by Steve Hayes
‘You made me top hand, Mr Stadtlander, ’cause I could handle a gun. If I hadn’t been fast, I’d still be mendin’ fences an’ you know it.’
‘Damn you! Why do you always have to spit in my face?’
‘You said you wanted the truth. I’m givin’ it to you.’
‘The truth,’ Stadtlander said, ‘is you were the son I always wanted an’ I was willin’ to spurn my own boy, my own flesh and blood to show you how I felt.’
‘Sendin’ a necktie party after me is a funny way of sayin’ you loved me.’
Stadtlander flushed and his temple veins bulged.
‘Anger made me do that. Anger an’ hurt. When I couldn’t change your mind I wanted to destroy you.’
‘An’ you damn’ near succeeded.’
Stadtlander continued as if Gabriel hadn’t spoken.
‘But all that’s over an’ done with now. Buried in the past. We’re both still alive an’ I’m willin’ to forget the ill between us if you are. How ’bout it, Gabe?’ he said, sticking out his hand. ‘You willin’ to turn the page? Let bygones be bygones an’ start afresh? The Double SS is even bigger now than when you left. One third of it would make you a rich an’ powerful man.’
Gabriel ignored the outstretched hand.
‘I don’t want to be rich an’ powerful, Mr Stadtlander.’
‘Then what do you want?’
‘From you – personally – nothin’.’
Rage darkened the old rancher’s weathered face.
‘Then get the hell off my property. Fast. ’Fore I do like Slade wants and feed you to a rope.’
Gabriel slowly ground out his cigar on the polished bar.
‘Only rope you should be worryin’ about, Mr Stadtlander, is the one I’m gonna use to hang your son.’
Stadtlander looked at Gabriel in utter disbelief. Then he laughed contemptuously.
‘Now that’s a hot one,’ he said. Leaning over the bar he thrust his face close to Gabriel’s. ‘Do you really think you can ride out of here with my boy? Why, you arrogant, ungrateful pup, there’s more than twenty guns out there all primed to cut you down on my say-so.’
‘Then you’d better say-so,’ Gabriel said, ‘’cause I’m leaving now an’ I’m takin’ Slade with me.’
‘Not so long as I’m alive!’
Gabriel walked to the door, turned and looked back at Stadtlander who hadn’t moved.
‘You once told me that the next time I pointed a gun at you I should be ready to use it. I’m ready.’
Stadtlander started to reply then stopped as he saw Gabriel’s Peacemaker – holstered an instant ago – was now aimed at his belly.
He swallowed, hard. ‘Go ahead, shoot. You’ll be dead ’fore the echo leaves this room.’
‘I won’t die alone,’ was all Gabriel said. Holstering his Colt almost as fast as he’d drawn it, he opened the door and stepped outside.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Slade and the cowhands stopped talking and ground out their smokes as Gabriel appeared, followed by Stadtlander.
‘Do I get a rope, Pa?’ Slade asked him.
‘No time for that, son.’ Stadtlander raised his voice so his men could hear. ‘Mr Moonlight’s just been kind enough to tell me why he’s here. He’s come for you, Slade. Plans on takin’ you somewhere nice’n quiet where he can introduce you to a rope.’
Slade licked his lips uneasily and forced himself to laugh.
‘’Be a sonofabitch,’ he said. He winked at the men. ‘Hear that, boys? I’m about to dance my last fandango.’
The men laughed.
‘Oh, save me, boss, please.’ A cowhand grabbed his own bandanna and pulled it above his head, gurgling as he pretended to hang himself.
The other men roared.
Bolstered by their merriment, Slade said: ‘We’ll see who’s gonna do the introducin’.’
He grabbed a rope from a corral fence, uncoiled it, shook out a loop and twirled it deftly. ‘Bring him to the barn, boys. Time someone learned him some manners—’
Gabriel drew and fired, so quickly no one realized what had happened until the bullet cut the rope just above the noose.
Everyone froze.
‘Tell your men to throw down their guns,’ Gabriel said to Stadtlander.
‘Go to hell.’
Then as Gabriel cocked the hammer:
‘Like I told you inside: go ahead an’ shoot. I’m willin’ to die to make sure my name’s carried on.’ He turned to the men. ‘Soon as he shoots me, shoot him. Then the horse.’
The cowhands nodded and aimed their guns at Gabriel.
For one infinitesimal moment time stood still.
Then the Morgan, motionless until now, suddenly reared up and attacked Stadtlander.
One of its flailing hoofs struck the old rancher in the chest, sending him sprawling. He slammed against the veranda railing, then rolled down the steps onto the ground.
Squealing with rage, the stallion reared again intending to trample him.
Without thinking Gabriel quickly grabbed Stadtlander by the boots and dragged him from under the Morgan’s descending hoofs.
Brandy turned on him, eyes aflame, teeth bared.
Standing his ground, Gabriel fired twice above the horse’s head and yelled at it to get back!
The stallion charged him, ready to bite, but pulled up short before actually making contact with Gabriel. It then stood there in front of him, tossing its head, snorting and pawing angrily at the dirt.
