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  “Even if miners don’t believe you, it doesn’t matter,” Wheeler continued. “Because you still blew up those mines, which makes your intentions clear to anyone who won’t sell you their claims or do whatever else you want. That’s theft and putting good honest folks in fear for their lives.”

  “You can’t prove any of this,” Torquelan said.

  Clint had been standing in the doorway of the hotel for a few seconds and announced himself by saying, “I’ve got witnesses who saw your men trying to blow up the Ainsley mine while also trying to kill me in the process. Trying,” he added, “and failing.”

  “You men still don’t know a damned thing,” Torquelan said.

  “I’ll be your witness as well,” Lumier said. “Just, please, get me away from him and see to it that I don’t rot in a jail cell.”

  Torquelan turned toward the bespectacled man. “You spineless, yellow-bellied worm.”

  “He doesn’t want to rot in a cage,” Wheeler said. “Or swing from a rope. Can’t say as I blame him. You actually had most of your angles figured, I’ll give you that much, Wilhelm. You could either con miners out of their claims by selling them cheap before the cave-ins happened, get them to pay for information or expert help from your federal man over there, or just threaten them outright to leave before they were killed next.”

  “Also,” Clint added, “his own business position grew stronger every time one of the mines owned by other men was wiped out.”

  Wheeler nodded. “I hadn’t thought of that. You’re coming with me now. Both of you.”

  “I . . . I’m coming, too?” Lumier whined. “To . . . to . . .”

  “So long as you tell everything you know to a judge, I’ll see to it you get some measure of leniency.”

  “That’s all I ask,” Lumier said with a relieved sigh.

  Torquelan’s eyes smoldered with rage, but he allowed Wheeler to claim the gun he carried. “You men will regret this,” he said through clenched teeth. “Odds are, you won’t live to see tomorrow.”

  Clint, Wheeler, and even Lumier beat those odds.

  Torquelan had no friends or hired guns left to help make his threats come to pass. He stood trial, and he alone answered for all of the crimes he’d committed.

  Lumier didn’t stop talking until the trial was through. and he’d wrangled himself a deal that ended with a short term in a Colorado prison.

  Clint made his way back to Las Primas on several occasions to have his palm read . . . among other things.

  Watch for

  DEATH IN THE FAMILY

  399th novel in the exciting GUNSMITH series from Jove

  Coming in March!

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