A Time For Hanging Read Online Free PDF

buggy rolled along.
    "That's what Turley tells me," Vincent said.   "I was hopin' maybe they were wrong about that."
    "About her bein' murdered?"
    "About her being dead.   They ain't experts."
    Bigby looked sideways at the sheriff.   "From what Harper said, there's not much doubt."
    "We'll check it out anyway."
    "I could tell the family for you," Bigby said.   "I've had to do that kind of thing before."
    Vincent was sorry he was that easy to read.   "I'll do it.   It's my job.   I just want you to make sure."
    "I understand they've got the fella that did it, too," Bigby said.
    "Paco Morales.   I ain't too sure about that, either."
    "Why not?"
    "Turley's story didn't exactly fit together real smooth."
    "Harper says the Morales boy did it.   Says they caught him in the act."
    "That's what Turley says, all right.   But he didn't know how the girl died, if she died.   So how did they catch him in the act and not know that?"
    "I see what you mean."   Bigby thought about it for a minute.   "This could get bad, Sheriff.   If she's really dead, and if that meskin kid was really there."
    "He was there, all right.   They caught him."
    "Lots of folks won't like that, a meskin kid around where a white woman's been killed.   'Specially a preacher's daughter.   Lane Harper says they shoulda hung the boy right there.   Would've done it if Jack Simkins hadn't stopped them."
    "Jack stopped them?"
    "That's what Harper says."
    "I'll be damned."   Vincent wouldn't have thought Jack had the nerve to stand up to a bunch that wanted to hang somebody.   Maybe there was more to Jack than he thought.
    "We're comin' to the trees," Bigby said.
    Vincent didn't answer.   He was afraid of what they'd find.

6 .

    She was dead, all right; Vincent knew that the minute he saw her, the light of the moon falling on her through the trees.   He shook his head.   "Have a look at her, doc," he said.
    "I tell you, I never seen anything like it," Harl Case said.   "That damn Paco."
    "Where is he?" Vincent said.
    Harl hitched a thumb over his shoulder.   "Back yonder in the trees."
    Leaving the examination of the body to Bigby, Vincent walked back there, his boots scuffing through dried leaves.    He saw Jack leaning against the tree.   "Well, Jack."
    "Yeah," Jack said.   He looked like some kind of vengeful ghost standing there, his glass eye not quite lined up right, the scar on his face livid in the dim light.
    Vincent looked down at Paco.   "Jesus, they did a real job on him.   He still alive?"
    "I think so.    I checked a few minutes ago, and he was still breathin' then."
    "Better get him back to the jail and lock him up, then.   You think we can carry him?"
    Simkins pushed away from the tree.   "He don't weigh that much."
    "Let's try not to hurt him anymore than he already is," Vincent said as they bent down.   The took the unconscious boy by his legs and shoulders and lifted him.
    Paco groaned, and a bubble of blood formed on his mouth.
    "Broke ribs," Vincent said.   "We'll have to get Doc Bigby to look at him."   He looked at Simkins.   "You did good, Jack, not lettin' those fellas hang him."
    "They might try it again.   They were mad as hell."
    They carried the injured boy to Bigby's buggy and laid him in the seat.   Vincent was aware of the men watching them from   the edge of the trees.
    Bigby walked over.   "Looks like she was beat up on pretty good, knifed a few times.   I'll have to look her over better to know for sure."
    "All right.   Let's put her in the back of the buggy.   YOu can take her to your office."
    Bigby had a little office and examination room over the store where Paco had gone to buy the salt and sugar.
    "There's some of us don't like the idea of her bein' in the buggy with that greaser," Turley Ross said when Vincent told the men what he was going to do.
    "That's just too damn bad," the sheriff said.   "There's not much he can do to her now."
    "It don't seem right," Harl said.   "Seein' as