Do Not Forsake Me(98)
“Wha’d we do?” the black man asked.
“Nothing—except that you work for Jessie Buckley. You ask her why I took your guns. Your rifles and Jessie’s rifle here will be found several yards ahead, and I don’t want to be able to see either one of you going for them until we’re completely out of sight, understand?”
Both men nodded. “You do somethin’ to my sister?” the white man asked.
“No. But there is a dead man back there you can help her bury. You just remember what I said. I’ll be looking back, and I’d better not be able to see either one of you till I’m too far away to tell. Got that?”
The black man nodded, but Jessie’s brother folded his arms and put on a show of not being afraid. “You’re that marshal, ain’t you? Jake Harkner—the one who half killed my nephew.”
“He had it coming.”
“Yeah, well, Hash and Marty Bryant are fixin’ to kill you, Harkner. They’ve got upwards of ten men ridin’ for them, maybe more than that.”
Jake glanced at Lloyd, who just shook his head. Jake looked back at Jessie’s brother. “Where did they get that many men?”
The man shrugged. “It ain’t hard to find men who want to be a part of killin’ Jake Harkner. They’ve been pickin’ them up here and there for over a year, before the robbery and all that’s happened since. The men they hired wasn’t with the Bryants and Buckleys who robbed that bank. Marty and them boys did that all on their own—did it just to rile you. The bank money was s’posed to be used to pay off the men. Marty figured to kill you when you came after them, but you go down hard, Harkner. They underestimated you and that kid of yours. But this time they’re ready for you, with plenty of guns to bring you down. Most of them men stayed on even without the money, on account of they think killin’ you is worth hangin’ around.”
“Where are they now?”
“All over—mostly places where other outlaws and men with no families or jobs hang out. You probably know those places, seein’ as how you’re no better than they are. Marty’s been wantin’ to kill you ever since you destroyed his eye in that barroom brawl. Like I said, he helped with that robbery just so’s you’d come lookin’ for him. Figured him and the men with him could take you down when you came after them.”
Jake’s horse pranced nervously sideways. “You know how that turned out.”
“Then Hash and Marty will just find some other way to get you, Harkner.”
Jake pushed back his hat. “Why are you offering this information?”
“Because I don’t much like Hash Bryant. He started this whole thing, and now my brother-in-law and one of my nephews is dead. Only trouble my sister’s husband got in before this was fistfights and maybe jackin’ under the skirt of some other man’s wife. I’m tellin’ you right now that Jack Buckley didn’t have no part in rapin’ that young gal. Bo might have, but not Jack. It was the Bryants who did that. I know them.”
“Are all of these men Hash and Marty have been hiring at Hash’s place now?”
“No. Last time I was there, it was just Hash and two other men. He was braggin’ that they all had plans to meet in a couple of weeks and figure out what they’d do to finally get to you. He might have picked up a few up at that hellhole of an outlaw town north of here. He don’t want them all in one place on account of he’s heard how you have ways of bringin’ down a lot of men when they’re all together. He heard somethin’ once about how you took down twelve or fifteen men up along the Outlaw Trail a couple years back…somethin’ about goin’ after your kid.”
Jeff glanced at Lloyd, who rode closer to Jake.
“So they intend to spread out somehow?” Jake was asking.
“I honest to God don’t know.” The man looked Jake over, studied his weapons. “I just know I don’t want no part of any of it. I heard about the big shoot-out back in California all them years back, and that gunfight in Guthrie last month. If they want to go up against Jake Harkner, that’s their business. But I don’t know when or where they’re gonna meet, else I’d tell you. I’m just lettin’ you know they’ve got somethin’ goin’—maybe rob another bank or somethin’ else that would bring you out to them. They’ll try for you again—only Hash knows he’ll need more men than that first time. That’s why he’s findin’ as many as he can. Cur dogs like to run in packs.”