Packing Iron

by Steve Hayes

  ‘She asleep?’ he whispered to Ingrid.

  She nodded and gently kissed her daughter on the top of her raven-black head.

  ‘Just like she hasn’t a care in the world.’

  ‘That’s ’cause she trusts you.’

  ‘Trusts you, you mean.’ When he didn’t say anything, she added: ‘What’s going to happen to us, Gabe?’

  ‘We’re gonna be fine.’

  ‘Don’t patronize me. Tell me what you really think.’

  Before he could answer gunfire broke out.

  ‘There’s your answer,’ he told her.

  ‘Oh-dear-God,’ she said softly.

  ‘Sounds like it’s comin’ from the pass,’ Gabriel said as the shooting increased. ‘From what I saw ridin’ in, the Utleys most likely got your stepbrother an’ his men pinned down.’ He saw her wince and wished he’d kept his mouth shut.

  Raven now waked with a start. Hearing the steady crackle of rifle fire, she sat up and looked about her as if not sure where she was. ‘Momma – who’s shooting?’

  ‘It’s your Uncle Reece. He and the sheriff and some men are trying to get us out of here.’

  ‘Shouldn’t take ’em long,’ Gabriel lied.

  The door swung open and Mitch stood looking at them, rifle in one hand, Gabriel’s Colt in the other.

  ‘I’m goin’ to help Pa,’ he told Gabriel.

  ‘He said for you to stay here.’

  ‘Don’t care what he said. I ain’t waitin’ no longer. Pa needs me even if he won’t admit it. Here,’ he tossed the Peacemaker to Gabriel. ‘Fend for yourself. I owe you that much.’ Turning, he ran out of the shack.

  ‘Too bad,’ Gabriel said as they heard Mitch ride off. ‘Boy had potential.’

  ‘Now what?’ Ingrid asked.

  ‘Got two options,’ Gabriel said. ‘Wait here till the fightin’ stops, which could be a spell, or try to make it over one of the cliffs behind us an’—’

  Suddenly, the earth shook.

  The ground under the shack heaved so violently, Gabriel, Ingrid and Raven were thrown to the floor.

  Furniture overturned. Windows shattered. Pots and pans and dishes fell off hooks and shelves in the kitchen and rolled, clattering, everywhere.

  Outside, there was a loud, wrenching, screeching sound as wood and nails were ripped apart. Moments later the porch collapsed.

  The shaking seemed to last forever.

  Still on the bedroom floor, Gabriel dragged Ingrid and Raven to the overturned bed, grabbed the mattress and pulled it over them. He felt them trembling and gently tried to calm their fears, assuring them that they were safe and that the quake wouldn’t last long.

  And still the earth shook.

  The three of them waited, eyes closed, teeth clinched, bodies tensed, jolted around like corks at sea.

  Then, as suddenly as it started, the shaking stopped.

  Everything was still. Silent.

  It was, Gabriel thought, as if the earth was holding its breath.

  ‘Thank God,’ whispered Ingrid. ‘It’s over.’

  Then the after-shock struck.

  It lasted only a few seconds. But in that time the shack was torn loose from the ground. The walls split apart. The roof caved in. The shack collapsed like a house of cards.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  In Rockfall Pass things were much worse. The earthquake and after-shock had undermined the cliffs on both sides of the trail, splitting them apart. They collapsed, causing twin landslides that buried Reece, Sheriff Vogel and most of the deputies under thousands of tons of rock and dirt.

  The Utley forces, hidden among the rocks on the cliffs, fared no better. Unable to save themselves, they were trapped in the landslide and soon buried alongside their enemies in one colossal, enigmatic grave.

  The screams of the dying and injured gradually lessened. So did the clouds of falling dust. Finally, only a few painful groans could be heard. And eventually, they too ceased.

  There were few survivors.

  Buried under the collapsed cabin, Gabriel, Ingrid and Raven heard the thunderous roar of the two landslides.

  The silence that followed was almost as deafening.

  ‘Dear mother of God,’ Ingrid breathed. ‘What was that?’

  ‘Nature,’ Gabriel said grimly. ‘Reckon she’s decided to put an end to this feud herself.’ Crawling out from under the mattress, he cleared a hole in the mass of debris overhead and pulled Ingrid and Raven to safety. Other than a few scratches, none of them was hurt. They looked toward the pass but could see nothing but a cloud of swirling dust.

