the Empty Land (1969) (19 page)

Big Thompson stared at the list, then looked around at Matt Coburn. "Get out or shoot it out, eh? An' me without a gun?"

Matt Coburn unbuckled his belt, removed the gun from his waistband, and handed them to Felton. "You boys see that we're not interrupted, will you? Thompson's brag is that he can break any man with his hands. Maybe he's right."

"You bet
I a
m "

Matt feinted a right and stabbed a quick left to Big Thompson's mouth. It was unexpected and jarring. Big shook his head and put the back of a hand to his mouth, to find blood on it. He leaped at Matt, wanting to get his hands on him, and expecting him to move away. Instead, Matt stepped inside one of the huge arms and smashed short, wicked punches to the belly.

They caught Thompson coming in, and he grunted with the impact of the blows. Then Matt whipped a right uppercut to the chin that snapped Thompson's head back, hard.

But Thompson was old in the rough game of fighting. He had taken punches before. He pulled his head down and rolled his huge weight against Coburn. Matt hooked hard to the belly, caught a jarring blow to the jaw that staggered him, and a back-hand blow to the cheek-bone that sent him reeling against the water trough.

Thompson rushed to get close, punching hard with both hands. Matt swung a left to the belly as the big man came in, but he caught two more high hard ones to the head. He ducked, smashed upward with the top of his head against Thompson's chin, then stamped on his instep.

The big man howled with pain and backed off. For a moment they circled.

`Pm going to kill you, Coburn!
I'm
goin to wreck you good."

Thompson was wary now, but he was a powerful man, and he knew what he could do. He had killed a man with his fists before this.

Chapter
16

Matt Coburn was aware that the crowd had increased. He was aware that the sun was higher, and that it had grown warmer. All this he knew, but in a secondary way. The one fact that stood out now was that he had underestimated Big Thompson.

He had known that he was strong. He had expected him to be a tough fighter, but he had not expected such a brute of strength and fury as now faced him.

They circled each other warily. Matt was a big man himself, although sixty pounds lighter than Thompson. He had done his share of fighting and brawling, and he had learned long since that in most cases the very big man, having been large even as a boy, had never had to fight as much as a smaller man had, and so had never developed the fighting skill or ferocity a smaller man must need to develop to survive. But this was not true of Thompson. The big man was not only big, not only strong he was also a real fighter.

Instinctively, Matt had gone for the body. His old policy had always been to "get them where they live." Many a man can take them on the chin, but very few have their stomach muscles developed to the point where they are impervious to blows. Moreover, Matt knew that even the tough ones cannot stand up to much battering in the mid-section.

Thompson moved in. He not only had big fists, but somewhere, at one time or another, he had done some boxing.

Coburn circled, and Thompson feinted suddenly and threw a whistling right hand to the head, but Coburn went under it, smashing a right to the ribs that made the big man gasp. Then Thompson grabbed him, heaving him off his feet and clasping both hands against Coburn's sides in a crushing grasp. One arm free, Matt hooked again and again to Big Thompson's face, smashing him with short, wicked blows as the bigger man bent him back and back.
Excruciating pain caught Coburn in the back, and suddenly he kicked up with both feet, tumbling both of them to the ground.
The fall broke Thompson's hold and Colhurn rolled free.

He was the first on his feet and he caught Thompson in the mouth with a roundhouse swing as the bigger man was getting up. The blow dropped Thompson to his knees, and started the blood flowing from his mouth. Coburn backed off, wanting to catch his wind. Thompson got to his feet, his face twisted with rage. In a half-crouch, he came toward Matt, who waited. Suddenly Matt stepped in, smashing a left jab to the mouth and a right to the chin. Both blows struck solidly, but Thompson merely bowed his head and drove in, butting Coburn in the chest Knocked off balance, Matt went-down, and Thompson leaped high to come down on him with both feet. Twisting sharply away, Matt kicked out, missed, kicked again as Big Thompson started for him again. The kick caught Thompson on the knee, stopping him momentarily.

