The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard - Elmore Leonard [109]
He said, “You got it pretty hard, haven’t you?”
She hesitated before saying, “We get by.”
“Well,” he said, glancing around again, “I wouldn’t say you had the world by the tail.”
Virginia looked up quickly. There was a rattling of knocks on the door and from outside she heard, “Honey, give that gun back to Red like a good girl.”
JEFFY CAME THROUGH the doorway prodding Boland before him. He glared at Red who was holding his gun on his lap carelessly. “You’re some watchdog.”
Red said nothing, but then he gagged as if he would be sick. He breathed hard with his mouth open to catch his breath and then seemed to sag within himself. His eyes were open, but lifeless.
“It’s a good thing I tested you out, Red.”
Red was silent for a moment. Then he said, “Jeffy, did I shoot that man in Dodge?”
“I told you you did.” He looked at Red curiously.
“But I don’t remember doing it.”
“How many things you ever done do you remember?”
“I thought I’d remember killing a man.”
Jeffy rolled the tobacco on his tongue, looking around the room. Then he shrugged and sent a stream of it to the floor. “I’m not going to argue with you, Red. I don’t have time.” He glanced at Virginia. “Honey, how’d you like to go for a ride?”
There was a silence then, and Jeffy laughed to fill it. “You don’t think I’m riding out of here without some protection!” He looked at Boland. “Davie, would you take a pot at me with your woman hangin’ onto my cantle?”
Boland’s face was white. For a moment there had been a fury inside of him, but his brain had fought it and now he felt only panic. There was a plea in his voice when he said, “My wife’s going to have a baby.”
Jeffy grinned at him. “All the more reason.”
“Jeffy.”
He glanced at Red who seemed suddenly wide awake.
“Jeffy, you’re just scaring, aren’t you?”
“What do you think?”
He looked at him, squinting, as if he were trying to read his mind. “You’d take that girl on horseback the way she is?”
“Red, if I had a violin I’d accompany you.” He started toward Virginia.
And with his movement the gun turned in Red’s lap, and the room filled with the roar as it went off. He cocked to fire again, but there was no need. He looked at Jeffy lying facedown on the floor and said incredulously, “He would have done it!”
He let the pistol fall to the floor. “There,” he said to Virginia. “Keep your coffeepot away from here.”
Boland looked at Jeffy and then picked up the pistol. Virginia smiled at him wearily and sat down at the table, propping her elbows on it. He said to her, “Maybe you better get some sleep.”
“Dave.”
He turned to Red.
“I’m going to die, Dave.”
Boland remained silent.
“Do me a favor and don’t holler law until the morning. Then it won’t matter.”
“All right, Red.” Then he said, “I don’t want to sound like a gravepicker, but how much have you and Jeffy got on your heads?”
Red looked at him, surprised. “Reward?”
Boland nodded.
“Why, nothin’. What made you think so?”
“You said somebody identified you in Clovis.”
“Well, it was probably somebody used to know us.”
Now that he had asked him, Boland was embarrassed. But, strangely, there was no disappointment and at that moment it surprised him. He grinned at Virginia. “I guess you don’t get anything for nothing.”
She smiled back at him and didn’t look so tired. “You should know that by now.”
For a few minutes there was silence. They could hear Red’s breathing, but it was soft and even. Suddenly, Boland said, “Ginny, you know I haven’t been home more’n an hour!”
Virginia nodded. “And it seemed like the whole, long night.” Her eyes smiled at him and she said, softly, “When you’re telling our grandchildren about it, maybe you can stretch it a little bit.”
13
The Boy Who Smiled
Gunsmoke, June 1953
WHEN MICKEY SEGUNDO was fourteen, he tracked a man almost two hundred miles—from the Jicarilla Subagency down into the malpais.
He caught up with him at a water hole in late afternoon and stayed behind a rock outcropping watching the