The big gundown

by J. A. Johnstone

  The Kid was surprised that she would say such a thing. She didn’t know him. For all she knew, he would tell Colonel Black what she had said, and she might be punished. She couldn’t tell what kind of man he was just from touching his face…could she?

  She leaned closer to him. “Help me,” she breathed. “Help me get away from here. Please, Señor Morgan. The men here…they are evil.”

  She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. But was she being truthful with him?

  Or was this just another test, like the attack on him by Cranston and Terhune? Was Colonel Black using Elena to find out if he could be trusted not to betray the gang?

  But as The Kid looked up into Elena’s sightless eyes, he knew he didn’t have to worry about that. There was nothing on her face except fear, and perhaps a little hope. The Kid had heard it said that the eyes were the windows to the soul, but even though Elena’s eyes were blank, he could tell there was no treachery in her soul.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

  “Take me away from here. I will go with you, do anything you want, if only you will take me away.” Her fingers grazed softly over his cheek.

  “I don’t know how I can do that.”

  “There is a way,” she said.

  The Kid felt his pulse quicken. Elena sounded mighty sure about that. The Kid hadn’t seen any way out, not without fighting against odds so heavy that they meant certain death.

  “What way?” he asked.

  “I can trust you?” She caught her breath. “Aii, what a foolish question. I know I can trust you. Did I not feel it in your face?”

  The Kid didn’t know about that. He wanted to reassure her, so he said quietly, “Yes, Elena, you can trust me. I give you my word I won’t betray anything you reveal to me.”

  “In that case…” She set the damp cloth aside and held out her hand. The Kid took it. “I will show you.”

  He stood up, and she led him over to the wall he had been exploring earlier. His instincts had told him there was something unusual about it. Now he saw what it was as she felt along the wall until she came to one of the support beams. She rested the palm of her hand against it and pushed. The beam, to The Kid’s surprise, moved slightly. He heard a faint click.

  A section of the wall swung out an inch or so, released by the latch he had heard. Elena slid her fingers into the gap and opened the door even more.

  “There are stairs,” she said. “They lead to the top of El Cráneo Rojo.”

  The Kid leaned closer to the opening. The light from the lamps in the dining room penetrated far enough so that he could see a narrow staircase, carved out of the stone of the cliff itself, spiraling up into the darkness. Excitement made his heart slug harder in his chest.

  “These stairs go all the way to the top, you say?”

  “Sí. Many years ago, before the colonel and his men came, before even the Apaches came to this land, others lived here under the cliff, and they carved these steps so they would have a way to escape from their enemies if they needed to. In the end it did not help. Those old ones are gone now. But the stairs remain.”

  She was right, The Kid thought. The stairs had an air of antiquity about them, as if they had lurked there unseen behind the wall for centuries. He didn’t know anything about those old ones she mentioned, but he felt a surge of gratitude toward them. The hidden stairs were just what he needed.

  “Do you know where Señora Sheffield is being held?” he asked.

  “Señora Sheffield?”

  “The redhaired woman,” The Kid said, then realized that description would mean nothing to Elena. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”

  “Do not worry, Señor Morgan. I have never had my sight, so I do not miss it. Are you talking about the colonel’s lady?”

  “He’d like for her to be,” The Kid said, “but she’s actually married to someone else.”

  Elena’s lips pursed in disapproval. “I told you the colonel was an evil man. He speaks well, but he does many terrible things.”

  Remembering what had happened to Dunbar earlier, The Kid knew she sure as hell was right about that.

  “I know in which room the woman is being kept,” Elena continued. “Why do you need to know?”

  “We have to take her with us,” The Kid said.

  A slight frown creased Elena’s otherwise smooth, golden forehead. “Why? Is-is she something special to you, Señor Morgan?”

  Was that a hint of jealousy he heard in her voice? The Kid didn’t know, but as much as he was depending on Elena’s help, he didn’t want to risk ruffling her feathers.

  “Señora Sheffield is my friend, that’s all,” he assured her. Even that was stretching the truth a mite—honestly, he didn’t like Glory much at all—but he didn’t think she deserved whatever Gideon Black had planned for her. He wanted Elena to think that Glory was important enough to him that she would help him get her out of there, too.

  “Señora Lopez guards the other señora’s room most of the time,” Elena said. “You will have to do something with her. Kill her, perhaps.”

  The Kid grunted in surprise at the casual way Elena made that suggestion.

  She heard his reaction, because she added, “Señora Lopez can be very cruel to me at times. She beats me, and—” She broke off with a hiss of breath between her teeth, then said, “The señora comes!”

  Chapter 31

  The Kid didn’t hear anything, but he trusted Elena’s hearing, which was keener than his. They both stepped away from the hidden door. Elena pushed it shut. It clicked into place just before Señora Lopez stepped into the dining room.

  The older woman spoke sharply in Spanish. The Kid understood enough of it to comprehend that Señora Lopez wanted to know why Elena wasn’t tending to his wounds. Elena replied that she had already cleaned them.

  “That’s right, señora,” The Kid said in English. “I’m fine. Elena did a good job of taking care of me.”