Gabriel, surprised that the Morgan hadn’t attacked him, spoke soothingly to it.
It took several seconds, but then the stallion calmed down.
Gabriel helped Stadtlander to his feet.
‘Anythin’ broke?’
Stadlander winced. ‘Rib or two, feels like.’
‘Better send someone for the doc.’
‘Not before I shoot that ornery bastard!’ He turned to the men, adding: ‘One of you, toss me your rifle.’
Gabriel thumbed back the hammer on his Colt.
‘Anybody harms that horse, deals with me. That includes you,’ he said to Stadtlander.
The old rancher saw he meant it.
‘It can wait,’ he told his men. Wincing at every breath, he started up the steps to the veranda.
Holstering his Colt, Gabriel went to help him.
As he did, Slade shot him in the back.
The bullet glanced off a rib and lodged near Gabriel’s spine. He stumbled forward and went to his knees. As he did he pulled his gun and, half-twisting, fired at Slade.
Slade stood there, wide-eyed, as if nothing had happened. Then he pitched forward onto his face, dead before he hit the ground.
Stadtlander looked at his dead son in disbelief; then uttering a low cry, he limped to Slade and cradled him in his arms.
The cowhands angrily surrounded Gabriel, ready to shoot him.
‘Say the word, boss,’ the foreman said grimly.
Before Stadtlander could answer, there was the sound of a horse approaching.
‘Rider comin’,’ one of the cowhands yelled.
Everyone, including Gabriel, turned and looked.
At first Gabriel thought he was imagining things. But the rider kept on coming, getting closer and closer, passing first between the two outer corrals and then the barn and the bunkhouse, until at last he had to admit to himself the image was real.
It was Ellen.
Astride the blue roan.
She was wearing a black nun’s habit, her white hat flopping in the wind.
As she rode up to the astonished cowhands, they grudgingly moved aside to let her pass through.
Ellen rode by without looking at them and reined up beside Gabriel. She dismounted, then saw the blood seeping through the back of his shirt. She moved quickly moved to support him.
‘Is it bad?’ she asked, worried.
He shook his head and managed to grin.
‘Just another scar to lie about.’
‘D-D
o you think you can you ride?’
‘Sure.’
‘Then hurry. We must get you to a doctor.’
‘He ain’t goin’ anywhere,’ Stadtlander said, still cradling his dead son.
Ellen faced him defiantly.
‘What’re you talking about? Can’t you see he’s hurt?’
‘I also see my boy’s dead. Gabe’s gotta pay for that.’
Ellen looked long and hard at him.
‘Ever read the Bible, Mr Stadtlander?’
‘Live by it.’
‘Then I shouldn’t have to explain “an eye for an eye”.’
‘Your sister for my son? That’s no fair trade.’
‘No,’ Ellen said, ‘it isn’t. But it’s better than nothing and I’ll just have to live with it.’ She went to help Gabriel mount up.
The cowhands cocked their weapons, ready to obey Stadtlander’s next order.
Gabriel knew his time had run out.
‘Step back, Ellie,’ he told her. ‘Get on your horse and ride out of here.’
Ignoring him, she said to Stadtlander: ‘Hasn’t there been enough killing – even for you?’
He glared at her in gritted silence.
‘Very well,’ she said. ‘If you have to spill more blood, tell your men to shoot me, too. Because like it or not, I’m taking Gabe to the doctor.’ Turning her back to him, she gently draped Gabriel’s arm over her shoulder and helped him limp to the Morgan.
Hesitant to shoot a nun, the men turned to Stadtlander.
‘Boss?’
Stadtlander struggled with his conscience. He looked at Gabriel standing bleeding before him, then at Ellen, determined to defy him, and last of all at Slade, dead in his arms.
Suddenly, all the fight went out of him. He seemed to grow smaller. And with a deep sigh, he waved his men back.
‘Let him go.’
‘But, boss, he killed Slade.’
‘And Mace an’ Cody, too.’
Stadtlander gently brushed a fly from his dead son’s face before answering.
‘Can any one of you tell me they didn’t deserve it?’
The cowhands looked at one another, stumped.
Stadtlander kept his arms clasped about Slade’s corpse and slowly rocked in grief.
‘You ever set foot in New Mexico again,’ he told Gabriel, now astride the Morgan, ‘I swear I’ll find a way to kill you.’
‘Fair enough.’ Gabriel gave a last look at the familiar buildings he’d once called home, and then nudged the Morgan forward.
Ellen did the same to the blue roan.
Stadtlander watched them ride off. Then oblivious of his broken ribs, he got to his knees and tucked one arm under Slade’s body.
‘Hank … Jonas … Tom … help me carry my boy inside.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The two of them rode side by side down the long steep slope from the top of the knoll.
Every stride the Morgan took felt like a knife-stab in Gabriel’s lower back. But not wanting Ellie to know how much pain he was in, he gritted his teeth and looked straight ahead as if nothing were wrong.
But once they had passed under the arched entrance to the Double SS and were out on free range, he knew he couldn’t hide it from her much longer. If he was going to say goodbye, he knew he had to do it quickly.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked as he reined up. ‘Can’t you ride any further?’
