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    Herne the Hunter 8: Crossdraw
    Herne the Hunter 8: Crossdraw
    Herne the Hunter 8: Crossdraw
    Ebook156 pages1 hour

    Herne the Hunter 8: Crossdraw

    By John J. McLaglen

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    The Colt fell the short distance onto the worn carpet and Herne’s body straightened up like a whiplash. But the hand that had dropped the gun didn’t come back up empty. It had the hilt of the bayonet in it and midway through the movement the blade was unleashed across the room. Seth’s mouth stayed open, words drained in mid-sentence; he moved the gun to fire but something plunged its way into his shoulder blade and pinned him to the door. His hand opened in spite of itself and the pistol slipped out.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPiccadilly
    Release dateMay 30, 2014
    ISBN9781310542930
    Herne the Hunter 8: Crossdraw
    Author

    John J. McLaglen

    John J. McLaglen is the pseudonym for the writing team of Laurence James and John Harvey.

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      Book preview

      Herne the Hunter 8 - John J. McLaglen

      Issuing classic fiction from Yesterday and Today!

      The Colt fell the short distance onto the worn carpet and Herne’s body straightened up like a whiplash. But the hand that had dropped the gun didn’t come back up empty. It had the hilt of the bayonet in it and midway through the movement the blade was unleashed across the room. Seth’s mouth stayed open, words drained in mid-sentence; he moved the gun to fire but something plunged its way into his shoulder blade and pinned him to the door. His hand opened in spite of itself and the pistol slipped out.

      CROSS-DRAW

      HERNE THE HUNTER 8

      By John J. McLaglen

      First published by Corgi Books in 1978

      Copyright © 1978, 2014 by John J. McLaglen

      Published by Piccadilly Publishing at Smashwords: June 2014

      Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

      Cover image © 2013 by Tony Masero

      Visit Tony here

      This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book

      Series Editor: Mike Stotter

      Text © Piccadilly Publishing

      Published by Arrangement with the Author.

      For Tony Albrecht:

      everybody needs a friend these days

      everybody rides their own damn ways

      Chapter One

      The man stepped through the opening at the front of the livery stable and looked across the street. Immediately opposite there was a single-storey building with the word ‘Tonsorial’ painted in black letters between window and roof. The large plate-glass window revealed a customer being shaved, the barber leaning over the chair, pausing every few seconds to wipe lather from the blade of the open razor onto the towel that hung over his left arm.

      Further up the street there were a number of false-fronted stores advertising dry goods, groceries and liquors and the finest selection of boots and saddles in Wyoming Territory. The most impressive building in view was beyond these—The Cattlemen’s House. It was a three-story hotel made out of brick with two wooden balconies, one above the other, supported by thick wood pillars that rose up from the edge of the boardwalk. The ground floor contained a huge bar with a horseshoe-shaped counter at its center and raised booths along three wills. Stairs at one corner led up to a first floor lobby and bedrooms on the floors above.

      A group of cowboys rode noisily down the street, keeping their horses abreast, laughing and shouting at one another. They saw the man by the livery stable, saw him and ignored him. There didn’t seem to be any reason why they should do any different.

      The man watched them go by, looking at the pistols at their belts, the low crown plainsman hats they mostly wore, the Double C brand that stood out clearly on the leather of their forty pound Denver saddles.

      The rider at the near side of the line reined in his horse and called to the others. ‘Gettin’ me a shave. I’ll see you at the Five Aces.’

      He wheeled his mount round, pulling harder on the rein than was necessary; the animal tossed its head and whinnied and the cowboy slapped at its flanks with his open hand, making it rear up from the ground and swirl up dust.

      ‘You aimin’ to start a stampede all by yourself?’

      The cowboy turned the horse again, staring down at the man who had spoken.

      ‘That me you’re talkin’ to, mister?’

      ‘Can’t see no one else kickin’ up dirt round here.’

      ‘Well, you just mind your own damned business!’

      The cowboy stared all the harder, the lines of his young mouth hardening into a sneer, the fingers of his right hand sliding back along his saddle until they were close to the pistol strapped down onto his leg.

      The man watched him without moving, taking in the cowboy’s gun hand and the changed expression on his face. ‘Fer a man as earns his livin’ in the saddle, you sure don’t treat your horse with much respect.’

      ‘What’s that to you?’

      ‘Never did like to see an animal treated bad. Sort of man who’d do that don’t say much fer himself.’ The man unbuttoned the single button of his worn leather coat with an easy movement. ‘Don’t take to gettin’ my eyes full of dust, neither.’

      The cowboy’s fingers were resting on the leather of his holster now, stroking it. His eyes were narrow and the line of his mouth tighter than ever.

      ‘I ain’t gonna sit here an’ be talked to like that. Not by no old man like you.’

      ‘That so?’

      The right flap of the coat moved back slowly. The butt of the Colt 45 was smooth with use; the thong at the bottom of the dull leather holster was tied inside the thigh. Without taking his eyes from the cowboy, the man used his thumb to flip back the smaller thong from the hammer.

      ‘That so?’ he repeated softly, talking almost to himself.

      But the cowboy heard him well enough; heard him and saw the gun and looked at the stranger afresh. Couple of inches over six foot, long black hair that was greying at the temples, close to two hundred pounds. A face that was lined and weather-beaten; a hand that was veined and calloused hovering close to the Colt.

