The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard - Elmore Leonard [163]
That’s the kind of woman to have, Brennan thought. One that’ll stick by you, no matter what. And, he thought, still looking at her, one that’s got some insides to her. Not just all on the surface. Probably you would have to lose a woman like that to really appreciate her.
“Mrs. Mims.”
She looked at him, her eyes still bearing the anxiety of watching through the trees.
“He’ll come, Mrs. Mims. Pretty soon now.”
Frank Usher returned and motioned them into the hut again. He talked to Chink for a few minutes and now the gunman walked off through the trees.
Looking out from the doorway of the hut, Brennan said over his shoulder, “One of them’s going out now to watch for your husband.” He glanced around at Doretta Mims and she answered him with a hesitant smile.
Frank Usher was standing by the lean-to when Chink came back through the trees some time later. He walked out to meet him.
“They coming?”
Chink nodded. “Starting across the slope.”
Minutes later two horses came into view crossing the grade. As they came through the trees, Frank Usher called, “Tie up in the shade there!” He and Chink watched the two men dismount, then come across the clearing toward them.
“It’s all set!” Willard Mims called.
Frank Usher waited until they reached him. “What’d he say?”
“He said he’d bring the money.”
“That right, Billy-Jack?”
Billy-Jack nodded. “That’s what he said.” He was carrying Rintoon’s sawed-off shotgun.
“You didn’t suspect any funny business?”
Billy-Jack shook his head.
Usher fingered his beard gently, holding Mims with his gaze. “He can scare up that much money?”
“He said he could, though it will take most of today to do it.”
“That means he’ll come out tomorrow,” Usher said.
Willard Mims nodded. “That’s right.”
Usher’s eyes went to Billy-Jack. “You gave him directions?”
“Like you said, right to the mouth of that barranca, chock full of willow. Then one of us brings him in from there.”
“You’re sure he can find it?”
“I made him say it twice,” Billy-Jack said. “Every turn.”
Usher looked at Willard Mims again. “How’d he take it?”
“How do you think he took it?”
Usher was silent, staring at Mims. Then he began to stroke his beard again. “I’m asking you,” he said.
Mims shrugged. “Of course, he was mad, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He’s a reasonable man.”
Billy-Jack was grinning. “Frank, this time tomorrow we’re sitting on top of the world.”
Willard Mims nodded. “I think you made yourself a pretty good deal.”
Frank Usher’s eyes had not left Mims. “You want to stay here or go on back?”
“What?”
“You heard what I said.”
“You mean you’d let me go… now?”
“We don’t need you anymore.”
Willard Mims’s eyes flicked to the hut, then back to Frank Usher. He said, almost too eagerly, “I could go back now and lead old man Gateway out here in the morning.”
“Sure you could,” Usher said.
“Listen, I’d rather stay with my wife, but if it means getting the old man out here faster, then I think I better go back.”
Usher nodded. “I know what you mean.”
“You played square with me. By God, I’ll play square with you.”
Mims started to turn away.
Usher said, “Don’t you want to see your wife first?”
Mims hesitated. “Well, the quicker I start traveling, the better. She’ll understand.”
“We’ll see you tomorrow then, huh?”
Mims smiled. “About the same time.” He hesitated. “All right to get going now?”
“Sure.”
Mims backed away a few steps, still smiling, then turned and started to walk toward the trees. He looked back once and waved.
Frank Usher watched him, his eyes half closed in the sunlight. When Mims was almost to the trees, Usher said, quietly, “Chink, bust him.”
Chink fired, the .44 held halfway between waist and shoulders, the long barrel raising slightly as he fired again and again until Mims went down, lying still as the heavy reports faded into