Three Dark Riders

by Stan Dryer

About the Author: Stan Dryer's work can be found in Playboy, Cosmopolitan and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fabula Argentea, Mystery Magazine, Adelaide Magazine and Write Launch.

Excerpt

The bright autumn day seemed to darken when the three riders entered Dustville. They were all dressed in black and riding three grey horses. As they trotted, three-abreast, down our main street, they rode with a hostile insolence, as if, by their presence, they possessed the town.

I was sitting outside my office, enjoying the fine weather and having a quiet smoke. The riders pulled up in front of me and stared down at me from their saddles. I did a quick inventory of the trio. They all wore heavy hardware with their holsters tied down, an indication they were not particularly interested in resolving differences of opinion through friendly conversation.

“You the sheriff?” asked the tallest of the three. His face and eyes told me he was part Injun, most likely half Apache. He spoke in a gravelly whisper with a voice like the mean edge of a rusty knife.

“Yes,” I said. “Welcome to Dustville. If you plan to stay in town, you’re going to have to check your weaponry with me.”

The tall man looked at the closer of his two companions. “You hear that, Chico?” he said. “A man without a gun in sight wants us to hand him our hardware. What do you think?”

“We gun him down now, Indigo,” Chico replied. There was no warm lilt of friendship in his Mexican drawl.

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