“B-but it’s crazy.”
“Are you trying to save yourself or your brothers?” he asked.
“I’m trying to save all of us!”
“I’m used to this kind of thing, Hermione,” he said. “I made my living for years with my gun. This’ll just be a stop for me on the way to the saloon.”
“You’re crazy,” she said, shaking her head.
“I think it’s pretty close which one of us is crazier.”
Outside, the Dickson brothers waited confidently. They’d been through this many times before. Lancaster would step through the front door, and they’d gun him down easy. After that they’d empty his pockets of all that money George had seen.
But when Lancaster stepped out, he had Hermione in front of him, and none of the brothers was prepared for that.
From the saloon, Dan watched the proceedings from the batwing doors. When he saw Lancaster appear in the doorway with Hermione in front of him, he chuckled and shook his head.
“Lancaster…” he said.
Forty-two
Lancaster stood back from Hermione, instead of standing right up on her. She might have been a woman, but he was willing to bet she had some tricks. He hadn’t searched her, and it was possible she had a gun somewhere beneath her skirts. He would be ready for her if she did.
As they stepped out the door, he saw the four brothers standing shoulder-to-shoulder rather than fanned out, the way they should have been. They were probably used to facing men who wilted beneath their superior numbers, or had no experience in a gunfight. Neither was true of Lancaster.
“Hello, boys,” he said.
“What’re you doin’?” Sam asked. “Let Hermione go.”
“I don’t think so,” Lancaster said. “Drop your guns on the ground.”
The brothers exchanged glances with each other, but none looked capable of making a decision.
“What do we do, Hermione?” George asked.
Lancaster saw her shoulders rise and she took a breath, preparing to answer. But before she could, Dan came busting out of the saloon, shouting, “What do you think you should do, you idiots? Kill him!”
Galvanized into action by someone actually making a decision, the four men went for their guns.
“No!” Hermione shouted, much too late.
Lancaster’s gun was already out, and he had a cool head. While the brothers were firing wildly, their bullets taking out windows to either side of Lancaster, he pushed Hermione down to the ground and fired off measured shots.
Sam was first. A bullet hit him in the chest, driving him back two steps before he toppled over backward.
Harry went next. A bullet in the belly folded him over, and he slumped to the ground.
A piece of hot lead struck George in the forehead and he was dead before he hit the ground.
Fred actually dropped to one knee, either from instinct or weakness in his legs. Whatever the reason, it didn’t help him. Two slugs hit him in the chest and he keeled over dead as the sound of the shots echoed and died out.
Lancaster, with one shot left, turned his attention to Hermione, but if she had a gun beneath her skirts she had no chance to reach for it. Even pushed down to the ground as she was, one of her brothers’ bullets had hit her in the face. She was on the ground, on her side, with the back of her head blown out.
Lancaster quickly ejected his spent shells and replaced them, because there was still one family member left.
He looked over at the saloon, but there was no one there. Dan had apparently gone back inside.
Lancaster stepped down into the street and crossed over to the saloon.
Forty-three
As Lancaster entered the saloon, he had his gun in his hand. Dan was standing behind the bar with a rag over his shoulder.
“Beer?”
“Come out from behind the bar, Dan,” Lancaster said.
“What for?” Dan asked. “They’re all dead, right? It’s over?”
“You got a gun back there?”
“Nope.”
“I’ve gotta ask you to come out from behind there with your hands up.”
“Okay, Lancaster, okay,” Dan said. “Take it easy.”
Dan raised his hands and walked out from behind the bar.
“What’s goin’ on?” Lancaster asked. “What was that about?”
“What? Oh, that? You mean outside?” Dan shrugged. “I just didn’t want the boys to back down.”
“You wanted me to kill them,” Lancaster said.
“Well, yeah,” Dan said. “It was my only way out.”
“So now they’re dead,” Lancaster said, “and what have you got?”
“Me?” Dan said. “I’ve got everythin’.” He spread his arms. “It’s all mine.”
“Yeah, all three buildings,” Lancaster said. He decided Dan was no threat and holstered his gun.
“How about that beer? On the house,” Dan said.
“Sure, why not?” Lancaster said. “And then I’ll be on my way—unless you’re gonna tell me you got some law here.”
“Now that it’s just me,” Dan said, going around the bar, “I’m the law, so don’t worry about a thing.”
He drew a cold beer and slid it over to Lancaster.
“Hermione give you what you wanted?” the bartender asked.
Lancaster took a swallow and then said, “She claims I should go to Flagstaff, says Cardiff said he was going there to meet Sweet.”
“Maybe she was tellin’ the truth.”
“How likely is that?”
“Not very,” Dan admitted. “She was a liar, but maybe you had her worried enough to tell the truth for a change.”
“Wait a minute,” Lancaster said. He put his beer down on the bar. “You told me you didn’t see any strangers in town.”
“I ain’t.”
“But Cardiff was here.”
“Cardiff’s been here before,” Dan said. “He wasn’t no stranger.”
“What about Adderly?”
“Well, okay,” Dan admitted, “but he was Cardiff’s friend.”
“He was still a stranger.”
“Okay,” Dan said, “so I lied about that, but I knew it would come down to you or them.” The bartender leaned on the bar. “See, I recognized your name. I knew they picked on the wrong man to try that toll business with.”
“Come on, Dan,” Lancaster said, “you must know something that can help me.”
“Well,” Dan said, “I do know somethin’.”
“What?”
“Finish your beer and then come out back with me and I’ll show you,” Dan said.
“What’s out back?”
Dan smiled and said, “You’ll see.”
Forty-four
Lancaster finished his beer and followed Dan to the rear of the building. The bartender opened a back door and led the way out. When they got out there, Lancaster saw a bunch of crosses and wooden headstones.
“This is our Boot Hill,” Dan said.
Lancaster looked out over the expanse of graves and said, “All these people used to live here?”
“At one time,” Dan said, “we were a whole town. Then one day there was a fire. Most of the buildings burned down. A lot of the people were killed, and the rest left. Except for Hermione and the brothers.”
“And you.”
“I came later, but I been here for a while,” he said. “But not all of these graves are people who used to live here.”
“Who else is here?”
“People who wouldn’t pay the toll,” Dan said. “Or people who just crossed Hermione.”
“So the brothers put some people back here with their guns?”
“Take a walk with me.”
They walked through the graveyard and when they got all the way to the back Dan stopped in front of two new-looking graves.