Slocum's Breakout - Jake Logan [46]
This time he let Slocum herd him to the gate. The entire way the lawyer grumbled and cursed.
“You think you can get him out of here?” Slocum asked.
“What? Don’t be an ass. He’s guilty as sin. The best I can hope for is to gain a stay of execution and keep him alive for another week. I need to get better press out of this. The Alta California is making fun of me and destroying my reputation over this. Hanging a horse thief!” Durant smoothed out his coat and walked, chin high to the gate. He stopped there, waiting for Slocum to open it.
He worked to open the small door set in the larger one designed to let in wagons. When he swung it open, Durant ducked through. Slocum followed. For a moment, he couldn’t believe it was going to be this easy. But it was. Slocum slipped through and pulled it to behind him.
“You can get an extra week before they try to hang him again?” Slocum asked.
Durant didn’t bother to reply. He climbed into his buggy and rattled away. Slocum sidled along the wall, then headed toward the trees where Murrieta waited. He hadn’t gotten Atencio free, but the man hadn’t been hanged either. They had an extra week to figure out how to get him out of the prison.
Somehow the prospect looked even bleaker now than it had before.
13
“What is wrong? Where is he?” Procipio Murrieta grabbed Slocum by the front of the uniform and shook.
Slocum batted the man’s hands away and considered taking a swing at him. He wasn’t in a good mood, and having Murrieta act like this did nothing to smooth his ruffled feathers.
“He got a stay of execution. One week,” Slocum said. He went on to explain all that had happened. The expression on Murrieta’s face flowed like butter melting in the sun, going from elation to despair and finally matching Slocum’s own.
“We cannot hope to be so lucky to get into the prison this way again,” Murrieta said. “He will be executed.” He heaved a deep sigh. “You did what you could. That is all anyone could ask.”
“That lawyer fellow,” Slocum said. “He didn’t have to come to the prison yard for the hanging. That means he has some interest in Atencio. He and the warden don’t get along either, so there might be something personal in this for him.”
“Durant is a strange duck,” Murrieta said. “Ambitious though he does not seem to know the law well. But you are right. He did not have to come this afternoon. What can he do?”
“Let’s ask,” Slocum said. He began shucking off the poorly fitting uniform, glad to once more be in his own clothes. As the cross-draw holster settled on his hip, he felt more confident. “Where’s his office?”
“In San Francisco.”
“He’s not far ahead of us. We can overtake his buggy. Might be he wouldn’t want anyone else around when I ask him to bribe a judge or buy off a guard or two.”
“You would still break Atencio out?”
“If it comes to that. I’d rather Durant find a legal way of getting him free. A botched hanging might not be enough, but this gives us more time to bring the banker around to our way of thinking.”
They rode hard and caught the lawyer as he was driving his buggy onto the ferry across the Golden Gate. Slocum tossed the reins of the horses to Murrieta and went to talk with Durant.
The lawyer looked up as Slocum approached, slid his hand under his coat, probably resting it on the butt of a pistol. He frowned when it became obvious Slocum was not going away.
“Whoever you are, I don’t want to talk,” Durant said.
“It’s about Atencio, the man in San Quentin you went to see hanged.”
Durant frowned even more and then said slowly, “I’ve seen you before. Where?”
“That’s not important. We share a desire. Get your client out of prison.”
“You were the guard who escorted me out.”
“What do you need to free Atencio?” Slocum didn’t want the lawyer thinking too much on why a guard was interested in freeing a prisoner.
“Money,” Durant said without hesitation. “If I get enough, all things are possible.” He snorted contemptuously. “Especially in this state. There’s nothing that can