2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

x» } 2«GUN WESTERN Not that they admired the man; they gathered mostly just to hear him blow off steam, and to argue with him. That morning he was haranguing about how the Texans should come up this way with their cattle drives, that there would be a lot of money for the town if they did. Of course, the townspeople were against it. They didn’t want another Dodge City. But Simpson was deter- mined, When he told them he had al- ready sent a letter to a friend in Texas, the crowd really growled. I think Simpson liked men to get mad at him. It made him feel impor- tant to be hated. He was the only lawyer in this section and was sup- posed to have a lot of infiuence up- state. He also was big enough so no- body wanted to start a fight to see | how tough he really was. Back at the ranch Mr. Avery filled me in more. “He's a thief from way back, Steve,” my boss muttered. “We know it, but he’s got powerful friends, so no one wants to start anything with him. He’s fleeced a dozen small ranchers hereabouts out of their places, and he’ll probably own that whole town before he’s finished.” A few weeks later I happened to be in a poker game in town. Across from me, Sheriff Tow studied his cards seriously. He was a hard man _to play against because his leathery old face never gave any hints, Per- haps the toughness of the dry skin, or that straight back of his, or the narrowed squinty eyes that held all the wisdom of time and trouble, set him apart from the others, but he was a man I admired a lot. I knew he’d seen plenty of action and met many tough types in his time. We all re- spected Tow and he was a good law- man. I had been so concerned with my winnings I wasn’t too conscious of the conversation, I got in the middle of what was a long standing topic among the oldtimers of this section. It seems that Simpson had sent a man to prison for a small crime. “Simpson was plain scared of him,” Mr. Avery explained in answer to my question. “Not much more than a boy at the time, but what a lad, a reckless, laughing daredevil. We all liked him.” He grinned at the memo- ry. “But he took up gunslinging— you know how kids get. He was pret- ty good at it too, and liked to scare people with his fancy shooting. Simpson was his favorite target.” : i HERIFF TOW threw down three kings and pawed the pot. Mr. Avery leaned back in his chair and cocked his head to one side, his eyes focusing on space. “Dante Faloo,’ he muttered, his lips gently forming the name. He a at me. “Strange name, strange “You weren’t here when all this happened, Steve,” Sheriff Tow eyed me. “Must have been three years ago, ‘bout a year before you came. “Simpson never forgave Dante for making a fool of him. Dante used to make him dance with those guns of his, Of course, I had to come to the rescue, much as I hated to.” “Is that why Simpson has it in for everybody,” I asked. Mr. Avery lifted his eyebrows. “Probably. He knew we liked to see Dante devil him and he charged us for it. Guess I don’t blame him either.” Tow snorted as he picked up the dealt cards. “If it wasn’t Dante he’d find some other excuse to bully us, only in this case Dante wouldn’t take it.” “What happened?” I asked. “They shoot it out?” “Well, not exactly. First off, Dante got married. We thought he’d settle down a bit. He did in a way, too, but Simpson was too much temptation. Dante wasn’t one to take his kind of meanness lying down.” The sheriff stopped his telling long enough to carefully judge a bet, then he went on, talking easier sort of. “One day Dante got a little hot- headed and threatened Simpson after the slick tried to squeeze him and Julie out their home. There was a fight and Simpson got shot, not bad but you’d have thought he’d been killed, the way he shouted it all over the county.” The sheriff frowned studying his comicbooks.com