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Lee slung his arm over the saddle horn and stretched himself, then settled into the saddle and tried on a smile.
“Frank, good morning.”
“Lee, everybody thought you was dead.”
“Well now, I guess everyone was wrong, weren’t they? I’m still alive.” Seeing as how the three of them aimed to stop him, he eyed their guns. “Thanks Frank, it’s good to be home. You sure got the word quickly. I wonder, how?”
“Where you headed?”
“Into town.” Lee smiled.
“What for?”
“Gotta get a little girl some peppermint.” Lee tried the smile on again.
“Well now, about that little girl, and the others with her. We had hard times before you left and hard times while you were gone, but I reckon it’s time to settle things up now, Lee. You ain’t been very friendly about them water rights, and neither has that woman,” Frank said, as he pulled his gun on him.
“That woman? You mean Hattie?”
“What took you so long to get back, Lee?”
“Well now Frank, if you’d been in the war, you might know. Lot of men got hurt. Lot of men died.”
“Yeah, too bad about the arm. And I might show a little sympathy for you, except you haven’t shown any for me about the water. You’re still as stubborn as always.”
“I guess it is time to talk about it, Frank.”
“Too late for talkin’.”
“It’s never too late, Frank.”
“Why all the secrecy when you came back?”
“Didn’t want you to know I was back, is all.”
“I want to know why you are goin’ to town.”
“I told you, for peppermint.”
Frank chuckled. “Yeah…sure…you’re ridin’ all that way to get candy?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yeah…”
“Well, not that it’s any concern of yours, but you ain’t gonna make it into town. Now as I see it, nobody but that she-wolf you got on your place and that old black buck, know you are alive. That makes it awful easy for me to do you in, right now. Wouldn’t you say?”
“Frank, you don’t want to do this. I’m willin’ to talk to you about the rights.”
Frank looked at his brothers and smiled. “Is that a fact…Well, I might be impressed except I got a better idea. You see, since no one knows you are still alive, if I kill ya, it won’t matter. So I think I finally have the right edge to this, don’t you?”
“You don’t want to settle this once and for all, and end the fighting?” Lee offered.
“Oh we’re gonna end it alright…”
Then before Lee could react, Tor jumped from his horse to him and tackled him to the ground. Tor fisted him several times across the mouth, then hit him in the gut. Lee cringed but managed a left hook that shocked Tor. He was pulverizing Tor when a shot rang out that stopped him dead cold.
He reached for his shoulder. Blood gushed from him and nausea erupted from his gut as Tor hit him there. Pain echoed in his shoulder.
“Now Lee,” Frank was saying as Tor continued to batter him, “We don’t want to do this, but you’ve been kinda hard-headed about everything all along. We want that water, and we want it today…not tomorrow or next week. We’ll take your land too…” Frank laughed. “And the woman…”
