“All right, if you say so.” Scarns smiled then, slowly, turned the pistol around so that the butt was pointing toward Matt.
“But you be careful with your gun,” Scarns said. “I’ve done give up, and this here saloon is full of witnesses who’ll swear I was handin’ you my gun. You shoot me now, you’ll hang.”
“All right, Scarns,” Matt said. He let the hammer down, then lowered his pistol. “I’m going to park you in jail, and that’s where you are going to stay until I find out who is paying you. And if there are any others after me, you are more than likely going to have company.”
“You ain’t scarin’ me none, Jensen. I won’t be in jail long. I didn’t do nothin’. I might’ve wanted to, but I didn’t. And you can’t keep a man in jail for wantin’ to do somethin’.”
Matt reached for Scarns’s gun, but Scarns suddenly executed a border roll. Matt wasn’t often caught by surprise, but this time he was, not only because Scarns had the audacity to try such a thing, but because he was so good at it.
Because Matt had let the hammer down and his pistol and lowered it, he had to raise the gun back into line while at the same time cocking it. The quiet room was suddenly shattered with the roar of two pistols shooting at almost the same time. The others in the saloon were even more surprised than Matt had been, and though a few of them yelled and dove for cover, it was too late because the action had already begun. Gray gunsmoke billowed out from the two pistols, spreading into a cloud that momentarily obscured the results of the unexpected shoot-out. From their various positions around the saloon, everyone looked toward the bar where the action had taken place, waiting until the smoke cleared enough for them to see.
Gradually the smoke began to roll away, and as it did, everyone could see Scarns still standing there with a broad smile on his face. He took one step toward Matt, then the smile left his face and his eyes glazed over. With a groan he pitched forward, his gun clattering to the floor.
Matt was ready to fire again if need be, but a second shot wasn’t necessary. He stood in place for a moment, looking down at Scarns before he finally holstered his pistol.
“Did you see that?” someone asked.
His question wasn’t answered, because everyone in the saloon had seen it.
There were shouts from outside, then the sound of people running. Several came into the saloon and stood under the rising cloud of gunsmoke to stare down at the dead man on the floor. One of those who ran into the saloon was Marshal Drew.
“Marshal, it wasn’t Jensen’s fault,” Harry said quickly. “Ever’one in here will tell you that this fella on the floor, Scarns he said his name was, started it all.”
“Yeah,” Marshal Drew said with a resigned sigh.
“They have all been like that. Matt, you are a good man, I’ll attest to that. But I swear, the grim reaper must just hover over you.”
“Another one?” Teasdale said. “Are you telling me that Jensen killed another one?”
“Yeah, someone who was trying to collect the reward,” Reed said.
“How do you know he was trying to collect the reward?”
“Because he said it out loud, and everyone in the saloon heard him,” Reed said.
“My God, that’s not good,” Teasdale said, growing pale.
“He didn’t say who offered the reward,” Reed said. “And of course he wouldn’t know anyway, because he thought the reward would be coming from Sam Logan. And anyone else who might try and collect is going to think the same thing.”
“Yes,” Teasdale said. “Yes, I suppose that is right, isn’t it?”
“And, look at it this way,” Reed said. “Jensen isn’t dead, that’s true, but you aren’t out any money yet, either. And you won’t be until someone actually gets the job done.”
“That leaves a question hanging though, doesn’t it?” Teasdale said.
“What question is that?”
“Is there nobody that can kill that bloody bastard?”
Chapter Twenty-two
In the town of Curtis Wells, about twenty miles east of Sussex, Pete Carter, Tim Hodge, and Ben Decker were in the Back Lot Saloon.
“Five thousand dollars,” Carter said. “That’s how much the reward is to take care of Jensen.”
“Five thousand dollars? We was only going to get a hunnert dollars apiece,” Hodge complained. “Who’s givin’ this reward, anyway?”
“From what I hear, it is Sam Logan.”
“Sam Logan? He don’t have that much money,” Decker said.
“How do you know he don’t? He’s been runnin’ a pretty good operation in Johnson County for near ’bout a year, now. Hell, there ain’t no tellin’ how much money he’s got,” Carter said.
“What I’m wonderin’ is why he would be willin’ to give out so much money as a reward for killin’ Jensen, when he was only goin’ to give us a hunnert dollars apiece,” Hodge said.
“Well, think about it,” Carter said. “From what I hear, Jensen is playing hell with Logan’s operation. He’s already killed half a dozen of his men, and if you had somethin’ good goin’, and there was a chance that some son of a bitch was goin’ to mess it up for you, wouldn’t you want to get rid of him?”
“Yeah, I guess, but, it don’t seem fair that he would be offering all that money to someone else, and not to us.”
“Who said it ain’t to us?” Carter asked.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a reward,” Carter said. “It will be paid to anyone takes care of Jensen. All we got to do is get to him first, and the money is ours.”
“How do we do that?” Decker asked. “We already run into him once, and it didn’t work out all that well, if you remember.”
“No, we didn’t run into him. He ran into us,” Carter said. “This time we will do it different.”
Matt was having his lunch at The Lion and The Crown when he saw Carter, Hodge, and Decker come into the saloon. He recognized them right away and wondered what they were doing there. Then when they started toward him, he knew that their presence was no mere accident.
“Well, Mr. Jensen, it looks like we meet again,” Carter said.
“I didn’t think you boys would show up in Sussex,” Matt said.
“Oh, I’m sure you didn’t,” Carter said.
“Tell me, Jensen,” Decker said. “Did you really think you could steal our guns and get away with it?”
“I didn’t steal them, I just held on to them for a while. If you want them back, all you have to do is go see Marshal Drew.”
“Nah, we don’t want them back,” Hodge said. “We got us new guns.”
“Do you, now?”
Matt took a swallow of his beer, then put the mug on the table. He dropped his hands in his lap.
“You boys do seem to have something on your mind,” Matt said. “And I’m just betting it would be the reward money.”
Carter smiled. “You know about the reward, do you?”
“Yes. Evidently a couple of men have already tried for it.”
“Yeah? Where are they now?”
“Oh, the town gave them choice lots down in the cemetery.”
“We’ve talked enough, Carter,” Hodge said. “I say let’s just go ahead and kill him now.”
“You’re goin’ to do it, are you Hodge?” Carter asked.
“Yeah, I’m going to do it,” Hodge answered. “He don’t look all that tough to me. Last time he was standin’ behind us, if you remember. This time we are face to face, and I say let’s do it, get our money, and be done with it.”
Hodge moved his hand down to hover just over his own gun. “What about it, Mr. big-shot gunfighter? You want to settle this now?”
By now, all the rest of the conversation in The Lion and The Crown had ceased, and everyone turned to see if this was going to progress any further.
“That’s pretty brave of you—what did your friend call you? Hodge?”