A Horse Called Mogollon (Floating Outfit Book 3) (20 page)

‘
How
about it, Mr. Nerton?’ Franklin asked.

‘
It was
like Cap’n Fog told you,’ Stagge replied. ‘Those two fellers came
in earlier, asking the
Vicomte
for work. He hired them and fixed it so they could
wait in the barroom until after the reception. I figured they’d got
a mean look and came in to sort of keep an eye on them. Arnaud,
the
Vicomte,
allowed I should make sure they stayed out of trouble. It
all happened so fast. Cap’n Fog had hardly reached the bar before
they started picking fuss with him.’

‘
You
know ’em, Cap’n?’ Franklin drawled.

‘
I’ve
never seen them before today,’ Dusty stated. ‘Way they acted, I’d
say they was on the prod and looking for somebody to take out their
meanness on.’

‘
You
was here with ’em for a spell, Mr. Nerton,’ Franklin remarked.
‘Still, they wasn’t likely to make fuss for a friend of their new
boss.’

‘
It’s
not likely they would,’ Stagge agreed. ‘Look, I’m tolerable sorry
that I couldn’t stop it—’

‘
Nobody
blames you, Mr. Nerton,’ Dusty assured him.

‘
Nope,
they don’t,’ Franklin went on. ‘Well, gents, I reckon we’d best go
into the dining-room and talk things out. I’ll have them two
fellers moved to the undertaker’s right now.’

‘
How
long’ve they been around town?’ Dusty inquired.

‘
I
ain’t seed ’em afore,’ the old timer declared. ‘Which means
not more’n a day or so.’

While answering
Dusty
’s
question, Franklin was ushering the other men from the room. In the
hall, the various influential citizens stopped their muttering.
Stepping forward, the owner of the livery barn demanded to be told
who had been responsible for the shooting. A low, menacing mutter
rose from the people at the doors, but died away as Franklin
indicated Dusty.

‘
Couple
of hard-cases on the prod picked a fuss with Captain Dusty Fog
here, Henry,’ Franklin explained.

‘
Cap’n
Fog—!’ echoed the owner of the barn.
‘You’re
Captain Fog?’

‘
I am,’
Dusty admitted.

‘
Which
it’s right lucky they picked on him,’ Franklin continued. ‘’Cording
to the Count’s
amigo
here, they was looking for trouble and might’ve started on
somebody less able to take care of hisself.’

Allowing a few seconds for his
point to sink home, Franklin led the way to the
dining room. Colin noticed a
change come over the crowd. Much of their open hostility had gone.
They still talked amongst themselves, but in a subdued and worried
manner. At the door, Franklin stood aside to let the other
participants enter. He then asked the undertaker, always a
prominent member of a range-country community, to attend to the
bodies and requested that Henry set up a hearing on the killings in
his capacity as Kerrville’s justice-of-the-peace.

On entering the
dining room, Dusty
found Beatrice seated at the table with the lace cloth. Standing
protectively alongside the
Vicomtesse,
Mrs. Logan glared indignantly at the
men.

‘
Whoever made that trouble—!’ the buxom woman began
grimly.

‘
Cap’n
Fog
here
didn’t have no choice but to start shooting, Annie,’ Franklin
protested, indicating the small Texan.

Chopping off her tirade, Mrs.
Logan stared hard at Dusty. She had noticed the definite manner in
which Franklin had named him and understood what it meant. If that
insignificant cowhand was Captain Dusty Fog, he belonged to one of
the most powerful and influential factions in Texas. More than
that.
Rumor
claimed him to be Ole Devil Hardin’s favorite nephew. So he could
not be abused or mean-mouthed, even if doing it might win favor
from the de Brioudes. Wanting to change the subject, the hotel’s
owner swung her eyes to Beatrice and found a good way of doing
it.

‘
Your
necklace!’ Mrs. Logan shrieked, pointing. ‘It’s gone!’

Up fluttered
Beatrice
’s
hands towards her neck and she stared at Stagge in such a pointed
manner that she drew the other occupants of the room’s attention to
him. Seeing the interest and even suspicion that the words had
aroused, he seemed disconcerted for a moment. Then he dipped his
right hand into his jacket pocket and started to draw out a diamond
necklace.

‘
I’ve
got it, Mrs. Logan,’ Stagge explained. ‘The catch broke and
the
Vicomtesse
asked me to take it around town and see if I could get it
fixed.’ As the end of the necklace emerged, it brought out a wad of
ten-dollar bills which fell to the floor. All eyes followed the
money as it dropped, then lifted to Stagge’s face. He bent and
gathered it up, saying, ‘The
Vicomte
wanted me to buy some things for him while I was
out.’

‘
That
is correct,’ confirmed de Brioude. ‘But we thought we had better
leave doing it until after we were sure the two men meant no
mischief.’

Satisfied with the explanation,
Franklin brought the hearing to order. Watching and listening to
the old timer, Dusty felt sure that he knew his business. Despite
Franklin
’s
proficiency as a peace officer, little could be learned about the
two dead men. According to Henry, the pair had arrived soon after
Tam Breda had left with the posse, paid cash to stable their horses
and had slept in his hayloft. Questioned about his connection with
the pair, Peet declared that they had met him on the street and
asked if he thought that his boss would hire them. Against his
better judgment, he had brought them to see de Brioude. Out of the
kindness of his heart, the
Vicomte
had offered to employ them and arranged with Mrs.
Logan—who had arrived to make sure that none of the other citizens
were jumping the gun to meet the visitors—to let them wait in the
barroom. Stagge stated that Dusty had been blameless of starting
the fight and had only drawn when it was forced on him.

Wanting to get the reception
started, Henry had exonerated Dusty. The hearing closed with a
verdict that a couple of bullying
troublemakers had picked on the wrong man
for a victim and received no more than they deserved. Franklin
promised that he would try to learn all he could about the
pair.

