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  As Sam started to leave Kelly said, “Wait—what am I supposed to do?”

  “Get your deputies to help you with Coffin. You’re gonna have to keep Burkett’s men out of here.”

  “W-What?”

  “They’ll want to try and break him out. It’s your duty to stop them.”

  “Oh, Jesus—” Kelly said, but Sam McCall was already out the door. Sheriff Kelly fell into the chair and put his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands.

  Sam went back to the Miller house and told Jubal, Dude, and Serena what he had done.

  “You didn’t kill Coffin?” Jubal demanded, outraged.

  There was a bruise on the right side of his jaw.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “There was no need.”

  “He killed Evan.”

  “I know that, Jube.”

  “But you killed John Burkett.”

  “He tried to backshoot me,” Sam said. “That was self-defense.”

  “I don’t understand you,” Jubal said. “You had a chance to kill Coffin…unless you were afraid to face him.”

  “Jubal!” Serena said.

  “No, no “Jubal said, waving her protestations away, “that’s it, isn’t it? Big Sam McCall is afraid that he can’t take Coffin.”

  “Open your eyes, son,” Dude Miller said. “He did take him.”

  “But he didn’t kill him!”

  “When the federal marshal gets here,” Sam said, “he’ll place Coffin under arrest. Coffin will give the marshal Lincoln Burkett.”

  “But John Burkett paid Coffin to kill Evan,” Dude Miller said. “You said so yourself.”

  “And Lincoln Burkett paid Coffin to kill me, only he didn’t get the job done.” Sam looked at Jubal and said, “Believe me, Jube, this is the way to do it. This way we’ll take them down together.”

  “If you had killed Coffin we could have gone out to Burkett’s ranch and killed him, and then they’d be taken care of.”

  “That ain’t the way Evan would have done it,” Sam said, “and it wouldn’t have been Pa’s way. You read Pa’s letter.”

  “What letter?” Miller asked.

  “We found a letter from Pa,” Sam said, “but we can talk about that later. Jube—”

  Sam reached for Jubal, but the younger man pulled away and started to walk out.

  “Jubal!” Sam snapped. “I need you.”

  “You don’t need me,” Jubal said. “You got it all figured out by yourself.”

  “Where are you goin?”

  “Out.”

  “Jube.” Sam crossed the room and grabbed his brother’s arm. Jubal tried to pull away but Sam held him tightly.

  “Burkett’s gonna come for me, Jube, and he’s gonna try to get Coffin out of jail. The sheriff isn’t gonna hold up under this. You and I are gonna have to stand against Burkett and his men until the marshal gets here.”

  “Which is when?” Jubal asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “This is madness,” Serena said. “The two of you can’t hold off Burkett and all of his men.”

  “There are three of us,” Dude Miller said.

  “Pa!”

  “Dude,” Sam said, “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

  Dude Miller nodded.

  “What are we gonna do?” Jubal asked.

  “We’re gonna occupy the jail” Sam said, “and we ain’t comin’ out until the marshal gets here. Serena?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll need you to send another telegram. We’re gonna have to make damned sure that marshal is on his way.”

  Serena took a deep breath and said, “I’ll help any way I can, Sam.”

  Sam thanked her and looked at Jubal.

  “Jube?”

  Jubal thought it over a moment, and finally said, “I’m with you.”

  Sam smiled and said, “I knew you would be.”

  “But if things go wrong,” Jubal said, “the first thing I’m gonna do is put a bullet in Coffin’s head. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” Sam said. “I’ll even help you.”

  The three men who had been standing with John Burkett had a decision to make. They could ride back to the ranchand tell Lincoln Burkett that they had let his son be killed, or they could mount up and just keep riding.

  In the end they decided that their jobs were too good to just walk away from. If Burkett fired them, that would be another thing, but they couldn’t just walk away from these jobs. Besides, Burkett wouldn’t kill them. He was going to need all the men he could put his hands on to get his revenge on Sam McCall.

