Taek Won Do #2: Chains - SEVEN

"He saved them for us," said the fat Hopalong, twisting a strand of buckskin coat fringe around a thick finger. "Gave your guns back to me very cordial."

Smokes pushed his spectacles into place. "I don't like to be beholden to a greaser," he said. "All on account of that slope."

"Shucks now," observed Craig. "We could have bushwhacked him yesterday if you hadn't been so anxious to get away from there. As it was we had to send Hopalong back to...."

"Shut your pie hole," said Smokes. He adjusted his specs.

the three of them were seated at a small round table in the saloon next to the Tightbutte Imperial Hotel. It was a big room, smelling considerably better than the little cafe in Rustic Springs. A crystal chandelier, festooned with spiderwebs and dead flies, hung, off-center, from the plain wood ceiling. The walls were thick with chrome reproductions of paintings, nailed up unframed. Most of the pictures showed pastoral scenes, but behind the long bar was struck a series depicting the crucifixion of Christ.

The bartender was a small man. Very little of him showed above the long polished wood counter.

The only customer standing at the bar was a middle-sized blond young man, dressed in new, stiff Western-style clothes. "Maybe you've heard of him," he was saying to the bartender. "His name's Ollie Pitts."

"Name don't ring no bells," replied the smallish bartender.

The young man took another sip of his whisky. "Probably no one will have," said. "But there's no arguing with my wife. My theory is, there never was any gold."

Craig lit a fresh black cigar, inclining his head towards the bar. "Did I hear somebody say gold?" he asked in a low voice.

Smokes pushed his spectacles above his eyes, took a quick careful glance at the young man.

"Gold prospecting, was he?" asked the bartender.

"So he told my wife," said Milton Hare. "But he was continually throwing himself into some new scheme, always with great enthusiasm. I'm sure by now he's dropped the gold idea for something else."

"You lost track of him?"

"Not me, my wife," replied Hare. "I can go for long stretches without seeing Ollie Pitts and it doesn't bother me at all." He emptied his glass, pushed it towards the little man behind the counter.

Refilling, the bartender said, "Not much gold in these parts."

"Not much easy money anywhere," said Hare, after starting on his new drink. "But Ollie Pitts hasn't come around to accepting that notion."

"Go off by himself, did he?"

"No, he always finds a good supply of fools to join him in these enterprises," answered Katherine Hare's husband. "Maybe you've heard of some of his cronies. Let's see....I've listened to their names often enough from my wife. The others were John Robinson, Logan Brock, and a man named Morisson."

"Don't ring no bells," said the little bartender.

"Shucks now," said Craig. "That's the...."

"I know," said Smokes, lowering his wire-rimmed glasses back in place. "Morisson's the man our slope friend was so anxious to find."

"He," said Hopalong, still fiddling with his fringe, "didn't look much like he was hunting for gold, that foreign varmint---whatever he was s'posed t' be."

Smokes said, "Seems like whoever finds this here Morisson is gonna find gold and that slope."

"Maybe," said Craig, exhaling smoke.

Through the doorway connecting the saloon with the hotel came Katherine Hare. She walked straight to the bar. "I thought you were going to wait in our room, Milton."

Finishing his whisky, Hare smiled. "This seemed a pleasanter place," he said. "Find out anything from.....?"

"We can talk when we're alone," his wife told him, her slender fingers on his arm.

"This is as good a place as any to talk."

"Milton, please."

After a few seconds, Hare moved away from the bar. He smiled over his shoulder at the bartender as he followed his wife out of the place.

Crais observed, "Too skinny, for my tastes."

Smokes rubbed the left lens of his spectacles with a fingertip. "You haven't got much taste when it comes to women," he said, frowning thoughtfully.378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16qzfHYca0
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Hands on hips, Katherine surveyed their hotel room. "We don't have to take much with us," she said. "We can leave most of our stuff here until we come back."

Her husband was leaning against a slightly lopsided mahogany bureau. "You're determined to go to the fort?"

Her blond hair flicked as she nodded her head. "I told you what the sheriff said. One of Ollie's partners, this man Morisson, is being held there, in the Fort Lonestar stockade."

"By now I imagine the rest of them are scattered to the four winds," said Hare, folding his arms. "Particularly if there was a murder. Your brother was never one to show much courage in...."

"He's a lot braver, a long stronger than you ever give him credit for, Milton." She crossed to a trunk that was sitting in the far corner. "And Ollie would never have spent his time sitting around in saloons telling our business to some..."

"That's where you and I differ. I don't have very much personal feelings for Ollie. I consider looking for him simply as a job, an unpleasant one that I'd like to get over as soon as...."

"You....."

"Let me finish, please, Katherine. That I'd like to get over as soon as possible," continued Hare. "I was questioning the bartender. Bartenders often know as much, if not more, than your average small-town sheriff."

"Really?" Katherine yanked open her trunk. "And what did you learn from this particular saloonkeeper?"

"Well, for one thing," her husband said, "Ollie probably didn't find any gold."

"Why?"

"Because there's very little to be found in this part of the country."

"Ollie told me they'd found gold. I prefer to believe him rather than one of your drinking buddies."

"I realize that," said Hare. "How far are we from Fort Lonestar, by the way?"

"The fort is supposed to be something like twenty miles north of here."

"A healthy ride."

"Yes, so if you're through striking poses against the furniture," said Katherine, "we can leave."

"I suppose you've already arranged for horses for us?"

"Yes, they're being readied right now."

"Very efficient."

She slammed the trunk and walked up to her husband. "You don't have to come, Milton. You can stay here, or rather down in the saloon if you like."

Hare smiled. "Oh, no, Katherine. I prefer to continue on the quest."

She turned away from him. 378Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc9iacFYXk4

SEVEN

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