Matt scrambled to all fours and drove at Thompson with a smashing tackle. Thompson side-stepped, and when Matt sprawled on the ground he leaped astride him.

But quick as Big Thompson was, Matt rolled over and met his leap with raised knees and a fierce shove, throwing Thompson to the ground. Both men came up fast and lunged at each other, swinging hard. Matt felt jarring blows to his head, and one that smashed into his ribs with knifing pain, and then he connected with a right that split Thompson's cheek, showering him with blood.

Thompson put his head down and plowed in, but Matt rolled away from the rush, smashing a hard one to the ribs, and when Thompson straightened, Matt smashed another hard right to the mouth. Thompson grabbed at him, ripped his shirt, then caught his arm and jerked him into a clinch. Matt dropped his head to Thompson's shoulder in time, and spreading his legs, struck at his belly with short, vicious blows.

They broke apart and stood for an instant, gasping and bloody, and then with one accord they moved in quickly. But instantly Matt changed tactics. Grasping one of the extended arms, he turned and threw Thompson with a rolling hip-lock. The big man went down hard, and for an instant he lay as if stunned.

Matt moved back, hands working, waiting for Thompson to get up. He got up slowly, and Matt walked in, suddenly avid for the kill. He smashed at the big pulpy face with terrible blows, beating Thompson to his knees. He made one more effort to get going, but Matt moved away from his grasping hands, slapped a blow aside, and countered with a right to the face.

Circling warily, still wary of the big man's strength, Matt jabbed a left, crossed a right, and moved away, circling slightly. Thompson turned clumsily to face him, and Matt suddenly went in, ducked a swing and, setting himself, smashed five wicked blows to the head and face, followed by a ripping uppercut to the wind. As Thompson started to fall, Matt caught him by the hair and jerking him up, smashed him again in the face before he dropped him.

Deliberately then, he walked over to Felton and took back his gunbelt. At the water trough he splashed water over his face and held his hands under the pipe that emptied cold water into the trough. Then from Clyde he took a shotgun.

"All right," he said. He motioned to Thompson, who lay sprawled and bloody in the dust "Take him away. "Peggoty, you and Thompson be out of town before daylight tomorrow, or I'll throw you both in the bottom of the deepest shaft around 'here and leave you there until it rains."

Gorman nodded dumbly, staring unbelievingly at Big Thompson, whom he had believed invincible.

The crowd still waited, as if expecting something more. "Any of you whose names are on that list," Coburn said, "are advised to leave. Any who don't will be given a chance to shoot it out
I'm
cleaning up ... well run this town clean, we'll run it honest. Have all the fun you want, but I'll stand for no crooked work."

He turned and walked back up the street to Felton's cabin. Once inside, he put down the shotgun and sagged into a chair, breathing slowly and painfully.

"You hurt?" Cohan asked.

Matt looked around and said wryly, "He could punch, Dan. Every time he hit me, it hurt'

"Will this end it?"

"No." Matt Coburn waited a moment, breathing heavily. "No, this won't end it I'll need my guns now. And there's still Kingsbury. This won't impress him, not a bit Nor Ike Fletcher."

Suddenly the door opened, and Tucker Dolan stood there. "Matt, there's a lady to see you."

Matt got to his feet
shakily
. The reaction had set in now; his muscles were trembling, and he felt sick at his stomach. "All right I'll see her. Come in, Madge."

Only it wasn't Madge it was Laurie Shannon.

If Laurie had heard the name she made no comment, but said only, "Matt, are you all right?"

She saw his face then, as he turned toward her. "Oh,
Matt!
Your poor facer He looked in the mirror. There was a dark welt under his right eye, a cut over the left one, and his jaw was swollen. He touched it tenderly. "I wasn't expecting to see you here," he said. "Laurie, you'd better leave. This has only started."

