Ralph Compton Rusted Tin

by Ralph Compton

  The shot blasted through Wolpert’s ears as if the bullet itself had bored through his skull. Even as he kissed the floor, he tried to mash his face down harder against the gritty surface. He rolled onto his belly, unsure as to whether or not he would live long enough to look up at the ceiling again. Since being cautious would only slow him down, he kept going until something stopped him.

  Wolpert made it onto his back as the guard’s pistol barked at him again. That round punched into the floor even closer than the first, but he had enough to think about since he had only enough time to fire back once before the other man’s aim improved. Setting his sights on the guard’s face, Wolpert snapped his arm like a whip in that direction to send the club he’d taken from the other man into the guard’s jaw.

  Watching just long enough to see that man drop, Wolpert shifted his attention to the second guard. That one was still reeling in pain from his broken wrist even as he propped himself up and struggled to get to another weapon. It would have settled easier in Wolpert’s conscience if the guard had simply stayed down, but he wasn’t about to allow himself to be shot. “Sorry about this, mister,” he said as he kicked the guard’s arm out from under him. The guard reflexively tried to push himself back up again, only he mistakenly used the hand with the broken wrist. Wolpert felt as though he was doing the fellow a service when he placed his boot upon the side of the guard’s head and knocked him out with a sharp tap of his foot. After collecting all the guns and keys he could find, the sheriff rushed back out to the main cage.

  Juan stood near the bars directly in front of him. He was surrounded by his partners as well as two strangers.

  “Those the men we’re after?” Wolpert asked.

  “Yes,” Juan told him. “What about the guards?”

  “Won’t need to worry about them.”

  “Are they dead?” Since Wolpert didn’t answer him, Juan shadowed him as best he could from his side of the bars. The prisoners who were awake either watched him or tried to follow until Tom pushed them away. A majority of the men were either asleep or curled up in the section of floor they’d claimed for themselves. “If they’re dead, we should know about it!”

  “Just shut up and get ready to move,” Wolpert snarled.

  He circled back around the cage in a series of quick strides and was back at the door leading to the spot where he’d left Otto and Eddie. When he opened the door, he found Eddie standing there waiting for him like a ghoul lurking in the shadows.

  “What took you so long?” Eddie asked.

  “Decided to stop and pick daisies,” Wolpert said impatiently as he all but dragged Eddie with him to the cage’s only door. “Keep an eye open to see if anyone comes in. Do you know which of these keys is the one for this door?”

  “Sure,” Eddie replied. “Start at the biggest one on the ring and it’s the second one over. Should look newer than the rest on account of it’s hardly used.”

  Despite his reservations as to the accuracy of such a detailed account, Wolpert followed the directions and tried the key he found. It fit within the lock and turned with just a little bit of work. “How the hell did you know that?”

  Eddie chuckled and replied, “I been watching like a hawk every time a guard opens that door just in case a day like this would come. Now do I get a gun?”

  “No,” Wolpert said as the door shrieked open.

  That sound had more of an effect on the prisoners than the rustle of slop to a sty full of starving hogs. Every man who’d been huddled in another part of the cage stalked toward the front. Anyone who’d been asleep snapped their heads up to get a look at why the door was being opened and pulled themselves to their feet.

  “You sure you don’t want us both to be heeled?” Eddie asked.

  “Yeah. Move it, Cade.”

  Tom, Juan and the other two men were out the door in a rush, but Cade was having a bit more trouble. He hobbled along and gritted his teeth as one of his injuries flared up. “Just give me a second,” he grunted. “I’m doin’ my best.”

  “You might wanna do your best a little quicker,” Eddie said. “Someone’s coming.”

  Wolpert twisted around to look over his shoulder. The main door leading from the room was open and he could see all the way out to the dark reception area. “I don’t see anyone.”

  “That’s because they’re still outside,” Eddie explained. “We can all hear ’em. Why do you think these prisoners are so restless?”

