Read Online The Gun Fight by Richard Matheson - Free Book Online Page B

against Benton. It was simply that he didn’t want to die. It was simply that honor seemed a very little thing beside life.
    Robby tilted back his head and looked up into the jet expanses of the sky, sprinkled with glowing star dots. He felt the rhythmic jogging of the horse beneath him as he watched the sky.
    Those are the stars, he thought. They were so far away no man could ever count the miles, much less travel them. It gave him a strange feeling to watch them and know how far away they were and how big. Once, hisschool teacher had told Robby that if a man could gallop a horse as fast as possible and keep on galloping all his life, he still wouldn’t even travel a thousandth of the way to a star. So far away they were and he was so small and what he did was so unimportant to the stars. Why was it so important to him then?
    Robby Coles looked down quickly at the darkness of the earth. It was no use looking at stars. Stars couldn’t save him; he had to save himself.
    He saw that his roan was walking past the first stores of downtown Kellville and his hands lifted from the horn to guide the horse right at the next intersection. He didn’t want to ride into the square. Someone might see him; someone who knew.
    When Robby turned onto St. Virgil Street, the horseman came out of the night toward him.
    For a moment, Robby felt a cold, rippling sensation in his groin that made him twitch. It’s
him
, the thought lashed at his mind. He almost jerked the horse around and fled. Then, with a sudden stiffening, he lowered his head and looked intently at the saddle horn, feeling the roan bump steadily beneath him, hearing the thud of the approaching hoofbeats. He can’t shoot if I’m not looking at him, his mind thought desperately, no one shoots a man that isn’t looking. His heart beat faster and harder, sweat broke out thinly on his forehead. The horse came closer. You don’t shoot a man when he’s not looking!—he thought in anguish—you never shoot a man when he’s—
    The horse man rode by without a word and Robby sagged forward weakly in the saddle, lips trembling, breath caught in his throat.
    It was no use, no use; he realized it then. He couldn’t fight Benton; the very thought petrified him. No matter what happened, no matter what anyone said, he couldn’t fight Benton. He
wouldn’t
fight him.
    A heavy breath faltered between Robby’s parted lips. In a way, it was relieving to make the decision. It gavehim a settled feeling. Even realizing that he’d have to face his father with the decision, it made him feel better.
    As he rode for the edge of town, Robby wondered what Louisa would want him to do. She certainly seemed astounded that morning when he paled and went storming from the house after she told him about Benton asking her for a meeting. No, he didn’t think Louisa would expect him to fight Benton with a gun.
    Yet, what if she did? He loved her and felt responsible for her. His father had been right in that respect anyway. Someone had to defend her and he seemed to be the only one to do it.
    But did he have to
die
for her honor?
    Robby nudged his boot heels into the roan’s flanks and the big horse broke into a rocking-chair canter up St. Virgil Street toward the edge of Kellville.
    The horsemen seemed to appear from nowhere. One moment, Robby was alone, riding in his thoughts. The next, three horses were milling around him and he was cringing with frightened surprise in his saddle.
    “Hey, Robby,” one of the young men shouted above the stirring hooves of the four horses.
    Robby swallowed. “Oh . . . hello,” he said, recognizing the voice of Dave O’Hara, an old school friend of his he hadn’t seen more than three times in the past year.
    The horses twisted around, snorting, while Robby stared at O’Hara’s dark form.
    “Where ya goin’?” O’Hara asked.
    “No place.”
    “What’s that?”
    “
No
place!”
    “Well, come on with us then. We’re headin’ for the