cooperating will be arrested for accessory to attempted murder. Full-on murder if the sheriff dies. They can rot in my cell for the next week until the judge can get here and sort it all out.”
Frost swallowed hard.
“Now, then,” Luke said. “What happened here?”
Still, Frost hesitated.
“The sheriff came in,” Scarlet said as she got up off the cowboy’s lap to start his way. “He said he was taking Felton in for beating that miner. He said it wasn’t a fair fight. He weren’t wrong. Felton hit that miner from behind for no reason, then laid into him with his boots. It weren’t right.”
Luke nodded for her to continue.
She shrugged, “Felton, he laughed at the sheriff, called him an old fool. Then pulled his gun and shot.”
“The sheriff didn’t have a chance,” Frost interjected. “None of us saw it coming. The sheriff was all calm like. As if he didn’t think it were important. Felton would do a short stint in jail then it could all be forgotten. Like I said, none of us saw Felton going off like that.”
“Sheriff Reed stumbled out and across the street,” Scarlet added with a shudder.
“Was Troy Cooper with Felton?” Luke asked.
“Yes,” Frost said. “But if you ask me, he was as surprised as the rest of us.”
“Where did they go?”
Frost shrugged, “They both went out the back. I imagine they’re halfway back to the Circle B by now.”
Luke sighed, he’d feared that might be the case. Going in after Felton on his ranch all alone was going to be difficult. Especially up against a dozen men who rode for the brand. He turned to the group of cowboys in the corner.
“You get word to Mark Felton. Tell him I said he’s a coward, liar, and no good coyote. I known mangy dogs worth more.”
The men blanched. Those were killing words. A man could find himself dead in some ditch saying something like that. Especially about a man like Mark Felton. Out here, a man’s reputation was everything. Everyone knew everyone. A man couldn’t hide in a crowd. A coward or liar wouldn’t be trusted. He’d be ostracized, finished in this land.
“He’s got one chance,” Luke continued. “He turns himself in and I won’t kill him. For a coward like him, it’s probably his best bet.”
One of the older men nodded, “We’ll get him your words. We pass by that way on our way home. But he ain’t going to like it.”
Luke scoffed as he turned his back on them and started to leave. He was almost out the door when he turned back in and addressed Frost.
“You can stay open as long as you run a clean house. No girls against their will, no rigged games,” here he glanced over at Doc Weaver. Then turning back to Frost, he added, “and no more half-dead miners.”
“I can’t control everything,” Frost growled.
“You better start or I’ll shut you down. The town’s got enough saloons. No one is going to go thirsty.”
Frost swallowed hard then nodded.
Luke stared into his eyes to make sure the point was driven home then turned and left. As he stepped into the street, he took a deep breath. He could only hope calling out Felton worked. It would be so much better if Felton came into town after him instead of him having to go out there and carve his way through the ranch hands to get at him.
He started across the street then thought better of it and turned for McAdam’s.
“How’s he doing?” he whispered when he stepped into the shop. The sheriff was laid out on a table, his eyes closed, his head wrapped in bandages. Luke was relieved to see his chest rise when the man took a breath.
John McAdams was a tall, well-built man, in his early thirties, clean-shaven, with intelligent eyes. He shook his head. “I don’t know. I ain’t a real doctor. But even if I was, I don’t know what more I could do. The bullet gouged out a good chunk of his skull but didn’t go through.”
Luke nodded, silently encouraging him to continue.
McAdams shrugged, “He lost a lot of blood and he hasn’t woken yet.” The man frowned with sad eyes. “Even if he does, I can’t promise he will be who he was. It’s a nasty head wound. I saw too many of them in the war. Sometimes men don’t come back from a wound like that. Not the man they were. You know what I mean.”
A sick feeling filled Luke. That would