      Somewhere in the back of the young cowboy’s mind a warning clicked uneasily into place. He wasn’t sure, couldn’t be certain, but...

      ‘You got any thin’ more to say?’

      The cowboy’s hand shifted away from his holster and picked up the rein. ‘No. Not fer now.’

      ‘Best get that shave, then. There’s a chair empty right by the window. No sense in waitin’ around.’

      The cowboy pulled his hat down firmly on his head and moved his horse slowly round. Without looking back he crossed the street and dismounted, tying the animal to the rail. He glanced up at the sign over the barber shop and walked in through the open doorway.

      ‘Mister.’

      The man turned fast, faster than you would have thought just watching him stand there seconds before. His hand was tight about the butt of the Colt and his body had dropped into the alert crouch of a trained gunfighter.

      ‘Hey, steady now, mister! I didn’t mean nothin’.’

      The old timer from the livery stable had jumped back towards the door, one hand raised and open, fingers shaking. They stayed that way until he saw that the man had gone back to his normal stance and let go of his gun.

      ‘Just wanted to ask ’bout that chestnut you brung in, that’s all.’ He licked nervously with his tongue at the stained ends of his moustache.

      ‘What about it?’

      ‘Didn’t say how long you was leavin’ him.’

      ‘That’s cause I don’t know.’

      ‘Yeh, well, that’s ... that’s ...’ He broke off talking and scratched the wisps of white hair that scattered his scalp.

      ‘That’s all right, then. Ain’t it?’

      ‘Guess so. Yep, sure is. That’s fine.’

      The man started to turn away.

      ‘Mister.’

      ‘Say your piece,’ replied the man impatiently.

      ‘That feller over there,’ he pointed in the direction of the barber shop. ‘Seemed like you was proddin’ him awful hard to draw on you.’

      ‘Could read it that way, I guess.’

      ‘You know him or somethin’?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Weren’t sent into town to pick a fight with one of the Double C boys, by any chance?’

      The man shifted his head to an angle for a moment. ‘That likely?’

      The old timer shrugged and scratched at his scalp again. ‘You know what these big spreads are like—one always tryin’ to cut the other down to size.’

      ‘I heard of it happenin’. But no one paid me to do no cuttin’. Not this day, they ain’t.’

      ‘Then, mister, I’d say you’re either plumb careless about your own life or you’re itchin’ fer a fight to let somethin’ out of you that’s crawled right up agin’ your spine.’

      The man turned his head aside and spat down into the dirt of the street. ‘You always so free with what you think?’

      The old man grinned: ‘When I can get someone as’ll listen.’

      ‘Tell you what, try talkin’ to some of them horses you got shut up in there. That way there’s no chance of them walkin’ out on you.’

      And the man stepped away and began to cross the street towards The Cattlemen’s House. The old timer watched him go, observing the walk of a man who wasn’t about to step aside for anyone, who likely never had—not since the day he’d first strapped that Colt .45 to his side. He pulled at a strand of white hair and pushed his tongue up into the yellow and brown hairs in the middle of his otherwise white moustache, sure that he’d seen the man before but unable to remember where.

      It could have been back in Fifty-Nine when the Pony Express was pushing westwards from Fort Bridger, beating the snows of the Sierras and the marauding attacks of the Paiutes.

      It could have been during the Civil War, when Captain William Clarke Quantrill and his bloody guerillas were raiding deep into enemy territory.

      It could have been in the South-West in the early sixties, playing fast and loose with Geronimo’s Apaches among spirals of red rock that burnt at a touch.

      It could have been in Seventy-Eight fighting in the Lincoln County Range War, alongside of Billy Bonney and Pat Garrett.

      Could have been earlier in that spring of Eighty-Four, standing by the graves of the two young women he’d loved. Loved and buried them both, then stood by the mounds of earth without a tear to cry. Instead he held a bitterness tight inside him, venomous like the poison of the snake the old timer had reckoned he had curled round his spine. Ready to strike.

      His name was Jedediah Travis Herne: the man they called Herne the Hunter.

      Jed Herne edged his way between two cattle dealers and flipped a silver piece onto the polished surface of the bar. When the barkeep had sidled down towards him, Herne ordered a bottle of bourbon and a glass.

      The barkeep squinted up at Herne and reached beneath the counter for a bottle of Jim Beam. He set it down and made good and sure that die glass he put next to it was clean and unchipped.

      ‘Thanks, mister.’ He dropped the change into Herne’s left hand. ‘You new in town?’

      Herne dropped the coins into his coat pocket and picked up bottle and glass without a word. He headed for a booth at the furthest end of the room, seeking a position from which he could see the door and where it was impossible for anyone to sneak up on him from behind. Ever since what had happened to Wild Bill …

      Besides, Herne had things on his mind and he wanted to be alone with them. Alone with a bottle so’s he could drink them away.

      The cowboy’s name was Tolly Richman and by the time he’d got himself sat in the first chair of Eli Pullum’s fancily-named barber shop his mood had changed from bad to worse.

      He fidgeted under the striped blue and white cloth that Eli tucked up to his neck and scowled. ‘This your place?’

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