A Lust For Lead by Robert Davis Read Free Book Online

‘So what do you think of the new generation of gunfighters, Mister Ennis?’
‘I think the Fastest Guns’ standards must be slipping.’
Nathaniel laughed politely. He turned to Buchanan: ‘You and I have matters to discuss. Why don’t you show Mister Ennis back to his accommodation? We’ll speak again, Shane.’
Buchanan put his hand on Shane’s arm and steered him to the door. It was dark outside. The embers of a rust-coloured sunset burned on the edge of the horizon leaving Covenant to skulk in blackness. The air was still, quiet and foreboding.
‘Less than twenty-four hours, Shane.’ Buchanan said as they crossed the street. There was excitement in his voice. ‘Don’t tell me you don’t feel it too: that fear, that anticipation. Knowing that tomorrow you’re going to take a man’s life, Shane. Doesn’t that feel good to you?’
Shane was in no mood to talk about how he felt. He was excited but he was also afraid and the worst part of his fear stemmed from the fact that he was excited. He did not want to feel good about the prospect of shooting a man tomorrow but it was so hard for him. He had lived by the gun for the greater part of his adult life and, however much his conscious will despised it, his heart would always crave the power he had once wielded with a gun in each hand.
Back then he would have never fallen so low as this.
They entered the jailhouse and Buchanan took a lantern from the guard in the sheriff’s office and used it to light the way to Shane’s cell. Its flickering light set Buchanan’s eyes ablaze. ‘I know you feel it,’ he said knowingly.
He locked the door and took the lantern with him back to the sheriff’s office, closing the door behind him so that Shane was left in darkness. Despondent, Shane sat on his bunk and counted Buchanan’s footsteps as they receded into the distance. When he heard the front door slam, he rose and crossed to the window. There, he could see Buchanan as he crossed the street to the Grande. He saw Buchanan pause at the foot of the porch and turn to face the sunset.
Waiting for something, Shane thought.
And then it began. As the last of the sunlight faded from the horizon, the town began to creak and groan.
It was as if the town’s foundations were contracting in the cooling night air, except that the temperature did not seem to have dropped at all. Wood groaned and screamed and in places there were violent banging noises. The sounds built in number as every building in town joined the cacophony. Shane jumped back from the window as the wall of his cell began to groan. The floor shook beneath his feet.
The noise built to a tortured howl and then, slowly, a sense of order began to emerge. It was subtle at first, but then grew more noticeable and Shane realised that every building was gradually settling into rhythm with its neighbours.
The sound became a lullaby. It started at the centre of town and rolled outwards, then crept back again.
Out and in again.
Out and in again.
Shane could almost imagine the buildings bending and flexing like stalks of corn in the wind.
Out and in again.
It sounded as if the town was breathing.
    Buchanan stood at the foot of the porch for a while, letting the town’s song caress him. He had not felt anything like it since the Fastest Guns had turned their backs on him after Shane had ruined his right hand. It would have been better if Shane had killed him that day – at least then there would have been a proper end to things – but Shane was weak. He was frightened by what the Fastest Guns would make of him, and so he had spared Buchanan’s life and severed him from the truest love he had ever known.
Buchanan had spent years training to shoot with his left hand. By many standards, he was still a force to be reckoned with, but even on a good day he was nowhere near as good as he had used to be, shooting with his right. The Fastest Guns only accepted gunfighters of the highest standard and no matter how hard he tried,