Slocum's Close Call Read online

  “What the hell did we have to get up so damn early for anyhow?” Joiner complained with a pout on his face. “That damn crew of old Harman’s won’t be back here for another week yet.”

  “Likely you’re right about that,” Slocum said. “But we want to be ready for them when they come, don’t we? And what if they do show up early and surprise us? Huh? Or if the men from town decide to come out here for some reason? What about that?”

  “Yeah,” Joiner said. “Yeah. Hell. I guess you’re right. You always are, you bastard. I just—”

  “I know what you just,” Slocum said. Right then Julia brought out some eggs on a platter. Slocum gave her a quick glance, enough for him to see that she sure did look good. “And I don’t blame you,” he added.

  When they’d all finished their breakfasts, Slocum suggested that they go on outside and visit the storehouse. That was, after all, the reason Joiner had sneaked onto the ranch in the first place. It had been their first objective. They found the storehouse door padlocked, but Bobby quickly took care of that small problem. He fetched a sledgehammer from around the corner of the shed and with one mighty swing broke the lock. Then he shoved open the door, and they all went inside.

  “God A’mighty,” Joiner said. “Will you just look at all that shit? Man, this sure beats going to the store.”

  “It looks like a small arsenal,” Slocum said. “That gives me an idea. Let’s take all the shells into the house where they’ll be handy for us. And when we’ve got that done, let’s take some of these extra rifles and revolvers and poke their barrels out of windows—in the house, in the bunkhouse. All over the damn place.”

  “I get it,” Bobby said. “A big bluff. Anyone comes riding up, it’ll look like we got a small army here waiting for them here.”

  “A small arsenal for a small army,” Joiner said. “Let’s do it, by God. And hey, looky here.” He pointed to two cases of dynamite on the floor. “That shit could come in right handy, don’t you think?” he said.

  “Yeah,” said Slocum, slowly scratching the side of his face. “I believe it could. Take one of them into the house.”

  “What about the other one?” Joiner said.

  “I got an idea for that too,” Slocum said. “We’ll use it outside.”

  Lugging boxes of ammunition into the house, and guns into the house and the bunkhouse, took them most of the morning, but when they were done, gun barrels protruded from windows on all four sides of the house, upstairs and down, and from windows on all four sides of the bunkhouse. Extra ammunition was handy in each room of the house. Slocum walked around the big house looking. Then he walked to the bunkhouse and did the same. As he came back around to the front of the bunkhouse, Joiner met him there.

  “Well,” Joiner said, “what do you think?”

  “It might fool them,” Slocum said.

  “I think it looks pretty damn convincing,” Joiner said.

  “We’ll find out,” said Slocum. He looked up into the sky to see the sun almost directly overhead. “Lunchtime?” he asked.

  After lunch, they went back to work. Slocum had them all busy tying the dynamite sticks from the shed into bundles of two. Then he pointed out various spots outside around the house where Bobby dug holes about six inches deep. Joiner then placed a bundle of two sticks into each hole. Finally, as Bobby put the dirt back into the holes, Joiner jabbed a short wooden stick with a strip of white cloth tied to its top into the ground to mark the spot. About halfway around, Joiner looked at Slocum.

  “You sure this will work?” he said.

  “If you don’t trust me,” Slocum said, “try one.”

  “Right now?” Joiner said.

  “Sure,” said Slocum. “Try it.”

  He turned and walked casually back toward the house. Joiner watched him for a moment, then looked at Bobby. Bobby shrugged. “Hand me that rifle, Bobby,” Joiner said. Slocum stepped up onto the porch, then turned to watch. Joiner raised the rifle and took careful aim at the spot marked farthest to his left. Bobby looked nervous. He started toward the porch, slowly at first, then he broke into a run just as Joiner pulled the trigger. The rifle shot was followed instantly by a tremendous blast, and Joiner was bowled over backward by the force of the impact. Bobby dropped on his face just before he would have reached the porch. Myrtle and Julia came running out onto the porch.

  “What was that?” Myrtle said.

