Gold (29 page)

Danny felt his face flame. He scowled. King
Sutton smiled, gave him a mock salute, and
strolled off. Damn him, Danny thought. Damn
him, damn him, damn him.

W.W. Rhynne mounted the platform in the
middle of the road. He raised both arms above his
head.
“Gentlemen!” he called. “Gentlemen. Let me
have your attention, please.”

The crowd gathered around the platform.

“The time has arrived at last,” Rhynne said, “to
discover which of you men will savor the delights
of the magnificent new bed which the Empire
Hotel has imported from France, sparing no ex
pense.”

The men cheered.

“Soon we’ll know the name of the lucky gentleman who will take his place in the personal bed of
King Louis XIV, the Sun King of France.”

“
Never mind the king,” someone shouted. “Where’s the queen?” The men laughed appre
ciatively.

“
Hurry up, Rhynne, let’s get on with it,” one
called out.

“
All in good time,” Rhynne said. “I know that before we have today’s grand finale, the drawing
of the winning number, you’ll all want to hear the
oration prepared for this occasion by our candidate for the legislature, the Reverend James Col
ton.”

The crowd groaned.

“Not seeing the Reverend in attendance, however,” Rhynne went on, “we’ll have to forego that
pleasure.” The men cheered. “And so, there’s
nothing for it but to conduct the drawing. Would some of you bring up that table?” Two miners
carried a table to the platform.

“
And to select the winning ticket we have a
man honored in this community for his probity, a man for all seasons, a graduate of the prestigious
Castleton Medical College of Vermont, Dr. Sam
uel Braithewaite.”
Doc Braithewaite was pounded on the back as
he made his way forward. He climbed onto the
platform beside
Rhynne.

“
Doctor,” Rhynne said, “there’s one point we
should clarify before we begin. Have you yourself
entered this lottery?”

“
No sir, I have not.”

“
And do you have any financial interest in it
whatsoever?”

“
You haven’t forgotten that forty-rod, have
you?”

There was a chorus of guffaws.

“Two bottles of the Empire Hotel’s best whisky
will go to our eminent physician and surgeon in
appreciation of his many services.”

“
Cut out the palaver,” Jack Smith of Howard called, “and let’s have the drawing.”

“
My thoughts exactly,” Rhynne said. “Abe!” he
shouted to the bartender standing on the porch of
the Empire. “Will you be so good as to unlock the
hotel and bring us the box containing the tickets?”

Abe nodded and went into the hotel.

“After the drawing,” Rhynne said, “all losing
tickets will be redeemed at the bar for one drink
of your choice. No man goes away dry.”

Abe returned with the pine box, climbed onto
the platform and set the box on the table.

“
Here we are,” Rhynne said. “The box you’ve
all been eyeing these last few weeks. Now, Mr.
Griswold, will you perform the opening honors?”

John Griswold inserted a metal flange in the
notch at the top of the box and pried off one of
the pine boards.

“
Doctor, please mix the tickets thoroughly before you draw one.”
Doc Braithewaite put his hand into the box, stirred the contents for a few moments, then held a ticket aloft.

“
Will you read the number, sir?” Rhynne asked
him.

“
Forty-three,” Braithewaite said.

Rhynne stared at him, open-mouthed. King
Sutton, who had been lounging against a wagon at
the rear of the crowd, raised his arm. Danny
O’Lee pushed his way past the miners to the
platform.

“
I believe that’s my number,” Sutton said. “A
king’s bed for a King.” The men parted to make
way for him as he walked leisurely to the plat
form.

Rhynne snatched the winning ticket from
Braithewaite’s hand. A large “43” was printed
on a quarter-page cut from the Lyrical Ballads.

“
You seem a mite surprised, W.W.,” Braithe
waite said.

“
More than a mite,” Rhynne said.

“
Here’s the other half of the ticket,” King Sut
ton said, holding it toward Rhynne.

Danny O
’Lee leaped up the steps at the rear
of the platform and drew a handful of tickets from
the box. Each had a “43” printed on it. Abe tore
the tickets from his hand, dropped them back into
the box and, with the box in his arms, jumped
from the platform and headed for the hotel.

Danny pushed his way forward.
“You,” he
shouted down at King Sutton, who stood in front
of the platform, “are a cheat.”

“
Be real careful what you say, lad,” Sutton told him in a low voice.
Danny raised his arm and there was a hush
” King Sutton’s a liar and a cheat,” he shouted.

“
You’re forcing my hand,” Sutton said dan
gerously.

“
A liar and a cheat in spades,” Danny shouted.

“
Then, sir, seeing that you persist, I must call you out.”

“
And just what do you mean by that?”

