The Last Hard Men - Brian Garfield [45]
“I know that, Noel.”
“Gravels hell out of me to let you down, Captain.”
“You’ve got your duty.”
“Yes, sir, I do. But I sure don’t lak it much.” Nye’s eyes flickered when they touched his. “Captain, we got to turn back.”
“I won’t argue with you.”
“You got to come back with us.”
Burgade’s silence argued with him.
“Captain, you got no authority here neither. You got no right on Innun land.”
“I guess that’s between me and the Indians, isn’t it,” Burgade said. “I’ll take my chances.”
“You ain’t got no chances, Captain.” Nye’s voice had gone harsh, angry more with himself than with Burgade. “They’s seven men out there alongside of Provo. Eight men you got to fight alone. You cain’t do that, no way. And don’t you know it’s exactly what Provo wants you to do?”
“Yes, I know that.”
“Then quit pretending lak you just too damn proud to quit. You ain’t a stupid man.”
A knotted muscle rippled in Burgade’s cheek. “Provo needs me the way the ax needs the turkey. If I don’t keep after him he’ll have no more use for Susan—he’ll set his dogs on her.”
“You better stop and study on that awhile. You fixing to make a powerful mistake. Those eight convicts put you under a gun, I don’t know but one way it can come out. You got to die. You dying ain’t going to hep Susan none.”
“Everybody’s got to die,” Burgade breathed, “but nobody’s got to give up.”
“Shit, Captain, that’s a fine sentiment but it don’t cut no ice with me. You got sixteen million acres of Navajo Reservation out yonder. No shade except maybe your own shadow. You fixing to go out into that and bust your lance against them eight men awmed to the teeth. And up against all that, the only thang you got left is knowing you ain’t going to give up? Shit. Zach Provo’ll trample you under and never even look back to see what-all he stepped on.”
Burgade’s toes curled inside his boots. His face was a bitter mask.
Nye looked straight ahead, not at him. “Captain, if I got to say it all, I will. You don’t even ride good no more. You just too cocksucking old to fight.”
In the blinding sunshine every shadow was black and had a sharp edge. The heat sucked sweat from Burgade’s pores. Hal Brickman came out of the police shack and stood under the porch shade within earshot.
Burgade said, “I haven’t got a lot of time to argue with you, Noel. But maybe you’ll understand this. If I turn back now, knowing what they’ll do to Susan, I don’t think I’d last a week without putting a gun in my mouth and pulling the trigger.”
“I know how you feel about that, Captain, but you forgetting one or two thangs. It ain’t going to take but five, six days, maybe a week, before we get enough pressure against the Navajo Council from Washington on down to allow us to bring posses onto the Reservation.”
“By that time Susan will be dead and the gang will be a thousand miles from here. Hell, Noel, getting off this Reservation’s no harder than getting onto it. There’s no fence. They’re free to sneak out of here anywhere along a thousand miles of boundary and we won’t have any idea where to look.”
“Could be. But forget Zach Provo, Captain. I’m only thanking about your daughter. Look, Provo don’t want to kill Susan, he’s only using her for bait. Shit, if he kills her he’s obliged to get every awmed man in the United States after his hide. He knows what’s got to happen to him if he kills her. Even them Agency police will be on his ass. He won’t have no place left to hide out. He cain’t afford that. No, Captain. He fands out you ain’t on his track, and he’ll turn Susan loose. It’s the only thang he can do.”
Hal Brickman stepped out of the shade and came forward, “Maybe the sheriffs right about that, you know. Provo’s smart enough to know what’ll happen to him if Susan comes to any harm.”
“If you knew Provo better you wouldn’t think that way.”
Nye said, “Provo’s a lot of thangs but he ain’t stupid.”
“If he cared about his own skin,” Burgade said, “he wouldn’t have kidnaped Susan in the first place. He had plenty of chances to get clean away, out of the country. He didn’t. He came after me instead.