When several minutes had passed and Curt hadn't emerged from the livery stable, Brenner reentered the hotel and faced Summers across the counter.

"I have a little job for you, Charlie.
I'm sure you won't mind doing me a small favor".

Brenner's voice was oily, but Summers wasn't fooled.
He moistened his lips uneasily.

"What is it you want me to do, Mr. Brenner"?

Brenner shrugged carelessly.

"It's very simple.
I just want you to take a message to Diane Molinari.
Tell her to come here to the hotel".

Vastly relieved, Summers nodded and started toward the door.

"One thing, Summers", Brenner said.
"You're not to mention my name.
Tell her Curt Adams wants to see her".

Summers pulled up short, and turned around.

"I don't know, Mr. Brenner", he said haltingly, beginning to get an inkling of Brenner's plans.
"It doesn't seem quite right, telling her a thing like that.
Couldn't I just" -- His voice trailed off into silence.

Brenner continued to smile, but his eyes were cold.
He turned and looked around at the lobby as though seeing things he hadn't before noticed.

"You know, Summers", he said thoughtfully.
"Eagle's Nest ought to have a fire company.
If someone were to drop a match in here, this place would go up like a haystack".
He started toward the stairway, then turned to add, "Tell her to come to Adams's room, that Adams is in trouble.
Tell her to hurry".

"Yes sir".
His face pale, Summers headed for the street.

Curt's visit to the livery stable had been merely a precaution in case anyone should be watching.
He paused only long enough to ascertain that Jess's buckskin was still missing and that his own gray was all right, then climbed through a back window and dropped to the ground outside.

The fact that Jess's horse had not been returned to its stall could indicate that Diane's information had been wrong, but Curt didn't interpret it this way.
A man like Jess would want to have a ready means of escape in case it was needed.
Probably his horse would be close to where he was hiding.

From the back of the barn it was a simple matter to reach Black's house without using the street.
Curt approached the place cautiously, and watched it several minutes from the protection of a grove of trees.

There was a light in Black's front room, but drawn curtains prevented any view of the interior.
Curt circled the house and located a barn out back.
He could hear horses moving around inside, and nothing else.
There was no lock on the door, only an iron hook which he unfastened.
He opened the door and went in, pulling it shut behind him.

Again he stood in the darkness listening, but there was only the scrape of a shod hoof on a plank floor.
He moved ahead carefully, his left hand in front of him, and came to a wooden partition.
Horse smell was very strong, and he could hear the crunch of grain being ground between strong jaws.
He found a match in his pocket and lit it.

There were two horses in the barn, a sway-backed dun and Jess Crouch's buckskin.
Curt snuffed out the match.

It was certain now that Jess was in the house, but also, presumably, was Stacey Black.
Curt wanted to get Jess alone, without interference from anyone, even as spineless a person as the store owner.

He studied the problem for a few seconds and thought of a means by which it might be solved.
Reaching across the side of the stall, he slapped the buckskin on the rump.
The startled animal let out a terrified squeal and thrashed around in the stall.

As Curt had hoped, the house door banged open.
He slapped the buckskin again and it kicked wildly, its hoofs rattling the side of the stall.

Curt moved over beside the door and waited.
Presently he heard footsteps crossing the yard, and Jess's smothered curses.
The door swung open, and Jess said sourly, "What the hell's the matter with you?"

The horse continued to snort.
Curt doubted that any animal belonging to Jess would find much reassurance in its owner's voice.

Jess cursed again, and entered the barn.
A match flared, and he reached above his head to light a lantern which hung from a wire loop.
As he crossed to the side of the stall, Curt drew his gun and clicked back the hammer.

"Before you try anything", he said.
"Remember what happened to Gruller".

Jess caught his breath in surprise.
He started to reach for his gun, but apparently thought better of it.

"That's the stuff", Curt said.
"Just hold it that way".
He reached out to pull the door shut and fasten it with a sliding bolt.
"You and I have a little talking to do, Jess.
You won't be needing this".
He moved up and lifted Jess's pistol out of its holster.

"Damn you, Adams" -- Jess was beginning to recover from his initial shock.
"We ain't got nothing to talk about.
If I don't come back in the house, Breed's going to" --

"Your trigger-happy brother isn't in the house.
About now he's probably having supper.
That long ride the four of you took must've given him a good appetite.
Now turn around so I can see your face".

Jess turned.
There was raw fury in his eyes, and the veins of his neck were swollen.

"You're about as dumb as they come, Adams.
I don't know what you're up to, but when Brenner" --

"You can forget about Brenner, too", Curt said.
"It's Ben Arbuckle we're going to talk about".

"Arbuckle"?
Jess stiffened.
"I don't know nothin' about him".

"No?
I suppose you don't know anything about a piece of two-by-four, either;
one with blood all over it, Arbuckle's blood".
Curt's fingers put a little more pressure on the trigger of his gun.
"So help me, Crouch, I'd like to kill you where you stand, but, before I do, I'm going to hear you admit killing him.
Now start talking.
Who told you to do it?
Was it Dutch Brenner"?

