by Lee Lejeune
‘Thank Gawd for that!’ Jordan said from behind Sunshine. Sunshine saw that the man was gasping for breath.
Sunshine spun round to the right, but there were no more intruders. There was no time to think about that, though, since James Cutaway’s men were running across the trail, firing as they came. Jed Cutaway’s men were firing back at them with equal ferocity.
‘My Gawd! All hell’s breaking out,’ Jordan said. ‘What do we do now?’
Sunshine wasn’t sure how to respond. He raised his head just enough to see what was happening on the trail.
‘Keep your head down,’ Jordan warned.
Jed Cutaway’s men were busy firing down at the trail; Sunshine saw two men fall as they rushed forward. My God! This is a massacre, he thought.
Then another idea occurred to him. This might be just the chance he needed to rescue that boy.
‘Cover for me,’ he said to Jordan.
‘I’ve been covering for you,’ Jordan hissed. ‘Are you utterly off your head, man?’
Sunshine pushed his way off the side of the track and wriggled forward. As he did so a bullet slashed through the grass just beyond him. Another lucky escape!
He could hear the shooting just ahead, but where were they? Then suddenly he saw Jed Cutaway. Cutaway was too busy firing at the hombre below to notice Sunshine crawling up on him. But where was Bart Bartok?
Then Jed Cutaway must have seen someone just beyond Sunshine’s vision to the right. He turned. There was moment of suspense as Jed saw Sunshine and recognized him. First fear, then astonishment, then fury appeared on his face. Then he swung his Winchester round. But a Winchester is more cumbersome than a Colt Peacemaker and Sunshine got his shot in first.
Jed Cutaway took the shot high in the chest. A forty-five bullet can knock a man right back, but a curious thing happened: Jed Cutaway jolted sideways, then reared right up as though he intended to run forward towards the trail. Then he caught two shots in quick succession from the men below, one in the neck and one in the head. He jerked and fell back with blood spurting from his head.
‘Well, I’ll be damned!’ Jordan shouted. ‘You damned killed Jed Cutaway!’
Sunshine wanted to reply but his lips were frozen and he fell forward on to his face.
‘My God, you’ve been hit!’ Jordan shouted.
Sunshine rolled over on to his back. ‘I can’t feel a thing,’ he said.
Then something remarkable happened. Someone from Jed Cutaway’s side roared out:
‘The boss has been killed.’
Then another man a little further off shouted:
‘You’ve killed Jed Cutaway.’
Suddenly the shooting stopped. It was as though a thunderbolt had struck the earth.
‘What?’ came another shout. ‘You mean Jed Cutaway has been killed?’
‘Dead as a nail,’ someone yelled from Jed Cutaway’s side. Then there was a great murmuring.
‘I’m getting out of here!’ yet another voice cried out.
Sunshine looked up and saw that the men from Jed Cutaway’s side were moving as fast as they could away from the action. Then he looked below and saw that the James Cutaway boys were pulling out too.
‘My Gawd! You did it,’ Jordan said. ‘You done killed Jed Cutaway and you’re clean and alive.’ He knelt over Sunshine and examined him. ‘Get up. You haven’t been hit, man. It was just the shock.’ He reached down and heaved Sunshine up. ‘You’re clean, man. You’re good and clean.’
Sunshine didn’t feel clean. He felt like vomiting.
Then they heard the sound of horses whinnying and men shouting.
‘They’re riding away,’ someone said. ‘Leaving us to bury the dead.’ It was Jeremiah Gibson and he was smiling triumphantly.
‘You see what happened?’ Jordan said. ‘This young guy killed Jed Cutaway.’
‘Is that so?’ Gibson replied. Sunshine struggled to recover his balance, determined not to vomit.
‘Have you found Bart Bartok?’ he asked.
‘Over here,’ Slim Savage said.
Sunshine realized he was still clutching the Colt Peacemaker. He thrust it into its holster and staggered forward to meet Bart Barkok.
‘So you’re Bart Bartok?’ he said.
The boy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ‘Am I free now?’ he asked.
