“If you can go over to Ralph Mitchel’s barn and get Elmer, put the pack saddle on him and bring him on up the hill, that would be a big help. As mules go, he’s well-behaved, so you won’t have any trouble.
“I can’t say the same for Hazel. That hinny has a bad-temper. I’ve got her staked out in that clearin’above the church,” Smoky Bill said. “I’ll leave now and have a thirty minute head start on you. That will give me enough time to get to the cabin, put Hazel away and get things in order. Then I’ll come back to where I can watch the trail from a place up above. And,” Smoky added, “don’t hurry. Jest poke along.
“I’ve heard that Taylor has been keepin’an eye on Mitchel’s barn to see if I would come and get Elmer. When he sees you, he’ll have to decide whether to follow you or start lookin’for Hazel, thinkin’I might be with her.
“When you’re on the trail and pass the place where I am waitin’, I’ll see whether you’re bein’follered or not. If you are, I’ll signal you to keep goin’. Up ahead, the trail starts gettin’steeper and doubles back toward me. Tie up Elmer there and come on over to where I’m hidin’—quiet as you can. Then we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Smoky Bill Hotchkins, hiding behind a large oak tree on a rise above the trail, didn’t have long to wait before Freddie and Elmer came into sight. As he watched them approach and pass below. he almost missed seeing Dan Taylor well back and off to one side of the trail. The officer seemed to blend in with the trees and surrounding brush. The canniest mountain lion would have been more obvious. He actually seems part of the forest, thought Bill.
He signaled Freddie by throwing a pebble next to the youth. Then he waved his hand for them to continue. After a while the young man crawled up beside him. “I tied the mule where you told me,” he whispered. Do you see Dan?”
Hotchkins nodded. Fred leaned over for a look and Bill pushed him back. He put his finger to his lips in a gesture for silence. Then he pulled back both hammers on the double-barreled shotgun. “We’ll let him go by,” he whispered in Freddie’s ear, “then I’ll walk back and meet him by the mule.”
Taylor was less then one-hundred yards away when the youth, shifting his position, lost his balance and rolled down the slope in a shower of rocks and brush. Seeing Dan pull his pistol, Smoky fired at the lawman. Taylor fell back on the trail.
The lawman sat up and opened his shirt. “Is that you, Bill? Just look what you done,” he yelled. “I’m leaking like a sieve. You got to help me.”
“Throw away the gun,” Smoky yelled back
Taylor weakly tossed the pistol aside.
Bill slid down the slope and walked down the trail to the fallen police officer. “You got any more guns?”
Dan shook his head. “Why did you shoot me?”
“You was gonna’shoot the boy.” Smoky pointed toward the pistol as Freddie walked up. The youth picked up the gun.
“I wasn’t going to shoot you, son,” Taylor said. “You spooked me when you fell down in front of me.”
Freddie juggled the revolver in his hand. “Like you didn’t shoot my pa?”
The agent regarded the young man. “Are you Seth Collins boy? I’m sorry, I didn’t want to shoot your dad. I didn’t have any choice—he was shooting at me.” He looked again at his chest. “See here, all my juices are running out. I must have twenty buckshot in me.”
“More like a dozen,” Smoky observed. “Why should I help you? If you live, you’ll tell who shot you. Then a whole army of cops would be up here huntin’me down. Better if you jest die. We’ll find a nice place to bury you—a place where there’s some flowers bloomin’in the spring. There’s a fine old sycamore over there that would give you shade. We can bury you deep and put rocks on top of you so the critters don’t dig you up. Now who could ask for more than that?”
Dan Taylor couldn’t be sure if Smoky was spoofing him or not. “Well you’d better make it fast, if you’re gonna’put me out of my misery right here. Else I’m going to kick off pretty quick anyway. This hole above my belly button is draining me at a good rate.”
“Yeah,” the mountain man agreed. “Those up higher on your chest were stopped by ribs, so they don’t amount to much. You could cover that other one with your shirt and cinch your belt over it. That would slow the bleedin’some.” He turned to the young Collins. “Fred, what do you reckon we outta’do with this feller?”
The youth showed his uncertainty. “I don’t know.”
“Well, boy,” Dan said. “You’re the one that should do the job. My department knows where I am and who I’m after. If I turn up missing, ol’Smoky Bill here is the one they’re going to pin it on. They’ll string him up higher than a kite. But if you do the job and confess to it, you may be spared of the death sentence because of your youth. That way Hotchkins would be free as a bird.”
“But if you don’t die,” Freddie said, “you’ll tell who shot you and they’ll get Smoky anyway.”
“Tell you what,” the injured man said, “I’ll make you a deal. If you get me to the doc to get patched up, I won’t say who plugged me. On my word of honor.”
Bill looked at the youth. “The decision is yours, Fred. What’ll it be?”
In something less than three seconds the young man made up his mind. “Let’s get him down to the doc.”
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