One-Man Massacre by Jonas Ward Read Free Book Online Page A

.45. He picked up the weapon and jammed it deep into the pocket of his worn coat.
    "Angus!" Hamli n . cried. "Ye can't go up against the lot of them. Not singlehanded!"
    The gun's for the laddie-buck," Mulchay said. "This b his fighting chance —and may it prove luckier for him than the last man that owned it." With that he left the Glasgow.
    "Try that place first," Gibbons said, indicating the noisy, brilliantly lit Armston's dancehall. He had not missed the added absence of the shapely bargirl from the saloon and now was guessing that she might have taken up with their quarry for a bit of Saturday night life in Scotstown. The five mounted men were afoot by this time and they formed a sort of phalanx with the other three; a tight, troublesome-looking group of eight.
    "Do we take him on sight, or what?" Rig Gruber asked when they were at the foot of the dancehall steps.
    "You're entitled to the first crack," Gibbons said.
    "How come?"
    "He shot Leach with your gun, didn't he?"
    "But this gun don't swing just right," Gruber said. "Too much barrel."
    "It worked all right for him."
    "Man's got those long arms," Gruber argued. "Makes all the difference."
    "Swing mine," his buddy Kersh offered.
    "Swing your friggin' own."
    "Who we bucking, anyhow?" Kersh asked. "Another Texan Thompson?"
    "Go on in and find out," Gruber suggested.
    "What's gotten into you?" Gibbons demanded an grily. "I was sure you'd jump at the chance."
    "Thanks all the same, Cap'n, but I pass."
    "Then he's yours, Kersh," Gibbons said, but Kersh shook his head.
    "I'll brace anything that walks," he said, "if I have to. But since we all got stakes here why don't we all take him? Then adjourn to the oasis next door and pull the cork."
    They were thinking very much of Hamp Leach, Gib bons knew, remembering that Leach had the rep. And the ex-Ranger was learning, too, that for a situation such as this he had done his work on them too well. Gruber and Kersh had grown accustomed to the Army way, fight ing as a group, and their individuality was gone.
    "We're waiting on you, Cap," Kersh said, but the words had a different meaning for Gibbons. They were waiting on him and his mind traveled back one year. He saw himself a Ranger again, imagined the man in side the dancehall a wanted criminal. He wouldn't have hesitated two seconds.
    "What's it gonna be, Cap?" Kersh asked.
    "Let's go," Gibbons said. "We'll take him together," and he started up the steps first, telling himself that he could still do that, at least. A year hadn't changed him that much.
    ". . . now doe-see-doe to the left and right —and swing your ga l with all your might.'"
    Buchanan took the fiddler at his word, swung Rose marie clear off the floor, round and round, effortlessly, and the girl squealed in pretended dismay as her petti coats ballooned above her shapely knees.
    ". . . now promenade past all your friends . . . salute your partner as this dance ends/"
    The amiable giant made a sweeping bow to the curtseying beauty and when their glances met an infectious smile passed between them.
    "Never danced with a grizzly before, did you?" he asked as they walked off the floor.
    "Why, you're as graceful as could be," she protested, and then lowered her voice confidentially. "Only not so vigorous with the swinging, Tom. I'm sure I shocked all the ladies present."
    "And pleased all the gents, which brings you out even."
    "Evenin', Miss MacKay," interrupted a puncher of Buchanan's own age, but clean-shaven, togged out in a bright new shirt and reeking of bay rum.
    "Evening, Billy," Rosemarie answered. "I'd like you to meet Mr. Buchanan. Tom, this is Billy Neale."
    "Howdy."
    "Howdy."
    The men shook hands and Buchanan stood by patiently until Neale had gone over him from shaggy head to scuffed work shoes. Neale switched his attention to the girl.
    "Thought you had to work tonight, Rosemarie?" he said pointedly.
    "I'm playing truant," she confessed. "I should be at the Glasgow now."
    "Apparently you're more