15 Western Short Stories — page 74: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

74 bonds and told nim that Brule and Rayder aimed to set him free, that all this was haywire as hell. They hadn't really meant to let him go—they’d meant for Torgin to kill him on the ‘ trail—but that just made things more confusing. Powder Mace got back into the sad- dle. He started back along the trail, toward Judd Rayder’s Triple & ranch. He thought asout Nancy Rolfe, back there with Turk Brule, and grinned sardonicaliy. it wasn’t Nancy Rolfe that was taking him back to the Triple X, he told himself. A few hours ago he would have killed anybody who said that Nancy Rolfe wasn’t the sweetest, squarest girl in the world. Now he knew different. Now he knew she was low and treacherous, as grasp- ing and gold-greedy as Brule and Rayder. Powder Mace, riding warily along, thought, “But Turk Brule won't get her. Now’s my chance to even the score with Brule. They won't be ex- pectin’ me—they’ll think Torgin has unned me in the back before now. I’ll kill Rayder, too. And Nancy....” He knew he could never harm Nan- cy Rolfe. Anybody who would do what she had done must be bad all through. But Powder Mace grinned at the thought of hurting her.... He left his horse in a jackpine thicket a hundred yards from the ranch house and went forward on foot. He went toward a yellow rectangle of light from an open window. From within the roorn he could hear harsh, quarreling voices. The voices, he knew, belonged to Turk Brule and Judd Rayder. Powder Mace crept up close, raised his eyes so he could peer into the room. Turk Brule and Rayder sat at the table that held the lamp, whiskey jug and glasses before them. Nancy Rolfe was nowhere in sight. “T still say it was a crazy thing to do,’ Rayder whined. “What if Torgin bungles—what if he lets that Texan get away from him?” “Torgin won't bungle,’ Brule erinned. “I told him what would hap- pen if he did.” “But why in hell...? Thought yuh aimed to have some fun with him be- fore you salted him.” WESTERN SHORT STORIES “You're not supposed to think,” Turk Brule purred. “Just do as you’re told. But, if you gotta know, I had a damn good reason for doin’ it that way.” “What kind of reason?” “To start with, itll save me two thousand dollars.” Suspicion leaped into Judd Ray- der’s whiskey-reddened eyes. “How’'ll it do that?” “Cain’t you guess?” Brule asked sardon.cally. “Your lovely — step- daughter, of course. She’s the only thing on God’s green earth that would have made me turn Powder Mace over to a half-wit to be shot in the back.” Rayder banged the table with his fist. “Blast you, Brule, if you think—” Brule’s voice was liize frosted steel. “Take it easy, Rayder. I told you you were a fool not to take the thousand I offered. Now Ill have her for noth- ing—except foregoing the pleasure of watching Powder Mace die.” “You mean—the girl talked you into ettin’ Mace go?” “She didn’t talk me into it,’ Brule denied. “We made a bargain. She said that if I'd let Powder Mace go free, shed marry me—willingly, no strings attached. It seemed like a fair trade, so i Gig it.” “But Mace won’t go free. You told Torg:n, when he got out in Mulejaw Canyon to kill Powder Mace and throw him over a cliff.” “So what?” Turk Brule sneered. “The girl need never know that. She’ll think he sneaked outa the coun- try. She'll marry me, like she agreed.” OW DER MACE crouched there under the window, shaken by the fierce emotions that were pounding at nim. Now he saw, crystal-clear, why Brule had made a show of turning him loose. Nancy Rolfe had sold herself, to save him. She'd strung Brule along, maybe made Brule think she loved him, offered to marry him—just so Powder Mace might go free. And he started to ride away, with- out suspecting the truth. Slowly, gun in hand, Powder Mace got to his feet. He didn’t stop to think that it was Nancy Rolfe who had lied to him in the first place, and tricked cCOMmicbooks (CO