Episode 67
Gleam of Sunlight
Turned away as he was, Jake counted on Cal not seeing his free hand edging toward the Remington in the cross-draw holster mounted high on his hip. He let go of the girl as he cleared leather and wheeled the mare to raise the pistol at his partner.
Cal waited until he saw the gleam of sunlight on the long barrel of the revolver before drawing his Colt.
The .44 slug took Jake high in the chest. The impact tore his boots from the stirrups, and he sailed off the mare’s back even as the panicked horse bolted away from under him.
The girl was up and swatting at the spray of blood that spattered her apron. One of the husky Bohunks moved to grab the handle of the pick. Cal whirled his mount to train his Colt on the man. The click of the drawn hammer was enough to encourage the man to drop the tool.
Cal clucked his horse over to look down at Jake lying on his back in the dust. Jake stared upward at the sky, the crimson bubbles of his last breath popping on lips drawn back in a lifeless smile.
“Dumb bastard,” Cal said by way of a eulogy.
The women had come down from the tents. The girl ran to one of them and buried her face in the woman’s shoulder.
“Anyone here speak a word of English?” Cal asked, reining his mount to back up in order to give him a view of the whole Bohunk clan. The Colt remained in his fist.
“I speak English,” one of the women said with an Arkansas drawl.
“You know why we come here?” Cal said.
“To run us off, I suppose,” the woman said. There was iron in her eyes.
“You can’t be on this land. You damn sure can’t be mining it. You’re welcome to whatever you scratched out here. But you need to be gone next time I ride this way.”
“And who says so?”
“The Texas and Pacific.”
“Nearest rail tracks are more than a day’s ride from here.”
“They tell me this is all their land. They’re the ones pay me. I don’t ask questions.” Cal was growing tired of this woman.
“You ain’t law,” she said, folding her arms before her.
“I’m the nearest thing to law you’re ever likely to see here.”
“And what will you do if we don’t move along?”
“See that man?” Cal pointed down at Jake lying with flies already swarming. A nest of them were clustered in the corner of his eyes, drinking his tears.
“I see him,” the woman hawked and spat a wad of yellow phlegm Jake’s way.
“Well, that man was the best friend I had in all this world,” Cal lied. “And if I was willing to put a pill in him, what makes you think I won’t murder you and every last one of your Bohunk brood?”
The woman blinked at that.
Cal re-holstered his Colt as he wheeled his mount around.
“I’ll be riding this way again in a month or so,” he said as he rode away at a trot. “Make sure you’re long gone afore then.”
He spurred the gelding to a gallop for the foot of the slope that would take him atop the mesa again. Jake’s mare had a lead on him, and he needed to catch the animal before it got back to Eagle Flat.
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