  Anxious to get out of the canyon in case another quake hit, Gabriel hurried to the corral. Two unsaddled horses stood huddled together against the fence. Frightened by the quake, they shied away from him. Grabbing a lariat from a post, he entered the corral and spoke gently to them. It took a while but gradually they calmed down. He then roped one for himself and let Ingrid and Raven ride double on his saddled buckskin.

  As they approached the blocked pass the still-settling dust hid the few remaining survivors who were frantically digging among the rocks. But it didn’t hide the wailing coming from the widows looking for their husbands, or the sobbing of their children.

  ‘You’n Raven stay here,’ Gabriel told Ingrid, ‘while I look around for—’

  She cut him off. ‘No, no, I’m going with you!’

  ‘Wouldn’t advise that.’

  ‘I’m still going,’ she said, fighting not to panic. ‘I have to find out if Reece is all right!’

  ‘An’ you can forget about leaving me behind,’ Raven chimed in. ‘’Cause nothing you say is gonna make me stay here by myself.’

  Gabriel shrugged, ‘Suit yourselves,’ nudged his horse onward and led them to the pass.

  When they were almost to the narrow, rock-strewn entrance, the massive figure of Remus Utley appeared out of the dust. Bruised and bleeding, he staggered toward them carrying a corpse in his arms.

  It was Mitch, Gabriel realized, crushed almost beyond recognition. Feeling a tug of regret, he started to offer his condolences. But the huge man lumbered past him without speaking or looking up. Swallowing his remorse, Gabriel dismounted alongside Ingrid and Raven.

  ‘That poor man,’ Ingrid whispered sadly. ‘How’s he ever going to live with himself?’

  ‘He’ll survive,’ Gabriel said bluntly. ‘His kind always does.’

  For the next two hours the three of them clambered over the mountain of rocks and dirt looking for Reece. Soon their nails were broken and their hands cut and bleeding. But there was no trace of Ingrid’s brother. Still they searched. The sun blazed down remorselessly. Gabriel knew they were wasting their time, but he kept his thoughts to himself and continued looking.

  ‘Momma, we’re never going to find him,’ Raven said finally. ‘Uncle Reece is dead and—’

  ‘We don’t know that for certain,’ Ingrid snapped. ‘And until we do, I’m going to keep looking for him. He’s my stepbrother,’ she added defensively to Gabriel. ‘I must know if he’s alive or dead. Surely you can understand that.’ Desperate, she continued searching.

  Gabriel gently squeezed Raven’s shoulder and smiled encouragingly at her. She sensed he was trying to make her understand what her mother was going through, and reluctantly went on looking among the rocks.

  The sun was directly overhead when Gabriel found Reece Blackwood. His body lay mangled between two boulders, about halfway into the pass, and by his agonized expression Gabriel knew he had not died quickly or without pain.

  He looked behind him and saw Ingrid tending to an injured, raggedly dressed Utley woman. Covered in cuts and bruises, she looked dazed and was still clutching her pistol. Nearby, Raven was giving one of the deputies a drink from a canteen she’d found among the rocks. His chest was crushed and he wheezed with pain.

  Struggling with his conscience, Gabriel finally decided Ingrid had a right to know her brother was dead and brought her over to the corpse.

 
; She tried to control her emotions but it was too much for her and she broke into tears. Kneeling beside Reece, she gently brushed the dirt from his face, wiped the dribble of licorice chewing gum from his lips and tearfully kissed his cheek. As she did a second, smaller after-shock brought another section of the cliff crashing down around them.

  Gabriel grabbed Ingrid’s hand and they scrambled over the rocks to Raven. She was staring at the deputy’s corpse, seemingly unaware of the impending danger.

  ‘He’s dead,’ she said in a tiny, lost voice. ‘I was giving him a drink and he … he just died.’

  ‘C’mon,’ Gabriel grasped their hands and pulled them away. ‘Hurry or we’ll be buried ourselves.’

  Ingrid balked, reluctant to leave her brother’s corpse. ‘I c-can’t just leave him here,’ she sobbed. ‘He deserves a proper b-burial and—’

  More rocks and dirt showered down behind them. They were followed almost immediately by a larger landslide, this one burying Reece’s body beneath it.

