the High Graders (1965) (6 page)

"Gib, who is the law around here?"

"You on the dodge?"

"Who is he?"

"Aw, you've nothing to worry about. You know ho w it is with the law in these western towns. The law i s always local law, so busy skinning its own cat s it hasn't time to worry about anybody wh o doesn't make trouble. You could shoot half a dozen men in Denver or Cheyenne, and nobod y would bother you anywhere else as long as you stayed ou t of trouble. ... But the law here is Wilso n Hoyt."

Wilson Hoyt, of all people! He was a burly bear of a man, broad and thick an d muscular, but fast enough to have killed a man who ha d the drop on him. He was credited with seventee n killings, all on the side of the law. Of all th e men who might be in this town, the one most likel y to know about Mike Shevlin was Hoyt.

Hollister, Gentry, and Mason only kne w the boy who had ridden away, and ten years and more ca n deepen and widen a man, they can salt him down wit h toughness and wisdom. And Mike had been gon e thirteen years. Of them all, Hoyt would understan d him more than the others, and Hoyt had seen hi m looking at Eli's grave and would know why he ha d come back.

Gentry rambled on, taking a third drin k while Mike was nursing his first. He talked abou t the good old days, and it came over Mike tha t Gentry still thought of him as a friend.

"You got to hand it to Ray," Gentry sai d confidentially. "He always wanted to be a bi g man, and when gold was discovered he grabbed at th e chance.

"He never came out in the open with it, and th e cattle crowd never knew he'd thrown in with th e other side. When trouble started--and I alway s figured his loud mouth caused it--Ray got i n touch with the Frisco people and offered to handl e negotiations with the ranchers. He and that shyste r Evans called themselves a law firm, but you kno w Ben. When Hollister brought Ben into x he pu t a rope on trouble.

"When a few of the miners started high-grading a little here and there, Ben argued Ray into looking th e other way. But Ben, he said nothin g to Ray about the setup he arranged for buying up th e gold to keep it out of circulation."

"Where did Ben get that kind of money?"

Gentry gave Mike another wink. "Now, tha t there is Ben's own secret, but don't yo u low-rate Ben. Buying up the high-grade kep t the news from getting out that Sun Strike was big.

They reported low averages from the mine, an d nobody knew any different."

By this time Gentry was working on his fourth drink.

"Smart--that was smart thinking," Mik e remarked.

"You're not just a-woofing," Gentry said.

Trust Eli not to go along with that, or Jac k Moorman for that matter, for Jack had mone y invested in town business, and he owne d Turkeytrack as well. So they had bee n killed.

Had Ben Stowe realized that Eli Patterso n was connected with the San Francisco owners?

Shevlin's guess was they had not known. Shevli n had known Eli better than any of them had, an d he had never heard him make any referenc e to relatives or friends in San Francisc o ... or anywhere else, for that matter. Eli ha d come west from Illinois, and when he talked it wa s about life back there.

Mike was scarcely listening to Gentry now, an d Gib had gone back to talking of the old days , reliving the rough, tough old days of branding , roundups, and cattle drives.

"Remember the time a rattler scared tha t line-back dun of yours? He went right over th e rim an' I'll be damned if you didn't sta y with him all the way to the river! If anybody ha d told me a man could ride a horse down tha t slope I'd have said he was loco."

Gentry was drunk ... it was possible tha t by morning he would have no memory of what he ha d told Shevlin, and Mike was sure that only th e liquor--he had already had a few when they met---
h ad made him talk as freely as he had. That---
a nd something else Mike suddenly realized: Gi b Gentry was lonesome.

There was one other fact to consider. Gentry was i n the freighting business, and when gold was moved h e would do the moving, and there would be nobody to as k questions.

If Ben Stowe had done the planning for thi s operation he had planned very shrewdl y indeed. All the loose ends were nicely tucke d in, and everything was under control--everything but Gi b Gentry's tongue when he'd had a few drinks.

Did they know that?

"What's Burt Parry like?" Mike asked.

"Aw, he's all right. He's got him a two-by-four claim over in the canyon. There'
s nothing over there, but he sure ain't willin g to believe it."

Shevlin pushed back his chair and got up.

"I'd better get some sleep." For a moment h e rested a hand on Gentry's shoulder. "Good to se e you, boy. You watch your step now."

"See you." Gentry seemed about to say somethin g more, but he only added, "So long, kid."

At six o'clock the next morning the ma n operating Eli's old store was out sweeping th e boardwalk. Mike Shevlin strolled inside and th e man followed. Shevlin bought what digging clothe s he would need, some candies, and a caplamp, and the n said, "And four boxes of .44's."

The storekeeper glanced up. "You expectin g trouble?"

"Man of peace, myself. Figured I'd be of f up that canyon workin' for Burt Parry and I'
d have me some target practice. I never could hi t the broad side of a barn."

Burt Parry was waiting in front of th e Nevada House when Shevlin returned with hi s packages. "Lady waiting for you," he said , "in the dining room. I heard her asking for you."

He went inside and passed under the arch into th e dining room. It was Eve, and she was alone.

"You wanted to see me?"

"I want to offer you a job. At the Thre e Sevens."

"I heard the cow business was in a bad wa y around here."

Lowering her voice, she said, "Mr. Shevlin , we need men like you, and whatever else you are, you'r e cattle."

He felt irritation mounting within him. "Al l right, you tell me. What kind of a man am I?"

"You've used a gun, and we need guns."

He felt a vast impatience. "Lady, wit h all due respect, you're talking nonsense."

He jerked his head to indicate the Sun Strik e and the steady pound of its compressor. "Do you thin k guns will stop that? As long as there's or e in the ground, they'll be there."

"That's not true. If Ray Hollister ha d been leading us, he would have run Ben Stowe out of th e country!"

