Read Online Slocum's Breakout by Jake Logan - Free Book Online Page B

rope, and Slocum fell facedown in the dirt.
    â€œNone of that, Jess,” the sheriff warned. “We want him presentable when he goes up in front of the judge.”
    â€œDamned stinkin’ bank robber.”
    â€œBank robber?” Slocum looked up in wonder. “I haven’t robbed any bank. Why do you think I have?”
    â€œWitness. She saw you galloping like the wind, carrying the canvas bank bag filled with the gold coins.”
    â€œShe?” Slocum knew who this witness was.
    â€œOn the road not a couple miles from where we nabbed you. Right pretty young thing, she was.”
    â€œIf I was riding, where’s the horse? Where’s the money?”
    â€œNow, those are matters we’re going to determine,” Bernard said. “Get him inside, boys.”
    Strong hands dragged Slocum into the jail, his toes dragging in the dirt. They threw him into one of two cells before removing the shackles on his wrists. He rubbed where the iron had chafed the skin raw and bloody. He hardly winced when the sheriff slammed the cell door with a loud clang and turned the key in the lock.
    â€œFind the money,” Bernard ordered his posse. “He musta hid it somewhere along the road. It wasn’t more ’n a mile or two between where we caught him and the spot where the girl saw him.”
    â€œShe was a real looker, even if she was a Mexican,” said a deputy.
    â€œGit your worthless asses out there and find the money. Hez Galworthy’ll have a conniption fit if you don’t.”
    â€œThink he’ll give us a reward if we find the money?”
    â€œHez is like most bankers. Tighter ’n a snake’s asshole when it comes to money, but he just might. Now git!”
    The deputies left. The sheriff heaved a sigh and sank down behind his desk. It had been positioned so he could stare into the cells, leaving his back to the doorway.
    â€œTell me about the robbery,” Slocum said. “How many men robbed Galworthy?”
    â€œYou know, it might just be that something different ’n I thought happened out there on the road. There were two of you. Might be you had a falling-out. Your partner take the money and your horse? You might as well come clean, especially if he double-crossed you. What do you owe him anyway?”
    Slocum considered his options. He might confess to being a bank robber just to implicate José Valenzuela. He had no doubt at all that José had been the robber, and that his sister had been the one who had put the posse on Slocum’s tail. But if he did that, he might get revenge on Valenzuela but would also end up in jail for years.
    The memory of San Quentin caused him to set his jaw in determination not to return there as a prisoner. He owed Valenzuela. He would deliver justice himself—at the muzzle of his six-shooter.
    â€œWe got witnesses enough to know your partner’s some old geezer.”
    Slocum’s mouth fell open. He snapped it shut and tried to put on a poker face. He wasn’t sure how well he succeeded since the sheriff watched him like a hawk. Barely had José Valenzuela returned when he and his pa had ridden out to rob the Miramar bank. The elder Valenzuela hadn’t been near death at all. Conchita had duped him into believing her pa was dying, but all she wanted was for the old man and José to get back to what was likely their profession: robbing banks.
    â€œYou have other robberies done by the same two men?” Slocum asked.
    â€œI haven’t looked, but that’s a mighty good idea. I might convict you of more ’n one in the area. Of course, the money from them’s likely to be gone, isn’t it? Otherwise, why would you be so brazen about committing a daylight robbery?”
    â€œAnyone shot?”
    â€œNow, you know the answer to that. Lot of lead flyin’’round but nobody was hit. Scared the hell out of old Hez. Probably the most excited he’s been in