  Drawing his pistol while reaching out to grab Cade’s arm and pull him out of the cage, Wolpert took aim at the closest prisoner who had been creeping up toward the entrance. “They’re restless because they think they can fight their way out of here,” he said to the prisoners as much as he did to Eddie. “What they’re forgetting is that I only need to fire through one doorway to hold back that tide.”

  The prisoner at the head of the group was a wide-shouldered man with greasy blond hair and a thick beard. His mouth was pressed shut so tightly that it looked more like a line that had been sliced across the mound of flesh piled atop his shoulders.

  Wolpert kept his aim fixed on a spot directly between the prisoner’s eyes as he stepped back and shut the door to the cage. Some of the men rushed forward but weren’t fast enough to get there before the key was turned in the lock. The clatter and clank of the tumblers set the prisoners off even more as they surged to the front of the cage to shake the bars all the way down to the building’s foundation. One of them was eager enough to reach out between the bars and grab hold of Cade’s other shoulder. Wolpert discouraged that behavior by dropping the grip of his pistol down on top of the other man’s hand.

  “Damn animals,” Cade snarled as he wheeled around to kick the bars he’d just left behind.

  “Forget about them,” Eddie said. “We’ve got other concerns.”

  Wolpert stayed in step with Cade but urged him to move faster with a series of insistent nudges. “So you keep saying. I still don’t see anyone and I don’t hear anything.”

  As if to prove him wrong, the sound of hooves beating against the ground outside reached the sheriff’s ears.

  “Told ya,” Eddie said.

  “Probably just a few more guards coming to spell the boys that are already here,” Juan offered. Looking over to Eddie, he asked, “Don’t you think?”

  Once they were all gathered in the reception area, Wolpert shut the door to the main room so he could hear himself think. He could also hear more horses along with the voices of the men riding them. “My horse and Otto’s are around back. A few of you might have to double up, but we should be able to ride away from here.”

  One of the men Juan had brought along looked as if he’d been locked up for most of his life. His face was sunken and his features were outlined in filth that was thick enough to form a crust. The cleanest parts of him were his eyeballs, which were on full display as he asked, “You didn’t plan for us all to have horses? What if we’re too heavy to outrun them lawmen?”

  “Then we’ll leave you behind and skin out of here,” Wolpert snapped. “Any more worries? No? Then shut your mouth.”

  Eddie was already at the front door, pulling aside the shade to one of the few windows cut into the building. Wolpert stepped up to the window and looked outside. He counted half a dozen men on horseback and one on foot leading his horse by the reins. Marshal Davis walked toward the front of the building and flipped his reins around the post there. His hand was already on his gun as he approached the front door.

  “Get out the side door,” Wolpert said. “Best make it quick.”

  Chapter 21

  “Funny how you can move so much better now,” Wolpert pointed out as he hurried along behind Cade.

  The outlaw hardly broke his stride as he raced down the narrow walkway between the wall and the cage. Desperate hands reached out for him every inch of the way. Some would scrape against his face or arm, while other clawing fingers snagged in his clothing or attempted to lock around him in any number of spots.
“As long as it means getting the hell out of here, I’ll find a way to run.”

  Juan was at the head of the line and when he got to the door, Wolpert told him, “Go on through and head straight back. There should be a door that leads outside.” From there, he broke away from the group and started retracing his steps.

  “Where are you going?” Cade asked.

  “To see what the marshal wants. You men get outside, work your way around the back of the building and get to them horses. The first chance you get, ride away.”

  “Where do we go from there?” one of the other prisoners asked.

  “My men know where we’re meeting, so you’d better listen to what they have to say and make sure nothing happens to them. If they’re not in good condition when I arrive at the meet-up point, I’ll point the bounty hunters in the right direction.”

