Outlaw Pass (9781101544785) Read Online Free PDF Page A

being a stranger, you wouldn’t know it by running into that pair in the saloon. You see, the reason they started hassling you is that you’ve been looking all over town for somebody, and they thought you might be a U.S. marshal.”
    â€œI told them I wasn’t a lawman. I’m lookin’ for my brother,” Adam protested.
    â€œYeah, but they don’t believe that, and they don’t want any marshals sticking their noses in their business.”
    â€œWhat’s their business?” Adam asked.
    â€œRobbery and murder,” Earl answered simply.
    Surprised by the candid reply, Adam said, “I heard there was a sheriff in Virginia City.”
    â€œThere is,” Earl replied, “somebody that calls himself the sheriff, and some of us think he’s the biggest crook of them all. But don’t tell anybody I said so. I don’t want my place burned down.”
    Adam found the little man’s story hard to believe. “In a town this size?” he responded. “There must be thousands of people livin’ here. Why don’t you run the sheriff outta town and elect a new one?”
    â€œIt ain’t that simple. Nobody elected Henry Plummer sheriff in the first place. He kinda appointed himself sheriff. There are an awful lot of decent folks here now, and we’re trying our best to build a respectable town, but the outlaws came in with the prospectors and there was no law and order. The closest capital city of any size is Lewiston in Idaho, seven hundred miles away, and that’s about the only place where they’ve got law and order. Oh, sure, we’ve got a sheriff, and he talks a good game, meeting with the business owners and the miners on a regular basis. There’s a lot of gold in this gulch, but the trouble is trying to get it out after you’ve struck it rich. You see, it ain’t just a few, like Fancher and Tolbert. There’s hundreds of ’em, and some folks believe Plummer’s the one calling the shots, just like he did in Bannack. The sheriff in Bannack is one of his men. Everybody knows those two you tangled with in the saloon are members of the gang holding up stagecoaches and freight wagons on every road out of here, but nobody can prove it. They don’t usually leave witnesses, or they wear masks. And there isn’t a gold shipment that leaves here that they don’t know about ahead of time.”
    The news was not entirely new to Adam. He had heard that road agents preyed on the trails between towns along the gulch, as well as the road to Salt Lake City, but he was amazed to hear they were as many as Earl claimed. He was immediately struck by an alarming thought. What if this had something to do with Jake’s failure to arrive home from Bannack? He looked at Earl. “Between here and Bannack?”
    Earl understood the question. “Sure,” he answered. “Bannack’s about played out except for the bigger mining companies, but gold coming from here to buy supplies in Bannack is still hit regular. That’s why army troops are sent to guard any large shipments from one of the bigger mines out to Salt Lake City.” He studied Adam’s thoughtful expression for a few moments before commenting again. “I thought you needed to know the situation around here. You might have made more enemies tonight than those two in the saloon.”
    Adam’s concentration was on his brother and the fear that Jake might never have gotten out of Bannack. He felt an urgency now to get there as soon as possible. Jake was as good with a gun as anyone, and faster than most when it came to getting off a shot. But that didn’t guarantee anything when the odds were too heavily stacked against you. To Earl, he said, “I appreciate your warnin’, but I’m not hangin’ around to make more enemies. I’m leavin’ for Bannack at first light. Maybe I can keep from gettin’ shot till then.