Black Ransom Read Online Free PDF Page B

ain’t hardly got the energy to roll outta bed, much less beat someone. ’Sides, that ain’t his nature.”
    Stradd said, “Wouldn’t take much energy to beat Elmer. The man’s old, not to mention sick and feeble. What’s more, he’s near blind. Yeah, even if Elmer came around, he could never say for sure who jumped him. Reckon that’s a mite bit of good luck for yuh.”
    â€œYeah, good luck if we was guilty, which we ain’t,” Ehron Lee declared.
    Winston swallowed back the bile he felt rising sourly in his throat, and when he spoke, his voice sounded desperate.
    â€œWe ain’t no horse thieves, mister, and we sure ain’t beat up no old man,” he protested. “Both of us got families. I—I got a wife. Ehron Lee here, his wife—”
    One of the posse interrupted with a sneer, “Don’t matter a good goddamn to me if’n you got families, wives . . . grandmothers. Lotsa your type do. Things have been rough since the war ended, and I seen a lot of decent folk go bad ’cause of the way things are. Don’t know either of you and sure as hell can’t see no reason why you two should be any different.”
    Ehron Lee was able to maintain a fair demeanor of calm, but it was getting increasingly difficult for Winston, whose nerves looked about to give.
    â€œAt least give us a chance to prove ourselves,” Winston said, his voice high and nearly a shout. “That’s only fair, ain’t it?”
    â€œAnd how d’yuh suggest we do that?” one of the posse said casually.
    â€œGet after them real thieves,” Winston blurted out. “They ain’t got that much of a head start. They—they was headin’ west, last we saw.”
    â€œAin’t much to ask,” Ehron Lee added.
    Stradd said, “Or you could be tryin’ to stall us. Send us off on a wild-goose chase while you two conveniently head off yonder. Don’t think so. As I told yuh, we’re all friends of Elmer, and as it looks now, there’s a good chance he ain’t gonna recover from that beatin’ he got. Would be more to our likin’ to string you both up right now and leave yuh to the buzzards.” He paused for effect, then he exhaled a breath. “But count yourselves lucky we ain’t no vigilantes. We’ll let the court deal with yuh. ’Course you ain’t got much of a case. But that’s ’bout as fair as you’re gonna get from us.”
    Winston was perspiring fiercely, an anxious fat man’s sweat that dripped down his face in rivulets, as if he’d just dunked his head in a bucket of water, and his breathing came more rapidly and in a wheeze. His chest was heaving erratically. Ehron Lee was growing ever more concerned as he feared that Winston might just suffer a heart attack and drop dead on the spot.
    Ehron Lee understood that things looked bad. They were riding stolen horses, and he had no proof of his land purchase. But the fact that they weren’t guilty of any wrongdoing and would be able to plead their case before a judge offered them some hope. At least they wouldn’t be mob-lynched, the victims of frontier justice, which had been Ehron Lee’s first worry.
    Winston slipped into a panic. He shouted, “I ain’t guilty of nothin’ and damned if I’m gonna swing for it!”
    And in a quick, sudden action, he slapped a meaty hand against the flank of his horse, startling the animal into a desperate run.
    Ehron Lee shot up ramrod straight. “Winston, you damn fool!” he cried.
    Winston didn’t get far. He never had a chance, and had he been thinking rationally, he would have realized that his attempt was plain suicide. One of the posse members calmly half turned on his saddle, and with his six-shooter drawn, he fired a single bullet, hitting Winston square in the back, the impact throwing him sideways from the horse. Ehron Lee