“How big’s this posse supposed to be?” one of the other men asked.
Nick shrugged and looked around. To his delight, almost all of the men were staring back expectantly, doing their damndest not to look nervous. “Hard to say. Could be five…could be a dozen.”
“What the hell are we waiting for? Let’s get moving.”
“I’m with you,” Nick said. “If Bertram sees any lawmen headed toward us, we’ll hear the shots.”
“You’ll hear shots all right,” said the horseman who’d appointed himself the spokesman for the group. “I’ll be shooting those assholes right out of their saddles!”
That got the rest of the men worked up into a hollering mob. Nick pointed Kazys northeast and snapped the reins. Although he was wincing on the outside, he couldn’t have been happier on the inside. Riding with a vigilante group had taught him plenty about using a mob to his advantage. Nick figured he could work with this one just fine.
Joseph was so anxious that he almost forgot to whistle the signal when he approached the first camp. He remembered real quickly when he saw at least five rifle barrels gleaming in the dim moonlight. The horsemen kept their guns where they could get to them in a pinch even after Joseph gave the signal.
“Where’s the other one?” someone asked.
Joseph’s voice was tense, but that worked in his favor as he quickly recited what Nick had told him to say. “Bertram wanted to ride ahead to the fort to make sure it was clear. We’re to follow right behind him.”
The man who’d asked the question had a long face and a mustache that hung down past his chin. His eyes were narrowed as if they were constantly fighting the sun’s glare. “I been around these parts for a while and I never seen no fort.”
One of the other riders was younger and looked about ready to start running if his horse didn’t get moving soon enough. “I seen a lynch mob ride from out of nowhere once and they blasted the hell outta a gang of horse thieves! They come from the south just like he says.”
Joseph nodded. “The fort’s five or six miles to the southeast. Anyone that would rather take their chances on their own can do what they like. Bertram told me to bring you men to the new camp and that’s what I aim to do. If you stay behind, I suggest you keep on riding and forget about any sort of job.”
As Joseph was starting to ride away, he heard something that he hadn’t been expecting.
“To hell with this,” the young horseman said. “That lynch mob hung those men from a pole and left ’em there for days with piss stains on their pants for the world to see. I ain’t getting strung up like that.” With that, the young man lowered his head and steered his horse away from the rest so quickly he almost twisted the poor animal’s neck.
“You damn coward!” the man with the long face said. “What the hell did you expect you was gonna do to earn yer pay?”
Despite the harsh words pouring from the older horseman’s mouth, a few of the younger ones followed the kid, who had yet to look back. That only left four men with Joseph.
“Are you men with me?” Joseph asked.
“Yer damn right.”
“There may be some trouble along the—”
“If there is,” the horseman interrupted, “we ain’t a bunch of snot-nosed kids, and we can prove that to Mister Bertram.”
When Joseph looked around at the other men, he saw intense faces and angry eyes. The anxiousness hanging in the air over the men’s heads reminded Joseph of a herd working itself up into a stampede. “All right then. We’ve wasted more than enough time already.”
“Lead the way.”
Joseph snapped his reins and got his horse moving, quickening the pace until all five horses were charging into the shadows. He shook his head in amazement. “This might actually work,” he thought.
Kazys chomped at the bit to run faster. It seemed the horse could sense what was coming as surely as if Nick had whispered it into his ear. All nine men riding with him were anxious as well, but they were more than happy to let Nick stay up front and lead the way. In fact, when he looked over his shoulder to check on them, it seemed he’d lost a few along the way. Nick grinned and faced front. He was surprised that some of those kids hadn’t ducked out sooner.
After riding a few miles, Nick strained his eyes toward the northwest. The shadows were thick, but the stars and moon allowed him to make out shapes from a fairly good distance. Just when he was starting to worry about Joseph being found out and overtaken by the men in the first camp, Nick spotted a few shapes moving at a quick pace. Nick kept a close eye on the figures until he was certain they were headed for the spot that he and Joseph had agreed upon. A little bit longer, and Nick was able to make out the rough shapes of men on horseback.
