Читать книгу Settling The Score - George McLane Wood - Страница 39

Chapter Two

Jeff entered the master bedroom’s walk-in closet and knelt. He lit a match to see there were no rattlers nearby; he removed two short boards in the back corner, reached down in the hole, and pulled up two leather bags, each tied with a leather twang. Jeff hefted the bags; he liked hearing the metallic sounds that gold coins made. He unbuttoned his shirt, slipped the bags in, and rebuttoned it. He went into her sitting room, as she’d called it, where she done her sewing.

Jeff stepped into her empty closet, turned around, and reached up high. “There you are…Hello there, Winnie, long time no see.” And he lifted “her” down, Jeff’s .44-40 Winchester fourteen-shot saddle carbine rifle, that he’d hidden there before he went to jail. She’d been resting up there, fully loaded, for almost three years. Now he had his gold coins and he had Winnie, and she felt damn good by his side.

“These are my first two chores, Sally,” Jeff whispered softly. “Now I got three more chores to get done, then it’ll be over and finished.” His hot blood had long since cooled down. Now he was executing his long-thought-out plans—in cold blood.

It was early dark; the moon’s rise wasn’t due for a while. Jeff was bone-tired after sitting a horse for mostly all day. He wasn’t hungry for food; he was hungry for blood, but right now, he needed some rest.

“No fire, Ed, just a cold supper of jerky.”

“That’s all we’re having?” Ed asked.

“Yep, snuff that candle too, we may need it later. Now let’s get some sleep,” Jeff replied as he rolled over into his blanket with his six-gun in his right fist.

“Ah, darn it, Jeff, I’m really hungry.”

“Well, damn it, Ed, you can eat some of our jerky, can’t you?”

With Winnie close by, just in case, Jeff relaxed. He’d had a long day, and he’d used some muscles today he hadn’t used in almost three years. He wanted to dream again of Sally. “I’ll start tomorrow, Sally,” he whispered. “I’ll finish this business with Murphy once and all. For both of us, I promise, Sally…so tired.” His thoughts eased some, and they backed off, into the darkness of night, and Jeff slipped into a deep sleep, and he dreamed of sweet and lovely long-ago times, of Sally and himself, when they were laughing and happy and in love.