the Empty Land (1969) (23 page)

A figure loomed in the doorway, the dark figure of a man holding a gun.

"Hello, Matt." There was confidence in the tone, confidence and triumph.

"Hello, Cal," Matt said. "I wasn't really expecting you, now that Kingsbury's dead."

"He paid me in advance, Matt. You know that's the only way I'll work. And besides, this is one I would have done just for the pleasure of it I never liked you, Matt." "No reason why you should ... or shouldn't. Unless you figured I was better than you. If you believed that, I can see why you might not like me."

Calvin Bell laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. "You? Better than me? We'll never know, will we, Matt? Because
I'm
going' to kill you.

"In a way," Bell went on, like it this way. Kind of galls you, doesn't it? Lyin' there helpless, and not a thing you can do."

Outside there was a dragging sound on the boardwalk, and what might have been a groan of both helplessness and anger.

"You always were a talking man, Cal, and you jump to conclusions. I wouldn't fool you, Cal. I've got a gun."

Bell chuckled. "Still bluffin'. I got to hand it to you." "Well, suppose you loan me your spare, Cal? You always carry insurance on you, so loan it to me and we'll shoot it out even . . . or are you scared?"

Somebody was at the front door now, somebody who was trying to get up, to reach the door knob. Calvin heard it, too, and he lifted his gun.

At that moment Madge stepped into the room. "Matt, don't touch t
his
coffee
until
I
get
a
light.

Calvin Bell swung his gun toward her, then realizing it was a woman, he started to swing it back. And Matt shot him.

He thought the shot missed, and lunging up as Bell fired, he heard the bullet smack into the bed where he had been, and then he fired again. Bell half turned toward him, and Matt held the gun steady with both hands. Bell lunged at him, striking the gun aside and jamming the muzzle of his own gun against Mates belly. At that instant, Madge spoke. "Mr. Bell? If you'd like to sit down, you may join us for coffee."

The sheer incongruity of it stopped him. Calvin Bell, about to kill a man, heard that cool, quiet voice suggesting that he join them for coffee. For a moment his mind was blank, struggling to adjust itself, and in that instant Matt Coburn came to his feet and shoved Bell away from him.

As he did so, both men fired. Bell was failing away, and his shot missed. Matt, braced on his feet, held the gun steady and shot into Bell as fast as he could work the hammer under his thumb. He knew he would never get another chance, for in a moment he himself was going to fall. He could feel his knees trembling with weakness, and he fired so fast that it sounded like one continuous roll of sound. Then the hammer fell on an empty shell, and the thunder was gone from the room, leaving only the acrid smell of gunpowder. Madge Healy was on her knees, crying.

He swayed as he heard shouts outside, and running feet. They were at the door, and then the door burst open. Matt sat down abruptly, but with the gunfighter's instinct he began thumbing the loading gate open and pushing the empty shells out onto the floor.

Madge caught his arm. "Matt, are you hurt?"

"What happened?" It was Fife's testy voice. "What's going on here, anyway?"

"Strike a light" That was Felton.

Matt fumbled for his cartridge belt. He was scarcely conscious of anything; he only knew that he wanted a loaded gun in his hand.

"It's Calvin Bell," somebody said, "shot to doll rags." "What's Pike doing outside there?"

Matt looked up. "He tried to warn me he did warn me. I was asleep, but I heard him. He was yelling, and it jarred me awake, so I was ready when Bell came in." "Pike's in bad shape. He fell more than once, and dragged himself.... I guess he saw Bell coming and knew what he intended to do."

"Are you all right, Matt?" That was Madge again.

"I could do with some coffee." He rolled his legs back onto the bed and stretched out slowly, painfully. "This place isn't exactly restful:

"Matt, I've got a ranch in Colorado," Madge was saying. "When you're well we'll go there if you'll make an honest woman of me."

"I'd like that," he said, and eased his tired body on the bed. He was breathing heavily, and one of his wounds felt as if it were bleeding again.

For a week then, he slept, wakened, drank a little soup, slept again. People came and went, but he was scarcely conscious of them. When at last he felt like sitting up, he moved outside into the sunlight.

The town was busy, and it was growing. There was a new general store, a new
cafe
, and a hotel was going up. Several of the claims had failed to prove out, but Discovery and the Treasure Vault were showing good values per ton. The Treasure Vault was working forty men in three shifts, the Discovery about the same.

Dick Felton and Dan Cohan stopped by to talk with him. "How're you feeling, Matt?' Cohan asked.

"Better." He looked up at Felton. "I hear you're going to have your school."

"We start building tomorrow."

They talked a while, and then the two men walked away up the street Matt was feeling restless. When Madge came out, he looked up at her. "Are you tied to this place?" he asked.

"No, Matt
I'm
ready when you are." She stood beside him, looking up the street "You did it, Matt Confusion has settled down. It's going to be all right"

He nodded. But they'd like me to leave: he said. "I can see it in their faces.
I'm
what they don't want around now, Madge. I stand for what they want to forget"

"Shall we start tomorrow, Matt? Shall I bring a rig around?"

"I think so. And Madge, hire Joss, will you? I like"

"So do
l.

Hell be driving us, Matt.'

He stayed there dozing in the sun, and presently he heard the light quick steps coming, and the swish of skirts. The steps stopped beside him, and he opened his eyes. It was Laurie Shannon.

"You're looking better, Matt."

"I am better. We're leaving tomorrow."

Her face seemed to stiffen a little, and there was loneliness in it, and sadness. "Is it Madge, Matt?"

"Yes. We're two of a kind, Laurie. We've both been drifters; we've both seen this country grow."

"Matt, I "

"Don't say it, Laurie. I killed another man . . . seven it was, I think. You could never live with that"

"No."

"Tomorrow they're starting to build a school, Laurie. The town's going to grow. Sitting here, I see women and youngsters walking by along a street where they never dared walk before. And the town might have gone up in Eames.'

"And it might not And seven men are gone who can't be brought back."

"You could have them, Laurie, if you could bring them back. But I think they're better off on Boot Hill."

"I think the town would have lasted. I think those men needn't have died."

"Well " he shifted his seat 'we'll never know, will we. She left him then and walked up the street, and he listened to her footsteps as she walked out of his life.
One thing he could give her, though. She sure could make good doughnuts.

He settled back in his chair, enjoying the sun. He'd better rest. It was a long way to Durango.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Slanting Annie, so called because one leg was shorter than the other, Rocking-Chair Emma, and Mattie were all widely known "madames" in the mining-camp towns and cow towns of the West.

The large lady referred to in the story who assures Matt Coburn that she can handle her own trouble was actually Madame Bulldog, a huge and muscular woman who weighed over 200 pounds, and very little of it fat She once whipped Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane, in a free-for-all fight She commented afterward that it was no harder than whipping two husky men.

The peak referred to as "Jeff Davis* has since been named Mt Wheeler and rises above the Snake Range to a height of over 13,000 feet. The peak and the neighboring ranges are heavily forested. There is a glacier on the peak, and a lovely mountain lake high up on a shoulder of the mountain.

The Confusion Mountains are crossed by Highways 50-6 east of Ely, Nevada, and west of Delta, Utah. This is still a wide-open, lonely country where the highway is patrolled by aircraft. The reason for this patrol is simple: if you break down out there, without water on a hot summer's day, you will last no longer than a pioneer in a covered wagon.