Free Broken Star (2006) by Terry Murphy Page B

Ben answered.
    ‘Sit down and finish your dinner,’ Lew told him gruffly. ‘What we’ve got to do needs planning . You ride into town later and tell Jack Smiley that I want to see him out here pronto. Me and Michael got some thinking to do when you’ve gone.’

SEVEN
    At Vejar’s request, Walter Randall had called Yancey’s citizens to a meeting in the Hero of Alamo that afternoon. Saloon business had been suspended for the event. But the good ladies of the town sniffed and snorted their disgust at entering a den of harlotry. Vejar was flanked on one side by Jonathan and by Len Hobart on the other. The latter was an overweight boy of short stature. Both young men were as yet unarmed.
    Walter Randall began with a speech that caused panic when he said that a raid on the bank was imminent. Calming the crowd, Randall went on to say that the outlaw gang concerned had already shot the sheriff. There was no reaction to this, as news of George Harker’s misfortune and that Vejar had killed the outlaw concerned, had spread around the town during the day. But there was a prolonged murmuring of dissent when Randall announced that FallonVejar was now the law in Yancey.
    Randall beckoned him, and Vejar stepped forward to address a largely hostile crowd. He said, ‘It may help you to feel easier about me if I say that I’ll follow Sheriff Harker’s plan.’
    ‘When is this raid supposed to happen, Vejar?’ an elderly man called from the crowd.
    ‘That’s difficult to say,’ Vejar replied. ‘It will be soon. Most probably tomorrow.’
    This shocked the assembly into a long silence. The same elderly man broke it by calling out, ‘What is this plan you spoke of?’
    ‘We need an early warning, so I will be setting Dan Matthews up as a lookout on Macadam Point. Dan will have a fast horse to get him back into town when he first catches sight of the outlaws. I estimate that will give me at least half an hour to prepare.’
    ‘When will you be riding out with Dan to Macadam Point?’
    It puzzled Vejar when he discovered that this question came from Jack Smiley, whose liking for liquor normally had him peering dumbly at the world through an alcoholic haze. But regardless who had asked the question, the townsfolk deserved to know what was happening, so he answered, ‘First thing tomorrow.’
    ‘What will the preparations you spoke of involve?’ Henry Drake enquired, from where hestood at Walter Randall’s side.
    ‘Our priority must be the women and children ,’ Vejar said. ‘When we hear that the gang is heading this way, then I want every women and child housed safely in the church until the danger is over.’ He looked to where Raya stood with Mary Alcott, and called to her, ‘Would you be prepared to organize that, Miss Kennedy?’
    ‘Of course,’ Raya responded self-consciously, blushing red as heads turned her way.
    ‘Thank you,’ Vejar said. ‘I am sure that the ladies will co-operate fully with you.’
    ‘That’s all very well, Vejar,’ Martin Frazer the town’s lawyer, a small man with the nervous movements of a feeding bird, spoke up. ‘But it seems as how you are on your own.’
    ‘That is not true,’ Walter Randall rebuked the lawyer. ‘My nephew, Jonathan, and Len Hobart, have bravely volunteered to back Vejar.’
    ‘That must be a great comfort to you, Vejar,’ a wag shouted from the back of the crowd.
    This brought laughter from the crowd to lighten the mood, but Vejar couldn’t permit the courage of the two boys to be mocked. He pointed at the heckler. ‘If you have the craw that Jonathan and Len have, then step forward. I’ll welcome your support.’
    The man who had shouted remained quiet, but Martin Frazer asked, ‘You haven’t said whatyou are going to do about it when they get here, Vejar.’
    Vejar had a scheme fashioned out of desperation . He was very aware of that. Jonathan and Len, both with shotguns, would be positioned inside the bank as a last line of defence. With no