‘Free as you’ll ever be,’ Slim Savage assured him.
‘So, what’s the score?’ Jordan asked.
‘Well, this ain’t exactly a chess game,’ Gibson told him. ‘but the score’s more or less even, Three dead on this side, including Jed Cutaway, and four on the other side . . . and one horse, if you count horses.’
‘All because of a slice of land that ain’t worth two bits,’ Slim Savage added.
‘I reckon you’re wrong there,’ Gibson said. ‘But we won’t know till they start drilling, will we?’
‘What do we do with the dead men?’ Jordan asked.
‘Well, we can’t leave them out here for the coyotes and the buzzards to peck at. So I guess we load them on the backs of horses and take them into town for decent burial.’
Sunshine was feeling a little steadier now.
‘Your ma will sure be glad to see you,’ he said to Bart. ‘Did they treat you badly?’
Bart was still trembling so much that they threw a blanket over his shoulders.
‘No, they didn’t treat me bad; they just threatened to kill me if my ma didn’t sign over the land.’
‘Well, you can stop worrying about that now,’ Sunshine told him.
He went to look at the corpses. Jed Cutaway, who’d been hit in the head was a truly grisly sight. Then Sunshine looked at the face of the more heavily moustachioed hombre; his moustache was now decidedly droopy. He had a look of astonishment on his dead face, as though he couldn’t believe he had been hit.
They rounded up the horses that had been abandoned and hoisted the corpses across their backs with due respect.
Sunshine went up to where Chingalong was feeding on the sparse grass on the other side of the bluff.
‘Well, Ching,’ he said, ‘I guess you heard all that shenanigans. And I’m glad you weren’t unduly bothered by it.’
Chingalong looked at Sunshine and snorted.
‘That’s my boy,’ Sunshine said, patting him on the head.
They rode back to the main trail more solemnly than triumphantly. There was no sign of the survivors from either side. It seemed that the death of Jed Cutaway had hit both sides like an avalanche of boulders. When they reached the trail Jeremiah Gibson brought the party to a halt in his usual commanding fashion.
‘Well, men,’ he said, ‘I think this is where we part company.’ He looked at Bart Bartok. ‘I think you should go back to the farm and help your ma to rejoice at your homecoming.’
‘Like the Prodigal Son in the Good Book,’ Slim Savage added piously.
Jeremiah looked at Sunshine. ‘You should go with him, son. We’ll ferry these dead stiffs back to town.’
‘And give the Funeral Director the good news,’ Slim Savage said mournfully.
‘And by the way, son,’ Gibson said to Sunshine, ‘I’d like to thank you for doing a great job with that Colt Peacemaker of yourn.’ He stretched out his large paw and gave Sunshine’s hand a firm squeeze.
Then Jeremiah Gibson, Jordan Rivers, Slim Savage, and the other close-mouthed hombre set off along the trail towards town with a grim procession of dead men draped across the backs of horses. It was a somewhat dispiriting sight.
Bart Bartok looked at Sunshine and smiled for the first time.
‘I don’t know who you are, Mr Shining, but I believe you saved my life, and I must thank you for that.’
Sunshine smiled back. ‘Well, your ma and your sister will be glad to see you and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?’
‘How come you got tangled up in this mess?’ the young man asked.
Sunshine told him how he had come upon the homestead by chance, had fired
a couple of rounds to frighten off the gunmen, and how he had stayed on to help Bethany Bartok around the farm.
‘Well, like Mr Slim Savage said, I’m like the Prodigal Son and I’m not too proud of that.’
‘I think you should say that to your ma,’ Sunshine said. ‘As I understand it, it’s too late to talk to your pa about it.’
‘I can make up for it on the farm,’ the boy said.
‘Well, your ma needs all the help she can get,’ Sunshine agreed.
When they reached the homestead Berthany Bartok and Elspeth were driving the cows in for milking. There wasn’t a lot of driving needed; the cows just ambled along to the milking shed to ease their load of milk. When Bethany looked up she stared hard at Sunshine and Bart, as though she was seeing some kind of heavenly vision.