  Señora Lopez sniffed and continued to glare at the young woman. Even though Elena couldn’t see that, The Kid had a hunch she sensed it. She had a pretty good feel for most of Señora Lopez’s moods and knew when to avoid her if possible.

  Señora Lopez snapped at Elena to go to the kitchen. Elena left the dining room, moving with an ease and assurance that made it difficult to remember that she was blind.

  The Kid said to the Indian woman, “I’m going to my room to rest some more. Please let me know if Colonel Black requires my presence.”

  “If the colonel wants you, you will know,” she replied. “He will see to that.”

  The Kid didn’t doubt it. He went to his room, lit the candle, and closed the door behind him.

  He wished he’d had a chance to talk some more with Elena, so they could work out their plans. He also wished she had told him in which room Glory Sheffield was being held. Until he had that information, The Kid had to rely on Elena. He still didn’t think that she had been trying to trick him, but he supposed time would tell about that.

  He was tired. He hadn’t gotten enough rest before, and the fight with Cranston and Terhune had taken even more out of him. He stretched out on the bed, knowing that he was liable to doze off.

  He fell asleep even faster than he expected, almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  The last thing he thought about was the beautiful face of a blue-eyed blind girl.

  The Kid’s muscles were stiff when he woke up, but he didn’t have any trouble moving around. He put on his hat and gun and went into the dining room.

  Glory was sitting at the table.

  She leaped to her feet and ran to him as soon as she saw him, practically throwing herself into his arms. “Kid!” she cried. “I didn’t know where you were, and that horrible Indian woman won’t tell me anything! Are you all right?”

  The Kid put his hands on her shoulders and moved her back a little. “I’m fine, Glory,” he told her. “How about you?”

  She nodded. “I was able to s
leep some. I didn’t think I could possibly sleep in this awful place, but I did. Have you thought of some way to get us out of here?”

  “Keep your voice down,” he cautioned her, lowering his own voice to a whisper. “Black’s made me his aide. He expects your husband, along with Bateman and the rest of those hired guns, to get here late tomorrow sometime.”

  “Do we have to stay that long? Can’t we try to escape now?”

  The Kid cast a glance toward the wall that contained the hidden door. Sure, he could open the door and they could go up those stairs to the top, and if what Elena had told him was true, they would come out on top of the Red Skull and be free.

  Yeah, free somewhere in the Dragoons, on foot, with no horses, no supplies, and only a limited amount of ammunition. Plus a whole camp full of enemies who would come looking for them as soon as it was discovered that they were gone. Those weren’t the sort of odds that The Kid liked.

  They’d be better off biding their time until he could think of a better plan, or at least some sort of plan, period, instead of just rushing up that hidden staircase. Glory might not see it that way, so for now he wasn’t going to tell her about the stairs.

  “We’ll get out, don’t worry about that. It might be better to wait until your husband gets here, though. Black will be more distracted that way.”

  “Are you sure?” Glory pleaded. “If we stay here, there’s no telling what he’ll do. I know, I tried to put a brave face on it earlier, but I don’t want to have to…to have to…”

  “Maybe it won’t come to that,” The Kid said.

  “If we can get away before Edward gets here,” Glory went on, “maybe we can stop him before there’s another battle. I can’t let anything happen to Edward, Kid. I just can’t!”

  “No offense, but I didn’t think you even liked him all that much, what with the way you’ve been trying to get me into your bed the past few days.”

  She stared at him, anger smoldering in her eyes. “You don’t know anything about it, Kid. One thing doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the other, you know.”

  He grunted and shook his head. “That’s not the way it’s been in my experience.”

  “Anyway, I can’t let anything happen to Edward because we haven’t been married for eighteen months yet.”

  The light dawned in The Kid’s brain. “You have to be married that long before you get his money if anything happens to him!”

  “That’s right,” Glory replied in a sulky tone. “He said he wasn’t going to change his will until he was sure the marriage would last…the suspicious bastard!”

  The Kid shook his head and laughed. Glory was full of surprises, yet completely predictable.

  “So you see, that’s why we can’t let him be killed,” she went on. “If you can get me out of this, Kid, and destroy Gideon without Edward coming to any harm, I’ll see to it that you’re well rewarded. Financially…or any other way you’d like.”

  “You don’t give up easy, do you?”

  “I never give up when there’s something I want.” Glory’s eyes suddenly darted to something behind him. She said, “Kid…”

  He turned and saw Elena coming into the room. “Señor Morgan?” she asked.

  “I’m here, Elena.”

  “And…the Señora Sheffield?”

  “Yes, she’s here, too.”

  Elena’s voice was cooler than usual as she said, “Señora Lopez told me to find you. She said Colonel Black and his staff will be meeting in here shortly.”

  “Thank you,” The Kid said. “I’ll just wait for them, if that’s all right.”

  “I should take Señora Sheffield back to her room. She should not be wandering around. Señora Lopez would not be pleased.”

  Glory gave a defiant toss of her head that sent her red hair swirling around her face. “I don’t give a damn whether that old hag is pleased or not.”

  “Just go with Elena,” The Kid told her. “I’ll see you later.”

  She gave him a look. He saw desperation in her eyes. Don’t forget, she mouthed.