  They knew they were going to have to work fast.

  They were going to have to fortify the jail, stock it with food and water, and get it ready to withstand any and all attempts to enter it before Lincoln Burkett arrived with his men.

  Luckily, Dude Miller gave them free access to his store, which had most of what they needed: canned food, blankets, sheets, coffee, and whatever else. He even had wòoden shutters, which they nailed up over the windows, leaving only space enough to shoot through.

  Ed Collins at the gunsmith shop also pitched in, giving them all the ammunition they’d need for their guns and offered to stay inside with them.

  “No, Mr. Collins,” Sam had told him, “I think we’ll need someone on the outside who’s on our side.”

  Collins argued, but in the end he saw the wisdom of that.

  They also went over to Doc Leader’s to get what they would need to tend to bullet wounds. Doc thought they were crazy, and he bitched and moaned, but he gave them what they needed.

  “Don’t be expectin’ me to come over there and tend to you, though,” he told them. “I may be an old man, but I ain’t in any hurry to die.”

  “Don’t you worry, Doc,” Sam said, “we’ll tend ourselves.”

  They lugged all the equipment over to the sheriff’s office under the watchful eye of the whole town. The sheriff didn’t help, preferring to stay behind his desk and fret about his safety.

  They were all in the office when the door opened and a well-fed, jowly, officious-looking man in his fifties stepped in.

  “Mr. Mayor,” Kelly said.

  Sam turned and looked at the mayor of Vengeance Creek, whom he had not yet met.

  “Which of you is Sam McCall?” the mayor asked.

  “I am.”

  The two men locked eyes, and to Sam’s satisfaction it was the mayor who looked away first. Obviously the man was not looking forward to the conversation that was coming. He had probably been elected by the town council as spokesman.

  “Mr. McCall, I am Mayor Eustace Tenderberry. Uh, we on the town council cannot…condone what you are about to do.”

  “Oh? And what is it I’m about to do?”

  “Well, sir, uh, you are about to turn this town into a battlefield. What’s worse, your opponent is the town’s most prominent citizen.”

  “Mr. Mayor,” Sam said, “what is about to go on between Burkett and me is our business. I’m sure even he would not want you interfering in it.”

  “Nevertheless,” Tenderberry said, “for the safety of our town, and of Mr. Burk—uh, I mean of all our citizens, I’m afraid we must ask you to leave. Sheriff?” the mayor said, looking at his lawman. “You will escort Mr. McCall and his brother to the town limits.”

  “Mayor,” Kelly said, gaping at the man, “are you crazy?”

  “Sheriff!” Mayor Tenderberry said. “Either you do your duty or I must ask you to hand over your badge.”

  “Well, shit,” Kelly said, “that’s the best offer I had all day.” Hurriedly he unpinned the badge from his shirt and dropped it on the desk. On his way out he said to the Mayor, “Now you escort him to the town limits.”

  The mayor watched the sheriff leave and then turned to face Sam McCall.

  I’ll, uh, ask you again—” The man stopped when Sam took a few steps toward him and flinched, as if he thought Sam was going to strike him. Dude Miller and J
ubal watched with interest.

  “Mr. Mayor, I suggest you go to your town council and tell them you tried your best to get my brother and me to leave, but it didn’t work.”

  “B-but—” the mayor stuttered, “but—we don’t have a sheriff now!”

  Sam smiled humorlessly, walked to the desk, and picked up the badge.

  “Now you do.”

  “What—”

  “Unless you want the job?” Sam held out the badge to the man.

  “No, no, no—” the man said, his face flushing.

  Sam pinned the badge on.

  “Jube, you’re a duly sworn deputy. So are you, Dude.”

  Both men nodded.

  Sam turned to the mayor and said, “Mr. Mayor, my men and I will do out best to protect the town and our prisoner until the federal marshal arrives.”

  “And when will that be?” the Mayor asked.