Nick breathed in to steady himself and then turned around in his saddle.
“Looks like we might have some trouble!” Joseph shouted to the men following behind him.
The horseman with the long face trotted up next to him and asked, “Where?”
Joseph pointed to the south at the shapes he’d spotted a minute ago.
The rider twisted and looked in that direction. Soon, his eyes were able to pick out the same shapes that Joseph had been searching for the entire ride. “Holy shit! Is that the posse?”
“It’s not anyone I know,” Joseph said. “The other camp’s been cleared out already. Besides, the fort is to the southeast. Those men are riding in the opposite direction.”
“They sure are. They’re headed straight for us!”
Two of the other men joined them. “What’re you talking about?” one of them asked.
“Someone’s riding straight at us,” Long Face said.
“It’s got to be that posse,” Joseph added. “They must have been on their way to the fort when they heard us coming.”
“Or they’ve already been there,” one of the others offered.
“Wherever they’ve been, they’re headed this way now!” Joseph shouted. “And it looks like they’ve already got their guns drawn.”
“How the hell can you see that?” Long Face asked. “I’m lucky I don’t steer my horse into a goddamn hole.”
“I ride this stretch of land all the time. I know a damn posse when I see one, and I know what a gun looks like. Can’t you see them?”
“Jesus Christ. I see ’em, all right!”
Nick drew his gun and held it pointed upward. His throat was straining after getting the others riled up so far, but he wasn’t about to let up now. “Posse’s riding straight for us! Get ready!” he shouted.
While most of the men drew their guns and held them at the ready, a few of them glanced back and forth as if they didn’t know what to do. Nick sized them up in an instant, guessing they would either bolt now or after the first shot had been fired. He knew better than anyone that it was always easier to talk like an outlaw than ride like one.
“They sure as hell ain’t turning,” Long Face said to Joseph. “You think we can outrun them?”
“If you don’t mind giving them your back,” Joseph replied. Seeing the way the men were squinting ahead at the approaching horses, he drew his own gun and pointed it toward the other group. “It’s the posse!” he shouted. “That’s one of them right up front!” Before anyone could say a word or do a thing, Joseph pulled his trigger.
The shot cracked through the air, but Nick didn’t hear the hiss of a bullet come anywhere close to him. Even so, he took a shot of his own. “They’re shooting at us!”
That was all the rest of the men needed to hear before they took aim and started firing wildly.
Nick gritted his teeth and kept shooting well above the other riders until he could make out which of them was Joseph. As return fire started coming back at him, he prayed that Joseph’s men were as rattled as the ones behind him.
Joseph didn’t need to act in order to look rattled. He’d heard about men riding into battle during the war and always figured it was terrifying. This scene was more than enough to prove those stor
ies right.
Glancing over his shoulder, he could see the hardened faces of the remaining riders as they squeezed off shot after shot. The bullets flew in a steady stream, most of which came from pistols. Long Face had enough presence of mind to draw the rifle from his saddle and take his time before pulling his trigger. Joseph kept firing and then eased his horse slightly away from the rest.
“One of them’s bolting!” Nick shouted. “Let him go. Try to get the rest before they get too close.” Even though he repeated himself a few times, Nick knew his voice was being swallowed up in the growing crackle of gunfire.
As the two groups drew closer, the gunfire intensified. A few men around Nick let out pained grunts as some of the bullets found their mark. None of the men had fallen, but with the shots hissing closer and closer, that would change soon enough.
THIRTY-ONE
Nick steered Kazys away from the group, but a few of the horsemen followed. He knew that, soon, men on either side might recognize a familiar face or two. He wasn’t certain any of the new prospects had met each other, but it was always better to assume the worst.
