Read Online Ralph Compton Sixguns and Double Eagles by RALPH COMPTON - Free Book Online

blood staining the back of their nightclothes. They were dead without question, for they had been shot repeatedly.
    â€œSix dead in a matter of hours,” said Wes. “You can see what we’re up against.”
    â€œYes,” Powers said, “and I don’t envy you. Where do you go from here?”
    â€œIt’s just as well you don’t know, Captain,” said Wes. “Someday, when this is finished, maybe we can sit down to a good meal and tell you what it was all about.”
    â€œI’d like that,” Powers said. “You’re enough like your father until I won’t be surprised if you accomplish what you’ve set out to do. What shall I tell Silver?”
    â€œTell him all questionable parties to be arrested are dead,” said Wes. “El Lobo and me will leave you here.”
    â€œGood luck,” Powers said.

    Emo Hanks regarded his three henchmen with some satisfaction.
    â€œWe took care of the Reed place first,” said Ansco. “We went next to Morgan‘s, and then to DeShazo’s. Won’t none of them be talkin’.”
    â€œI hope you had the good sense to accomplish it without being seen,” Hanks said.
    â€œOf course we wasn’t seen,” said Ansco in an aggrieved voice. “Hell, it was pitch dark and we didn’t strike a light.”
    â€œWhat about them troublesome gunslingers,” Dobie asked. “You want us to get back on their trail?”
    â€œEventually,” said Hanks, “but not yet. With Reed, Morgan, and DeShazo silenced, they can’t hurt us here. They’ll be movin’ on, and once they’re out of town, they’re fair game. Let them get far enough away so there’s no law and no military to get curious.”
    â€œSuppose they take a steamboat,” Eads said. “You want us to follow?”
    â€œNo,” said Hanks, “they’ll be expecting that. If they just ride out, then follow them and gun them down. Should they leave by steamboat, they’ll have to load their horses well ahead of the time the boat leaves. Soon as you know they’re going by steamboat, hightail it here and let me know. I have other plans.”
    â€œThere won’t be a boat goin’ north until tomorrow,” Ansco said. “You want us to take some more shots at them while they’re in town?”
    â€œOnly if you can do it without answering to the law,” said Hanks. “Unless they ride out today, that probably means they’ll be taking the steamboat tomorrow. See that you don’t botch things up. If you can’t find a good time and place for an ambush, then leave it alone. Get picked up by the law, and you’re on your own.”
    When Wes and El Lobo left Captain Powers and his men, they chose a roundabout way to the stable, where they would leave their horses. They unsaddled the animals, and leaving the stable, looked warily around.
    â€œIf we can get back to our room at the boardinghouse,” said Wes, “we’ll stay there until we have to take the horses aboard the steamboat tomorrow.”
    â€œSí,” El Lobo said. “They don’t shoot at us now.”
    â€œNo reason for them to,” said Wes. “They’ve eliminated everybody who might have been a threat to them here. Now they’ll have to start over, but from what Silver said, they won’t waste any time. We can’t wait to see what’s goin’ to happen here, when they’re goin’ strong elsewhere.”
    â€œWhere we go now?”
    â€œNevada,” Wes said. “There’s a mint at Carson City, and it’s the next obvious place. I don’t understand the situation in Carson City, or their activity there. It’s not that far on to San Francisco. There’s a mint in ‘Frisco, and it’s right on the coast, so why are they involved with the mint in Nevada, which is so far inland?”
    â€œSteamboat