  The prisoner hadn’t been hinting at a mutiny and he grumbled as much while the others prodded him along. Wolpert didn’t stay to listen to the bellyaching because he was too busy working his way to the reception area. It wasn’t until he was almost there that he realized he had someone acting as his shadow. “Are you deaf?” he asked Eddie. “I told you to get out of here.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “Wouldn’t you rather be far away from those lawmen?”

  “Sure,” Eddie replied. “But if things go badly with you, none of us will get—”

  A heavy hand knocked on the front door.

  “You want to help?” Wolpert hissed. “Get out of my sight and stay with the others. If you’re spotted now, I won’t have a choice but to let these men toss you back into the cage with a bunch of angry prisoners who feel pretty damn slighted right about now.”

  “Say no more.” Touching his forehead as though he had a hat to tip, Eddie backed away and through the doorway that led to Chuck’s office. Since the knocking was growing more impatient with every thump, Wolpert removed the thick pieces of lumber barring the door. When he finally opened it, he found Marshal Davis standing there with his fist raised.

  “What are you doing here?” Davis asked.

  “I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Wolpert said while forcing a tired grin onto his face. Since the grin wasn’t winning anyone over, he dropped it and added, “Just having a word with my prisoners. Is there a rule against that?”

  “There is if you don’t have permission from me to do so. Step aside so we can have a look around.”

  “What are you looking for, exactly?”

  “Just a quick head count.”

  Wolpert swore he felt the contents of his stomach drop through a trapdoor to empty into his feet. After all he’d been doing in the last hour, he doubted he had enough resolve in him to keep any of that from showing on his face.

  Davis nodded and fixed him with a stare that let Wolpert know there wasn’t a secret in the world that could be hidden from him. “I told you to step aside, Zeke.”

  Every second of delay only stoked the marshal’s suspicions. He could have bought himself a few more minutes to think, but those would be purchased at much too high a cost. So Wolpert opened the door and stepped aside. “Whoever told you I was up to something has got it wrong,” he assured the marshal. “I’m here at the behest of Otto Berringer. You must know him.”

  “Yeah, I know Otto,” Davis said as he strode into the anteroom. “That’s part of what brought me here. I went to Henrietta’s boardinghouse to have a bite to eat. Aren’t you supposed to be staying there?”

  “I am staying there, but the last time I checked I wasn’t supposed to be in at any certain time. Was Henrietta worried about me?”

  “Not as such. She didn’t know where you went to. I knew you weren’t at a saloon or with my boys, so that meant you’d found some other bit of business to occupy your time.”

  “Is that a problem?” Wolpert asked.

  “It is when the man who’s rattling around in Lester has connections to Burt Sampil. It’s men like you that make it so easy for him to live his life without spending a single night in jail. There’s been rumblings about some mighty big irons Burt’s got in the fire. Then you show up out of nowhere. It gets me to thinking.” Davis followed Wolpert through the door leading to the space where Chuck’s office was, looming like a specter over his shoulder.

  Wolpert turned on the balls of his feet and doubled back. “What have you been thinking, Luke? Since you’ll tell me anyhow, I figure I might as well ask.”

  “I’m thinking you’re here to get some information out of one of these prisoners. Haven’t some of these boys worked for Sampil in the past?”

  “If you believe everything you hear on the matter, everyone’s worked for Sampil. Ain’t that why he never lands in a jail cell?”

  “Partly,” Davis replied. Before he could take more than two steps to catch up to the sheriff, Wolpert’s hand thumped flat against his chest to knock him backward against a desk. While he flailed to regain his balance, the door to the office was slammed shut. Still struggling to right himself, Davis roared, “Stop that man!”

  By the time those words hit the deputies’ ears, Wolpert had already rushed past them, gone through the door that led to the main room and bolted it in place behind him. Some of the deputies must have gone to check on Davis, because there didn’t seem to be many of them trying to come after him. That would most certainly change as soon as the marshal had a second or two to issue some more orders.

  “Is that it?”

