Free [Texas Rangers 05] - Texas Vendetta by Elmer Kelton

face.
    He sensed a movement on the street. A pistol blazed, and the man went down. He gripped his leg and squalled in pain.
    Farley’s voice was deadly. “Next shot goes in somebody’s gullet.” He fired again, kicking up dust in front of the mob.
    Andy expelled a pent-up breath. Farley walked up and joined him in front of the door. His stern gaze never left the Hoppers as he muttered, “The graveyards are full of people who wouldn’t pull the trigger.”
    “I tried. I just couldn’t.”
    The wounded man lay on his back, gripping his bleeding leg. He kept hollering.
    Farley said with contempt, “Listen to that brave son of a bitch, squealin’ like a pig stuck under a gate.”
    Members of the mob conferred among themselves. Big’un shouted, “You’re protectin’ a murderer.”
    Farley said, “He ain’t been tried yet.”
    “We come here to give him all the trial he needs.”
    Farley muttered, “If they rush us, shoot the foremost. That’d be the one called Big’un. If that doesn’t stop them, shoot another.”
    “You’d do that for Jayce Landon?”
    “No, for us. Right this minute we’re in worse danger than he is.”
    Big’un shouted, “You Rangers can’t stay here forever. We can wait.”
    Farley pointed the pistol at him. “You’ll have to. Now you-all had better scatter because in one minute I’m goin’ to shoot every man I can see.” He held up his watch so he could read it in the moonlight.
    The men lingered a little, then began to peel away. Some, like Big’un, shouted threats back over their shoulders, but soon all had retreated beyond sight, carrying their wounded man with them.
    Farley said, “You have to talk to people in a way they understand, then be ready to back up what you tell them. Remember that and you’ll live longer.”
    Andy shuddered. “You were really set to kill somebody.”
    “I would, if there’d been a brave man amongst them. But after one shot everybody started thinkin’ about home and mother. That’s generally the way.”
    “You told me at the stable that you wasn’t comin’.”
    “I didn’t intend to. I don’t give a damn about Jayce Landon, but I didn’t want to have to tell the captain I stood back and let a mob kill a Ranger. Even an ignorant Comanche Indian.”
    A stubborn streak would not allow Andy to show his pleasure. He had taken too much abuse from Farley to grant him the satisfaction. He looked down the dark, empty street. “I don’t understand why none of the Landon bunch was here. Looks like they’d have turned out to protect Jayce.”
    “That does strike me a little peculiar. It goes to show that both sides are crazy.”
    After they had watched for ten or fifteen minutes Farley said, “I don’t think they’ll be comin’ back for a while. I want to do some Dutch talkin’ to that jailer.”
    Andy was not surprised to find that the front door had been left unlocked. He said, “I guess the jailer wanted to make it easy for them. All they had to do was walk in.”
    Inside, he locked and barred the door in case some of the Hopper people drank enough courage to come back. He did not see the jailer. Farley walked through the door that led back to the cells. He called, “Come here, Badger Boy. This is a sight to tell your children about if you live long enough to have any.”
    The jailer was handcuffed to the bars of a cell. The cell door was open. Jayce was gone.
    Farley snickered at the jailer. “Now ain’t you a pretty sight? How did you get yourself into this fix?”
    The man’s eyes were downcast. “Jayce has escaped.”
    “I figured that out for myself. What did you do, go to sleep on the job?”
    “No such of a thing. The sheriff went to see about a fight. Soon as he was gone, Jayce pulled a gun on me. Just a little derringer, but it could kill a man.”
    Farley gave Andy a speculative glance. Jayce hadn’t had a gun on him when the Rangers brought him into town.
    Andy did not have to think about it long. He remembered