“
I’m challenging you, O’Lee, to a duel. Will
you meet me on the field of honor? Are you man
enough?”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

King Sutton arrived first at the meadow. Al
though they had tried to keep the time and place
of the duel secret, he found more than a score of
men waiting. Smiling, Sutton waved to them, then
turned to his seconds, Doc Braithewaite and Jack
Smith of Howard.

Pointing to a cottonwood tree a short distance
away, he asked, “Would you say that’s ten paces?”

“
A bit more than ten,” Smith said.

“
Would you say the first limb is heart-high, doctor?”

“
Heart-high or thereabouts.”

Sutton raised his Paterson Colt, cocked the
hammer, aimed and fired. Gunsmoke drifted
across the meadow and a small hole had appeared in
the tree trunk next to the limb. Sutton cocked
fired the pistol two more times. When he fi
nally lowered the gun there were three holes in
the trunk separated by not more than two inches.

“
That’s what I call real good shooting,” Smith commented.

“
I could always hold my own in Georgia.”

“
Perhaps the O’Lee lad will change his mind,”
Doc Braithewaite said, “when he sees those
holes.”

“
That was my intent,” King Sutton said. “I don’t
want to kill the boy unless he forces me to.”

“
They’re here.” All except Sutton turned.

Rhynne came first, an unlit cigar tilted in his mouth. Danny O
’Lee came next, dressed in his
mining clothes of red wool shirt and blue trousers.
He looked neither right nor left as he walked
down the hill toward the meadow. Ned followed
him, holding a Paterson Colt away from his side
as though he wanted as little to do with the gun as he possibly could.

The three men stopped at the edge of the
meadow. Rhynne motioned Danny to wait, then
walked across the grass to King Sutton.

“
I heard shooting a few minutes ago,” Rhynne
said. “I was afraid we might be too late for the
festivities.”

“
I was practicing, W.W.,” Sutton told him, nod
ding to the bullet holes in the cottonwood.

“
That’s real fine shooting. Real fine. King, I’d like to talk to you in private,” Rhynne said, nod
ding toward Braithewaite and Smith. Sutton’s sec
onds walked a short distance away.

“
This duel does you no credit.” Rhynne paused.
“It’s murder, no more, no less.”

“
The duel’s not of my making. I don’t want to kill him, W.W. You know that.”

“
I don’t know what you want. But kill the boy you will if you fight him.”

“
He called me a liar and a cheat in front of all
of Hangtown.”

“
You did change the numbers on the tickets.”

“
Are you calling me a cheat?”

“
Take it any way you like. You know I’m not afraid of you, Sutton. I’m dealing from the top of
the deck—you marked those tickets so you’d
win.”

“
After you’d marked them yourself. Every
ticket in that box had a ‘one’ on it.”

“
So the Reverend Colton would win the lottery.
To protect Selena. I gave the miners the time of
their lives, I gave them weeks of hoping and won
dering and savoring and dreaming. I gave them all
that, not to mention a free drink. I protected Se
lena, and I was about to make a generous contri
bution to Colton’s church.”

Sutton stared steadily back.
“By changing all
your number ‘one’s’ to my ‘forty-threes,’ one of
those men you took a hundred dollars from,
namely myself, attempted to have his hopes realized. Listen, Rhynne, it’s not being found out that
angered me, or the fact it was O’Lee. I have my honor to defend. I’d be branded a coward for the rest of my life if I hadn’t called the boy for what
he said.”

“
This isn’t Georgia.”

“
Still I am a Georgian. And a southerner. Even
if I wanted to back down, and I don’t, I couldn’t
now. The only way out is for O’Lee to apologize.”

“
He’s not about to.”

“
Then we settle the matter on the field of
honor.”

Rhynne shook his head and went back to
Danny.

“
Did you see that tree King Sutton used for
target practice?” he asked him.

“
That I did. And I see King all dressed up like
an undertaker, too.” Sutton was all in black—
broad-brimmed hat, frock coat, and trousers.

“
Have you ever fired a Paterson Colt in your
life?”

“
That I have not.”

“
Then why in the name of all that’s holy did
you agree to use them?”

“
I’ve never fired anything else either. ‘Cepting a pepperpot a few months back. All the barrels went off at once and that cured me of guns.”

“
How old are you, lad?”

“
Twenty-one less a fraction.”

“
You’ve a long and happy life ahead of you.
With the gold from your claim you can go off and
live like a king. Marry a lovely colleen and raise
a grand family. There’s no end to the . ..”

“
I told you before, W.W., I’m not about to
apologize to that bastard. Talk till doomsday and
I’ll be no more likely to show the white feather
than I am now.”

Rhynne looked at him closely, noting the pale
spots at the corners of his mouth and the heavi
ness of his eyes from lack of sleep.

“
You’re a brave one, lad,” he said.

“
I’m not. I’m afraid.”

“
I know you are. That’s why I said you were brave.”

Danny took a folded sheet of paper from his
pocket and handed it to Rhynne.