Curt was holding Jess's gun in his left hand.
He drew back his arm to slash the gunbarrel across Jess's face, but didn't finish the motion.
Pistol-whipping an unarmed man might come easy to someone like Jess, but Curt couldn't bring himself to do it.

Apparently sensing this, and realizing that it gave him an advantage, Jess became bold.

"Having all the guns makes you a big man, don't it, Adams?
If we was both armed, you wouldn't talk so tough".

"No"?
Curt reached out and dropped Jess's pistol back into the holster.
He retreated a step and holstered his own.

"All right, Crouch;
we're on even terms.
Now draw"!

Sweat bubbled out on Jess's swarthy face.
The fingers of his right hand twisted into a claw, but he didn't reach for the gun.

Curt, angry enough to be a little reckless, raised his hands shoulder high.

"Does this make it any easier, coward"?

"I ain't drawin' against you", Jess said thickly.
"I heard how you outdrew Chico.
I ain't a gunslinger".

"No.
You're the kind of bastard who sneaks up on a man from behind and hits him with a club.
I just wanted to hear you say so".

Jess stared at him without answering and let his hands fall to his sides.
He had found Curt's weakness, or what to Jess was a weakness, and was smart enough to take advantage of it.

Somewhere in the distance, a woman screamed.
Curt was too involved in his own problems to pay much attention.
He had to make Jess talk, and he had to do it before Stacey Black got curious and came to investigate.
Once more he lifted Jess's gun from its holster, only this time he tossed it into the stall with the frightened buckskin.
He dropped his own beside it.

"We'll do it another way, then", he said harshly.

Jess's coarse features twisted in a surprised grin which was smashed out of shape by Curt's fist.
With a roar of pain and fury Jess made his attack.

Curt managed to duck beneath the man's flailing fist, and drove home a solid left to Jess's mid-section.
It was like hitting a sack of salt.
Pain shot up Curt's arm clear to the shoulder, but Jess seemed hardly aware that he had been hit.
He slammed into the wall, bounced back, and caught Curt with a roundhouse right which sent him spinning.
An inch lower and it would have knocked him out.
As it was, his vision blurred and for a moment he was unable to move.
When his eyes began to focus, he saw Jess charging at him with a pitchfork.

Curt twisted to one side, and the tines of the fork bit into the floor.
Jess wasted a few seconds trying to yank them loose.
It gave Curt time to stagger to his feet.

The tines broke off under Jess's twisting, and he swung the handle in an attempt to knock Curt's brains out.
His aim was hurried;
so the pitchfork whistled over Curt's head.

By now Curt was seeing clearly again.
He stepped inside Jess's guard and landed two blows to the big man's belly, putting everything he had behind them.
They made Jess double over.
When his head came down, Curt grabbed him by the hair and catapulted him head first into the wall.

The building shook, setting the lantern to swaying, and the buckskin to pitching again.
Even Black's old crowbait began to snort, and from the house Black yelled, "Jess!
What's going on out there"?

Jess didn't seem too sure himself.
He lurched drunkenly to his feet, lowered his head, and took one step away from the wall.
Curt caught him flush on the nose with a blow which started at the floor.

Jess had had enough.
Blood gushed from his nose, and he backed off as rapidly as he could, stumbling over his own feet in his frantic haste to get away from Curt's fists.

Curt was in almost as bad shape, but he wouldn't quit.
He backed Jess into a corner, grabbed a handful of the man's shirtfront, and drew back his right fist.

"Tell me about Arbuckle!
You killed him, didn't you"?

"It was Brenner's idea", Jess mumbled, dabbing at his nose.
"He found out about you and Arbuckle talking.
He wanted to show the town what happened to anyone who tried to start trouble".

"You mean anyone who stood up for his rights", Curt said.
He let go of the shirt, and Jess slumped to the floor.
Turning his back, Curt crossed to the stall, reached over to untie the buckskin's halter rope, and waved his hand in the animal's face.

The buckskin bolted out of the stall.
Curt moved in and picked up his gun.
He shook loose straw out of the action, and placed the gun in his holster.
Leaving Jess's where it lay, he left the stall.

"Get up, Crouch.
We're going someplace".

Jess painfully got to his feet as someone rattled the door.

"Who's in there"?
Black called fearfully.

Curt opened the door, grabbed Black by the shoulder, and pulled him into the barn.

"You're staying right here for a while.
This dirty coward just admitted killing Arbuckle.
I'm going to let him tell it to somebody else".
He shoved Black toward the stall, and pointed his pistol at Jess.

"Get out of here.
You're coming along peacefully, or I'll put a bullet in your leg".

Jess stumbled through the door.
Curt followed, reaching behind him to shut the door and hook it.
Black would have little trouble getting out, but it might delay him a few minutes.

"Where're you takin' me"?
Jess asked worriedly.

"We're going to Marshal Woods's house.
Maybe if the marshal hears this himself, it'll make a difference.
Somebody in this town must still have some backbone".