  “Charlie?” Julia called out.

  “He’s all right,” Slocum said.

  Bobby slowly raised his head and looked around. Then he stood up and brushed the dirt off the front of his clothes. “Goddamn,” he said. “That was a hell of a blow.”

  Just then Julia had reached the side of the fallen Joiner. “Charlie?” she said, and Joiner sat up slowly shaking his head. Dirt fell from his head and shoulders. He had almost been buried by the huge shower of dust that had fallen on him. “Charlie,” Julia said. “Are you all right?”

  Back on the porch Myrtle said, “What the hell happened?”

  “You’re right, John,” Joiner said. “Son of a bitch works fine.”

  Everyone got a good laugh out of that, and when they had finally quieted down again, Slocum said, “Now you need to put two more sticks back over there. That’s a strategic spot.”

  “Come on,” Julia said to Joiner. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Slocum sat in a chair near a front window smoking a cigar. Myrtle brought him a fresh cup of coffee and set it down on the table there beside the chair. “Thanks,” he said.

  She sat on the floor and leaned an arm on his thigh. “Where’s Bobby?” she asked.

  “Oh, he’s out watching the road,” Slocum said. “Is Chuckie boy getting his bath?”

  Myrtle laughed. “Yes,” she said. “There’s a tub of hot water on the floor in the kitchen, and he’s sitting in it. I thought I’d better get out. Julia seemed to be reaching way under the water to scrub him.”

  “I bet that’s the best bath he’s ever had,” Slocum said.

  Myrtle laughed again lightly. “Yeah,” she said. “Maybe it’s about time I gave you a bath—another one.”

  “I don’t remember the first one,” Slocum said.

  “You weren’t in any shape to remember it. I remember it, though, real vividly.”

  “I’ll bet you do.”

  “The tub will be available in a little while.”

  Slocum stretched his arm out and winced with the pain. “Not just yet,” he said. “I didn’t get no pile of dirt dumped all over me.”

  His coffee and cigar finished, Slocum went outside. He walked out to the far side of the bunkhouse. He didn’t want an audience for what he was about to do. He stood loose for a moment, then pulled his Colt. It was a casual pull. He put it away and did it again. Then again. Then he braced himself, took a deep breath, and pulled fast. The Colt was only halfway up when the pain shot through his body. He grimaced with the pain and then reholstered the Colt. He pulled it easy again and again. Then fast. It still hurt, but this time he got it out and leveled it. He tried again. Okay. It wasn’t as fast and easy as he’d hoped, but it was coming. He was getting it back. He kept it up for about an hour. Then he walked back to the house.

  Stepping back into the main room of the big house, Slocum saw Joiner about to pour himself a glass of whiskey. The glass was on the dining table. Slocum strode quickly over, and just as Joiner poured it full, he picked it up. “Thanks,” he said.

  “I’ll get another glass,” Joiner said.

  “What for?” said Slocum.

  “For me,” Joiner said.

  “Wait till this is all over,” Slocum said. “I’ve seen you drink. Remember?”

  “Aw, hell, John,” Joiner protested.

  “You take a drink,” Slocum said, “and I ride out of here. I mean it.”

  Joiner put the bottle down. “It’s all right for you, though.” he said.

  “I’ll have this one here because you already poured it,” Slocum said. “That
’s all.”

  Joiner only pouted a short while. “I been thinking,” he said. “Maybe one of us ought to ride in to see Sheriff Coleman. Let him know about the evidence I got on Harman.”

  “I been thinking about that too,” Slocum said. “And I don’t think so.”

  “Why not?” asked Joiner.

  “The odds ain’t good,” Slocum explained. “First of all, Harman’s bunch likely put you and the girls together by now. They might or might not know about me, but I ain’t in any shape to be taking chances. Bobby can’t go. Harman or any of his men know him, and they’d quiz him up about why he wasn’t out here watching the ranch.

