosyllable.
"Wish I could 'a' gone with 'em," Johnny growled. "I like to square myown accounts. It's allus that way. I get plugged an' my friends cleanthe slate. There was that time Bye-an'-Bye went an' ambushed me--ah,the devil! But I tell you one thing: when I get well I'm going down toHarlan's an' clean house proper."
"Yo're in hard luck again: that'll be done as soon as yore friends getback," Jackson replied, carefully selecting a dried apricot from abox on the counter and glancing at the marshal to see how he took theremark.
"That'll be done before then," Edwards said crisply, with the air ofa man who has just settled a doubt. "They won't be back much beforeto-morrow if he headed for the country I think he did. I'm going downto the Oasis an' tell that gang to clear out of this town. They've beenhere too long now. I never had 'em dead to rights before, but I've gotit on 'em this time. I'd 'a' sent 'em packing yesterday only I sortof hated to take a man's business away from him an' make him lose hisbelongings. But I've wrastled it all out an' they've got to go." Hebuttoned his coat about him and pulled his sombrero more firmly onhis head, starting for the door. "I'll be back soon," he said over hisshoulder as he grasped the handle.
"You better wait till you get help--there's too many down there for oneman to watch an' handle," Jackson hastily remarked. "Here, I'll go withyou," he offered, looking for his hat.
Edwards laughed shortly. "You stay here. I do my own work by myself whenI can--that's what I'm here for, an' I can do this, all right. If I tookany help they'd reckon I was scared," and the door slammed shut behindhim.
"He's got sand a plenty," Jackson remarked. "He'd try to push back astampede by main strength if he reckoned it was his duty. It's his goodluck that he wasn't killed long ago--_I'd_ 'a' been."
"They're a bunch of cowards," replied Johnny. "As long as you ain'tafraid of 'em, none of 'em wants to start anything. Bunch of sheep!" hesnorted. "Didn't Jerry shoot me through his pocket?"
"Yes; an' yo're another lucky dog," Jackson responded, having in mindthat at first Johnny had been thought to be desperately wounded. "Why,yore friends have got the worst of this game; they're worse off than youare--out all day an' night in this cussed storm."
While they talked Edwards made his way through the cold downpour toHarlan's saloon, alone and unafraid, and greatly pleased by the orderhe would give. At last he had proof enough to work on, to satisfy hisconscience, for the inevitable had come as the culmination of continuedand clever defiance of law and order.
He deliberately approached the front door of the Oasis and, opening it,stepped inside, his hands resting on his guns--he had packed two Coltsfor the last twenty-four hours. His appearance caused a ripple ofexcitement to run around the room. After what had taken place, avisit from him could mean only one thing--trouble. And it was entirelypossible that he had others within call to help him out if necessary.
Harlan knew that he would be the one held responsible and he ceasedwiping a glass and held the cloth suspended in one hand and the glass inthe other. "Well?" he snapped, angrily, his eyes smouldering with fixedhatred.
"Mebby you think it's well, but it's going to be a blamed sight betterbefore sundown to-morrow night," evenly replied the marshal. "I justdropped in sort of free-like to tell you to pack up an' get out of townbefore dark--load yore wagon an' vamoose; an' take yore friends withyou, too. If you don't--" he did not finish in words, for his tighteninglips made them unnecessary.
"_What!_" yelled Harlan, red with anger. He placed his hands on the barand leaned over it as if to give emphasis to his words. "_Me_ pack upan' git! _Me_ leave this shack! Who's going to pay me for it, hey? _Me_leave town! You drop out again an' go back to Kansas where you comefrom--they're easier back there!"
"Well, so far I ain't found nothing very craggy 'round here," retortedEdwards, closely watching the muttering crowd by the bar. "Takes morethan a loud voice an' a pack of sneaking coyotes to send me lookingfor something easier. An' let me tell you this: _You_ stay away fromKansas--they hangs people like you back there. That's whatever. You packup an' git out of this town or I'll start a burying plot with you onyore own land."
The low, angry buzz of Harlan's friends and their savage, scowling faceswould have deterred a less determined man; but Edwards knew they wereafraid of him, and the men on whom he could call to back him up. And heknew that there must always be a start, there must be one man to showthe way; and each of the men he faced was waiting for some one else tolead.
