Blood Wedding

“He knows he’s lost this fight. There won’t be much left of his gang after those farmers get through with them tonight. He might be able to get another gang together, but it would take time, and the farmers would be a lot better organized before he could do it. He’s either got to keep running or try to do something that will really hurt them.”

“He won’t run,” Angel said. “How could he hurt them?” Fargo didn’t agree with her. He said, “I think he’ll run. But I think he’ll cause as much trouble as he can before he does. I think he might try to burn all the houses he can before we catch him.”

“You’re probably right. We have to stop him.”

Fargo hoped they could. “We can try,” he said.

20

They got out of the trees and rose as fast as they could. Fargo was sure that Murray had left the trees, too, and that he was well ahead of them.

“Where do you think he’ll go first?” Angel said.

“Rip Johnson’s house is closest,” Fargo said. “He’ll find out that we’ve done that job for him already, so he’ll head for Lem’s.”

“We’ll never get there before he burns the place.”

“We might,” Fargo said. “It’s not as easy to burn a house as you think it is.”

“Rip’s place went up like a torch.”

“That’s because of the coal oil in the lantern. Murray doesn’t have a lantern.”

“How long do you think it’ll take him to find one?”

“Not long,” Fargo said.

When they reached the farm, Murray was nowhere to be seen, but his horse was outside the barn.

“He’s in there,” Angel said. “I’m going after him.”

“I’ll go,” Fargo said. “You stay here.”

Angel laughed as she slid off her horse. “Don’t try to tell me what to do, Fargo. The only man who could was Pa, and I should never have listened to him in the first place.”

Fargo shrugged and started toward the barn. Angel trailed along after him. They both stopped short of the big doors, which stood open. Fargo could hear someone inside, and he smelled coal oil. He realized that Murray was inside, splashing the coal oil around, getting ready to burn the barn first, and then the house.

“You in there, Murray?” he called.

The noise in the barn stopped. After a couple of seconds, Murray said, “Is that you, Fargo?”

“It’s me,” the Trailsman answered.

“Is Angel with you?”

“I’m here. Come on out, Pa. We can leave here and go somewhere else. Fargo won’t try to stop us.”

“How the hell can you say that?” Murray said. “The son of a bitch has blown up half my men, and I’m sure the other half are dead now. He’ll kill me as soon as I show myself.”

“No, he won’t,” Angel said. “I have a gun on him.”

Fargo turned to see if Angel was trying to fool Murray, but she wasn’t joking. She stood with her feet planted firmly, and in her right hand was a pistol aimed at Fargo’s belt buckle.

“He’s my pa,” Angel said with a hint of apology. “When you get right down to it, I can’t just let you kill him. And I don’t want him to kill you, either.”

Fargo was disgusted, not just with Angel but with himself. He should have known that blood ties mattered more than anything else to the Murrays. After all, hadn’t Angel been with Murray when they’d dug up Paul’s body and thrown Abby into the grave? Angel had changed since then, but she hadn’t changed enough to want her father to die.

“You’re not just leading me on, are you?” Murray asked from within the barn.

“Take a look,” Angel said, her eyes on Fargo.

The Trailsman thought he could get in a shot or two if he went for his pistol, but the trouble with that was, Angel would get the first shot, and at that distance she wasn’t likely to miss.

“You have him, all right,” Murray said, and Fargo turned to see him peering around the opening into the barn. “How do I know it’s not a trick?”

“It’s not a trick,” Angel said. “You can trust me, Pa.”

“You betrayed me before, daughter. I can’t ever trust you again, not after that.”

“I didn’t do anything to hurt you. I just didn’t want you to kill people who’d helped me without giving them a chance to fight back.”

“One thing you should have learned from me,” Murray said, “is that you never give anybody a fair chance. Fargo could tell you that. He blew up that house without a warning. Isn’t that right, Fargo.”

“Nobody was killed when the house blew up,” Fargo said. “After that, everybody had a chance to get away. You managed it.”

“That’s because I’m a little smarter than most of the men I surrounded myself with. I could have used somebody like you, Fargo, but you’re a little too delicate for the job.”

“If you mean I’m not a killer, you’re right, Murray.”

“I don’t think my daughter is, either, but I’m going to give her a chance to prove herself once and for all. I’ll come out of the barn, Angel, if you’ll kill Fargo. Right now. Pull the trigger.”

“I can’t do that,” Angel said.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Murray said. “So I’ll have to do it myself.”