  “Even supposing that one of us was able to get through, we ain’t sure about the sheriff. You and Myrtle both said that you thought you could trust him. I didn’t hear neither one of you say you was certain. That evidence of yours is too valuable to turn over to someone you ain’t dead sure about.

  “And let’s say the sheriff is straight. Once them cowhands get back here and we run them off, I imagine that Coleman will ride out here to find out what’s going on. That’ll be the best way to see him. On our own ground and our own terms. You can show him what you got, but you can keep it safe in your own hands. Likely we’ll find out for sure which side he’s on too. Let’s keep our patience and see what happens.”

  “John,” Joiner said, “you see how come I needed you here with me so bad? You’re always right. You’ve done kept me from doing several dumb things.”

  “Well, Chuckie,” Slocum said, “ain’t nothing happening around here just now, and you got two other men to watch out for any visitors that might show up. Seems to me it’s kind of dumb of you not to be snuggling up to that little sweetie of yours.”

  “You’re right again,” Joiner said, and he left the room to find Julia. Slocum took a swig of the whiskey. It did taste good. It was just poor Joiner’s dumb luck not to be able to handle a drink. He found another cigar and lit it, then with the whiskey and cigar, took up his chair by the window again. He wondered what Myrtle was doing, and he thought about going to find her, but he had already sent Joiner off to have his fun. It didn’t seem like a good idea to have two of them so engaged. Just in case. Besides, he wasn’t really sure that he was up to it with Myrtle yet, and he didn’t want the next time to be as one-sided as the first had been.

  He tried to concentrate on the problem at hand and think if there was anything they should have done that they hadn’t yet taken care of, but nothing came to him. He had anticipated the return of the cowboys with a possible attack on the house, and they were ready for that. They would try to bluff the cowboys first, pointing out all the guns in the big house and the bunkhouse. They’d try to make the cowboys think they had a small army.

  If the bluff didn’t work, they had five guns in the house. Both women had said they could shoot. From inside the house, five ought to be able to handle twelve or so coming at them from outside. There was plenty of ammunition in the house, and it was spread around so that anyone at any window could get to plenty. There was also dynamite in the house. Sticks could be lighted and thrown if need be. And then there was the dynamite planted outside. He was pretty sure they could handle a major assault.

  And then there was the business of getting the evidence to the sheriff, and Slocum was pretty sure that he had come up with the right way to deal with that issue too. He couldn’t think of anything else. He finished his cigar, and the whiskey glass was empty, so he decided to go outside and find Bobby.

  Upstairs in a front bedroom, Joiner was stretched out on the bed naked. Julia stood beside the bed stripping off the last of her clothes. Then she crawled up on the bed on her hands and knees and covered Joiner’s body with her own. She kissed him passionately on his lips and at the same time slithered both her hands down his belly to his crotch. Her fingers crawled over his rod and his balls, and his rod sprang to sudden attention. She gripped it hard.

  “Ah, there,” she said. “That’s what I like.”

  “Oh,” Joiner moaned. “That’s what I missed the most all this time I been gone.”

  “This time stay home,” she said. “And watch out what you do. I thought you were blown up out there today.”

  “I’ll be careful,” he said.

  “You do that,” she said, and then her delicate hands guided the head of his cock in between her wet and waiting pussy lips. He moaned again out loud at the silky feeling of the walls of her cunt as she slid downward, taking his entire length up inside her. Then she leaned forward to kiss him again, and he thrust upward, driving himself as far in her as he could. She pressed down against him. He relaxed, withdrawing himself a little, then thrust upward again.

  Then Julia sat up. She straightened herself, sitting down hard on Joiner’s rod, her weight pressing down against his pelvis. She savored the sensation for a moment, then rocked her hips forward, then back. She rode him slowly like that for a while, then began to pick up speed. Sliding her round ass back and forth along his belly and the tops of his thighs, she rode harder and faster, until she was panting and the sweat ran down from her forehead, from her breasts, from under her arms. She was sliding on a layer of pussy juice and sweat. At last she let out a loud moan, and she shuddered all over. Then she fell forward, mashing her breasts flat against Joiner’s chest.

