Shadow of the Gallows Read Free Page B

at one another. Looking towards where Neil was. But not thinking to look behind them.
    ‘Hold it right there!’ Cobb yelled.
    With cries of shock the men stopped firing and glanced round.
    ‘Get to your feet and throw down your guns.’
    For a moment it seemed as if the men would do as they were told. Then the one nearest Cobb flung himself sideways and raised his gun. Before he could fire, Cobb shot first. Cobb’s bullet struck his assailant full in the face. With a strangled scream the man grabbed at the wound even as he fell on his back. He kicked his legs once or twice and was quiet. Cobb turned from him. The second man was bringing his gun up.
    ‘Don’t be stupid.’
    It did no good. The man fired once, twice. He was scared, Cobb could see the fear in his eyes, the way his hand and arm shook. The bullets missed.
    But the next one might not and Cobb was left with no choice. He took steady aim and pulled the trigger. In a spray of blood the man collapsed behind the hay bale he’d been sheltering against. He groaned once, that was all.
    Still holding his gun, Cobb entered the barn and looked down at the men. Both were dead. Neil joined him.
    ‘Wonder who they were,’ he said.
    ‘And what they wanted.’ Cobb was annoyed he’d had to shoot them before getting the answers to both questions.
    Just then several men shoved their way through the barn doors.
    ‘What’s goin’ on here?’ one of them asked, as hepushed his way to the front and stared down at the two corpses.
    ‘I might ask you the same.’ Cobb holstered his gun. ‘We came in here and these two men started shooting at us. Anyone recognize them?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Who owns the barn?’
    ‘I do.’ It was the man at the forefront of the crowd.
    ‘What about the horses out front?’
    ‘Never seen ’em before either,’ the man said with a couldn’t-care-less shrug.
    ‘Did these men want to hire more horses?’
    ‘Nope, at least I dunno. I wasn’t here when they arrived.’
    ‘Where were you?’
    ‘Down at the saloon. Can’t be here all the time. I guess they must’ve been thieves and when they spotted you and your companion they thought you’d be easy to rob.’
    ‘These things happen sometimes,’ another man said. ‘’Specially in an out-of-the-way place like this where we ain’t got no law.’
    ‘Seems like they was wrong,’ someone else said, with a chuckle.
    Cobb knew he was unlikely to get any answers here. And, of course, these men might be right.
    ‘I’ve got somewhere to go,’ he said. And he was anxious to be on his way. He didn’t want to waste any more time. Every minute would count if he was to prove Steadman innocent. ‘Can I leave it to you to bury these two?’
    ‘Yeah, OK.’
    ‘And I need to hire two of your best horses.’
    ‘OK.’
    As the crowd drifted away now the excitement was over, Cobb caught hold of Neil’s arm.
    ‘I want you to stay here. Find out if anyone knows who these men were and where they came from.’
    Neil looked down at the two dead men. ‘You don’t think they were just out to rob us then?’
    ‘That’d be the simple answer.’
    Neil knew Cobb was sometimes suspicious of simple answers.
    ‘But their horses sure had been ridden hard as if the men were in a hurry.’
    ‘But how would anyone have known we were coming here? Or when we’d arrive?’
    Cobb shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Just see what you can learn. Then come on to Newberry, all right?’
    ‘Yeah, sure.’

CHAPTER FOUR
    It was late afternoon when the outskirts of Newberry came into view. The trail from the railroad halt led in more or less a straight line across the valley, climbing all the while towards the foothills. Soon Cobb found himself in ranch country, herds of cattle grazing on the sparse grass, a line of sycamore trees in the distance indicating the presence of a stream. It was hot, the sun shining out of a cloudless sky, with barely the hint of a breeze
    As he rode through a busy business district it soon