Declining an invitation to
attend the reception, Dusty and Colin accompanied Franklin to the
livery barn. De Brioude had not concluded any deal with the Scot,
but promised he would visit the Schells
’ camp and do so. A search of the
dead men’s property yielded no clue as to their identity or reason
for being in town. So Dusty and Colin made ready to start their
return journey.

‘
You’re
not saying much, Dusty,’ Colin remarked after they had covered
about two miles in near silence.

‘
I'm
thinking some, though,’ the small Texan replied, but did
not mention the nature of his thoughts.

What if the whole affair had been a
plot to have Colin killed and obtain Mogollon for the de
Brioudes?

Highly unlikely on the face of
it, yet there had been aspects which did not sit right with Dusty.
Take
‘Nerton’
for starters. According to what Franklin said on the way to the
barn, the gambler had become friendly with de Brioude in a card
game and been invited on the hunting expedition. ‘Nerton’ fitted
the general description of the hired killer who had been
circumvented by Tam Breda in Fort Sawyer, as had the two
hard-cases.

That could be pure coincidence,
for Mark
’s
description had not been too detailed. No matter who he might be,
the de Brioudes trusted ‘Nerton’ sufficiently to give him a
valuable necklace and a wad of cash money. They had produced a
convincing reason for doing so, but there might be another
explanation.

What if they had planned to
separate Colin from the companion they had believed to be an
unimportant cowhand. Then when the Scott had heard the fight or
shooting from the
bar-room, he would dash in and could be killed ‘in
self-defense’. Before independent witnesses arrived, ‘Nerton’ would
have placed the money and necklace on Colin’s person and sworn it
had been paid by the de Brioudes for Mogollon.

‘
But
why the necklace?’ Dusty asked himself and came up with a possible
answer. ‘Colin said he’d told the de Brioudes why he wanted
Mogollon. So they’d claim to have thrown it in as boot to help make
up to her for losing the horse. That’d make them look nice folks
come the hearing. Hell! It’s
loco.
Even if the de Brioudes reckoned they could
get
away with it,
“Nerton’d” know that Tam Breda wouldn’t let them no matter what the
hearing decided.’

Dusty kept his theory to
himself. If it should prove true, the situation would require the
most delicate handling. Going by various important
citizens
’
reactions to the incident, the de Brioudes had made themselves very
popular in Kerrville. For one reason or another, these same
citizens would need a lot of convincing before they believed the
couple capable of participating in such a murderous
plot.

Never too
amiable or easy-tempered,
Beatrice de Brioude was in a bitter mood as she rode along the
narrow trail which led from Kerrville to the Renfrew ranch house.
Her husband, Peet and Stagge knew the signs and waited to see which
of them would be the victim of her anger. After spending the
afternoon pretending to enjoy the reception, she wanted to lash out
at somebody.

‘
I’ll
have my necklace back now,’ the
Vicomtesse
suddenly announced, thrusting out her left
hand at Stagge. ‘And you can return Arnaud’s money.’

‘
Sure,’
the hired killer replied, returning the items calmly. ‘You could’ve
had them back sooner, only that’d’ve made a lie of the story we had
to tell because
you
let those folks know I’d got ’em.’

‘
And
what difference would it have made if those yokels had known we
lied?’ Beatrice demanded. ‘Or are you as frightened of them as you
are of getting that horse for me?’

‘
I’m
not frightened,’ Stagge growled. ‘But I’m not
loco
either. Way things
went today, you’ve got the folks in Kerrville eating out of your
hand.’

‘
What
do I care about that?’ the
Vicomtesse
snorted.

‘
If
you’d listened to Hubie,’ de Brioude interrupted, ‘you’d know why
you should care. As he says, if there is trouble when we take the
horse, we want the people of the town on our side.’

‘
It
would seem that, despite his recommendations, our protector suffers
from a
very
strong sense of caution,’ Beatrice mocked.

‘
It’s
kept me alive,’ Stagge pointed out. ‘Libby Schell’s got ten
mesteneros,
that Scotch feller,
Dusty Fog, the Ysabel Kid and that big blond jasper who sided Tam
Breda in Sawyer backing her. If you want me to lock horns against
that bunch, I figure on having plenty of guns with me. Weasel’s not
back with them yet and even after they come, I want the folks in
Kerrville with us.’

Just as Peet had suspected, the
de Brioudes had refused to let his failure lessen their
determination to obtain Mogollon. Called in for advice, Stagge had
insisted that they need more men before making hostile moves
against Libby Schell
’s party. Although infatuated by Beatrice, Lieutenant Lebel
would not permit his soldiers to be used for illicit purposes. With
that in mind, Stagge had sent his third man to collect
reinforcements from a small town where hard-cases of various kinds
could usually be found. In addition to awaiting Weasel’s return,
Stagge had suggested that the de Brioudes should try to ingratiate
themselves with the citizens of Kerr County.

The chance to do so had
presented itself sooner than any of them could have hoped for.
Reports of a large Mexican
bandido
gang marauding to the south had reached Kerrville.
At Stagge’s instigation on hearing the news from Peet, de Brioude
had offered the services of his military escort to Tam Breda. In
need of extra firepower, for he had not yet organized his police
detachment—and being unaware of Stagge’s crowd working for
the
Vicomte—
Breda had been only too willing to accept. The
‘magnanimous’ action, taken with hints that they might be settling
and bringing money into the county, had endeared the de Brioudes to
the citizens. Sending Lebel off with Breda had also removed from
the immediate vicinity two men who would have objected to the
methods Stagge envisaged using to make the Schells part with
Mogollon. Although she knew the plan, Beatrice still wanted to work
out her spite.