Jojo Birney’s Failed Attempt to Kill Kate

Jojo Birney’s failed attempt to kill Kate Muldoon turns a concealed threat into an immediate attack and gives Del Delaney the first direct confirmation that Max Landon has hired an assassin. Delaney prevents Birney from reaching Kate, but the revelation does not resolve the danger: Birney’s dying accusation may be difficult to prove in court, and Delaney plans to leave the following day.

Arrival and Suspicion

Birney arrives at Mrs. Horton’s valley home around supper time, presenting himself as a traveler who needs lodging for a few days. He is small, bald, and watery-eyed, with an unassuming appearance; he carries no visible gun and does not seem to Delaney like a cowboy. His black gelding, however, appears to have been ridden hard. Delaney suspects that someone has been pursuing him, and the man’s arrival unsettles him because he has been expecting another attempt on Kate’s life.

Mrs. Horton sets the price of lodging at fifty dollars a day. Birney appears surprised by the rate but agrees to stay, explaining that he is hungry, tired, and unable to keep running for the moment. At dinner he continues to present himself as an exhausted fugitive. He says that men trying to take hay-producing land along the Gunnison drove him out, and that he killed a deputy before fleeing. He also claims that his pursuers control the law in that area. The account supplies a plausible reason for his hurried arrival, but it is Birney’s own explanation, not independently established fact.

The group does not accept his story without reservation. When Mrs. Horton asks who was chasing him, Birney gives his account of the land dispute and the dead deputy, then asks to be shown to his room. Later, John Smith judges that Birney has overplayed his part and identifies him as a dangerous knife-fighter. The Kid agrees that he distrusts men who use knives. Kate, by contrast, does not believe Birney would harm her or that he is the sort of man Landon would hire. Her confidence conflicts with Delaney’s growing unease, sharpened by the fact that Kate has refused to leave the refuge despite the risk that Landon could find her there.

The Night Watch and Attack

The household remains tense through supper, with Birney trying to be pleasant while the others struggle to converse. After Birney goes to his cabin, Smith takes the first watch inside the house. At midnight Delaney relieves him, keeping watch from a room across the hall from Kate’s with his door open. Smith has proposed that, if Birney does not act during the night, they should question him forcefully in the morning; Delaney is uncertain that this is right, but agrees that they cannot simply continue waiting for another attack.

After an hour or perhaps two, Delaney dozes off. He wakes at the slight sound of Kate’s door opening, reaches instinctively for his gun, and crosses the hall. In the dim light from the window, he sees a man bending over Kate with a knife raised to strike. Delaney fires twice as the man begins to fall. Kate wakes and screams. Delaney finds that the intruder has been hit and is no longer moving, then lights the bedside lamp to see who he is. The attacker is Birney.

Birney’s Revelation

Delaney asks the wounded man who hired him. Birney manages to answer that Landon did, adding that Landon is safe and that he himself is dying. Birney’s admission changes the status of the threat: until then, Kate’s belief that Landon was behind the attempts on her life had not been confirmed by an attacker. Now Delaney has heard the accusation directly from the man who entered her room, though no one else is established as having heard it.

Birney dies in the room. Mrs. Horton has rushed in and stands staring at what has happened; Kate, sitting up in bed, cries in long sobs. Delaney sits beside her and holds her until she begins to recover. Kate tells him that this is the third time he has saved her life and asks whether the danger will ever end. Her response places the attack within a repeated pattern of peril and rescue, rather than treating it as an isolated incident.

Aftermath and the Limits of Proof

Even with Birney dead, Kate does not feel safe elsewhere, and Mrs. Horton has made up her mind that Kate should remain. Delaney leaves the house with Smith and tells him what Birney said. He doubts that Landon would ever be tried in that county and recognizes that, without another witness to the confession, it would be his word against Landon’s. Smith suggests that a judge might believe him; Delaney remains less hopeful about persuading a jury.

The immediate attack is over, but the outcome leaves two problems unresolved: Kate remains exposed to the continuing threat, and Birney’s confession may not be enough to bring Landon to justice. Delaney says he is leaving the next day and asks Smith to look after Kate. The event therefore gives the group a decisive answer about who paid Birney, while also emphasizing the gap between knowing who is responsible and being able to make the law act on that knowledge.