A man was slumped across the high dashboard, where he had lodged when he had fallen from the seat. His head rolled limply in the faint lamplight spearing from the stores and his dangling arms swung like pendulums with the swaying of the coach.
Harrison sprang forward with a shout, hand shooting out to grasp the bridle of one of the leaders. The momentum of the animal swung him off his feet and one driving hoof scraped along his leg.
Someone had dived for the lines and gotten them and the horses were slowing to a stop. Harrison flung himself to one side, heard the rumbling wheels rush past him, then was running alongside as the stage came to a halt.
With a leap, he sprang on the front wheel, scrambled to the seat, reached down and lifted the slumped figure that hung against the dashboard. The man was a dead weight in his arms as he pulled him free and the lolling head flopped back to show the grinning teeth of pain, the eyes staring vacantly at death.
Slowly, Harrison laid him back and straightened up. His hand was wet and the sleeve of his shirt was stained with the sticky blood that had glued the dead man’s shirt tight against his back.
Harrison looked down into the white faces that stared up at him.
«It’s Carter,» he told them. «Shot.»
Ma’s scream cut above the murmur of the crowd.
«Where is she? Where’s Carolyn!»
Harrison vaulted from the seat of the stage and pushed toward the open door. A frightened man in a flowered waistcoat cowered against the coach.
Ma yelled at him, hysteria edging her voice. «Where is she? Where’s the girl …»
«They took her,» the man yelled back. «They must have. They …»
«Don’t you know?» screamed Ma.
Hatless Joe loomed up beside Ma’s squat, angry figure.
«Now, you calm down,» he said, «and let the gent get a word in edgewise.»
He said to the man: «Take your time and get your wits together and tell us all about it.»
The man put up a trembling hand and pulled at his wilted collar.
«They held us up just this side of the river, where the road begins to climb the rise.»
«They?» screamed Ma. «Who was it?»
«He don’t know,» said Hatless. «He’s a stranger in these parts.»
«They held us up,» the man went on, «and they told us to get out. There was just me and the girl riding back here and the driver up front. They let the driver stay up on the seat but they made me and the girl get out. It was just getting dusk and I couldn’t see them good, but there were several of them, four or five, I’d say, and they wore masks and carried guns.
«One of them started toward the girl and made a move as if he was going to put his arm around her and she hauled off and slapped him. Hit him in the face and he cussed. The driver got up from the seat and started to jump down. Like he was going to come down and tangle with the fellow that the girl had hit. But he hadn’t no more than got to his feet than somebody shot him. One of the fellows still sitting on his horse was the one that done it.»
Ma yelled at him. «And you stood by …»
Hatless yelled at her. «You shut up and let this gent go on with his story.»
The man pulled at his collar with trembling fingers. «When the driver was shot, the horses bolted. Guess they started the minute they felt the lines go slack. I turned around and jumped for the open door of the stage and made it…»
He lifted his hands and let them drop. «I guess that’s all,» he said. «That’s everything that happened.»
Ma moved toward him threateningly. «I’d ought to skin you alive,» she shouted at him. «A great big hulk of a man and you ran …»
Hatless put out a hand and jerked her back. «You leave him alone,» he told her. «He was scared and he didn’t think.»
«I guess I didn’t,» said the man.
«Kidnaped,» yelled Ma. «That’s what it is. My little daughter kidnaped.»
A heavy shouldered man pushed through the gaping crowd. «Maybe it isn’t that at all, Mrs. Elden,» he said. «Maybe they didn’t take her. She may be out there along the trail.»
Harrison saw that the heavy shouldered man was Dunham, of the Bar X spread.
«Well, then, why don’t you get out there and see,» yelled Ma. «What are you standing around for?»
Dunham stiffened. «We will, Ma’am, just as soon as I can get the boys together.»
«Standing around!» shrieked Ma. «Standing around! That’s all you’re doing, every one of you … just standing around!»
The crowd shrank back before her belligerency, started to scatter.
For the first time Ma saw Harrison in the crowd. She moved toward him, put out a hand and grasped him by the arm.
«You’re going to do something, ain’t you, Johnny? You’re going to do something to get her back…»
Harrison saw the faint gleam of tears in the flint-hard eyes. Cold inside, he nodded. «Sure thing, Ma. Sure thing.»
Ma yelled at him. «Well, get going, then. Never saw anything like a man. Standing around, standing around …»
Harrison shook his head. «Look, Ma, I just thought of something. I’m not jumping a horse and riding out there on a wild goose chase. The others can do that as well as I can. And it wouldn’t do any good. They got all creation to hunt in and not an idea where to look.»
«Unless she’s just out there, sitting along the road, waiting for someone to come along,» said Hatless, hopefully.
«Not much chance of that,» Harrison declared. «Ma’s probably right when she figured it was a kidnaping. And I got a plan.»
«I hope it works,» Ma said, acidly, her very tone implying that some other plans of Harrison’s hadn’t worked at all.
«It’s got to work,» Harrison said grimly. «If it don’t, I’m buzzard meat.»
He stepped forward and grasped her shoulders, pulled her close and kissed her on the cheek.
«Well, I never …» gasped Ma Elden. She put up a gnarled, weathered hand, rubbed at her leathery cheek.
Harrison swung around and strode away, heading around the stage, back toward the street.
Rounding the stage, he came face to face with Marshal Haynes. The two men stopped dead in their tracks, not more than six feet apart, staring at one another.
The marshal’s hands moved swiftly, driving for his gun-butts. Harrison knew his own hands were moving, streaking for his belt, but it was almost as if his hands were those of another person, acting independently, almost as if by instinct.
Steel rasped against leather and his hands were snapping the two guns into position.
Guns halfway out, Haynes froze, staring at the muzzles that were tilted at him.
«I wouldn’t do it, Marshal,» Harrison said, softly. «I would just put them back.»
Haynes gulped, Adam’s apple bobbing in his bull throat. His hands loosened and the guns slid back.
«Slow,» said Harrison, and smugness crept into his voice even when he tried to keep it out. «Too slow to be a lawman.»
For a long minute the two men stood facing one another.
«Someday,» said Haynes. «Someday…»
His tongue came out and licked dry lips.
Harrison nodded carelessly. «Yes, Haynes, someday, maybe. But not now. I got work to do. Get out of my way.»
He motioned with the right gun-hand and the marshal moved, stepping swiftly to one side.
Harrison strode across the street, leaped to the board sidewalk. By the time he reached the Silver Dollar he was running. Behind him he heard the shouts of men forming the posse, heard the shrill voice of Ma Elden rising above the shouts and the pounding of hoofs.
By the time he had hitched up his team and driven the wagon onto the prairie stretching back of the town, Sundown was quiet. Sitting in the wagon-seat and listening, he could hear no sound. The posse apparently had ridden off. The buildings squatted, stolid, square match boxes dumped along the street.