Chapter 3
The stockyards were a noisy smelly place but to Wilton Lemay the unpleasantness was part of the business. The auctions were going well and he was selling his cattle at a good price. Jerry Jackson was happy – while the drovers he had hired were paid on a daily rate, he received a percentage of the sale price fetched by the beeves. Now, he thought, he could see the wisdom of spending those extra days on the trail to bring the stock here where prices where so much better. Mr. Lemay had obviously known what he was doing. Of course he knew nothing of Wilton's quest to find his brother.
The auction went on well into the night keeping Wilton busy, but by then Dragg was already taking Max round the saloons, pointing out various land marks in Dodge.
They finished up at a saloon called the Long Branch. It seemed more crowded than the others and Max thought the saloon girls were prettier. There was a Faro table going strong but of more interest to him were the two tables where groups of cowboys where drinking and playing cards, both seemed to be high stake games and if only he had some money he could get in on one.
Dragg came up to the bar beside him and ordered two beers, which the barkeep set in front of them, they raised their beer mugs and turned to face the room.
"Dragg, how about lending me some money to get in on a game, I know I can earn it back – even pay you interest."
The bull of a man looked at him and laughed, "I thought that's what got you into this mess in the first place." He slapped his hand on his tree trunk of a thigh, laughing heartily at his own joke.
They stood there a few minutes longer until one of the women came over to the bar and exchanged words with the barkeep. Max couldn't help but notice her. She had an air of confidence and wasn't dressed in the usual saloon girl attire. What he noticed most of all was the red hair and her sparkling blue eyes. Most of the men around seemed to treat her with a little more respect than they did the other girls and he heard them call her Miss Kitty.
He suddenly became aware of an elbow digging him in the ribs.
"That's who Mr. Gannon wants you to take care of for him."
Max froze, he had killed several men in fair fights, but he had never killed a woman.
He felt Dragg push him towards the door and speak in his ear. "We won't discuss it here, head back to the hotel."
-()-()-()-
The Long Branch continued to do all the business that Sam and Clem could handle. Kitty kept her eye on the new Faro dealer and also managed to watch the two poker games that were underway. She wanted to make sure there was no cheating going on, the Marshal had been kept busy resolving fights and arguments for the previous three evenings and she didn't want any trouble breaking out tonight. It was well after midnight before the crowds started to disperse and her tired cowboy looked over the batwing doors, scanning the faces inside.
She smiled at him as he walked in and made his way to a table in the back. She watched him as he sat down and wearily removed his hat to lay it on the chair next to him then lifted a tired hand and drug his fingers through those dense dark curls. She brought her mind back from where it was going and turned to the barkeep,
"Sam two beers please."
She picked up both mugs and made her way over to the table.
"It's been a rough few nights, Matt."
"Yep and it's not going to get better any time soon, there's another herd about to hit town day after tomorrow." He smiled at her before lifting the beer mug to his lips, "good for your business though, you must be getting rich."
She laughed, "Well it does make up for all those bad nights we've had lately."
There was an easy silence between them for a while as both enjoyed the coolness of the liquid they were drinking. A tall, stocky, well-dressed man entered the saloon and approached the Marshal interrupting their companionable silence.
Kitty tensed for a moment, always wary of people she didn't recognize appearing like that.
Matt saw the tension in her eyes and lifted his gaze to see Wilton Lemay standing there.
"Oh Lemay come and join us. Kitty Russell this is Wilton Lemay, he owns the big herd that arrived in town today, I guess you've sold most of them by now," he added turning to face the newcomer.
Lemay tipped his hat, "Pleased to meet you Miss Russell."
"Just call me Kitty," the red head smiled at him, relieved that he was nothing worse than a cattle rancher.
"Yes just about 500 head left to auction off in the morning. We did pretty well so far."
"Your trail hands were happy," Kitty commented, "I think everyone of them has been in here emptying his pockets out."
They all laughed.
"Any sign of my brother yet, Marshal?"
"No I can't say I've seen him anywhere – but the description you gave me could fit many of the cowboys who show up here on a given night."
"There's a good chance he would finish up in a saloon like this – he likes to play poker. Miss Kitty maybe you might have seen him, his name is Max Lemay, he's a little shorter than I am, slim build, clean shaven, often dresses like a gambler."
"I'll keep an eye out for him," she promised.
Matt finished his beer and then excused himself saying he had to go make his evening rounds. "I'll stop by later," he promised Kitty.
-()-()-()-
In a room at the Dodge House Max Lemay was arguing with Gannon's henchman.
"Look Dragg, I have never killed a woman, and don't think I can. What did she do to make the Boss want to put her away, anyhow?"
Billings goes over and looks through the window. Front Street is dark except for a few remaining lanterns still burning in some of the saloons.
"Come here a minute Max." The younger man gets up and comes to join him.
"See that man down there," he points to a tall man walking along the boardwalk with long strides and trying the doors on all the business establishments to make sure they were locked up tight. "He is the Marshal here, his name's Matt Dillon."
Max looks up at his companion. "So what?"
"I'm Just telling you so's you'll know."
The young man looks at him curiously.
"Mr. Gannon used to come to this town quite often. Even before the cattle business made it rich, there were Buffalo traders here. Thousands of hides were bought and sold, there was a lot of money to be made, and Lou Gannon was out there making it. One day several years ago now, that man," he pointed to the window, "rode into town determined to make this a law abiding place. It wasn't long afterwards that the trail drives started coming here and then saloons and gambling opened up. Mr. Gannon was doing alright for himself, trading hides and playing poker. One night some customer complained to that red head over there at the Long Branch that he was cheating. I wasn't working for Mr. Gannon then but the way he tells it she worked her way into the game and finished up taking him for a small fortune. Some other cowboy thought it was funny to watch a woman take down Lou Gannon, especially when she showed how he was dealing off the bottom of the deck and pulled a few cheating moves of her own on him. The cowboys around the table started laughing and Mr. Gannon pulled his gun, then, just as he was going to defend his honor, that big Marshal I showed you came bursting his way in. Well he threw the Boss in jail for the night and next day made him leave town and told him never to come back. Mr. Gannon felt he was treated too harshly and he needs to get back at both of them for that, no one makes a fool out of Lou Gannon and gets away with it." Billings stopped to take a breath, then continued, "He wants that woman and the Marshal dead. That way he can come back to Dodge and make himself some big money."
"There are plenty of other towns he can go to gamble," Max tried to point out.
"I guess that is so, but the way Mr. Gannon sees it, he has every right to come to Dodge to set the record straight."
"You mean he wasn't cheating?"
"I don't know about that, one way or the other."
Max thought back to his big loss to Lou Gannon and considered it very possible that the man had been cheating, although at the time he hadn't considered it. He thought about the whole situation for a while. Somehow he needed out of this mess, but he knew that Dragg was not a man he could take on.
"So what did you have planned Dragg?"
"I was here a few months ago and found out that the job would not be as tough as I once thought. Seems like the Marshal and the Redhead are, well, kind of friendly. Sometimes they go off together for a ride on the prairie or a picnic by the river. That man is too fast even for you to take in a fair fight so we will just have to find another way. I figured we'll watch and when they go out of town on one of their cozy little trips, we'll just follow, and take care of both of them in one go, where no one will see. Nothing fancy, just ride up, shoot and then we'll be on our way home."
"You mean an ambush."
"Yeh unless you've got a better idea."
"Look Dragg, this is all wrong, I don't like killing a woman, or shooting someone in the back. I've never done that and don't intend to start now."
"The way I see it you don't have much choice. Now let's get some rest. We've got work to do."