  Sam turned to Serena, who had sent a telegram to Austin, Texas, where the man was supposed to be coming from.

  “The reply said that the marshal had to go to Fort Worth first on an emergency. He should be here in three days.”

  “There you have it,” Sam said. “In three days’ time this will all be over.”

  “Three days,” the mayor said, looking dubious and shaking his head. “Three days,” he repeated, and left in a daze.

  Sam looked at Serena, Dude and Jubal, and Jubal said, “Or less.”

  Sam knew what he meant.

  When Lincoln Burkett heard the news of his son’s death he sat very still. The three men standing in front of him, and his foreman, all stood still and stayed very quiet. This was not the reaction they had anticipated.

  “And Coffin?” Burkett asked then.

  “Sam McCall took him to jail,” one of the men said.

  “No gunplay?”

  “McCall didn’t give Coffin no chance,” the man said, explaining how McCall had jumped Coffin without giving him a chance to go for his gun.

  “All right,” Burkett said, “all right. Conners, get the men together.”

  “All of them, sir?”

  “All of them who are willing to fight,” Burkett said.

  “And those who aren’t?” Conners asked. After all, most of the men had signed on as ranch hands.

  “Fire them.”

  “Yes, sir.” Conners turned to the other men and said, “Get out. Pass the word.”

  “Sure, boss.”

  After the men left Chuck Conners looked at Burkett and asked, “Are you all right, sir?”

  “I’m fine, Conners.” Burkett looked up at his foreman.

  “Are you worried that you see no grief? Well, I’ll save you the worry. This is not the time to grieve, this is the time for revenge. Grief will come later. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Conners, pick one man and have him ride into town and look things over.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “We won’t move until he comes back.”

  “Right.”

  “Get out, now,” Burkett said. “I have to think.”

  Conners nodded and left.

  Burkett sat behind his desk, wondering why he felt so controlled. There was no rage, or grief, there was no feeling at all. There was just the realization that there was something that had to be done.

  Later he’d worry about emotions.

  Right now his concern was revenge.

  Once the jail was set up for their three-day—at least three-day—siege Sam turned to Dude Miller.

  “All right, Dude,” he said, “Out.”

  “Hey, wait.”

  “Your help is appreciated up to now, Dude,” Sam said, “but from here on in it’s up to me and Jubal”

  “I want to help.”

  “You have, but I don’t want you to risk your life,” Sam said. He looked at Serena, and then back at her father.

  “That’s something that Jubal and I have to do, Dude, not you, and not Serena.”

  “Sam—”

  “Pa,” Serena said. “He’s right.”

  “Dude,” he said, “go home with Serena—and for God’s sake keep her away from here.”

  “He doesn’t have to keep me away,” Serena said. “I’m not a child.”

  “No, you’re not,” Sam said. “Dude?”

  “All right, I will.”

  “And keep an eye out for that marshal.”

  Dude nodded.

  “All right, out with both of you. From this point on, nobody in and nobody out.”

  Serena walked over to Jubal and kissed him on the cheek. His face flushed. She turned and looked at Sam.

  “Take care of him, all right? And of yourself.”

  “We’ll take care of each other,” Sam said. “We’re the only family we have now.”

  “No,” she said, “that’s not true.”

  She turned and went out the door. Miller started to follow her out. He stopped before leaving, turned, and said, “Good luck.”

  “Thanks”

  Dude Miller walked out, and Jubal closed the door behind him. He turned to Sam and said, “We’re gonna need it.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Sam made a pot of coffee and sat behind the sheriff’s desk with a cup. Jubal sat across from him. Sam began opening drawers and looking inside.

  “What are you looking for?” Jubal asked.

  “Ah, found ’em.”

  Sam took his hand out of a drawer and tossed something at Jubal, who caught it with one hand. When he looked at it he saw that it was a deputy’s badge.

  “Put it on,” Sam said.

  “You know,” Jubal said, pinning it to his chest, “I can’t believe the way this has turned out. We’re the law in Vengeance Creek.”

