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

left, a dozen Hopper partisans rushed in, bumping one another against the door in their haste.
    Andy said, “The judge is liable to tell them it was our fault. Anything to shift the blame. We better get away from here.”
    “We ain’t runnin’. We’re walkin’. We’ll show this bunch we ain’t afraid of nobody.”
    “Maybe you’re not, but I am.”
    Farley set a slow and deliberate pace toward the wagon yard. They had not gone far before Andy heard someone shout a curse. The voice sounded like Big’un’s. A shot was fired. Farley spun half-around, grabbing his right side.
    A man stood in lamplight that spilled through the open jailhouse door. He held a pistol. Andy raised his rifle and made a quick shot. The man went down, twisting in the dirt.
    Farley swore under his breath. Andy asked, “How bad are you hit?”
    “I don’t know. It hurts like almighty hell.”
    “We’d better keep movin’. They didn’t get to kill Jayce Landon, and they’re fired up to kill somebody.”
    Andy took Farley’s left arm to give him support. At the wagon yard he found the stableman standing in the open front doors, staring into the dark street. “Heard some shootin’. What …” He seemed to lose his voice when Andy and Farley came into the lantern’s light and he saw Farley’s bloody shirt.
    Andy said, “Saddle our horses for us and throw our pack on that mule. Be quick.” He helped Farley to a straight wooden chair and brought the lantern up for a close look. The bullet had struck high up and from behind. “Can you move your arm?”
    Farley raised it a little.
    Andy said, “Could’ve busted some of your ribs. You’re bleedin’ like a stuck hog.”
    Andy took out his handkerchief and pressed it against the wound. “Feel like you can sit in the saddle?”
    “I don’t see I’ve got much choice. Them crazy Hoppers’ll be lookin’ to finish the job.”
    The stableman brought their horses and the mule. “If I was you-all—”
    Andy interrupted. “Is there a doctor in this town?”
    “There is, but you’ll be needin’ an undertaker instead if you’ve got yourselves in Dutch with them Hoppers.”
    The stableman reluctantly gave directions, then helped Andy boost Farley into the saddle. Andy found the doctor’s house, but he saw that several of the Hopper people were already there. The doctor would be treating the man Farley had shot. The one Andy had shot would probably be brought along shortly.
    He said, “We’d better not stop here.”
    Farley nodded in painful agreement. “Doctor may be one of them Hoppers anyway. Whole town seems to be infested with them.”
    “I’m afraid you’ll have to tough it out for a while.”
    Farley grumbled under his breath, “Badger Boy, you’re a damned Jonah. You’ll get me killed yet.”

CHAPTER FIVE
     

    Andy feared he might have to hold Farley in the saddle, but Farley hunched over the horn and stubbornly refused help. The horse’s every step hurt him.
    They rode back down the road they had come on for what Andy thought must have been two or three miles. He saw lamplight in a window. “Farmhouse,” he said. “Maybe they’ll help us.”
    Farley’s voice choked with pain. “If they ain’t Hoppers.”
    “Even if they are, maybe they don’t know what happened in town. No need in us tellin’ them.”
    Andy strode up onto a wooden porch and knocked on the door. He heard a floor squeak as someone walked across it. The door opened, and a woman stood there, a shotgun in her hand. A cold feeling came to Andy’s stomach. He recognized Jayce Landon’s wife.
    Her voice was like ice. “You’re one of them Rangers. What do you want here?”
    “I’ve got a hurt man outside. He needs help.”
    She looked at Farley but offered no sympathy. “You-all brought my husband back and turned him over to them Hoppers. Now you’ve got the nerve to ask for my help?”
    An old man’s voice came from a back room. “Who is it, Flora?” He came out carrying a pistol and