Read Online Of Grave Concern by Max McCoy - Free Book Online Page B

crown of the head with the butt of the gun,” he told the cowboy.
    â€œWhat?” Garuth shrieked.
    The cowboy turned the gun around so that he held it by the barrel and began lining up the handle with the back of Garuth’s head.
    â€œDo it already.”
    â€œI want to do it right,” the cowboy said.
    Garuth dropped the knife.
    â€œShucks,” the cowboy muttered.
    â€œThanks,” Calder said as he took the gun and returned it to his holster. Then he rubbed the palm of his right hand on his jeans. “Garuth, you have to take a bath every so often. Your hair is full of. . . I don’t know, smells like horse apples and axle grease.”
    â€œBut I just hit town.”
    â€œYou could take the time to bathe. If you can’t afford a hotel, there are plenty of cheap tent baths.”
    â€œYou going to take me to jail?” Garuth asked.
    â€œNo,” the man said.
    â€œBut—”
    â€œShush up,” the man said. “I don’t have all of tomorrow morning to spend testifying to Judge Frost about how Garuth insulted your person.”
    â€œBut he tried to kill me!”
    â€œYou could have lived without your ear.”
    â€œBut it was my good ear.”
    He told Gary and the cowboy to take off and plan on spending the night at opposite ends of Front Street, or there would be hell to pay. They sprang away as if magnetically repelled.
    Then Calder glanced over and saw me still pressed up against the saloon.
    â€œAre you all right, miss?”
    â€œJust startled,” I said, peeling myself off the wood. “But thank you for asking.”
    â€œSorry about that,” he said. “They’re not wicked boys. Just stupid.”
    â€œWell, Mister Calder,” I said. “Are you an officer of the law? I don’t see a badge. Perhaps you just go about town dispensing justice as sort of a public service?”
    â€œHardly,” he said.
    â€œAre you a Pinkerton, then?” My voice broke only a little.
    â€œNo,” he said, and coughed. “But I’m a member of the Vigilance Committee. I also work for the businessmen who put up surety in exchange for bail at the district court here.”
    â€œYou work for them? How?”
    Calder smiled. He was looking down, inspecting my clothing, and I could guess he wasn’t thinking anything complimentary. It occurred to me that I’d rather have this man as an ally instead of a foe, considering how decisively he broke up the aural assault.
    â€œI track down those who fail to appear and deliver them to the court.”
    â€œYou’re a bounty hunter.”
    â€œSome call me that,” he said coldly.
    â€œDo you also collect rewards?”
    â€œAt times.”
    â€œThen you’re a bounty hunter. That’s why you can carry a gun on this side of town and the others can’t. What did Garuth call it? ‘The deadline’?”
    â€œThe tracks are the deadline,” Calder said. “North of the tracks, you can’t carry firearms. South of the tracks, anything goes.”
    â€œDodge City is full of demarcations, isn’t it?”
    â€œIf you’ll pardon me,” he said, “I have business. . . .”
    â€œOf course, how rude of me,” I said. “Do you have an office?”
    â€œAcross from the courthouse,” he said. “Frazier and Hunnicutt. I work out of the back.”
    â€œAh, I’ll remember.”
    â€œWhy?” He seemed puzzled and somewhat alarmed.
    â€œI may have to turn myself in,” I said. “There’s a considerable reward, they say.”
    He looked at me as if I had just fallen from the sky.
    â€œThat was an attempt at humor, Mr. Calder.”
    â€œIt doesn’t strike me as funny.”
    â€œIt would be, if you knew my situation.”
    â€œI’m sure I don’t,” he said.
    â€œNor would you like to, apparently,” I said.
    â€œI have no time