Free Ride With the Devil by Robert Vaughan

smile.
    “You go by Hawke? Not your first name?”
    “Mason is my first name. But I prefer Hawke.”
    “All right, Hawke it is,” Flaire said, returning the smile.

Chapter 7
    BY THE TIME MOODY, HOOPER, AND JARVIS RETURNED to the office, they were limping on sore feet. Culpepper, Vox, and Bates looked up in surprise.
    “What the hell happened to you?” Vox asked.
    “What happened to us? That damn piano player took our boots, that’s what happened to us,” Moody said.
    “And you just let him do it?” Bates asked.
    “We didn’t have no choice. He took our guns too,” Hooper added.
    “But we aim to get ’em back,” Jarvis said. Taking a rifle from the rack, he jacked a shell into the chamber. Then he took two more down and tossed them to the other two deputies.
    “What do you think you’re doing?” Culpepper asked.
    “There ain’t no thinkin’ to it, Colonel. I aim to kill that son of a bitch,” Moody said angrily.
    “No.”
    “What do you mean, no?”
    “No means no. I didn’t stutter,” Culpepper said. “You aren’t going to do anything to Hawke.”
    “Damn it! You think we’re just goin’ to stand around and do nothing? I mean, this piano player is beginning to be areal problem,” Moody said. “First he cuts down Delaney and brings him back into town without so much as a fare thee well. And that was right in front of everyone, when everyone in town knew we had put up a sign tellin’ people to leave the body hangin’ there. Then, this morning, he took our guns and boots.”
    “What I want to know is, how the hell did he get your guns and boots?” Vox asked.
    “Yes, I’d be interested in hearing that myself. There are three of you and one of him. Just how did that happen?” Culpepper asked.
    “We wasn’t expectin’ nothin’ like that to happen,” Moody said. “All we done was stop him and that Delaney woman.”
    “Stop them from what?” Culpepper wanted to know.
    “Just stop them. They were leaving town in a buckboard, and the whole thing looked a little suspicious to me. Especially her being Delaney’s sister and all. We was just—”
    “You were just meddling in something that is none of your business,” Culpepper said. “Put the rifles back in the rack.”
    “What about our guns and boots?” Jarvis asked.
    “My guess is he’ll return them today. If he doesn’t, you can go to him, hat in hand, and ask him to give them back to you.”
     
    Culpepper’s guess that the guns and boots would be returned proved to be correct. Just before dark that evening, Ken Wright came into the office.
    “Yes, Mr. Wright, what can we do for you?” Culpepper asked.
    Ken made a motion with his thumb, jerking it toward the street.
    “Mason Hawke rented a buckboard from me today,” he said. “When he came back there were a few items in the back that he said might belong to you.”
    “Our guns!” Moody shouted, and darted through the front door, followed by the other two. Grabbing the guns and boots, they came back inside, then sat down and started pulling on the shoes.
    “Damn, my feet is so sore I can barely get into ’em,” Jarvis said.
    “Thank you, Mr. Wright,” Culpepper said.
    “Colonel, if you don’t mind tellin’ me, how’d they wind up in the back of my wagon?”
    “You mean Hawke didn’t tell you?”
    “No, sir. He didn’ say nothin’, ’cept he thought these might belong to some of your deputies.”
    “Ain’t none of your business how he wound up with ’em,” Moody said.
    By now all three men had their boots on, and after strapping on their pistols, they walked around the room a few times, gingerly testing the boots against feet swollen from going a day without shoes.
    “Let’s just say my deputies got careless,” Culpepper said. “I thank you again, blacksmith.”
    “Yes, sir, I’m glad to be of service to you,” the blacksmith said, touching his eyebrow in a casual salute.
    Moody waited until the blacksmith left before he spoke