“Your father know what a bite you have when you have Conners to back you up?”
John Burkett’s hand went for his gun, but Chuck Conner’s hand got there first, blocking the move.
“Take it easy, kid,” he said. “Remember who his brother is.”
“I’m looking at him, not his damned brother,” John Burkett said.
“I agree with the lad.”
“Get going, McCall,” Conner said, “before I see if you can take the two of us at once.”
“I’m going, young Mr. Burkett, I’m going,” Evan said, turning his horse.
“And don’t come back!”
Evan waved at the men and started off at a leisurely pace. He wanted to avoid trouble, but he didn’t want them to think they had run him off.
Although, of course, that was exactly what they had done.
Chapter Fourteen
Evan McCall returned to the Miller house before Sam did.
“Sam back yet?” he asked Jubal as he entered.
“No. Anything wrong?”
“No,” Evan said. “I finished at the courthouse early and rode out to find him. It was a bad idea.”
“What happened?”
“I ran into John Burkett, Chuck Conners, and another man I took to be the geologist.”
“Anything happen?”
“Not much,” Evan said. “We all acted tough—except for the geologist. He just sat on his horse and looked scared.”
“And you didn’t see Sam?”
“No,” Evan said. “It was a bad idea to go looking for him. He always knew the ranch better than I did.”
“He should be back soon, shouldn’t he?” Serena asked. Neither of the brothers had seen her enter from the kitchen.
“He should,” Evan agreed, “depending on what he found.”
Or, Evan thought to himself, on who found him.
Sam’s original intention after he left the stream was to ride back to town, but he decided to continue looking around. He figured he might find some more locations where there was black mud. He searched until early evening and found only one more place, not far from the firstone. This one was at a water hole, a small basin of water where the black mud seemed to bubble up from below. Finally, he gave up, washed the mud off his hands in another stream, and headed back toward town.
When Burkett, Conners, and Cord returned to the ranch, Cord went off to do his tests while John Burkett and Conners sought out the elder Burkett. They found him out by the corral, where he had been talking to a couple of hands. He walked away from those men to talk to his son and his foreman.
“Did Cord get what he needed?” Lincoln Burkett asked.
“I guess he did,” John said. “He poked around in the mud for an hour and then brought some back with him.”
“Good,” Lincoln Burkett said. “Before long we should know what we have. Now tell me what else happened.”
“We ran across one of the McCalls,” Conners said.
“Sam?”
“No, Evan, the gambler.”
“And?”
“I would have taken him if Chuck hadn’t stopped me,” John Burkett said.
“Don’t be a fool, boy,” Lincoln Burkett said. “The man would have killed you.”
“We’re talking about Evan McCall, not Big Sam,” John Burkett said.
“Evan McCall is no slouch with a gun,” Chuck Conners said.
“And what if you had killed him?” the elder Burkett asked. “Sam McCall would track you down and shoot you like a dog.”
“I’m not afraid of Sam McCall.”
“You should be,” Lincoln Burkett said.
“Are you?”
“Damn right.”
“You’re not afraid of anyone.”
“Don’t get me wrong, boy,” Lincoln Burkett said. “If I had to face him I would, and if I could kill him I would, but that doesn’t mean I’m not afraid of him. You should always fear and respect men like Sam McCall, and men like Coffin.”
“What are we paying Coffin for?” the younger Burkett demanded. “So far all he’s done is sit in town eating and drinking and whoring.”
“So far that’s all I’m paying him for.”
“Why don’t we send him after Sam McCall?”
“I will,” Burkett said, “eventually, but the time’s not right yet.” The older man looked at his foreman and said, “What was Evan McCall doing on my land?”
“He said he was just riding around, thinking of old memories.”
Lincoln Burkett rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.
“You think they know what’s on this land?”
“I don’t know—”
“If old man Joshua knew and wrote it down somewhere, they may know, too.”
“And if they do?”
“If they do,” Lincoln Burkett said, “I’ll have to move my timetable up.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning I may have to use Coffin sooner than I’d planned. Chuck, get some of the men together, send them out in groups of four or five.”
“What do you want them to do?”
“I want anyone who doesn’t belong on our land chased off.”
“That include Sam McCall?”
“Yes,” Burkett said, “that includes Sam McCall.”
“You want McCall killed?”
Burkett took a moment to ruminate over that.
“I don’t want to lose any more men, but this would bedifferent from an ambush in town. He’d be trespassing, and we’d have a right to shoot him.”
“Tell me what you want them to do, Mr. Burkett, and they’ll do it.”
“I’ll ride out, too, Pa,” John Burkett said. “If we see Sam McCall, we’ll kill him.”
“You stay here. I don’t want to take a chance on you getting killed.”
“Pa—”
“Do as I say!”
John Burkett gave his father a murderous glare and then stalked away.
“You hurt his pride,” Conners said.
“I’d rather have that than have him get killed. Look, Chuck, talk to the men, make them understand that I don’t want them going after Sam McCall unless they’re absolutely sure they’ve got him outnumbered and out in the open. Once he gets himself in a position to shoot back, I want them to lightout. Understand?”
“I understand.”
“Well, make sure they understand. I’ll settle for them just chasing him off the property, if that’s all they can accomplish.”
“I’ll make sure they know.”
“All right,” Lincoln Burkett said. “I’d better talk to Cord, and then I’ll talk to the boy.”
“He’s not a boy anymore, Mr. Burkett.”
“Maybe not,” Lincoln Burkett said, “but he’s certainly not thinking like a man yet, either. If he’s somewhere in the middle I’ll settle for that, because that’s more than I’ve gotten from him in a long time.”
“That’s him.”
Jim Priest was pointing down at a lone rider. He and his men had topped a rise and spotted the rider immediately.
“How do you know?” Len Unger asked.
“He’s riding a coyote dun,” Priest said. “I heard in town that Sam McCall rides a coyote dun.”
He turned and looked at Unger and the two men with him.
“What do we do?” Unger asked. “Take him?”
“Well,” Priest said, “he is out in the open, and we do outnumber him.”
“So did Mike Gear and six other men in town,” Unger reminded him.
“You have a point.”
“Dan Hitchcock and his group are about ten miles east of here,” Bill Granger said.
“And McCall is riding that way,” Unger said.
“Good idea,” Priest said. “We’ll hook up with Hitchcock and his men, and then we’ll take him.”
The others agreed, and so the four began to ride parallel to Sam McCall.