The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard - Elmore Leonard [159]
“See!” Willard Mims was grinning excitedly. “Listen, you let us go and we’ll be on our way”—his voice rose—“and I swear to God we’ll never breathe we saw a thing.”
Chink shook his head. “He’s somethin’.”
“Listen, I swear to God we won’t tell anything!”
“I know you won’t,” Frank Usher said. He looked at Brennan and nodded toward Mims. “Where’d you find him?”
“We just met.”
“Do you go along with what he’s saying?”
“If I said yes,” Brennan answered, “you wouldn’t believe me. And you’d be right.”
A smile almost touched Frank Usher’s mouth. “Dumb even talking about it, isn’t it?”
“I guess it is,” Brennan said.
“You know what’s going to happen to you?” Usher asked him tonelessly.
Brennan nodded, without answering.
Frank Usher studied him in silence. Then, “Are you scared?”
Brennan nodded again. “Sure I am.”
“You’re honest about it. I’ll say that for you.”
“I don’t know of a better time to be honest,” Brennan said.
Chink said, “That damn well’s going to be chock full.”
Willard Mims had listened with disbelief, his eyes wide. Now he said hurriedly, “Wait a minute! What’re you listening to him for? I told you, I swear to God I won’t say one word about this. If you don’t trust him, then keep him here! I don’t know this man. I’m not speaking for him, anyway.”
“I’d be inclined to trust him before I would you,” Frank Usher said.
“He’s got nothing to do with it! We picked him up out on the desert!”
Chink raised his .44 waist high, looking at Willard Mims, and said, “Start running for that well and see if you can make it.”
“Man, be reasonable!”
Frank Usher shook his head. “You aren’t leaving, and you’re not going to be standing here when that stage pulls in. You can scream and carry on, but that’s the way it is.”
“What about my wife?”
“I can’t help her being a woman.”
Willard Mims was about to say something, but stopped. His eyes went to the adobe, then back to Usher. He lowered his voice and all the excitement was gone from it. “You know who she is?” He moved closer to Usher. “She’s the daughter of old man Gateway, who happens to own part of the third richest copper mine in Arizona. You know what that amounts to? To date, three quarters of a million dollars.” He said this slowly, looking straight at Frank Usher.
“Make a point out of it,” Usher said.
“Man, it’s practically staring you right in the face! You got the daughter of a man who’s practically a millionaire. His only daughter! What do you think he’ll pay to get her back?”
Frank Usher said, “I don’t know. What?”
“Whatever you ask! You sit here waiting for a two-bit holdup and you got a gold mine right in your hands!”
“How do I know she’s his daughter?”
Willard Mims looked at Brennan. “You were talking to that driver. Didn’t he tell you?”
Brennan hesitated. If the man wanted to bargain with his wife, that was his business. It would give them time; that was the main thing. Brennan nodded. “That’s right. His wife is Doretta Gateway.”
“Where do you come in?” Usher asked Willard Mims.
“I’m Mr. Gateway’s general manager on the Montezuma operation.”
Frank Usher was silent now, staring at Mims. Finally he said, “I suppose you’d be willing to ride in with a note.”
“Certainly,” Mims quickly replied.
“And we’d never see you again.”
“Would I save my own skin and leave my wife here?”
Usher nodded. “I believe you would.”
“Then there’s no use talking about it.” Mims shrugged and, watching him, Brennan knew he was acting, taking a long chance.
“We can talk about it,” Frank Usher said, “because if we do it, we do it my way.” He glanced at the house. “Billy-Jack!” Then to Brennan, “You and him go sit over against the wall.”
Billy-Jack came out, and from the wall of the adobe Brennan and Willard watched the three outlaws. They stood in close, and Frank Usher was doing the talking. After a few minutes Billy-Jack went into the adobe again and came out with the yellow stage schedule and an envelope. Usher took them and, against the door of the Concord, wrote something on the back of the schedule.
He came toward them