Bo and Scratch hadn’t wasted any time getting up here after leaving Socorro, but it was a long ride up the valley of the Rio Grande and then over across the Colorado Plateau, past the majestic and mysterious cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, and on through Durango and up the Animas River.
They had bought a packhorse and supplies in Socorro, using the reward money. They’d had to overpay for the horse, since they bought it from Johnny Burford, but it was a good animal. They had more than half of the thousand dollars left, which gave them a good stake. They would be able to outfit themselves, find a good claim, and start prospecting right away.
That was the plan, anyway.
“We’re here,” Scratch went on. “Feel any better now?”
“We’ll see,” Bo said. “I guess it depends on what we find down there.”
He lifted his reins and hitched the dun into motion again.
The Texans rode down the hill and started across the river on a wooden bridge. The hooves of their horses thudded on the planks, providing counterpoint to the bubbling music of the swift-flowing stream.
A couple of men came out of a tar paper shack not far from the western end of the span. Bo’s eyes narrowed in instinctive dislike as he watched them walk toward the bridge.
Both men wore patched denim trousers held up by suspenders. One was shirtless. The other wore only long, faded red underwear above the waist. Their hats were old and floppy-brimmed. The shirtless one had a long red beard that came down over the top of his bare chest. The other was clean-shaven, revealing a lantern jaw so extreme that his face looked almost like a figure eight. There was some resemblance between the two, probably not enough for them to be brothers, but maybe cousins.
Each man carried a shotgun as well.
“I don’t much like the looks of this,” Scratch said under his breath.
“Neither do I,” agreed Bo. “But we’ll wait and see how it plays out.”
The two men planted themselves in the middle of the road where it began on the other side of the bridge. The shirtless, bearded one tucked his scattergun under an arm and held up his hand.
“Howdy, fellers,” he said as Bo and Scratch reined in. “Come to Mankiller to look for gold?”
“That’s the idea,” Bo said.
Shirtless grinned. “Well, good! Let me be the first one to wish you all the luck in the world. And Thad here’ll be the second. Ain’t that right, Thad?”
Lantern-Jaw nodded. “That’s right, Luke. Good luck to you fellers. Hope you find a lot of gold.”
“We appreciate that,” Scratch told Luke and Thad. “And it’s mighty nice of you boys to give us a warm welcome like this. Now, if you’ll move aside so we can get on into town…”
Luke shook his head. “Oh, we can’t do that.”
“You can’t?” Bo said.
“Nope. Not until you pay the toll for crossin’ the bridge. We’re the official toll collectors today.”
Bo wasn’t surprised by the demand. He had expected something like that as soon as he saw the two men blocking the road. He said, “I didn’t see any sign about a toll at the other end of the bridge.”
“Has that ol’ sign fallen down again?” Luke laughed and shook his head. “Well, it don’t really matter whether the sign’s up or not. Rules is rules, and it’s a rule around here that you got to pay to use the bridge to get into Mankiller.”
“What about to get out of Mankiller?” Scratch asked.
“Oh, there ain’t no charge for that. But you got to pay to come in again.”
“How much is the toll?” Bo asked.
Luke held up a couple of grimy fingers. “Two dollars.”
“For each horse,” Thad added.
“Yeah, so you’d owe us six dollars, seein’ as how you got a packhorse, too.”
Scratch said, “Kind of steep, ain’t it?”
“Well, there’s an old sayin’ about what the traffic will bear. Folks been payin’ two dollars, so I reckon that’s a good price.”
“Does the money go to the town?” Bo asked. He figured he knew the answer.
The question brought laughter from both men. Thad dug an elbow into Luke’s side and repeated, “Does the money go to the town? That’s a good’un, ain’t it, Luke?”
“It sure is.” Luke looked up at Bo and Scratch and shook his head. “The money goes where it’s supposed to, don’t you worry none ’bout that, mister. Now, do you fellers want to pay the toll, or are you gonna turn around and go back where you come from?”
“Maybe we’ll find some other place to cross,” Scratch suggested.
Luke shook his head. “Ain’t no other place to cross for miles up and down stream, and I wouldn’t recommend tryin’ to swim them horses across, neither. This river’s mighty cold and fast. You might get swept away, and nobody’d ever see you again. Not alive, anyway.”
Bo was fast running out of patience. “I don’t believe this is actually a toll bridge,” he said. “I think the two of you are just trying to extort money out of us. But I’ll check with the sheriff to be sure, and if I’m wrong, we’ll come back and pay you what we owe. Fair enough?”
The false affability that Luke and Thad had been displaying vanished. Thad’s lips twisted in a snarl. Luke said sharply, “No, it ain’t fair enough. We’ve told you how it is, you danged old codger. Now pay us the twelve bucks, or you ain’t gettin’ into Mankiller.”
“I thought it was six,” Scratch said.
“Price has gone up to four dollars per horse while you been wastin’ our time with all that jawin’.”
“This is ridiculous,” Bo said. “We’re not paying you. Now get out of our way if you don’t want us to ride you down.”
Thad cursed and started to swing his shotgun up. “Why, you damned old—”
Bo’s Colt came out of its holster and leveled before Thad could raise the Greener enough to fire it. Thad stopped short and gulped as he found himself staring down the revolver’s barrel.
At the same time and with equal swiftness, Scratch drew his right-hand Remington and pointed it at Luke, who in his arrogance still had his shotgun tucked under his arm. “I wouldn’t be gettin’ any ideas if I was you,” advised the silver-haired Texan.
Luke glared at them but didn’t try to move his gun. “Take it easy, Thad,” he said. “I ain’t quite sure how they did it, but these old mossbacks got the drop on us.”
“That’s right, we do,” Bo said. “Now toss those shotguns over there in the brush.”
“The hell we will!” Thad burst out.
“It’s either that or toss them in the river,” Scratch said. “Choice is up to you. But if you think we’re gonna ride past you boys while you’re still armed, you’re loco.”
“Not as loco as you are for buckin’ us, old man,” Luke said through tight lips. He jerked his head at Thad. “Throw your gun in the brush, like they said.”
“But Luke—”
“Do it.” As an example, Luke tossed his shotgun into the thick brush on the left side of the road. “Don’t worry, Thad. This ain’t over.”
“No, it’s not,” Bo agreed as Thad grudgingly followed suit and threw his Greener into the brush. “Like I told you, if I find out we were wrong about you boys, we’ll come back and pay what we honestly owe.”
“You were wrong, all right.” Luke sneered. “Dead wrong.”
“Man could take that as a threat,” Scratch said.
“Take it any way you want.”
Bo motioned with his Colt. “Step aside now.”
Luke and Thad moved to the side of the road. Bo and Scratch rode past after Bo holstered his gun so he could lead the packhorse. Scratch kept his Remington in his hand and hipped around in the saddle so he could watch the two men. They didn’t make any move to retrieve their weapons.