Bannon's eyes cut Hatcher like twin daggers as his left wrist bent slightly so that the Greener was pointed directly at Webb Logan. Bannon's right hand hovered near the butt of the Colt riding on his hip, and there was a hint of a smile on his lips, as if he were daring any of the three to make a break.
Webb let his right hand slide off the saddle horn, but no farther. He stared at the tall stranger and didn't like what he saw. He wanted the man to blink. He wanted him to shift his focus to Little Red. He wanted some sort of opening.
The little redheaded rider to Hatcher's left was immobile. His face was blank, but his darting eyes showed he desperately wanted no part of this parlay. There was an unshakable calmness about Bannon that unnerved him.
Hatcher saw nothing in Bannon's empty eyes that showed the slightest break, nothing that gave him any hope.
Hatcher had it now. This was indeed the gunman Ben Cass had seen at Yuma and who had taken down a good shooter in Lafe Harris. Now, Deke Hatcher saw exactly what the Virginian had seen in Bannon.
"Thing is," Logan said, "we can take what we want."
"Thing is, Webb starts it, he gets both barrels," Bannon said. "And there's a man in the shack with a rifle and he'll take you, Hatcher, if I don't. The only man who's got a chance is the little redhead there. He'll be runnin' away and I might not shoot him."
Ray Dyson first took up eating in Evansville, Indiana, far enough back that not only is the house he was born in no longer there, neither is the street. He had a short career as a baseball player, but a long career as a newspaperman whose gigs included crime reporter, sports reporter and sports editor. He is also a noted Western historian. He is the author of the baseball book, Smokey Joe: A Baseball Fable, a tale of legendary pitcher Smokey Joe Hood. That book, and Bannon, involve members of the Bannon family: Joel Patrick, the main character in Bannon, and his grandson, Henry Louis Bannon, an outfielder in Smokey Joe. His mystery novel, The Ice Cream Blonde, set in the Hollywood of the early 1930s, follows York Studios security chief Neil Brand as he solves the murder of a famous movie star mixed up in blackmail and white slavery. His latest Neil Brand tale, The Naked Nymph in the Dark Flickers, about a rising movie star caught up in a treacherous blackmail scheme that turns to murder, is now available. He lives in Mansfield, Ohio, with his family. In retirement, he works even harder on his golf game, but with less success.