  Gabriel draped his arms around Ingrid and Raven, trying to protect them from flying debris, at the same time shouting that they had to get out of there! ‘Dammit, woman, I mean it,’ he yelled when Ingrid didn’t move. ‘We have to go – now!’

  As if to remind them of the imminent danger, the earth again shuddered, bringing down another rockfall.

  Still Ingrid refused to leave.

  ‘Please, Momma,’ Raven begged. ‘I already lost Daddy. I don’t want to lose anyone else I love.’

  Ingrid heard the fear in her voice and finally relenting, hugged Raven to her. ‘All right, lamb. We’ll go.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  It took them all afternoon to reach the other end of the pass. By then they were exhausted. But Gabriel wouldn’t let the women rest. It was still several miles to town, he reminded them, and walking in the dark could be dangerous.

  ‘I’m not walking anywhere,’ Raven said. ‘Not when there’re horses around.’ She pointed to a nearby hillside where three of the horses belonging to Sheriff Vogel’s deputies – horses that had escaped the landslide – were grazing. ‘Want to help me catch ’em?’ she said to Gabriel.

  Tired as he was, her impudence made him smile. ‘You got gall,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you that.’ But he went with her anyway.

  The earthquake had scared the horses, making them wary, but between them Gabriel and Raven managed to coax two of them close enough to grab their reins. Giving

  Ingrid and Raven the placid-looking bay, Gabriel took the skittish roan and they wearily headed toward town. Ingrid rode in silence. All cried out, she stared straight ahead, seemingly unaware of Gabriel or Raven, her compressed lips expressing the anguish she was feeling. Reece’s death, like her husband’s, had happened so suddenly, so unexpectedly she wasn’t prepared for it. She had come to Old Calico to be looked after, and to give Raven a better life – and now, in a heartbeat, she was once again a single mother trying to raise a rebellious teenage daughter. The big difference, of course, was she no longer had to worry about money. The landslide had made her a rich woman. Years ago Reece had promised her that if anything ever happened to him, everything he owned would go to her. But rich or poor, she thought bitterly, I’m still husbandless, still fending for myself in a world of violence, a man’s world, instead of being loved and cared for by someone I love and who loves me.

  Distant gunshots interrupted her thinking.

  Signaling for Ingrid and Raven to stop, Gabriel spurred his horse almost to the crest of the low hill ahead. There he dismounted and crawled to the top. After a few moments, he remounted and beckoned for them to join him.

  They obeyed.

  The smell of fire drifted up to them from the canyon in which Old Calico was snuggled. The town had been shaken by the quake and they saw smoke and flames rising from several burning buildings. They could also hear sporadic gunfire.

  ‘Could be looters,’ Gabriel warned Ingrid and Raven. ‘Stay close to me when we reach town.’ They kicked their horses into a trot, descending the long gradual slope that ended at the north end of Old Calico.

  ‘You ever been in an earthquake before?” Raven asked Gabriel.

  ‘Once. In Colorado. I was about your age an’ me’n Pa were in this gold camp tryin’ to get the miners to attend our prayer meetin’. Most of ’em refused, and went on drinkin’ an’ gambling. Pa got sore an’ warned ’em that God would seek retribution for their sins. But they only laughed an’ rode us out of camp. Right after that the quake hit.’ Gabriel grinned, amused by the memory. ‘Next time Pa’n me came around, so many miners showed up we had to hold the meetin’ outdoors ’cause they couldn’t all fit in our tent.’

  Shortly, they reached the outskirts of Old Calico. From here they could see the town had been hit harder by the quake than they realized, especially along Main Street where several of the damaged buildings were ablaze.

  Looters were everywhere. Mostly riffraff, they were breaking into buildings and stealing whatever they wanted then loading their spoils into a large freight wagon parked outside the Lucky Nugget Saloon. And when any of the storekeepers tried to interfere, the looters frightened them off by shooting at them.

  Despite the looting and chaos, the townspeople were desperately trying to stop the fires from spreading. Volunteer firemen were hosing down the blazing buildings, while the men on the horse-drawn fire-wagon pumped frantically to maintain the water pressure.

  Farther along the street, men and women had formed a bucket-line in an effort to douse the flames threatening to destroy the bank and Harley’s Feed and Grain store.

