The Argo Goes West

34, Death of a Cattle baron

As Lionel Daybright was returning home after killing the skeletons, he heard a rustling noise in the bushes.

Lionel, thinking there were still some left, fired a breakaway double-barreled shotgun. Usually there is no reaction, but this time something shoots out of the bushes and hits Lionel in the abdomen. He felt a strong pressure on his abdomen and he leaned back to his buttocks. At first Lionel didn't understand what had happened. When he looked at his abdomen, he saw a bright red stain on his shirt that had spread rapidly. Lionel finally realized that he had been shot.

A young man emerged from the bushes. He was wearing a suit and a pork pie hat on his head. The young man looked at the wounded Lionel and asked with a pale face.

"Are you okay?"

Lionel responded with a groan. "How could I be okay?"

"I'm sorry"

The young man stowed his revolver, which was smoking from the muzzle, in his belt and rushed over to Lionel."I didn't mean to shoot, but I was shot, so I reflexively shot back."

"I know. It was my fault that I shot first. I should have asked if anyone was there before I shot."

The young man took off his jacket and placed it on Lionel's abdomen. He seems to be trying to stop the bleeding.

"Does it hurt?"

"No... I can't feel it."

"Did you think of me as an animal?"

He couldn't say that he thought it was a skeleton, so he muttered, "Well, that's about it."

"Let's see a doctor. Where is the hospital?"

"I don't need a doctor"

"But......"

"I'm about to die."

"No way..."

Lionel didn't want the young man to pity him, so he forced himself to smile. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Braddock," replied the young man. "John Braddock."

"Hey, John," Lionel called the young man's name like an old acquaintance. "I have a favor to ask of you."

"What is it?"

"My house is about six miles north of here. There's a woman there. My wife. Jacqueline. Tell her I'm dead."

"Okay. What's your name?"

"Lionel Daybright".

The young man nodded and shook Lionel's hand and said, "I promise. I will definitely tell her. Any other message?"

"Well--" Lionel had a lot of words in his head, but he couldn't say them all. He chose only one of them. "Tell her I love you."

John put Lionel's body in a wagon loaded with nectar for sale and headed north. He never got lost. A white line the width of a carriage was drawn straight on the ground, and all he had to do was follow it. At first he thought the white stuff was lime or crushed shells. But it wasn't. It was a piece of bone. There was also a human skull. John was chilled by the uncanny.

There was a railroad crossing on the way. With a whistle, a black bullet train passed in front of him at breakneck speed. He didn't know it was the Argo.

John was worried all the time. How to tell Lionel's wife about her husband's death. What should he say when she asks him why her husband died? Should he honestly confess that he shot? Or should he lie that he doesn't know? As a fraudster, he was used to lying, but he didn't have the confidence to deceive her. Why don't he just run away like this. He thought about many things, but he couldn't make up his mind. Perhaps the donkey felt that he didn't want to go, so moved more slowly than usual.

In the moonlight, as he passed through a desolate forest where witches might lurk, he saw a magnificent whitewashed Greek Revival mansion ahead. John saw the light in the upstairs window and stops the wagon. he made up his mind.Let's just go to Lionel's mansion. Whether to speak the truth or deceive it depends on the wife's reaction.

"It's okay, you can do it well"

While telling himself so, John advanced the wagon to Lionel's mansion.