"You all slip over the horizon before dark to-night, an' it's dark earlythese days," he continued. "_Don't get restless with yore hands!_" hesnapped ominously at the crowd. "I means what I say--you shake the mudfrom this town off yore boots before dark--before that Bar-20 outfitgets back," he finished meaningly.
Questions, imprecations, and threats filled the room, and the crowdbegan to spread out slowly. His guns came out like a flash and helaughed with the elation that comes with impending battle. "The firstman to start it'll drop," he said evenly. "Who's going to be themartyr?"
"I _won't_ leave town!" shouted Harlan. "I'll stay here if I'm killedfor it!"
"I admire yore loyalty to principle, but you've got damned littlesense," retorted the marshal. "You ain't no practical man. _Keep yorehands where they are!_"--his vibrant voice turned the shifting crowd tostone-like rigidity and he backed slowly toward the door, the poorlight gleaming dully from the polished blue steel of his Colts.Rugged, lion-like, charged to the finger tips with reckless courage anddare-devil self-confidence, his personality overflowed and dominated theroom, almost hypnotic in its effect. He was but one against many, buthe was the master, and they knew it; they had known it long enoughto accept it without question, and the training now stood him in goodstead.
For a moment he stood in the open doorway, keenly scrutinizing them forsigns of danger, his unwavering guns charged with certain death andhis strong face made stronger by the shadows in its hollows. "Beforedark!"--and he was gone.
He left behind him deep silence, which endured for several moments.
"By the Lord, I _won't_!" cried Harlan, still staring at the door.
The spell was broken and a babel of voices filled the room, threatsmingling with excuses, hot, vibrant, profane. These men were not cowardsall the way through, but only when face to face with the master. Theyhad flourished in a way by their wits alone on the same range with theoutfits of the C-80 and the Double-Arrow, for individually they were"bad," and collectively they made a force of no mean strength. Edwardshad landed among them like a thunderbolt and had proved his prowess, andthey still held him in awesome respect. His reckless audacity and grimsingleness of purpose had saved him on more than one occasion, forhad he wavered once he would have been shot down without mercy. Butgradually his enforcement of hampering laws became more and moreintolerable, and their subordinated spirits were nearly on the pointof revolt. When he faced them they resumed their former positions inrelation to him--but once out of his sight they plotted to destroyhim. Here was the crisis: it was now or never. They could not evade hisultimatum--it was obey or fight.
Submission was not to be thought of, for to flee would be to lose caste,and the story of such an act would follow them wherever they went, andbrand them as cowards. Here they had lived, and here they would stay ifpossible, and to this end they discus
sed ways and means.
"Harlan's right!" emphatically announced Laramie Joe. "We can't pull outand have this foller us."
"We should have started it with a rush when he was in here," remarkedBoston, regretfully.
Harlan stopped his pacing and faced them, shoving out a bottle ofwhiskey as an aid to his logic.
"That chance is past, an' I don't know but what it is a good thing," hebegan. "He was primed an' looking fer trouble, an' he'd shore got a fewof us afore he went under. What we want is strategy--that's the game.You fellers have got as much brains as him, an' if we thrash this thingout we can find a way to call his play--an' get him! No use of any of usgetting plugged 'less we have to. But whatever we do we've got to startit right quick an' have it over before that Bar-20 gang comes back.Harper, you an' Quinn go scouting--an' don't take no guns with you,neither. Act like you was hitting the long trail out, an' work back hereon a circle. See how many of his friends are in town. While you are gonethe rest of us will hold a pow-wow an' take the kinks out of this game.Chase along, an' don't waste no time."
"Good!" cried Slivers Lowe emphatically. "There's blamed few fellersin town now that have any use for him, for most of them are off on theranges. Bet we won't have more than six to fight, an' there's that manyof us here."
The scouts departed at once and the remaining four drew close inconsultation.
"One more drink around and then no more till this trouble is over,"Harlan said, passing the bottle. The drinks, in view of the comingdrought and the thirsty work ahead, were long and deep, and new courageand vindictiveness crept through their veins.
"Now here's the way it looks to me," Harlan continued, placing thebottle, untasted by himself, on the floor behind him. "We've got to worka surprise an' take Edwards an' his friends off their guard. That'll beeasy if we're careful, because they think we ain't looking for fight.When we get them out of the way we can take Jackson's store an' use oneof the other shacks and wait for the Bar-20 to ride in. They'll canterright in, like they allus do, an' when they get close enough we'll openthe game with a volley an' make every shot tell. 'T won't last long,'cause every one of us will have his man named before they get here.Then the few straddlers in town, seeing how easy we've gone an' handledit'll join us. We've got four men to come in yet, an' by the time theC-80 an' Double-Arrow hears about it we'll be fixed to drive 'em backhome. We ought to be over a dozen strong by dark."
