Matt Starr had chosen the same rental sorrel he had ridden earlier. He had seen Arapahoe Brown’s big gray in one of the stalls and had thought about using him, but he had decided it best to leave the horse right where he was for the time being.
He was just leading the sorrel through the open double doors of the livery and into the street when Andrew Wharton’s buggy came rolling at a fast clip down the street.
On seeing the Marshal in front of him, the lawyer hauled back on the reins and pulled his team to a halt. The wheels locked by the handbrake slid in the dust. Wharton had blocked the Marshal’s path directly in front of him. “Marshal! Marshal!” He shouted excitedly. “Is it true? Outlaws have kidnapped Sarah Price?”
“I’m afraid so,” Matt answered calmly.
“Is…is she alright? I mean has she been hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” Matt assured him.
“Why didn’t you stop them?” Andrew blubbered.
“I wasn’t there when it happened.”
“Why not? You’re the law, aren’t you.”
“Federal, yes. But this is Sheriff Trask’s jurisdiction.”
“Well, then, what’s he doing about it?”
“Nothing right now. It seems he’s waiting to pay ransom for her tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Good God! Who knows what those ruffians will do to her in the meantime.”
“Don’t worry about that. Jeremy Carlin is one of them. I doubt he would allow any harm to come to her.”
“Jeremy Carlin is an outlaw. You can’t trust him. Somebody’s got to do something. Where’s the Sheriff? ”
“I’m not sure, but I think he gone out to Simon Price’s ranch to tell him about it and arrange for the ransom money.”
“In other words, he’s not doing anything. Is that right?”
“Not until morning, anyways,” Matt confirmed.
“Then that leaves you, Marshal. What are you going to do about it?”
“Well,” Matt said with irritation. “I was just about to go out and look for her when you got in my way. So, if you’re through ranting and raving, just let me pass and I’ll get on with it.”
Andrew suddenly felt embarrassed. “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Matt started to step around the team and buggy, leading the sorrel when Andrew piped up “Marshal, I want to go with you.”
Matt turned to the boy. He saw the worry and concern on his face and actually felt sorry for the lad, but he said, “Sorry, but it’s better if I do this alone.”
“I won’t be in the way,” the lawyer blurted. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”
That was exactly what Matt Starr was thinking but he tried to put it diplomatically. “I’m sure you wouldn’t, but I don’t want the outlaws to see or hear me coming. It’s best I’m alone.” He climbed up into the saddle and lifted the reins. “Beside’s, you couldn’t go where I’m going in that rig anyways.”
Without waiting for further response from the young man, Matt lifted his arm with a farewell wave, put spurs to the sorrel and rode off out of town.
Andrew Wharton watched him go. His jaw fell loose and his shoulders sagged. He swallowed hard over the lump in his throat. He had never felt so helpless and alone.
“Twenty thousand dollars?” Simon Price exclaimed. He was standing in the foyer of his house. Peso Martin and Harvey Trask were with him. Price was in his night gown and robe and had been preparing for bed. Eunice was still sitting in the parlor in the dark. Her head sagged, eyes were closed and she breathed slow and rhythmically. She moved ever so slightly and groaned.
“That’s what he said,” Sheriff Trask said. “That fool kid seems to think you had twenty thousand dollars of bank robbery money returned to you today.”
“That’s preposterous,” Price blustered. “What makes him think that? And just who is this Frankie the Kid, anyways? I’ve never heard of him.”
“No one else has either,” Trask said. “I think he’s just a punk who has self manufactured himself a rep.”
“But how did he come up with the twenty thousand dollar amount?” Price mused. “Couldn’t have been from Jeremy Carlin. If he knew what was actually taken in the holdup, he would known it was far less. And, Kitty and her Grampa wouldn’t have known either.” He snapped his thumb and forefinger as the answer came to him. “Starr! That damn marshal. He’s the only one who could have tipped them off to the amount that was supposed to have been stolen.” He thought a moment. “But why didn’t he say how much there really was.”
“Maybe he still believed that the Wildcats had the rest of it,” Peso Martin interjected.
“Maybe,” Price agreed. “At any rate I have to come up with the twenty thousand for the ransom.”
“You’re going to pay it, then?” Peso asked.
“No. But I’m going to have to come up with it just long enough to get my daughter back. Then we’re going to kill every last one of those kids and take it back.”
“You figure you’ll get it back before the bank examiner gets here. You’re already short twenty thousand?” Trask asked.
“Well I’m still saying that the Carlins stole that. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
“But what about the other Twenty grand?”
“You’ve got a point there, Harvey. I don’t think he’s going to like me paying ransom money with bank funds.”
“You got that much of your own?” Trask asked.
“No. Of course not, you fool. If I had, I wouldn’t have had to rig that phony robbery in the first place.”
“Where are you going to get it then?”
“Harvey, how dense can you be. From the bank of course.”
“But…but you said……”
“You don’t listen, Harvey. I said the examiner wouldn’t like it. I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it.”
“But..but…”
“Just listen, will you, Harve? This is what we’re going to do. We’ve still got that army payroll for Fort Lowell. There’s almost forty thousand there. That’s enough to cover both the original shortage plus the ransom money.”
“But I thought……” Trask started.
“I know. I know. I didn’t want to include the payroll in the fake holdup, because I really didn’t want the army getting involved. But, now I see I should have done that in the first place. That would have covered the shortage and had money left over.”
“So, we’re going to steal the payroll, then?”
“No. We’re not going to steal it. The Wildcat gang is.” Price smiled with satisfaction at his brilliance. “The payroll is due to be shipped out on tomorrow’s stage.”
“After that last go around,” Peso Martin said. “I don’t know if my boys will want to do another impersonation.”
“They don’t have to,” Price said. “Because we’re loading an empty chest on the stage. We’ll just say it was stolen. That way I don’t have to worry about you getting the money back before the bank examiner gets here. It’ll already be here.”
“What about the driver, guard and passengers? They’ll know there wasn’t a holdup,” Peso said.
“Not if they’re all lying dead at the bottom of Eelpot Gorge,” Simon smiled at the genius of his plan. “Peso, you’re going to blow the bridge up when the stage starts across. Everybody and everything drops to the bottom of the gorge. If anybody ever gets down to the wreck. They’ll find the strongbox empty and assume the contents were stolen. It shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to provide a witness seeing the Wildcats doing the deed.”
“That’s absolutely brilliant, Simon,” Trask said. “I couldn’t have thought of anything better myself.”
“Of course you couldn’t Harve,” Price said. “That’s why I do all the thinking.”
Trask was a bit taken back. Price always belittled him. Never gave him any credit for anything smart. Then he suddenly thought of something that made him proud of himself. At last he was one step of ahead of the banker. “But there is one thing you h
aven’t thought of, Simon.“ The sheriff’s chest swelled with pride.
“What’s that?” Price’s eyes darkened with anger. How dare this buffoon think he had a brain.
“Why, you’re forgetting about Matt Starr,” Trask beamed.
“What about Matt Starr?”
“Well, him and his prisoner are gonna be on that stage tomorrow.”
“So,” Simon Price said flatly.. “I guess they’ll both be lying dead at the bottom of Eelpot Gorge too.”
Chapter Twenty Two