Robber's Roost (1989)

by Grey, Zane

  "How far are they away?" Hays then asked.

  "Two miles."

  "Gawd Almighty--Where? Which way air they--comin'?"

  Facing south, Jim pointed. "Little west--of south. They're in a-- wash that'll head--into the trail we made."

  "I know thet. But it's rough before it heads in. We've got half an hour--mebbe. Did you think to look fer the hosses?"

  "Eight horses in the--valley. Others not in sight."

  "You ---- ---- ---!" cursed Hays, suddenly furious. "Fine scout you air. How come you didn't spy them soon enough fer us to rustle out of hyar?"

  "I couldn't have seen them half a mile sooner," snapped Jim. "They came out from behind a bank."

  "Hell's fire. Tell thet to ME? You was sleepin'."

  "You're a liar," flashed Jim, leaping clear of the others. "Open your trap to me again like that!"

  "Say, it's you who'll shet his trap," replied Hays, stridently.

  "Or you'll git a dose of medicine I gave Brad Lincoln."

  "Not from you--you yellow dog of a woman thief!"

  Smoky Slocum ran out in time to get in front of Jim.

  "Hyar! Hyar!" he called, piercingly. "Is this a time fer us to fight each other? Cool down, Jim. Make allowance fer Hays, He's wuss'n drunk."

  "I don't care a damn if there're ten outfits on our trail. He can't talk to me that way. . . . And, Smoky, I reckon you're presuming on friendship."

  "Shore I am," returned Slocum, hurriedly. "I'll not do it again, Jim. Hays is what you called him. But leave your dispute till we settle with Heeseman."

  "All right. You're talking sense," replied Jim. He had been quick to grasp the opening made by Hays. "There must be ten riders in Heeseman's outfit."

  "Wall, thet suits me," rejoined the robber, harshly.

  "Now think fast," snapped Smoky.

  Hays pulled himself together. "Mac, you an' Jeff run like hell to fetch what hosses you can find quick. . . . Jack, you an' Smoky an' Wall hustle the grub, cook-kit, packs, an' beds into thet cave across the wash. I'll git up high an' watch. When I yell dig fer cover."

  "You aimin' to fight or run?" queried Smoky.

  "We might git packed light, if somethin' holds them up. But we can't leave the way we come in. Dirty Devil's too high. Heeseman has stumbled on the next best way. If we had plenty of time. . . .

  But rustle, everybody."

  Mac and Jeff were already in lumbering flight up the oval. And Happy Jack, not concerned enough to stop his whistling, was sacking his utensils. Hays made for the notch in the bluff west of the cabin. Jim sprang into action, while Smoky dashed off toward the cottonwood grove.

  Chapter 14

  Upon Jim's first return trip from the cave he encountered the girl, burdened with her effects.

  "Helen, I'll carry that. Hurry! We've no time to lose."

  At the back of the cave there was a crack deep enough to protect Helen. He directed her to hide inside and await developments.

  "JIM--promise me you'll shoot me--before letting Hays or any of them--get me."

  He considered that a moment, then answered, "I promise."

  Her reply was incoherent, though couched in passionate tones. Jim ran on toward the camp, resolving to withhold a shell in his rifle and to keep a sharp watch on Hays.

  The next quarter of an hour was filled with strenuous and unceasing action. Their united efforts collected all the supplies, utensils, saddles, and packs, and several of the beds in the three-cornered cave back and to one side of the shack. A huge slab of stone lay across the top of this triangular notch in the cliff. The wall had been hollowed by the action of water. A small stream flowed out from the base of the wall. At the extreme apex of the notch there was an opening, but hidden from above by thick bushes. Also bushes of the same kind screened the west side of this notch. Beyond the shack and in close around the opposite corner a corral had been built under that shelving wall. It was the best place for defense in the oval, and Jim believed Hays' outfit could hold it indefinitely, though not to save the horses. If it came to a siege they could be released.

  Smoky came panting in with Hays' pack, and started off again.

  "That's enough, Smoky," called Jim.

  Slocum returned. "Nothin' left--'cept Hank's bed," he panted. "I-- couldn't--locate thet."

  "Listen!"

  "What do you hear?"

  "Horses."

  "Sure, I catch it. . . . Which way?"

  "Damn if I can tell."

  "Grab a rifle. Seems to me if Hays was up on top somewhere he'd hear horses before we could--in that direction."

  "Shore. Must be Mac an' Jeff."

  Smoky had guessed correctly. Half a dozen horses appeared tearing over rocks and through brush into the oval, with the two men, riding bareback, in close pursuit.

