“That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Rafe said.
“No, I don’t suppose it was,” Dewayne said, staring at both of them with distaste, and then fastened a stare on Rafe.“Why in the hell did you come in with him, anyway?Wanted to make sure?”
Rafe shrugged.“I guess I reached the same conclusion you did.Stealing those payrolls was a pretty damn stupid thing to do, and I didn’t want to keep running the rest of my life.”
“Because of the girl?”Dewayne asked shrewdly.
“That’s … part of it.”
“What about the others who worked with you?Where are they?”
Rafe’s body stiffened.“They … are gone.I have all the money.They just wanted to help me.It was all my doing, my planning.No one was hurt.”
“Strangest damn bunch of outlaws I’ve seen,” Dewayne said, “giving up that kind of money.But do you really think it’s that easy?Forget armed robbery because you and your friends were doing it for what you considered a just cause?The law doesn’t work that way.I want to know who they are.”
“No.”
“You want to go back to prison real bad, don’t you?”Dewayne said.
Rafe’s lips thinned into a hard line.He didn’t answer.
The silence in the room was suddenly punctuated by the sound of hoofbeats outside.Michael Dewayne went over to the window.“It’s Quarles from Casey Springs with about twenty men.”
Dewayne looked toward his sons.“Ed, go out the back and get what’s left of my men over here.Michael, you stay with these two.”
He left the room, Ed behind him, and Michael went to the door, keeping it open just enough to hear as Russ opened the front door.
“Quarles?”
“I heard you captured the two men who escaped from my jail and my goddamn dumb deputy.I want them.”
“They’re my prisoners,” Russ said.“They’re going to stay here until I can take them to Denver.I heard you almost had a lynching there the other night.I thought you had more control over your town than that.”
“I want them, Russ,” the sheriff from Casey Springs said.“You don’t have anyplace to keep them.”
“It appears you don’t either.I can guarantee they won’t escape from here.”
“It’s my jurisdiction.”
“Hell it is.The crimes occurred in my territory.I voluntarily took a prisoner to your jail, thinking he would be safe.I was mistaken.Now take your men and get out of here.”
“Not without those prisoners.No one escapes from my custody.”
“Nor is anyone taken from mine,” Russ Dewayne said coolly.“And don’t even think about trying.”He looked out.Men were coming out of his bunkhouse, rifles in hand, surrounding the mounted men.
“You haven’t heard the last of this,” Quarles said.
Dewayne shrugged.“Take your complaint to the governor.I never wanted this goddamn job, but now I have it, I’ll do it my way.”
Rafe could hear every angry word from the sheriff, every calm one from Dewayne.He sensed the simmering fury in the visitor’s sudden silence.
Rafe’s estimation of Russ Dewayne continued to grow.He knew Dewayne had been right.Neither he nor Randall would have lasted the night in the Casey Springs makeshift jail.
“You’ll pay for this,” the sheriff blustered as he made his retreat.
“Maybe,” Dewayne said calmly, stepping out on the porch.Rafe couldn’t hear any more.Several minutes later Dewayne returned, chomping down on a cigar.
“Now where were we?”he asked.