As if reading his mind, Joseph let out a piercing whistle that could be heard over the gunshots and thunder of horses. A loud holler followed as Joseph snapped his reins and steered his horse back around to the group, which turned their horses directly toward Nick’s group.
Recognizing an experienced cattle driver when he saw one, Nick snapped the reins and touched his heels to Kazys’s sides. The horse responded immediately and put some extra steam into his strides. From there, all Nick had to do was guide the horse with an experienced hand and hang on for the ride as he used the same tactic to get his own men charging faster.
The groups rushed toward each other like steam engines on a collision course.
Shots blasted between them and men screamed curses back and forth.
The chaos lasted for a few seconds before building to a peak. After that, the men closed to within a pistol’s effective range. Two riders from Nick’s group were ripped from their saddles and one from Joseph’s bunch fell. One of Nick’s boys pulled his horse to one side and tore away from the fight as fast as he could.
“There’s no way I’m going to that fort!” Long Face said as he sighted down his barrel and shot one of their opponents off his horse. “Lord only knows how many more lawmen are coming.”
Joseph tried not to look angry that the other man was sticking so close to him. “Then get as far from here as you can! Just go!”
“To hell with that! I’m riding to that ranch. Mister Bertram may be mad now, but he’ll take all the help he can get when they start that raid.” Shifting in his saddle, he shouted, “Come on with me!”
One of the men jerked back as a bullet ripped through his shoulder, but he managed to stay on his horse and nod to Long Face.
“You coming along?” Long Face asked.
Joseph heard a bullet hiss past him and got his horse running in the opposite direction from the others. “That’s not my dance,” he said.
Long Face waved him off and got moving. He switched to a fresh pistol from his double-rig holster, fired at the other riders and headed west.
“Dammit,” Joseph muttered, as more and more bullets were aimed in his direction.
“They’re running!” Nick shouted to the three men that were left in their saddles on his side.
A few more shots were fired, but those quickly tapered off. After that, there came the metallic clicks and rattles of cylinders being emptied and fresh rounds being put in their place.
“I say we go after them,” one of the horsemen shouted. He was a thick man with a head so bald that it shone like a wet rock in the moonlight.
“We ain’t even getting paid yet!” the youngest of the horsemen replied. “This was just to keep from gettin’ strung up!”
“They’re already gone,” Nick said. “That fort’s probably full of dead men by now. You men should just get the hell away from here.”
“The fuck I will,” the bald horseman snarled. “Those goddamn law dogs killed my partner and tried to kill the rest of us. I don’t let nothing like that pass.”
Nick shook his head and tried not to feed the other man’s fire, but he could tell that at least one of the others was starting to be swayed. The third horseman was the youngest. He hadn’t spoken either way on the matter, but was already maneuvering his horse next to the bald man.
“Look there,” the bald horseman said. “One of ’em’s coming this way.”
Nick had to squint, but he could see that one horse was circling back. Despite the great pains Joseph was taking in riding as stealthily as possible, the terrain was simply too open for a rider to go unnoticed for long.
“He is coming back,” the youngest rider said. “He might be scouting so the rest of them can attack us again.”
“Or his horse is scared,” Nick offered anxiously. “If they’re lawmen, we can’t stand around and let this one see our faces. If they’re vigilantes, I sure as hell don’t want to give them another reason to come after us. Just get the hell out of here and be done with it! He won’t be able to spot any of us if we cut out now.”
As he fixed his eyes upon the horse in the distance, the bald horseman switched his pistol into his left hand while taking up his rifle in his right. “Fucking lawman. Fucking vigilante. Whoever this asshole is, he’s gonna regret not running with his chicken-shit friends when he had the chance.”
“Let him go,” Nick said sternly. “We shouldn’t push our luck.”
Even the younger horseman picked up on the change in Nick’s tone. All of the remaining three riders now watched him as carefully as they were watching Joseph closing in on them from the shadows.
“What’s the matter?” the bald one asked. “You gone sweet on those fellas?”
