War on the Cimarron by Luke; Short Page A

dawn, and they rode off into the prairie.
    â€œWho was it?” Red asked.
    â€œMilabel. He raided one of Corb’s whisky caches.”
    Red was silent a moment, and then he murmured gloomily, “I was afraid of that,” and looked at Frank. “Dammit,” he burst out, “a man can fight that crew of Corb’s hard cases! But how can you fight thirty men?”
    Frank looked at him, his eyes grave, and a slow smile broke his face. “There’s a way,” he murmured. “There always is in a three-cornered fight.”
    Red scowled, watching Frank closely. “You mean sell out to the highest bidder and then throw in with him to lick the other outfit?”
    â€œWrong,” Frank said softly. “Get the other two to fightin’, and when they’re both down jump ’em.”
    Red grinned. “Fightin’ over what?”
    â€œWe can fix that later,” Frank said. “What we got to do now is make sure this is goin’ to be three cornered and not four cornered.”
    Red looked puzzled.
    â€œBarnes,” Frank said. “He’s lost five thousand on me, Red. And he’s liable to think he’s been seven kinds of a grass-green fool for takin’ my side. We got to keep him on our side.”
    It was well after dark when Frank and Red pulled into the dark shadow of the cottonwood that stood in front of Hopewell Barnes’s house. Red led the way to the porch of the house, where he paused, made sure there were no visitors inside, then stepped up on the porch and knocked softly.
    Luvie Barnes came to the door. “Oh, it’s you,” she said, dislike in her voice.
    â€œUs,” Red corrected and brushed past her into the hall. Frank followed him, taking off his hat. Luvie Barnes’s mouth opened in amazement at sight of Frank, and Frank gently closed the door behind her.
    When Luvie found her voice she said, “Don’t you know there’s a reward out for your capture?”
    â€œI reckoned there would be.”
    â€œYou certainly don’t mind making other people share your risk, do you?” Luvie said, anger creeping into her voice.
    â€œWe want to talk to your dad,” Red said.
    Luvie’s angry gaze shifted to Red. “I’m surprised at that. We both supposed you’d be on your way to Texas with Dad’s money by now.”
    Red’s face colored but he held his tongue. Luvie didn’t bother to ask them into the living room. She paused in the living-room doorway and announced. “Here’s your two jailbirds, Dad, come home to roost.”
    Barnes stepped into the hall and did not offer to shake hands. He seemed inclined to be friendly but was not sure whether he should be, in the face of what had happened two nights ago.
    Red said bluntly, “Barnes, that money you gave me was stolen out of my room.”
    â€œWhere did you hide it?” Luvie asked just as bluntly.
    â€œLuvie!” Barnes said. “Let’s hear what he has to say.”
    â€œThat’s all there is to it,” Red said. “It’s gone. I dunno where. My door was locked when I went to sleep and it was locked when I woke up. Still, the money wasn’t there.”
    Luvie said sweetly, “Maybe you just didn’t let your right hand know what your left hand was doing.”
    Red shifted his feet and didn’t say anything, watching Barnes.
    Frank spoke then. “It looks pretty queer, Barnes, but that’s the way it happened. I’ve come to make good, if I can. Your bail money would have been held by the government till my trial, sometime in the fall, and then it would have been returned to you. I’ll have your five thousand dollars by fall.”
    â€œOf course you will,” Luvie said dryly. “You’ll just tell the government not to look, and then you’ll get a job and earn five thousand dollars.”
    â€œConfound it!” Barnes burst out. “Let these