‘My God! You’re back,’ she cried. Then she ran to the horse and hugged the boy’s knee. Bart looked suitably embarrassed. Then he jumped down from the horse and submitted to her embraces. Elspeth just looked at Sunshine and smiled.
‘So you’re back safe,’ she said.
‘He shot Jed Cutaway,’ Bart said. ‘That’s why I’m free.’
‘So you shot Jed Cutaway?’ Elspeth asked in astonishment.
‘He was about to shoot me,’ Sunshine said. ‘Then his brother James – or one of his sidekicks – shot him in the head.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Elspeth said. ‘You mean the brothers Cutaway were shooting at one another?’
Bart Bartok suddenly shook himself right back to life. He told his mother and Elspeth about the shoot-out in graphic detail, even with certain embellishments about how he had just been about to make a break for it when Fate intervened in the shape of Jeremiah Gibson, Sunshine, and the others.
Then he told them how he had been taken prisoner by Jed Cutaway and his men and held in the most terrible conditions. Yes, he had been held at Stinking Flats, then moved on to the Sullivan place.
‘They kept me tied up most of the time,’ he said, and his lips trembled as he spoke about it.
‘Well, you’re safe now,’ his mother assured him, ‘and it’s time to feed you up.’
Yes, it was time to eat and Bart lost no time in devouring all the food available.
This kid sure likes to eat, Sunshine thought to himself. Those kidnappers must have kept him half-starved. I guess he’s been spoiled rotten by his doting ma in the past.
‘Now, I gonna hit the hay and take a long, long nap,’ the boy announced.
‘The boy’s been through hell and high water and back,’ Bethany said after Bart had left them.
‘He could have been killed,’ Elspeth said, none too sympathetically.
‘Well, thank the Lord, it’s over now,’ Bethany said.
‘Are you sure it’s over?’ Elspeth asked her sharply. She looked at Sunshine for support. ‘Is it really over?’ she asked him. Sunshine shook his head.
‘I don’t know when over is over,’ he said. ‘Every ending is a new beginning. That’s the way life swings along.’
‘What exactly does that mean?’ Elspeth asked him.
‘I guess it means just what James Cutaway wants it to mean.’
‘How d’you figure that out?’ Bethany asked.
‘Well. . . .’ Sunshine tilted his head to one side, ‘what I think I mean is: there’s a whole lot of unanswered questions floating around here.’
Elspeth raised an attractive eyebrow.
‘Such as?’
‘Such as how does James Cutaway feel about the death of his brother? Why were those boys at war with one another? What did their kin feel about it? Why were they keen enough on getting their hands on your patch of land to kidnap your son and shoot at one another over it?’
‘That’s one hell of a lot of questions,’ Bethany said.
‘Sure,’ he agreed, ‘and I guess things aren’t going to be put to rest until we find the answers.’
‘How do we do that?’ Elspeth asked.
Sunshine shrugged. ‘Come morning I’m going to ride into town and look around.’
‘You mean like lift a few stones and look underneath to see what you find?’ Bethany said in astonishment.
Sunshine smiled. ‘Well, that’s quite a good way of putting it, Bethany. Men have been known to turn over stones and find gold, you know.’
‘That’s if you believe in fairy tales,’ Elspeth countered.
Sunshine gave her a long warm smile.
‘Well, I believe them if you do,’ he said.
Bethany was shaking her head.
‘You must be crazy,’ she said. ‘You don’t know what you might find in town, do you?’
Elspeth was smiling to herself. ‘Well, Mr Shining, I’ll tell you something: if you’re going into town I’m going with you.’
Bethany was about to put her foot down, but she restrained herself.
‘Well, I guess I can’t stop you. But make sure you take guns with you in case of trouble, you hear me?’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘It would be a whole lot better if you stayed on the farm and helped your ma out,’ Sunshine said to Elspeth when they were at breakfast next morning. ‘This whole business is wearing her out.’
‘Ma is a whole lot tougher than you think,’ Elspeth replied. ‘I’m going with you. Remember what happened last time. That dumb sheriff was about to throw you into the town jail but I flapped my eyes at him and he forgot about it.’