  She lay there quietly breathing deeply for a long moment. Then she kissed him again. “Oh, you’re wonderful,” she said.

  “You’re pretty damn wonderful yourself,” he said, and thrust upward again and then another time.

  She straightened herself up again and slid her ass forward, then back, and soon she was riding him as hard as before. This time, it didn’t take half as long as it had the first, but the climax was twice as powerful. She moaned and shuddered. She twitched, and collapsed again on him.

  He put his arms around her and found her to be wet all over. He kissed her neck and her cheek, and he started to thrust again. She lay still and let him for a while. Then she felt a new stir, and again she sat up, and again she rode him hard, and again she moaned and shuddered and collapsed. “God,” she said, panting. “I could do this all night.”

  “Oh, baby.” Joiner said. “I don’t know if I can.”

  “You’re doing all right,” she said, and sat up and ground herself out another quick climax. Joiner could feel the juice running out of her cunt onto his flesh. He also felt the pressure building deep in his loins. He knew that it was coming, and he couldn’t last much longer.

  “Get yourself one more, baby.” he said. She sat up and started to rock. She rode him hard again, and again she felt the wonderful shudders building up inside her, and then she felt the powerful spurt from the head of Joiner’s cock, and she rocked harder and harder. She moaned and collapsed, and Joiner groaned from deep down inside himself as his cock began to soften and then then slipped out of her juicy twat.

  Outside, Slocum paced under the stars. As he turned, he saw the silhouettes against the dimly lighted window of the front bedroom. He smiled. “Let him have his fun tonight,” he said to himself. “We’ll be deep enough into it in a few days. Won’t be much time for fun then.”

  He thought about Myrtle and all the things he wanted to do to her, with her, and he thought about the coming fight.

  He flexed his right arm. The arm still felt stiff. It would be slow healing. But the sharp pains that before had shot through his chest and side with each movement of his arm were no longer there. He moved his arm again, stretching it out to the side. He dropped it to his side and shook it, as if to shake out all the stiffness. He stood still, and he pulled out his Colt. It was a smooth pull. He dropped the revolver back into the holster, stood ready, then pulled it fast. That one was smooth too. By God, he told himself, I’m almost ready.

  6

  The week was up, and everyone was on alert. Slocum sat on the front porch smoking a cigar, his Winchester leaning against the wall beside him. Myrtle was in the main room of the house sitting beside a front windo
w with a Henry rifle within her reach. Upstairs in a bedroom, Julia watched out a front window. She too had a rifle handy. Bobby was out on the road watching, and Joiner stood at a corner of the house at the far end of the porch from where Slocum sat. Everyone was tense, nervous, wondering when the cowhands would arrive, wondering how easy or how difficult it would be to drive them away.

  It was early evening, but there was still some daylight left, and Bobby should be able to spot them easily and early enough to hurry back to the house and tell the others. Slocum puffed on his cigar. He was trying to figure out just how to play this hand, but he quickly decided that it would depend on how the cards were dealt. Everything would hang on how the Harman gang chose to play. There was no reason to think that they’d ride up shooting. So, if there was a chance of talking, they might be bluffed into just riding away. Of course, if it did work out that way, they’d eventually be back ready for a fight. That much was for sure.

  It might be best, he thought, if they did try to take the place back. That way, Slocum and the others could pick off a few of them and lower the odds a bit before the next attack. He was pretty sure that they could drive them off this first time without much problem. The cowboys would be surprised. They were not expecting any trouble, especially not here at what they thought was their headquarters.

  “Hey,” Joiner called out from the comer of the house.

  “I hear it,” Slocum said. “It’ll be Bobby.”

  “Then the cowhands ain’t far behind,” Joiner said.

  “That’s right,” Slocum said. He puffed some more on his cigar, savoring the flavor. Bobby rode into sight. He pulled up just in front of the porch.

  “They’re a-coming,” he said. “Ten of them, riding real casual.”

  “That’s only two each,” Slocum said. “That ain’t too bad.”