  The livery stable was only two doors down and Gabriel immediately thought of Brandy. Telling Ingrid to follow him, he spurred the roan along the street and quickly reached the stable. The doors were open and no one seemed to be around.

  Dismounting, Gabriel motioned for Ingrid and Raven to keep quiet, drew his Colt and entered the stable. His worst fears were realized: all the stalls were empty. About to leave, he heard a moan. Turning, he saw the hostler’s daughter, a slim girl no more than sixteen, sprawled on some hay at the rear.

  Yelling for Ingrid to join him, he ran to the girl’s side and saw she’d been attacked. Blood streamed from cuts and welts on her face and her dress was ripped down the front.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Gabriel said softly as she cringed in fear. ‘I’m not gonna hurt you.’

  Dazed, she whispered something he couldn’t understand.

  ‘Who did this?’ he asked.

  ‘Men,’ she whimpered. ‘T-t-tried to stop them from stealing the h-horses, but—’ her voice faltered.

  Ingrid and Raven came rushing up. One look at the girl told Ingrid everything. ‘Get some water,’ she told Raven. ‘Hurry! Go!’

  Kneeling beside the girl, she stroked her hair and tried to calm her. ‘You’re going to be fine,’ she said soothingly. ‘Just fine. Now tell me where your folks are?’

  The girl stared at Ingrid, as if trying to place her. ‘Pa,’ she murmured. ‘G-get Pa—’

  ‘Where is he?’ said Gabriel.

  ‘F-fires … w-went to help p-put out—’ She fainted in his arms.

  Just then Raven returned with a bowl of water. Gabriel gently placed the girl in Ingrid’s arms and got to his feet.

  ‘You two stay with her while I go help with the fires.’

  ‘Be careful,’ Raven begged, clinging to his arm. ‘With all them crazy looters running around, you could get shot.’

  Looking down at her he saw the fear in her big black eyes and knew she was reliving her father’s death. ‘Don’t worry,’ he assured her. ‘I’ll be careful. Now help your mom.’ Gently but firmly he pushed her away and hurried outside.

  He stood in the street, immune to the uproar going on around him, looking for the Morgan. Brandy wasn’t among the horses tied up outside any of the buildings. Nor was the stallion one of the many panicked, rider-less horses aimlessly running up and down the street.

  Determined to find his ho
rse, Gabriel walked toward the center of town. Fires blazed on both sides of him. His eyes began to water and every breath tasted of smoke.

  As he approached the undertaker’s, he heard gunshots. Suddenly a rider came galloping out of the alley separating the bank from the Lucky Nugget Saloon. Saddle-bags full of money were slung over his shoulder and as he rode, half-turned in the saddle, he fired at someone behind him.

  A shot rang out. Hit in the chest, the rider pitched from the saddle, landed, rolled, and laid still. Money spilled from the saddlebags, the loose bills fluttering about the street.

  There were looters nearby, most of them still piling stolen goods onto the freight wagon. Gabriel expected them to fight over the money. But strangely, no one went near it.

  And moments later, when a man rode out of the alley, a small, slim, handsome man with curly sandy hair and a nickel-plated .44 in his left hand, Gabriel knew why: it was Latigo Rawlins!

  ‘Next one of you saloon-swabbers tries to rob me,’ he told the looters, ‘dances from a rope!’ He let his threat sink in then said: ‘Now, pick up my money an’ bring it to me in the Nugget. You,’ he said to another looter, ‘finish loadin’ the wagon an’ then get ready to move out. There’ll be a deputy marshal here soon, maybe even soldiers, an’—’

  He broke off, shocked, as he saw Gabriel. Then he slowly grinned and shook his head in a mixture of admiration and disbelief, muttered: ‘Harder to lose than a plugged nickel.’

  Gabriel, equally shocked to see Latigo alive, said quietly: ‘Reckon you know that’s my horse you’re ridin’.’

  ‘Never figured you’d be back to claim it.’

  ‘Figured wrong.’

  ‘On the prod, huh?’

  ‘Nope. Just lookin’ to keep what’s mine.’

  Latigo, eyes fixed on Gabriel, eased himself out of the saddle in one slow, fluid, graceful movement and stepped to the ground.

  ‘How much you want for him?’