"That sounds good, all right," remarked Slivers, thoughtfully, "but canwe do it that easy?"
"Course we can! We ain't fools, an' we all can shoot as well as them,"snapped Laramie Joe, the most courageous of the lot. Laramie had takenonly one drink, and that a small one, for he was wise enough to realizethat he needed his wits as keen as he could have them.
"We can do it easy, if Edwards goes under first," hastily repliedHarlan. "An' me an' Laramie will see to that part of it. If we don't gethim, you all can hit the trail an' we won't be sore about it. That is,unless you are made of the stuff that stands up an' fights 'stead ofrunning away. I reckon I ain't none mistaken in any of you. You'll allbe there when things get hot."
"You can bet the shack _I_ won't do no trail-hitting," growled Boston,glancing at Slivers, who squirmed a little under the hint.
"Well, I'm glued to the crowd; you can't lose me, fellers," Sliversremarked, re-crossing his legs uneasily. "Are we going to begin it fromhere?"
"We ought to spread out cautions and surround Jackson's, or whereverEdwards is," Laramie Joe suggested. "That's my--"
"Yo're right! Now you've hit it plumb on the head!" interrupted Harlan,slapping Laramie heartily across the back. "What did I tell you aboutour brains?" he cried, enthusiastically. He had been on the point ofsuggesting that plan of operations when Laramie took the words outof his mouth. "I'd never thought of that, Laramie," he lied, his facebeaming. "Why, we've got 'em licked to a finish right now!"
"This _is_ a hummer of a game," laughed Slivers. "But how about theBar-20 crowd?"
"I've told you that already," replied the proprietor.
"You bet it's a hummer," cried Boston, reaching for the whiskey bottleunder cover of the excitement and enthusiasm.
Harlan pushed it away with his foot and raised his clenched fist. "Doyou wonder I didn't think of that plan?" he demanded. "Ain't I been toomad to think at all? Hain't I seen my friends treated like dogs, an'made to swaller insults when I couldn't raise my hand to stop it? Didn'tI see Jerry Brown chased out of my place like a wild beast? If we arewhat we've been called, then we'll sneak out of town with our tailsatween our laigs; but if we're men we'll stay right here an' cram theinsults down the throats of them that made 'em! If we're _men_ let'sprove it an' make them liars swaller our lead."
"My sentiments an' allus was!" roared Slivers, slapping Harlan'sshoulder.
"We're men, all right, an' we'll show 'em it, too!"
At that instant the door opened and four guns covered it before it hadswung a foot.
"Put 'em down--it's Quinn!" exclaimed the man in the doorway, flinchinga bit. "All right, Jed," he called over his shoulder to the man whocrowded him. After Quinn came Big Jed and Harper brought up the rear.They had no more than shaken the water from their sombreros when theback door let in Charley Rich and his two companions, Frank and TomNolan. While greetings were being exchanged and the existing conditionsexplained to the newcomers, Harper and Quinn led Harlan to one side andreported, the proprietor smiling and nodding his head wisely. And whilehe listened, Slivers surreptitiously corralled the whiskey bottle andwhen the last man finished with it there was nothing in it but air.
"Well, boys," exclaimed Harlan, "things are our way. Quinn, here, metJoe Barr, of the C-80, who said Converse an' four other fellers, allfriends of Edwards, stopped at the ranch an' won't be back home till thestorm stops. Harper saw Fred Neil going back to his ranch, so all we'vegot to figger on is the marshal, Barr, an' Jackson, an' they're all inJackson's store. Lacey might cut in, since he'd sell more liquor if Iwent under, but he can't do very much if he does take a hand. Nowwe'll get right at it." The whole thing was gone over thoroughly and indetail, positions assigned and a signal agreed upon. Seeing that weaponswere in good condition after their long storage in the cellar, and thatcartridge belts were full, the ten men left the room one at a time orin pairs, Harlan and Laramie Joe being the last. And both Harlan andLaramie delayed long enough to take the precaution of placing horseswhere they would be handy in case of need.