Nate Coffin's Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page A

Oakley’s spartan jail cells. Boz sat next to me in a straight-backed, cane-bottomed chair. Wafting smoke from his well-chewed panatela smelled mighty good. He noticed my eyes had opened. The tougher-than-boot-heels Ranger smiled, leaned over, and offered me a sip of water from a tin dipper he pulled out of a wooden bucket.
    “Feeling better there, pard? You’ve been gone between thirty minutes and an hour. Knew you weren’t all that bad off. Seen you get hurt a helluva lot worse at least a dozen times.”
    As I sipped from the dipper, heard Buster Caldwell grumble from somewhere, “Wuz hopin’ the son of a bitch had died myself. Wish all you Rangers a blood-spittin’ departure, and an early welcome in Satan’s fiery pit, by God.”
    Boz glanced to a spot somewhere over the top of my head and snapped, “Shut your stupid mouth, Buster. You may be wounded and locked up, but that won’t keep me from comin’ in there and stompin’ a ditch in your sorry woman-killin’ backside.”
    Coughed, and fingered the bandage on my head. “How’d that dance in the street finally play out?”
    He ignored my question. “Local doc says you’ve got a nice new groove in your skull bone there, Lucius. Said not to mess with the dressing for a day or so. Best heed the man’s warnin’ and stop fingerin’ around on it. Wouldn’t want to start you bleedin’ again.”
    “My ears are still ringing like chapel bells in a Mexican church. Suppose maybe I should consider myself lucky.” Kept picking at the bandage.
    Boz reached over and pulled my hand away from the swath of crusted gauze. “Well, you’re a sight better off than them bank robbers. Two of them boys got sent to Jesus for His immediate attention. One feller’s wounded. He’ll live on. You put a slug in his side a little below his gun belt. Bullet came out his left buttock.” He snickered and added, “Feller ain’t gonna sit a horse anytime soon and goin’ to the outhouse is gonna be a totally new experience.”
    Mumbled, “Knew I hit at least one feller. Seen his horse drag him away. One of them boys musta got lucky.” Of a sudden I remembered the woman. “Strangest thing happened just ’fore I passed out, Boz. Who killed that other one?”
    Boz shook his head. Thumped ashes from his smoke onto the floor. “Hard to fathom, but that ’un as you shot came loose from his pony and managed to stand. And you ain’t gonna come nowhere toward believin’ what happened next.”
    “Black-haired angel in a white dress stepped in?”
    “How’d you know that?”
    “Saw her before I went under. Leastways, thought I saw her. Figure from your response she was real—weren’t she?”
    “Oh, she was real enough. Hope to God I don’t ever have to get into a lead-pitchin’ contest with that particular woman. Gal can handle a pistol like John Wesley Hardin on his best day. Let me get Caleb. Have him tell you all about the lady. Old lawman’s well acquainted with her.”
    He patted me on the shoulder, stood, and jingled his way back to the jail’s outer office. Heard voices but, once again, couldn’t tell what got said. Came to think as how the head wound had affected my hearing some. Still couldn’t see right either. Had strange, odd-shaped, floating spots behind my eyes that created vision gaps. Made concentration an effort.
    Guess I must have drifted off. Came back again when a feller with a face like a chewed-leather saddlebag, and sporting a droopy white moustache, gently shook my arm. He cast a grandfatherly smile my direction, sat in Boz’s recently vacated chair, and appeared to gaze down at me with something akin to genuine concern.
    “Right sorry you got hurt, young feller.” Marshal Caleb Oakley’s deep baritone voice went miles toward solidifying an almost godlike appearance. “This kind of gunplay just don’t happen in Salt Valley very often. In fact, today’s the first time such deadly events have transpired since I took over as marshal. This