"We thought you might need help. Tucker wanted to come, and so did Joss." She smiled. "I found that I wanted to come with them, and we're going to stay ... if you don't object."

Abruptly, Matt sat down. "Sorry," he said, "I'm still kind of shaky."

He stared at his hands. The knuckles were cut and swollen. His fingers were bruised and sore, and he worked them cautiously. Desperately he wanted to try them on a gun, but did not dare while anyone could see. He knew all too well how people would talk, even the best-intentioned ones. Moreover, he did not want anyone's fear for him to communicate itself to him. The one thing he had going for him in that lawless crowd was fear ... a fear born of knowledge of his skill with a gun. He might have been a fool to beat Big Thompson with his fists, but he hoped the roughest element could be demoralized by his doing so. If he could defeat their leader, their bully, he might win without killing anyone else. But two men were dead ... and he felt sure there would be others.

He looked at Clyde. "Have you seen Fletcher?" he asked.

"No sign of him. Nobody's seen him for hours. Or any of his crowd, for that matter."

"I've got to stop them."

Nobody spoke. Matt's head was hanging and he closed his eyes. His head throbbed, and his eyes burned. Just closing them was relief. His knuckles, too, throbbed heavily, but he kept flexing and unflexing his fingers. He dare not let them get stiff, but they were thick and clumsy, and he did not know if he could even hold a gun.

"Dick," he said, "keep an eye on the street for me, will you?"

Tucker spoke up. "Matt, you want me to take a walk down in the town? I might find somebody who'd talk. I know most of that bunch with Fletcher."

"Be careful."

Dolan disappeared through the door, and Laurie went to the stove, stirred up the fire, and put on a kettle.

Matt was aching in every muscle, not only with bruises, but with weariness. His very bones ached. Thompson had been such a big man to fight, and the very effort of hitting him, wrestling with him, and pushing him off had taken Matt's strength. He forced himself to consider what lay ahead.

Slowly his mind considered those whose names he had listed. How many of them would leave?

Simmons came in. "The stage is leaving," he said, "and she's full. We're getting a wagon that will go as far as Ely ... sixteen men are going in it"

Well, that was a few of them, anyway.

Felton, standing close by, finally spoke. "Coburn, I owe you an apology. I made a damned fool of myself." "You tried. You're too decent a man, Felton they don't operate that way. They take decency for weakness, and weakness represents opportunity to them. You're a good man, but you've lived too long in an orderly civilization. It's different out here in the open." He paused, holding his fingers against his swollen eye. "I'm one of them, you see. I can be a wolf among the wolves."

"'Thanks, anyway. You pulled me out of a hole."

Felton went out, and walked up to the collar of the shaft where Zeller was waiting. Zeller threw him a sharp glance. "Somedings iss wrong?"

"His hands. They're in awful shape, Zeller. I don't see how he can draw a gun."

"Broken?"

"No ... but bruised and swollen. It was one hell of a fight. I wouldn't have believed anybody could whip Thompson with his fists, but Coburn did it, and good, too."

Zeller looked down at the town and said, "
Sometimes
the goodt dings come
hard
, Dick. Idt iss nodt easy to buildt a town."

Back in the house, Laurie brought a pan of water to the table beside Matt. "Sit up now. I'm going to sponge off your face."

Carefully, she began to wipe away the dried blood and to clean around the cuts. She indicated his hands. "What are you going to do about those? You can't go down there tonight"

"I have to."

'They'll be waiting for you, Matt. They'll know your hands are in bad shape."

"I laid down the law. I've got to enforce it"

She sat down beside him. "Matt, why did you do it? You told me you were through with all this."

"The town was in trouble, and they had Felton in a corner."

"Was it the town, or was it Madge Healy "

"Floe town. Oh, sure, Madge needed help. She still does."

Laurie's lips tightened a little. He grinned at her. "Don't look like that She's a girl alone, fighting a tough fight I helped you with those cow thieves, didn't
it.
"Yes, but "