“Yeah, why not?”
The two men stepped aside and Deckert, a bit apprehensive now, crossed the lobby to the front desk. Elmer was standing behind the desk.
“Hello, Elmer. Is my room ready? I’d like the same one I always have, on the font, overlooking the street.”
“There is only one room left, Hodge, and I don’t think you will want it,” Elmer said.
“What do you mean I don’t want it? Of course I do.”
“No, you don’t,” one of the men with the star on his chest said.
“What’s going on here, Elmer?”
“Pearl and I have a spare room. You can stay with us tonight,” Elmer said. “In fact, you can join us for supper, and it won’t cost you a cent.”
“Well, then, if you are willing to do that for me, of course I will accept your offer. But I would like to know what’s going on.”
“I’ll tell you all about it, later,” Elmer said. “Come on, I’ll walk down to the house with you and tell Pearl we’re having company tonight.”
“Does your wife like perfume?” Deckert asked.
“Oh, heavens, we can’t afford to be buying something like perfume.”
“You won’t be buying it, I’m giving it to you. I have a spare bottle in my samples kit. I would be pleased if Mrs. Reinhardt would accept it.”
Crack Kingsley was riding into town just as Elmer and Deckert were walking up the street toward the little cluster of houses that made up the residential area of Medbury. He touched his hat and nodded at them, and they returned the gesture.
Crack rode past the Sand Spur and wanted, very much, to stop and have a beer and maybe visit a little with one of the women. But he had told Matt that he would come straight to town, make his purchase, then return immediately.
Crack could understand the need to get back to the ranch, especially if the rustlers hit them again tonight. What he couldn’t understand was why Matt had sent him in town to make such a frivolous purchase.
Dismounting in front of the Medbury Mercantile, Crack stepped up on the porch, then went inside. He passed by the candy shelf and saw a large jar of horehound candy. He thought of Hank, who always bought himself a stick anytime he came to town, and asked one of the others to buy it for him if they came to town and he didn’t.
The thought caused Crack to experience a moment of melancholy, and, in memory of Hank, he reached down into the jar and pulled out a penny stick. He walked up to the counter holding the stick of candy.
“Hello, Crack,” the store keeper asked. “How is Mrs. Wellington getting along?”
“She’s doin’ just fine, Mr. Dunnigan, I’ll be sure and tell her you was askin’ about her.”
“You do that,” Dunnigan said. He pointed to the stick of candy and chuckled. “You didn’t ride all the way into town just to spend a penny, did you?”
“What?” Crack held up the stick of candy and looked at it. “Oh, no sir, I just picked this up on account of Hank.”
“Hank? Isn’t he…?” Dunnigan let the question hang.
“Dead, yes sir, Hank’s dead all right. But you mind how much he loved horehound?”
“I sure do. That boy bought him a piece ever’ time he come in here,” Dunnigan said.
“Well, sir, this here candy is for him, sort of a way I’ve got of rememberin’ him.”
“Yes, and a very good way that is too,” Dunnigan said. “Now, what else can I do for you?”
“It’s comin’ up on the Fourth of July,” Crack said. “I was just wonderin’ if you had any of them fireworks in yet?”
“I sure do. Out here, you got to order them things early if you want to make sure you get ’em in time for the Fourth. What do you need?”
“I need me a sky rocket,” Crack said.
“A sky rocket? Just one?”
“Yes, sir, just one will do me.”
“All right,” Dunnigan said, walking down behind the counter until he came to the fireworks’ shelf. He picked up one rocket, then brought it back and showed it to Crack.
“Will this leave a trail when it goes up?” Crack asked.
“Indeed it will,” Dunnigan replied. “If you send this thing up in the night it will leave a shower of sparks behind it, then, when it gets to the top, it will burst open into a whole bunch of little balls of different colored lights.”
“I’ll take it,” Crack said.
“Is this all you want? I got me a lot of firecrackers too. You can’t hardly celebrate the Fourth of July without you set off a bunch of firecrackers.”
“Mayhaps I’ll come back a’fore the Fourth and get some of them,” Crack said. “But for right now, this here rocket is all I want.”
“All right. The rocket and the piece of horehound candy come to eleven cents,” Dunnigan said.
Crack paid for his purchase, put the rocket and half a piece of the candy in a sack, stuck the other half piece in his mouth, then went back outside. He saw a couple of cowboys he knew from a neighboring ranch. They were standing near the watering trough.
“Hey, fellas,” he said. “What you doin’ out here? Anytime you boys come into town, you near ’bout always go to the Sand Spur.”
“Ain’t no fun at the Sand Spur right now,” one of the two cowboys said.
“Yeah, not as long as them deputies are here,” the other one said. “They go into the Sand Spur and all the fun comes out of it.”
“I don’t know what they are after, but I’ll sure as hell be happy when they leave.”
“What are you doin’ in town, Crack?”
“I just come into town to buy somethin’,” Crack said.
“Horehound candy,” one of the cowboys said with a chuckle. “You come into town to buy horehound candy.”
“Yeah, well, I like it,” Crack said. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with it. I like it too, but I don’t think I’d ride five miles just to get me some.”
“Maybe you just don’t like it as much as I do,” Crack said. He untied his horse, mounted, then looked back down at his two friends. “You boys take it easy now, you hear?” he said as he rode away.
“Good job,” Matt said. He looked down at the rifle pit which was deep enough to stand in, and wide enough for three men to occupy.
“We dug one here, and another one over there,” Tyrone said. “This way we’ve got the entrance covered, no matter which side the rustlers might come in on.”
“Move some brush over in front of them,” Matt said.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. That way they won’t be as likely to see us, even if we are shooting at them.”
“I’m going back to the house,” Matt said. “When Prew gets back with the bodies, have him come up.”
“Here comes Crack,” Jake said.
Matt waited until Crack got there before he left for the house.
“Did you get the rocket?” he asked.
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Good. Now, go back to the cookhouse, have the cook fix you a lunch to take with you.”
“Take where?”
“Do you see that bluff there?” Matt said, pointing to a rather prominent feature about two miles away. “I want you to go up onto that bluff and stay. And stay awake. If you have to, get yourself a handful of coffee beans and chew on them tonight. From there, you will have a good view of anyone who approaches the ranch. If you see anyone coming, shoot the rocket off.”
“Ahh, it’s a signal,” Crack said. “I was wonderin’ what you were wantin’ this rocket for.”
“Don’t shoot it until they pass you though,” Matt said. “We don’t want them to know they’ve been seen.”
“How do you know they’ll be coming tonight?” Jake asked.
“I plan to leave them a message tonight,” Matt said. “Once they get the message, they’ll come.”
Matt was sitting at the dining room table with Kitty when Prew came in. “Excuse me, but Tyrone said you wanted to see me.”
“Did you recover the bodies?” Matt asked.
“All four of them. With their hats, just like you said.”