“No. I just want to get out of here without having to dodge any more bullets.”
“I think you gone sweet on them. Or maybe you’re with them. You sure seemed to lead us straight into this shit storm.”
The young horseman started to nod as his eyes grew wider. “Yeah! Yeah, he did. Holy shit!”
“This is crazy,” Nick groaned. “They were shooting at me just like they were shooting at you.”
“But they didn’t hit you.”
“They didn’t hit you, either.”
“But I’m not the one that wants to let ’em go.” Turning to address the other two, the bald horseman said, “You know what Mister Bertram would like? If we dropped this cowardly asshole right here!”
Just as the other two horsemen started to raise their voices in agreement, three shots blasted through the air: one for each of them.
Nick had drawn and fired all three shots from waist level before any of the others even knew what happened.
The young one died so quickly that he took his surprised face into the afterlife.
The silent horseman caught his round in the stomach and crumpled over the back of his horse while letting out a slow, pained groan.
The bald horseman had reflexively hunkered down low and therefore positioned himself so his arm and ribs absorbed most of the impact of his bullet. Even so, he was in a world of hurt.
Nick raised his gun arm so he could aim more carefully. “You should have left when I gave you the chance,” he said as he rode Kazys closer to the other three horses.
Gritting his teeth, the bald horseman fired a shot that was quick but not even close to accurate. He straightened up so he could take better aim, which also presented a much bigger target.
Nick put a round straight through the gunman’s heart and then fired again to knock him off his horse.
The gunman landed with a heavy thud, which forced his last breath out in a powerful gasp.
On his way over to meet Joseph, Nick used his last round to put the gut-shot horseman out of his misery.
Joseph had his gun in hand and at the ready when he finally rode to a stop in front of Nick. His horse fidgeted nervously and look
ed as if it might give in to a shaking fit at any moment.
Nick sat in his saddle, calmly replacing the spent shells in his gun’s cylinder.
Finally Joseph holstered his gun and took a breath. “Well.” He sighed. “That turned out better than I expected.”
Nick laughed once and holstered the Schofield.
THIRTY-TWO
The Busted Wheel ranch was an impressive spread by anyone’s assessment. It was situated on a portion of land close to the size of Joseph’s property, but had almost double the number of buildings at its center. Nick and Joseph rode straight over the fence at the property line and stormed through the open terrain as if they were trying to wake the dead.
Finally, the two of them came to a stop and waited. After a few minutes, they still couldn’t see any sign that they’d been spotted.
“This makes me sick,” Joseph said as he shook his head. “Any man who’d let someone get this far into his property without getting a look at him deserves to be robbed.”
Nick shrugged and stood up in his stirrups so he could get a better look around. The night was clear enough for him to see fairly well in every direction. “I guess Dutch must have gotten someone on the inside of this place just like he did with yours. We haven’t passed a single steer, though, so the herd’s probably not even here. They must be after a hell of a lot of gold.” Fixing his eyes upon a spot in the distance, Nick lowered himself back onto the saddle. “Well, it looks like we’re not as alone as we thought.”
Joseph eventually spotted the same rider Nick had seen. After a few seconds, he said, “Looks like there’s only one.”
The rider came to a stop several yards from Nick and Joseph. He tipped back his hat and propped a shotgun on his hip so it couldn’t be missed. “You two lost?” he shouted.
“No sir,” Nick replied. “We’re looking for the Busted Wheel ranch.”
“You found it.”
“Good. I need to speak to the owner.”
“You found him, too.”
“I’m Nick Graves and this here’s Joseph Van Meter. Can we have a word with you?”
The longer the rider stayed quiet, the more Nick thought he and Joseph were going to be turned away. After a while, Nick even began to wonder if he might have to deal with the business end of the shotgun in the rancher’s hand. Finally, he lowered the shotgun into a pouch on the side of his saddle.
Man From Boot Hill Page 19