  The two young women left the room, with Elena leading the way even though she was blind. The Kid sat down at the table. He thought about helping himself to a drink. The hour had to be getting late in the day. He decided to wait, figuring that Black would probably order Lopez to pour drinks all around once the meeting got underway. They would probably have dinner, too.

  The Kid didn’t have to wait long before Black, Cranston, and Terhune came in, accompanied by two more outlaws he hadn’t met. Terhune’s broken nose was swollen and ugly, but he didn’t seem particularly angry at The Kid. He just grunted and said, “Good fight, Morgan. I figured Cranston and me would stomp the hell out of you.”

  “You were lucky,” Cranston said coldly. He seemed to hold more of a grudge than Terhune, although the only visible sign of injury he had was a bruise on his jaw where one of The Kid’s punches had landed.

  Black shook his head and said, “Luck had nothing to do with it, Captain. I was watching. Lieutenant Morgan acquitted himself quite well.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Cranston’s admission was grudging.

  Black waved toward the table. “Sit down, gentlemen. We have work to do. Morgan, this is Lieutenant Harkins and Lieutenant Brill.”

  The Kid nodded to the other two outlaws. The men took their places around the table. Black stood at the head of the table and addressed them.

  “I have lookouts stationed between here and Titusville to keep watch for the approach of Edward Sheffield and his men. They’ll send signals so that we’ll have plenty of warning before the enemy arrives, probably late in the day tomorrow. We’ll position marksmen around the gap at the entrance to the valley so that once Sheffield and his men are in our sights, they won’t be able to retreat. I intend to allow Sheffield to approach the stronghold, but once my business with him is concluded, we shall open fire with cannon and rifles on his men and wipe them out. If any of them attempt to flee, the sharpshooters at the gap will cut them down. I want a clean sweep, gentlemen. No mercy. No quarter. Sheffield and all his men will die.” The colonel looked around the table. “Any questions?”

  No one spoke. Colonel Black might be loco, The Kid thought, but unfortunately, the plan he had come up with to wipe out Sheffield and his hired gunfighters was a good one. It sounded like it would work.

  “Very well, then,” Black said. “I want suggestions as to how we can best deploy our forces. I want our ten best rifle shots to close off the gap.”

  For the next few minutes, Black and the other outlaws hashed out the details of who would be posted where and what the signals would be to start the attack. As the colonel’s aide, The Kid would be at Black’s side, of course.

  At one point, Black glanced at The Kid and frowned. “You should be getting all this down,” he said.

  “Sorry, Colonel,” The Kid said. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to take notes.”

  “As my aide, what did you think your job was?”

  The Kid refrained from pointing out that he had never been in the army, let alone served as the aide to a colonel. Instead he said, “When the meeting is over, I’ll get paper and a pen from Lopez and write up a report while my memory is still fresh.”

  Black nodded curtly. “That will be sufficient, but in the future, please be better prepared.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  A few minutes later, Black told Lopez to bring in a bottle of wine and also to have dinner served. The Kid had smelled some delicious aromas drifting out from the kitchen, and they reminded him that he still hadn’t caught up on his eating.

  With the details of the plan worked out, Black picked up the wine glass Lopez had filled for him. The other men picked up their glasses as well.

  “If fortune smiles on us, by this time tomorrow evening Edward Sheffield will be dead and all of us will be even wealthier than we are now. I won’t forget the services that all of you have rendered in our cause.” Black raised his glass. “To go
od fortune, gentlemen…and to the death of our enemies!”

  Chapter 32

  The Kid didn’t see Glory again that evening. He hoped that Black would leave her alone, and an offhand remark the colonel made gave reason to think that might be possible. While ranting about Edward Sheffield and the way the tycoon had double crossed him, Black said, “Once Sheffield is dead, then Gloriana can truly be mine again!”

  It would be just like Black’s warped sense of honor to believe that he couldn’t molest Glory while she was still married to Sheffield. Once she was a widow, though, it would be a different story.

  Either way, there was nothing The Kid could do about it. He remained in the dining room with Black and the other outlaws until the hour was quite late.

  Once he had been dismissed and returned to his room, he blew out the candle and waited in the darkness for an hour, until he thought it might be safe to do some prowling in the halls. He went to the door, listened intently, and didn’t hear anyone moving around on the other side of it.

  The Kid eased the door open and stepped into the corridor. Only a single candle was still lit, and it illuminated the hallway dimly. He wished he knew which room was Glory’s…if, indeed, any of them were. It was possible she was being held in some other part of the semi-subterranean fortress.

  He catfooted along the corridor, once again listening at doors and hearing nothing. He couldn’t call out Glory’s name, even softly, for fear that someone else might hear. It wouldn’t do to be calling Glory’s name through the door of Black’s room.

  Frustrated, The Kid turned toward the short hallway that led to the dining room. He stole along it through the shadows, and as he reached the opening into the dining room, he stopped short at the sight of a ghostly figure moving around in there. All he could see was a moving patch of white.

  The figure turned toward him and came closer, and he saw that it was Elena, wearing a long white gown. She must have sensed that someone was there, because she stopped and whispered, “Que?”