Free Dutchmans Flat (Ss) (1986) by Louis L'amour

Soderman's eyes. Hurling himself toward the wall, Gentry's hand flashed for his pistol.
    A gun blasted in the room with a roar like a cannon, and Gentry felt the angry whip of the bullet, and then he fired twice, low down.
    Soderman fell back against the doorjamb, both hands grabbing at his stomach, just below his belt buckle. "Yuh shot me!" he gasped, round-eyed. "Yuh shot-me!"
    "Like you did my uncle," Tack said coolly. "Only yuh had better than an even break, and he had no break at all!" Gentry could feel blood from the opened wound trickling down his leg. He glanced at Betty. "I've got to get down there," he said. "He's a slick talker."
    Van Hardin was standing down in the street. Beside him was Olney and nearby was Starr.
    Other men, a half dozen of them, loitered nearby.
    Slowly, Tack Gentry began stumping down the stair. All eyes looked up. Red Furness saw him and spoke out, "Tack, these three men are Rangers come down from Austin to make some inquiries."
    Hardin pointed at Gentry. "He's wanted for murdering Anson Childe! Also for jailbreaking, and, unless I'm much mistaken, he has killed another man up there in Childe's office!"
    The Rangers looked at Gentry curiously, and then one of them glanced at Hardin. "Yuh all the hombre what lays claim to the Gentry place?"
    Hardin swallowed up quickly, and then his eyes shifted. "No, that was Soderman. The man who was upstairs."
    Hardin looked at Tack Gentry. With the Rangers here he knew his game was played out.
    He smiled suddenly. "Yuh've nothin' on me at all, gents," he said coolly. "Soderman killed John Gentry and laid claim to his ranch. I don't know nothin' about it."
    "Yuh engineered it!" Bill London burst out. "Same as yuh did the stealin' of my ranch!"
    "Yuh've no proof," Hardin sneered. "Not a particle. My name is on no papers, and yuh have no evidence."
    Coolly, he strode across to his black horse and swung into the saddle. He was smiling gently, but there was sneering triumph behind the smile. "You've nothin' on me, not a thing!"
    "Don't let him get away!" Bill London shouted. "He's the wust one of the whole kit and kaboodle of 'em!"
    "But he's right!" the Ranger protested. "In all the papers we've found, there's not a single item to tie him up. If he's in it, he's been almighty smart."
    "Then arrest him for horse stealin'!" Tack Gentry said. "That's my black horse he's on!"
    Hardin's face went cold, and then he smiled. "Why, that's crazy! That's foolish," he said. "This is my horse. I reared him from a colt. Anybody could be mistaken, 'cause one black horse is like another . My brand 's on him, and yuh can all see it's an old brand."
    Tack Gentry stepped out in front of the black horse. "But ton!" he said sharply.
    "Button!"
    At the familiar voice, the black horse's head jerked up. "Button!" Tack called. "Hut!
    Hut!"
    As the name and the sharp command rolled out, Button reacted like an explosion of dynamite.
    He jumped straight up in the air and came down hard. Then he sunfished wildly, and Van Hardin hit the dirt in a heap.
    "Button!" Tack commanded. "Go get Blackie!"
    Instantly, the horse wheeled and trotted to the hitching rail where Blackie stood, ground hitched as Olney had left him. Button caught the reins in his teeth and led the other black horse back.
    The Ranger grinned. "Reckon, mister," he said, "yuh done proved yore case. The man's a horse thief."
    Hardin climbed to his feet, his face dark with fury. "Yuh think yuh'll get away with that?" His hand flashed for his gun. Tack Gentry had been watching him, and now his own hand moved down and then up. The two guns barked as one. A chip flew from the stair post beside Tack, but Van Hardin turned slowly and went to his knees in the dust.
    At almost the same instant, a sharp voice rang out. "Olney! Starr!"
    Olney's face went white and he wheeled, hand flashing for his gun. "Anson Childe!" he gasped.
    Childe stood on the platform in front of his room and fired once, twice, three times.
    Sheriff Olney went