California Killing Read Online Free PDF Page B

strain of the wagon's weight. Once the good wheel was in place, Edge left Dexter and Wood to put the pin back while he unhooked the bucket from the rear of the wagon and watered the grateful horse. Then he climbed up on the seat and back into the wagon.
    The Walker-Colt was still where Magda had dropped it and he noted that one cartridge had been fired. Then he slid it into his holster. In addition to a carton of supplies, one large trunk and several small valises, the wagon also carried a double mattress covered With three blankets and a crude vanity table formed by a crate and a mirror with a crack in it. He looked at all this with a disinterested eye and then climbed back out on the seat. Wood and Dexter were nowhere in sight.
    "You ready to roll?"
    Wood poked his head out from under the wagon. "Man down here is alive, Mr. Edge. Hasn't been shot. Beaten up, it looks like."
    "You ain't nothing but a bleedin' heart, Justin," Edge said with a sigh.
    "It is his wagon," Wood pointed out.
    "So do your good deed," Edge allowed; "But hurry it up."
    The photographer went from sight and Edge heard him grunting under the strain of dragging Stricldyn's dead weight. Then he heard footfalls to one side and turned to see Dexter standing below him, cradling Magda's limp body in his arms. His coat was draped over what had once been her face. "How long before we get to The Town With No Name, you think?" the rancher asked stonily.
    Edge stared into the distance, to where the Santa Monica Mountains showed up as a soft purple line in the waning glare of the sun. "Hard to say. Few hours."
    "It'll get cooler."
    Edge swilled saliva around his mouth and this time sent it shooting out in a decaying arc across the back of the horse. "I won't be riding in back. I won't smell the stink of her."
    "You disgust me, Edge," Dexter retorted, taking his burden to the rear of the wagon.
    "Maybe you'll get elected president of the club," Edge murmured to himself as he released the brake.
    Dexter and Wood hefted their burdens up into the rear of the wagon and Edge clucked the horse into motion.
    "My equipment!" Wood yelled, leaping down from the tailgate and racing back to where he had dropped his valise.
    Edge did not ask too much of the weary horse and the little photographer was able to catch up and clamber on to the passenger seat with relative ease. When he had regained his breath, he dusted off his suit and tilted his hat to a jaunty angle, preparing to relax for the first time since the Hood gang had hit the stage.
    "If I had known it was going to be like this in California, I'd have stayed in St. Louis," he said with a sigh, shaking his head sadly.
    Edge turned a narrow-lipped, hooded-eyed grin towards him. "Don't let it get you down, Justin," he said easily. "Maybe there's a bright future for guys with cameras out on the coast."
    "You really think so?" the small man asked, brightening.
    Edge shrugged. "I only said maybe. It's not my scene. I can't call the shots."
    Wood sighed again. "Why you going to The Town With No Name, Mr. Edge?"
    "I'm a patriot, Justin," the tall half-breed replied. "See America first."
    "It's an expensive trip for you."
    Edge's dark-skinned face, which had become relaxed, was suddenly set in lines of granite hardness. He held the reins between his knees and took out the makings of a cigarette. "Hood called the odds right," he said softly as his long fingers formed the cylinder. "Judd bucked 'em and got what he deserved, figured it best to loan those bastards the money."
    Wood looked at Edge in surprise. "Loan?"
    Edge's tongue ran along the paper. "I'll get it back, Justin. With interest. Taken out of their hides."
    The horse was champing at the bit, as if anxious to get off the floor of Hood's valley and up into the foothills. Edge gave the animal its head and the wagon began to trail dust as it picked up speed.
     
     

     

Chapter Five
     
    T HE Town with No Name consisted of a single broad street cutting through the southern