  Wolpert turned toward the voice, expecting to find a smart-mouthed prisoner delighting in the hot water boiling at the feet of the man who’d left him in the jail to rot. But it wasn’t a man inside the cage who’d asked that question. Instead, Eddie ambled along the side of the cage as if he were out for a stroll.

  “Where are the others?” Wolpert asked.

  Eddie had to get closer to be heard over the growing ruckus of the prisoners screaming obscenities at them and hitting the bars with whatever or whoever they could throw against them. Finally, he replied, “They got to the horses, but I don’t think they’ll have long before those lawmen get to them.”

  “If they know what’s good for them, they’ll get moving.”

  “I highly doubt they’ll stay. Nobody’s that loyal.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  Shrugging, Eddie looked at the door that had started shaking as several deputized shoulders slammed against it. “I’m curious to see how this pans out and there’s not a lot they can do to me besides toss me back in there.”

  “I’m sure they can come up with a few things,” Wolpert chuckled. “How long will that door hold?”

  Eddie looked at the door leading to the reception area as if it were an old friend. “It’ll hold. The warden had it reinforced after some more of Burt’s men tried to break some men out of here.”

  “The same ones we took with us tonight?”

  “One of ’em. Not me, though.”

  After another wave of pounding upon the door let up, it was quiet. Wolpert closed his eyes and waited for what he knew was coming. He didn’t have to wait for more than a couple of seconds before gunshots filled the next room. The prisoners must not have felt they had much more to lose, since the shots only riled them up.

  “If you plan on making a last stand,” Eddie said in a voice that was just loud enough to be heard over everything else. “You probably should give me one of those.”

  Wolpert followed the prisoner’s line of sight straight down to the guns tucked under his belt. “This ain’t a last stand,” he told him.

  “Well, maybe I should have one anyways.”

  “If that’s really what you think, then go ahead and reach for one. See how far you get.”

  Eddie might have thought he was on the ragged edge, but apparently he wasn’t far enough down the stretch for him to do anything as stupid as testing his luck against someone who’d gone even further. Once that opportunity was allowed to slip away, frustration showed in his pale blue eyes. “So
, what in the hell do you propose we do? If you’ve got a plan, it’s high time to get it rolling. If not, give me a gun and we’ll bust outta here the hard way!”

  “You want to do something to help?” When Eddie nodded anxiously, Wolpert told him, “Go open that door.”

  Eddie looked at the door that was being shaken on its hinges as if he was more unsettled by that than the prisoners who clawed, spat and screamed at him from inside the cage. “You mean that door?”

  “That’s the one. Go open it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  The lawmen on the other side of the door fired at it repeatedly. Judging by the way the door shook in its frame, the damage was piling up but the sturdy barricade was holding.

  “I’m sure,” Wolpert told him. “You just be sure to get out of the way as soon as you open it.”

  “Any plan for afterward?” Eddie asked.

  “Yep. Tear out of this place and run through that side door like the devil himself was nipping at your heels.”

  Eddie watched the sheriff for a few seconds to make sure he was serious. When Wolpert approached the door to the cage with keys in hand, Eddie pieced together what he needed to know and ran for the reinforced door that was the only thing holding Marshal Davis and his deputies at bay.

  “All right,” Wolpert said to the men behind the bars. “You fellas want out? You’re about to get your wish. But I got to warn you you’ll be facing armed men who’ll have every reason in the world to cut you down before you get anywhere close to freedom.”

  Wolpert didn’t expect to spark a rousing discourse. On the contrary, his words had as much impact as an election speech given to a bunch of rabid dogs trapped in a barn. Eddie was at the door, gingerly reaching for the handle as more shots continued to thump into the wood. When they let up, he unlocked it and ran away.

  Waiting until the last possible moment, Wolpert turned the key in the lock and left the ring dangling there as he ran to catch up to Eddie. Behind him, the lawmen threw their weight against the door. Since there was significantly less resistance this time around, they stampeded through and spilled into the room at about the same time as the prisoners got the cage open.