‘Sure. But first I’d like to know why—’
‘—I’m not on my way to Las Cruces?’
Gabriel nodded and shifted painfully in the saddle.
‘Well, I fully intended to catch the train. But as I was leaving the hotel I ran into Sheriff Forbes and two of his deputies. They said you had killed the Iversons.’
‘They gave me no choice, Ellie—’
‘Oh, I’m not blaming you, Gabe. In fact, hateful as it sounds, I’m glad they’re dead. It’s just that as I started walking to the tracks, I began thinking … worrying about you and. … Is that who shot you, one of the Iversons?’
‘Uh-uh. Slade.’ He paused, trying to ignore the burning sensation in his lower back; then, thinking aloud, said: ‘Damn fool. I must be gettin’ old. Time was I never would’ve turned my back on a snake like that.’
‘Well, you won’t have to worry about him or his kind any more,’ Ellen said. ‘It’s over now. For everyone. Now Cally can rest in peace and we can get on with our lives …’ She saw him wince and, concerned by how large the bloodstain on his shirt had gotten, said: ‘Gabe, we have to hurry. You’re losing a lot of blood.’
He ignored her. Numbness was slowly replacing the pain between his spine and the wound – not a good sign.
‘Your outfit,’ he said. ‘Where’d you get it?’
‘One of the sisters at Mission Santa Rosa loaned it to me.’ She smiled wanly. ‘It took some persuading but I thought a little help from God might come in handy.’
He didn’t say anything. His eyes went glassy and he felt himself drifting off.
The Morgan, as if sensing something was wrong, snorted and shifted restlessly on its feet.
Jolted back to reality, Gabriel shook the cobwebs from his head and grinned.
‘Rescued by a nun,’ he said. ‘… if that ain’t one for the cavalry.’
Blood was now seeping through his Levis onto the Morgan’s flank.
‘Please, Gabe,’ Ellen begged, grasping his arm, ‘no more talking. We must get you to the doctor—’
‘No doctor,’ he said firmly.
‘W-What’re you talking about? If you don’t get that wound taken care of you could die.’
‘I told you, it ain’t that bad. Just a lot of blood is all. Day or two it’ll heal on its own.’
‘Or you could be dead.’
‘Ellie, right now I don’t have time for doctors. No,’ he said as she started to protest, ‘let me finish. You don’t know Stillman Stadtlander like I do. In a little while he’s gonna regret lettin’ me ride out of there. Then he’ll get to ragin’ an’ send his men after me. Maybe even whip up a posse. Only chance I got of dodgin’ a rope is to get a good jump on ’em.’
‘Then we’ll take the train—’
‘Next train’s tomorrow mornin’, Ellie. By then I won’t need patchin’ up.’
‘Then we’ll go to the mission. I’m sure Father Quivira will hide you….’ she broke off, realizing by his tight-lipped expression that he wasn’t going to change his mind.
‘Where will you go?’
‘California.’
‘But that’s so far away. We might never see each other again.’
‘I thought about that. They have lots of missions out there. All up an’ down the coast. My pa was always talkin’ about them. Said they were built by this padre from Spain who made believers out of the Indians.’
‘Father Serre?’
‘Yeah, that’s him.’ Gabriel felt his tongue grow thick and unmanageable. He coughed, spat away the blood and said: ‘Maybe later, after you get to be a proper nun, you could find a way to transfer to one of ’em. Then I could ride over an’ visit you all the time.’
She sensed he was lying but said anyway:
‘That’d be wonderful. But how will you know which one I’m in?’
‘I’ll write you at the convent. Let you know where I am.’
The numbness was spreading up his spine and starting to affect his left arm. He knew time was running out.
‘I better ride,’ he said.
‘Promise you’ll write?’
‘Got my word on it.’ He pressed her soft cool hand against his lips. It felt good holding her hand and he didn’t want to let go. But he knew that no one ever got what they really wanted and at last he released it.
‘See you soon, Ellie.’
Emotion choked off her reply.
Through her tears she watched him ride off across the open wasteland. The urge to follow him almost consumed her. But somehow she resisted.
And as Gabriel’s dimini
shing image became blurred in the desert heat waves, she spurred the blue roan into a canter and sadly rode back to Santa Rosa.
About the Author
While hiding out in Mexico Gabriel Moonlight is confronted by Ellen Kincaide, a novice nun who begs him to avenge the death of her sister and Gabriel’s former girlfriend, Cally. He refuses to help, knowing if he returns to New Mexico he will be hanged for his crimes as the outlaw Mesquite Jennings.
Later, Gabriel learns Ellen has been kidnapped by bandits and now sets out to rescue her. With a change of heart he also promises to kill the man who murdered Cally. But when he discovers the identity of the murderer Gabriel knows that to exact retribution means almost certain death.
Even so, a promise is a promise.
Copyright
© Steve Hayes 2008
First published in Great Britain 2008
This edition 2011
ISBN 978 0 7090 9607 8 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9608 5 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9609 2 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7090 8642 0 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of Steve Hayes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