‘Well, I must admit that did help some,’ he agreed. Elspeth was wearing her working clothes instead of her fine city duds, but to Sunshine she looked even more attractive.
‘I shall ride into town on Felicity,’ Elspeth went on. ‘She’s a fine mare and she won’t give us any trouble.’
‘Just as long as Chingalong doesn’t have a yen for her,’ Sunshine mused.
If Elspeth blushed Sunshine didn’t see it since at that point she was sliding a Winchester carbine into the saddle holster.
They hit the trail and headed towards town.
‘So you shot Jed Cutaway,’ Elspeth said.
‘Like I said, I had to, but I didn’t want to. When I looked down at his dead face it made me sick to my stomach. Something tells me I’m not cut out to be a gunslinger.’
She glanced at him sideways.
‘You’re far too good for that, Mr Shining.’
He smiled. ‘You think so, Miss Bartok?’
‘I really do.’ She smiled too, but to herself. ‘So what will you do when this ugly business is over?’
‘I’m not good at making plans, Miss Elspeth. I think I’ll wait and see where the tides of Fate roll me.’
‘So you believe in Fate, Mr Shining?’
‘Fate or Destiny,’ he said, ‘depends on how you look at it. I guess I’m not cut out to be a farm boy either. So I might just move right on.’
‘That could be . . . further West or back East. . . ?’ She was still smiling to herself.
‘It might depend on . . . things.’
‘What sort of things?’
They were now riding side by side, so close that their knees were rubbing together. She glanced at him and smiled. It was a sweet and modest smile and for a moment he was tongue-tied. Then he leaned towards her and kissed her on the mouth. Her lips tasted as sweet as the sweetest honey he had ever tasted. It was like all the bees in the world had come together to produce it!
After they had broken away they rode on in amazement for a while. Sunshine felt so ecstatic he thought he might fall right out of the saddle.
‘And what do you plan to do?’ he asked her when he had recovered his breath. She raised an eyebrow.
‘That depends on a lot of things too, Mr Shining.’
They stared at one another and it was as though the sun was shining through the trees on the first day of Creation.
‘Like what?’ he almost whispered.
For a moment all she did was smile. Then she looked down the trail towards town.
‘That might depend on you, Mr Shinin
g,’ she said, so quietly that he barely heard her. Then he took another deep breath.
‘D’you mind if I ask you a question?’ he said.
She gave him another irresistible smile and his heart seemed to turn right over in his chest.
‘D’you think we make a good team, Miss Elspeth?’
She gave a quiet murmur of laughter.
‘What sort of question is that, Mr Shining? After all we’re not horses, are we?’
What a damned clumsy fool I am! he thought. ‘What I mean,’ he stammered, ‘is, d’you think you could marry me, Miss Elspeth?’
She looked startled, but not unduly surprised.
‘What kind of proposal is that, Mr Shining?’
Sunshine wondered what to do next. After all, a man on a horse can’t get down on his knees, can he? He looked at her for a moment and saw a wonderful look of anticipation in her eyes. He reached out and took her hand.
‘I have nothing to offer you except my love, Elspeth, but will you please marry me?’
They looked at one another and it seemed as though the sun had now risen above the trees and was shining with full radiancy.
‘I believe I will,’ she said. ‘I believe I will.’
They leaned over and kissed again while the horses kept jogging on towards town.
When they reached town there was a kind of haze hanging over the place. It was more psychological than physical, as though even the houses themselves were in mourning.
‘Where are we going?’ Elspeth asked him.
‘Maybe we should call in on the store and drink a mug of Mrs Snaze’s good strong coffee. Then I’d like to look in at the “Close Shave, We Do You Good”.’
‘You think you need a shave?’ she queried.
‘I think I’m going to be a little too busy for that. I want to consult the funeral directing part of the firm.’
‘You mean Stan Baldock and partners?’ she said.
‘Well now. . . .’ Sunshine grinned. ‘So my barber’s got a name, has he?’