  “It is an ‘odd—twist, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t think odd covers it.”

  They ruminated over their coffee for a few moments and then Jubal said, “When Burkett comes after us, he’ll be breaking the law.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And then we’ll have him.”

  “Right again, but not for murder—and we’ll only have him if we survive.”

  “Hey!” Coffin called from his cell.

  Jubal cocked his head at Sam, but Sam said nothing.

  “How about some of that coffee?”

  “Bring him a cup,” Sam said.

  “All right.”

  “Make him stand against the wall while you put it on the floor in front of the cell.”

  Jubal looked at Sam and then nodded. He hadn’t thought of that. He took the coffee into the back.

  “Smells good,” Coffin said.

  “Stand against the back wall.”

  “You think I’d waste good coffee—”

  “Look, Coffin, I’d just as soon kill you as look at you.

  Now stand against the back wall!”

  Coffin obeyed, and Jubal set the coffee cup down in front of the cell. When he stood up he stared at Coffin, the man who had killed his brother. Earlier, when they had first heard about Evan’s death, he had been ready to kill this man. He couldn’t understand how Sam could not have killed him.

  It would be easy to do now. Just take out his gun and fire. So easy…

  “Are you going to wait until it gets cold?” Coffin asked.

  Jubal looked down at the coffee and had the urge to spit into it. Instead he turned and walked stiffly back into the office.

  “You’ve been a sheriff before, haven’t you?”

  “Once or twice.”

  “I’ve never worn a badge,” Jubal said. “It feels sort of funny.”

  “The badge gets heavier and heavier the longer you wear it. Luckily we won’t be wearing them very long.”

  “I don’t get it,” Jubal said suddenly, and Sam knew he was changing the subject.

  “What?”

  “How could you not have killed him?”

  “I don’t know,” Sam said, shaking his head. He put his coffee cup down and rubbed his ha
nd over his face. “I intended to kill him. I went there to kill him. When I saw him I just kept walking toward him, and I was thinking, ‘This is what Burkett wants.—I guess I didn’t want to give it to him…you know?”

  Jubal studied his brother for a few moments, then said, “Yeah, maybe I do.”

  “You want some dinner?” Sam asked.

  “I am hungry. What’s on the menu?”

  “Beans.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said, “don’t it.”

  As Sam opened a can and set in on the potbellied stove Jubal asked, “What’s Burkett likely to do?”

  “If I was him,” Sam said, “I’d send a man into town to look us over first, see how things were laid out.”

  “What’s to see?” Jubal said, “We’re in here and he’s out there.”

  “Well, when he knows it’s that simple he’ll come for us…unless…”

  “Unless what?”

  Sam turned to face his brother and said, “Unless he wants to make us sweat.”

  “You think he will?”

  Sam shrugged.

  “If he does that it’ll work in our favor.”

  “How?”

  “If he waits long enough the marshal will get here,”

  Sam said. “It’s not likely, though.”

  “He knows about the marshal?”

  “Yep,” Sam said, “smart me told him.”

  “It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “Thanks,” Sam said. “Hey, you want these real hot?”

  “It don’t matter. Warm’ll do.”

  Sam used the coffee cups to hold the beans and handed Jubal a cup and a fork.

  “What about him?” Jubal asked.

  Sam sat behind the desk and said, “If there’s any left…”

  Later they set up the sleeping arrangements, four hours on and four off. They decided to play some checkers before one of them went to sleep. The board was a contribution of Dude Miller’s.

  Over the board Jubal said, “I just thought of something.”

  Over the board Jubal said, “I just thought of something.” “Tell me.”

  “The marshall’s going to be coming alone, right?”

  “Probably.”

  “What’s to stop Burkett from waiting for him and ambushing him?”

  Sam looked at Jubal. It was a sharp observation, and he gave it some thought.

  “It’s a good point,” he said, finally, “but I don’t think he will.”