Shevlin looked at her ironically. "Yo u really believe that? As a fighting man, Ra y Hollister couldn't come up to Ben Stowe'
s boot-tops."

Her anger flared. "If you believe that, there'
s no job for you at Three Sevens!"

"Sorry ... but I already have a job. As a miner."

Abruptly, she got to her feet. "Jes s Winkler said you were one of them, but I just couldn'
t believe it. You're just a thief, a commo n thief!"

She walked out, heels clicking, and h e followed to join Burt Parry outside.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said.

Parry glanced at him. "The lady was in a hurry," he commented.

"When I told her I had a mining job, sh e called me a thief."

"If you worked for anybody but me," Parry sai d wryly, "that might be true." He looke d straight at Shevlin. "What would you say if I t old you some of the ore from the Sun Strik e assayed as high as twenty thousand dollars a ton?"

"I'd tell you there was a gent down in Chil e found a nugget that weighed four hundred pounds.

What I mean is, it could happen once."

"My friend," Parry said seriously, "some of th e richest ore I've ever seen came out of that mine , and not just a little bit."

High-grade ... every miner knew what tha t meant. Ore so rich a man could carry a month's wages out in his pockets, and tw o months' wages in a canteen or a lunchbox.

He had known of mines where the foreman was pai d by miners for the privilege of working. Change room s could only curb high-grading; they couldn't sto p it.

"And nobody talks?" Shevlin asked.

"They're all in it. I'm not, but I don'
t have much to say, and I don't try to leave town.

Sometimes I wonder if I could leave. Mayb e I'm alive only because I haven't tried."

"You're taking a chance even telling me. Ho w do you know I'm not their spy?"

"You couldn't be. You're in trouble, Shevlin."

"I am?"

"Don't expect reason from any of them , Mike. They're in too deep, and all of the m are running scared. I was advised not to hire you."

"Why me?"

"There was a man named Hollister--and there's th e fact that you arrived just at this time. They are deathl y afraid of Hollister, Mike, and if the y locate him, he's a dead man."

"You know a lot."

"I wish I knew less. I have a friend o r two, and they tell me things." Parry looked a t Mike's gun. "Are you any good with that?"

"I get along."

Parry started toward the livery stable and Mik e walked along with him. He could feel eyes o n them, eyes watching them down the street. Suddenl y he realized that he could have done nothing worse tha n go to work for Burt Parry, the one man who was a n outsider.

No matter. He was in up to his ears , anyway, and he had a hunch that if he got ou t he would get out shooting. For the first time in year s he was suddenly conscious of the gun at his hip.

Chapter
4

In his office above the bank, Ben Stow e tipped back in his big leather chair and stare d thoughtfully out the window toward the trees along th e creek. He had come far since the mornin g fourteen years ago when Jack Moorman fire d him off the Turkeytrack.

He had never forgotten that day. Old Jac k had been seated in his hide chair with a shotgu n across his knees when he told Ben Stowe he was a cow thief, and probably a murderer as well, an d also told him what would happen if he was ever foun d on Turkeytrack range again.

Ben Stowe, big, powerful, and tough, had stoo d there and taken it, but even now he flushed at th e memory, grudgingly admitting to himself that he ha d been afraid. In all his life he had feare d no man but Jack Moorman. Dead now fo r several years, Jack Moorman still had the powe r to destroy him.

Until the discovery of gold on Rafter , Ben Stowe had been merely another rustler. No t that anybody else in the Rafter countr y had dared accuse him, but it was generally known.

The gold discovery had been his big chance, an d he jumped to take it. From the first he had understoo d the possibilities ... some of them. The idea o f seizing the mine itself he owed to Ray Hollister.

Hollister had recognized the power that lay i n control of the mines, and he grabbed for it. But in thi s he overestimated himself and underestimated others.

He had looked upon Ben Stowe as a down-at-heel hired man, and he forgot to conside r that the fires of ambition might burn just a s strongly in another as in himself. And suddenly Ra y was out and Ben was in control.

The end was near. The offers had been made, no t only for the Sun Strike, but for the Glory Hol e as well, offers large enough to interest them as a n escape from a constant drain, yet not large enoug h to cause them to wonder.

Ben Stowe stared at the trees and thought of th e years ahead. Once the mine was in the possessio n of himself and his partner, he would cut all his tie s with the old life, and cut them with a ruthless hand. Th e mine would make millions; business in the tow n would be worked back to normal, not so suddenly a s to cause trouble, but with a deft hand. People would soo n forget what Ben Stowe had done, or remembe r it, as the West often did, as the harmles s escapades of another time.

The door from the outer office opened and Be n Stowe felt a swift surge of anger. He wa s beginning not to like it when someone presumed enough to com e bursting into his office. But this was Gib Gentry.

Suddenly he saw Gentry with new eyes.

Gentry and he were old friends, but in the future tha t Stowe planned, where would Gentry fit? And wit h sudden, chill awareness he knew he would not fi t at all.

Gentry dropped into a chair and put his boot s on Ben's desk, and Ben Stowe again felt tha t swift anger. Gib was too damned familiar.

But even as he thought that, he was surprised a t himself.

Why the sudden fury? He had always been a man who kept his temper on a leash. It was tha t coldness and control that had brought him to where he wa s ... why the sudden anger now?

Gentry bit the end from a cigar. "Hell , Ben, you should've been down the street. Who th e hell do you think I ran into?"

"Mike Shevlin?"

"Now how the hell did you know that?"

Ben Stowe was pleased with himself. It was a littl e thing, a simple thing, but long ago he ha d realized the importance of knowing what was going o n around the country, and had taken pains to see that h e learned of new arrivals, or of any occurrenc e that was out of the ordinary. He had several sources o f information, one of which was the marshal.