Bad Men Die Read Online Free PDF Page A

some breakfast awhile ago, so he’s ready for you, I reckon.”
    â€œI’m obliged to you for your help, Marshal.”
    Elliott unlocked the cell block door. “I’m just glad we were able to corral that jasper. I don’t like the idea of an outlaw like him being in my town and I didn’t even know it.”
    â€œYou didn’t have any reason to suspect McCluskey was in these parts,” Luke pointed out. “There’s no telegraph office here, so you wouldn’t have gotten a wire about that bank robbery over in Rock Springs. You wouldn’t have known to be watching for him.”
    â€œAnd the stagecoach only comes through once a week. That’s the only news we ever get. Since it was westbound last time, word of the holdup never got here. But it all worked out all right, I suppose.” Elliott swung the thick wooden door open. “Can’t say as I’ll be sorry to see McCluskey go. You need to be mighty careful with him on the way to Rattlesnake Wells, Jensen. He’s liable to try to escape.”
    â€œI’ll be ready for any tricks he pulls.” Now that he had captured McCluskey alive, Luke would just as soon keep him that way and turn him over to the authorities in Cheyenne. But if the outlaw tried to make a break and Luke had to kill him, well, that wouldn’t be any cause for lost sleep.
    McCluskey was fully dressed, wearing the clothes that had been brought over from the hotel. He stood at the cell door, grasping the bars and glowering at Luke as the bounty hunter and the marshal entered the cell block.
    Luke drew one of his Remingtons and covered McCluskey as Elliott unlocked the cell. The lawman stepped back quickly and drew his own gun. “Come on out now,” he told the prisoner.
    â€œAnd don’t forget all the posters on you say dead or alive,” Luke added.
    McCluskey swung the door back and said sullenly, “I’m not gonna try anything. I’m smart enough to know when the odds are against me.”
    â€œJust not smart enough not to take up a life of crime,” Elliott said.
    McCluskey sneered at the marshal but didn’t have any other response.
    â€œHands behind your back and turn around,” Luke said.
    â€œYou’re gonna cuff me like that?” McCluskey asked indignantly. “Hell, a man can’t ride with his hands cuffed behind his back.”
    â€œYou can. I’ll be leading your horse. You don’t have to worry about the reins.”
    â€œMaybe not, but it’ll be blasted uncomfortable.”
    â€œNot as uncomfortable as the coffins where all the men you’ve killed are spending their time now.”
    McCluskey smirked. “Hell, I’ll bet they’re not feelin’ a thing.”
    Luke suppressed the impulse to pistol-whip the man again. “Turn around.”
    McCluskey did, and Luke snapped a pair of handcuffs on him. With that done, he grasped the outlaw’s shirt collar and jerked him through the marshal’s office and outside where he helped him up into the saddle as Elliott stood by with gun still drawn. Once McCluskey was mounted, Luke ran a length of rope under the horse’s belly and tied the outlaw’s ankles together.
    â€œIf this jughead runs away or falls down, there won’t be a damn thing I can do about it,” McCluskey complained bitterly. “I’ll be stuck up here.”
    â€œIt’s your horse and your worry,” Luke said. “You’d know better than I would how likely that is.”
    â€œYou’re hopin’ I don’t make it to Cheyenne alive, aren’t you?”
    â€œI’m not worried about it one way or the other,” Luke replied honestly. “If I really want you dead, I can just shoot you in the head as soon as we’ve left town. Nobody would ever know the difference, or care overmuch if they did. You’d do well to remember that.”
    The frown McCluskey gave him was enough