Read Online Deadly Road to Yuma by William W. Johnstone - Free Book Online

try to attack the town again tonight.”
    “But they might some other time,” another man declared, “because they know that Shade’s a prisoner!”
    “If we go ahead and hang him, they won’t have any reason to come back here!”
    Cries of agreement went up from most of the men.
    Sam’s voice rose powerfully to cut through the hubbub. “What about vengeance?” he asked. “If you lynch Shade, you’ll just give his men even more reason to come back to Arrowhead!”
    That reasoning quieted the mob for a moment. Flagg took advantage of the opportunity to say, “I’m gonna send a rider to Tucson first thing in the mornin’. We’ll have a judge out here in less’n a week, so we can give Shade a proper trial…and then hang him!”
    The sheriff was no longer making any pretense that Shade might not be in the jail. He had just admitted it, for all intents and purposes.
    But the mob had been convinced of that already, so the admission didn’t really make any difference.
    “You sure he’s gonna hang?” a man asked.
    “He’s got to be found guilty first,” another pointed out.
    “Hell, we got dozens o’ witnesses who saw him lead that charge into town, shootin’ all the way,” Flagg said. “He’s been seen in other towns, too, raidin’ and killin’. No jury’s gonna find him innocent. You know that.”
    More nods and mutters of agreement came from the crowd.
    “So go on home,” Flagg continued, “unless you want to volunteer to take a shift on lookout duty.”
    Several men stepped forward, and Flagg picked two of them to climb up on the hotel and the bank.
    “We gotta get poor Charlie and Harlan down from there, too,” Flagg said. “Maybe some of you boys could help out with that.”
    The local undertaker already had his wagon parked in the street, and he and a helper were loading up the bodies of the outlaws that had been left behind.
    The crowd in front of the jail began to disperse. Matt, Sam, and Flagg watched them go.
    “Looks like you may not need our help after all,” Matt said.
    “You did a good job of talking some sense into their heads, Sheriff,” Sam added.
    Flagg shook his head sadly. “They listened to me for now, but once they get back in the saloons and take on a snootful o’ Who-hit-John, they’ll get mad again. They’ll egg each other on until sooner or later they decide not to wait for the judge. Might not happen tonight, but sooner or later they’ll make another try for Shade.”
    “If they do, we’ll be here to stop them,” Sam said.
    “But I’m gonna hate like hell to maybe have to shoot some honest folks just to protect a crazy polecat like Shade,” Matt added.
    “You and me both, Bodine,” Sheriff Flagg agreed with a sigh. “You and me both.”
     
    “They were waitin’ for us!” one of the outlaws raged. “We got the signal to come in, but the bastards were still waitin’ for us!”
    “You ain’t tellin’ me anything I don’t already know,” Willard Garth growled. “And you all should’ve knowed there was a chance o’ that happenin’, since we heard those shots beforehand. Somebody caught our boys after they got rid of the lookouts that old desert rat told us about.”
    “The reverend should’ve known that,” a man named Jeffries said. He was more educated than most of the gang, but just as ruthless. “We never should have attacked the town.”
    “Don’t you say nothin’ bad about the rev’rend!” Gonzalez said. “He’s made us all rich men!”
    In truth, they weren’t all that rich, Garth thought, but they had done all right for themselves. And it was Joshua Shade’s planning, as well as his sheer audacity and his ability to inspire the men, that had made it all possible. Gonzalez was right about that.
    The members of the gang had scattered as they fled from Arrowhead, rendezvousing in the hills where their last camp had been, according to the plan laid out by Shade before the attack. Shade didn’t like the idea of acknowledging