“Billie,” I yelled.
She looked over.
“It’s Everett,” I said. “Ride over here.”
She pulled the horse’s head left, using both hands, and banged her small heels on the horse’s ribs. I smiled. The horse lumbered slowly toward me.
“Nice to see you, Billie,” I said when she arrived. “Every-body treating you good?”
“I’m all right, Everett,” she said. “We miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” I said. “Where’d you get that horse?”
“Mr. Wolfson got it for me.”
“And sent you up to talk with us?” I said.
“He gimme a note,” Billie said.
She reached inside her dress and fumbled out a folded-up piece of paper and handed it to me.
“He says I should wait here for you to gimme an answer,” Billie said.
“Can you hold the horse there okay?” I said.
Billie’s skirts were hiked up to her thighs. Her legs were too short for the stirrups and stuck nearly straight out from the sides of the horse.
“I can ride a horse, Everett,” Billie said.
“I can see that,” I said. “You want to get off and sit, I’ll boost you back up when it’s time to go.”
“I’m just fine right here,” Billie said.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be back.”
I went around the rocks and sat down and opened the paper and read it aloud.
Virgil Cole,
I would like to meet with you and try to straighten out the trouble between us. Somewhere neutral, under a white flag. You can bring your men and I will bring mine. I’m sure we can work something out. Please tell Billie your answer.
Sincerely yours,
Amos Wolfson
“Lemme see it,” Virgil said.
I handed it to him, and he frowned over it as he read. Rose looked over his shoulder. Cato was still up in the rocks, watching.
“How’s the girl doing out there,” I said to Cato.
“Horse is eatin’ grass,” Cato said.
“She still got the reins?” I said.
“Yep.”
Virgil handed the letter back to me.
“Whaddya think, Virgil?” Rose said.
Virgil shook his head and stood and walked around the rock and leaned on the downslope side of it and looked down at the town. He could see Billie, and Billie saw him. But he gave her no notice.
“What’s he doing?” Rose said.
“He’s thinking,” I said.
"Hell,” Rose said. “I never done enough of that to know it when I see it.”
72.
From his side of the rocks, Virgil yelled to me.
"Come on out here,” he said. “We’ll talk to the girl.”
I went out, and we walked over to Billie.
“Hello, Mr. Cole,” Billie said.
Virgil tipped his hat.
“You take what I tell you back to Wolfson.”
“He tole me you should write it down,” Billie said.
“Ain’t got a pencil,” Virgil said. “I’ll tell you simple. You’ll remember.”
Billie nodded.
“Tomorrow morning. An hour after sunup,” Virgil said. “He brings Lujack and Swann with him. Nobody else. They ride up here, stop out of rifle range. I’ll see them and ride down.”
“That’s all?” Billie said.
“Say it back to me,” Virgil said.
Billie repeated what Virgil had said.
“You’ll remember it just that way,” Virgil said.
“Yessir.”
“Okay, Billie,” Virgil said. “Ride on down and tell him.”
“You’re gonna meet them three by yourself,” she said.
“I am,” Virgil said. “Now go tell him.”
“Yessir,” Billie said.
She dragged the horse’s head around and headed back down the hill. Virgil and I walked back in behind the rocks and sat down.
“You hear the plan?” I said to Cato and Rose.
“We could hear,” Rose said.
“Wanna explain it to me a little?” I said to Virgil.
“I’m gonna kill ’em,” he said.
“All three,” I said.
“Yep.”
“Alone,” I said.
“Yep.”
“Swann’s a pretty fair gun hand,” Rose said.
“So I hear,” Virgil said.
“Why not bring us with you?” I said.
“’Cause they won’t come,” Virgil said. “Or they’ll come with all their troops.”
“True,” I said.
“It’s our chance,” Virgil said, “to get them out in the open.”
“You think they’ll do it?” I said.
“They’ll do it, long as it’s three of them and just me,” Virgil said.
“They’ll have the rest of the outfit out of sight someplace, ” Rose said.
“Probably will,” Virgil said. “But the closest cover is a fair piece. I figure I kill them and head up the hill, I’ll be close enough for you to cover me before the rest can get there.”
“They’ll pull up,” Cato said, “first one we knock down.”
“And once they understand that it’s over, they won’t stick around,” Virgil said.
“No,” I said. “They won’t. They got no stake in this.”
“For crissake,” Rose said. “They won’t even be getting paid anymore.”
“Swann wouldn’t stick around,” Virgil said, “Wolfson and Lujack were dead. But I gotta kill him first so’s he won’t get that chance.”
“You pull this off,” I said, “and we got the town.”
“I don’t,” Virgil said, “and we’re no worse off than we were.”
“’Cept for you bein’ dead,” I said.
“’Cept for that,” Virgil said.
73.
It was a bright, hot day. The sky was very high. And it was very still, with no wind, the stillness made more intense by the hum of insects. I watched the three riders come out of town and head toward the slope in front of us. They were walking their horses. No one was with them. At the foot of the slope they stopped.
“It’s them,” I said to Virgil. “Swann’s on your right. West end of the line.”
Virgil nodded and clucked to his horse and rode out around the stone outcropping, and started at a slow walk down the long slope. Through the glass, I scanned the area. No sign of deputies. If they were around, they were probably behind the higher ground to the east, where I couldn’t see them. As Virgil rode down the slope, Cato and Rose lay in the rocks on either side of me with rifles. I had one, too, propped in the rocks in front of me while I was spy-glassing.
“You know what’s making that sound?” Rose said. “I been hearing it all my life. I never seen the bug that makes it.”
“I dunno,” I said. “Locust, maybe?”
“Cicadas,” Cato said.
Rose and I looked at each other.
“They make it with their hind legs,” I said.
“What I heard,” Rose said. “Rub ’em together.”
“They make it with their belly,” Cato said.
Rose and I nodded.
“See the funny-looking little bush there, where Virgil is now?” I said.
They did.
“I can hit that with a rifle,” I said. “I tried it last night.”
“I heard you,” Cato said.
Must have been the excitement of the moment, for Cato, he was positively babbling.
“Okay,” Rose said. “So if Virgil makes it back to there, he’s in rifle range, and we can cover him.”
It was long enough after sunrise so that there should have been activity in the lumber camp, but I didn’t hear anything there, either. I don’t know if the camp was laying low, holding its breath, or if I was just so locked on what was going on down the hill that I didn’t hear anything. I noticed that the cicada sound no longer registered, either, so it probably had to do with concentrating.
“Virgil beats Swann,” Cato said. “He may pull it off. I don’t know ’bout Lujack, but Wolfson pretty sure ain’t much.”
“Nobody, far as I know, ever beat Virgil,” I said.
“If they had, he wouldn’t be here,” Rose said.
“True,” I said.
“Swann’s still here, too,” Cato said.