Free Buchanan's Seige by Jonas Ward Page B

you've had enough to drink," said Fox. "Come on, now."
    They left, Crane swaying, unsteady, his voice loud and disputatious as Fox led him to the buckboard outside the fence that surrounded the patio. Consuela came from the house and sat opposite her husband.
    "You heard 'em," he said.
    "You are into it very deep."
    "I don't like it about the women."
    "You hanged Adam Day."
    "Not me. I was against that."
    "You were not there to prevent it. You wished Adam Day and the other people would go away. So you hired Pollard and you have your association. And a man was hanged."
    "Damn it, woman, there's nothin' I could do about it."
    "I know," she said.
    "What could I do? Let 'em overrun us? Give up to 'em? After all I done to build this place, this ranch?"
    She smiled. "Can you see them taking it away from you? Those little people? Can you see them stealing and burning ... and lynching?"
    He stood up. He paced the patio with its imported flag stones, its high fence, its flowered paths. "There's nothin' I can do now but get the women out of there."
    "They will not go," she told him.
    "You don't know that."
    "I would not go," she said softly.
    "Like Dealer says, it's them or us."
    She shook her head. "I am glad the children are away."
    "You turnin' against me, Connie?" He looked de spairingly at her, his hands spread. "Are you, finally?"
    "No."
    "But you're against what's happening."
    "Yes."
    "There's nothin' I can do. It's too late."
    "Yes. It is too late." She arose and went into the house, closing the door behind her.
    He walked back and forth, back and forth. It had all happened too fast, he told himself. There was no way he could have stopped it. He had sent for Buchanan, he had tried, knowing Buchanan's way with people.
    Now they would kill Buchanan. Meaning no harm, indeed meaning well, he had brought the big man he so re spected to his death.
    But the women ... He had never harmed a woman in his life.
    And if he tried to interfere, if he went too far, Dealer and Crane would kill him, he saw clearly. The other members of the association would stay out of it and back op Dealer and Crane through necessity. The whole matter had got completely out of hand.
    There was no escape, now. If he tried to stop the forces be had helped set in motion, he would lose wife, ranch, children, everything. He picked up the whiskey bottle and drained it.
    Trevor was on watch when Buchanan rode the buckskin in. The horses would be a problem. It was best to turn loose any which could not be protected by the stone barn.
    Trevor said, "Cactus and Sutter are holed up. Durkin's in the house. He'll be trouble whichever way it goes."
    "Yes," said Buchanan. "Been studyin' the layout. Good to have people in the barn. The roof ’ll do, too, behind that stone parapet. Dangerous, but we'll have to risk it."
    "Too many of 'em, right? Pick off a few. Maybe dis courage 'em for a while. That's it, isn't it?"
    "Uh-huh," said Buchanan. "That's the way it looks. Got to keep thinkin' on it, though. No use givin' up before the thing starts."
    "Yes." He went on, "Ever been to England?"
    "Not yet. Thought of Scotland sometimes. Might look up the Buchanans. And the MacNamaras."
    "Filthy climate, England. Excepting this time of year. Hants is lovely this time of year."
    "Hants?"
    "Hampshire. Town of Romsey on the Test. One could walk across the Test in boots, but we're that way, the Brit ish. Folks have a place near Romsey."
    "I see." .
    "Very green. 'The grass is greener on the old sod,' they say. It's very green here, now, isn't it?"
    "I'd say so."
    "Different hue of green. Ah, well."
    "Wish you were back there?"
    "Not really. 'We owe God a death.' Shakespeare, y' know. Doesn't make much difference so long as it's in a good cause. How many people just... die?"
    "Everybody's thinkin' of dyin' around here," said Bu chanan. "Me, I'm studyin' about how to live."
    "Good man," said Trevor. "Right-o." He wandered away, making his rounds.
    Buchanan went into the room where Coco and