  Then above the noise rose Hays' stentorian voice: "RIDE! RIDE FER

  CAMP! . . . Let the hosses go!"

  The robber chieftain came plunging down the gap. He was warning Mac and Jeff. There must have been more danger for them, on the moment, than for him.

  "Jim, keep your eye peeled on thet cliff," said Smoky, and stole forward under cover of the brush.

  Presently a white puff of smoke showed above the ragged rim.

  SPANG! The fight was on. One of Hays' men--Bridges--let out a hoarse bawl and swayed over, almost losing his balance. Jim looked no more at him, but concentrated his gaze on the rim. Another puff of white! Something dark--a man's slouch hat--bobbed up. Jim's rifle, already raised, swerved a trifle--cracked. The hat went flying.

  "Wal, if thet bird didn't have it on a stick he got scalped, I'll gamble," observed Smoky, which remark attested to his keen sight.

  The horses came over the bench, frightened, but not stampeding, and Mac drove them into the corral. This was around the corner from the range of the sharpshooter on the rim. Bridges, reeling on the horse, followed Mac, who ran out of the corral to catch him as he fell. Then, as they came along to the wall, Hays arrived puffing from the other direction.

  "Heeseman--with his outfit--nine in all," he heaved. "They're scatterin' to surround the roost. . . . But they can't cross-- below us--an' across there it's--out of range. . . . We're all right."

  "Yes, we air! Haw! Haw!" ejaculated Smoky, glaring back.

  Mac half carried the bulky Bridges into the safety zone, and let him down on the ground with his head on a bed-roll.

  "Where's he shot?" demanded Hays. "I seen thet feller who did it jest a little too late."

  "Through the belly."

  "Hank, I'm done fer," said Bridges, weakly.

  "Lemme see." And the leader, kneeling beside Bridges, tore open his bloody shirt. He had been shot in the back, the bullet going clear through. "Wal, I should smile! Say your prayers, Jeff. . . .

  Somebody take his gun."

  "Take it yourself, Hays," rejoined Mac, sullenly.

  "Hank, you go hide with your lady prisoner an' we'll do the fightin'," added Slocum, who had crawled back from the edge of the brush.

  "Hide!--What'n hell's eatin' you?" roared the chief.

  "You know what, you ---- ---- ----!"

  "Hays, we'd a damn sight rather die fightin' than owe our lives to one bullet of yours," said Happy Jack, in a cold contempt Jim had not thought possible of the man.

  "Wal, I'll take you up," rasped Hays, after a moment of assimilation. He had degenerated to a point where he let passion sway him utterly.

  "You stay here, Hays," ordered Jim, hotly. "You got us in this mix. You lied and cheated. You betrayed us. And you'll fight, by Heaven! unless you're as much of a coward as you are betrayer."

  The chief grew livid where he had been gray. Only then had he grasped the significance of this fiery scorn of his comrades.

  "You-all double-crossed me!"

  "Shore. Same as you did us. If we git through this deal, which I've a hunch we never will, there'll come a reckonin' with me, Hank Hays," declared Smoky.

  "I meant to make a clean breast of it--divvy all
the money," said Hays, in a strangled voice. "But I got crazy about the gurl. I couldn't think of nothin' else."

  "Haw! Haw! fer thet first crack, an' okay on the second. . . .

  NOW!"

  A bullet thudded into the wall and spanged away, followed by the report of a rifle.

  "Duck back! Thet was from somewhere else," shouted Hays.

  They dove twenty feet farther back. Here they were apparently safe, except from the grassy ridge of the oval in front, which it was unlikely any sharpshooters could reach in daylight. Smoky peeped around the west corner, Mac round the one opposite. Hays knelt on one knee, rifle in hands, peering out. Jim went back to the apex of the notch, and bracing one foot in each side, clinging with one free hand, got up to a shelf from which he could peep out of the hole. He was exceedingly wary. In front was thick, low brush; on his right a thinner fringe, and the left was open. The rocky ground ridged away from the oval and the deep gorge below. A sharp scrutiny in that direction failed to discover any of the attackers Hays had affirmed were attempting to surround the oval.

  But there might have been some crawling behind the rocks or down the fissures.

  After a careful study Jim crept out into the brush, stirred by a renewal of firing from the west rim. Wisps of white cloud, thinning on the light wind, located the position of the shooters.

  First Jim peered through the growth of brush directly in front. He did not espy any men, but half a mile over the hummocky rocks he saw a little cove full of horses. The packs had not yet been removed from some of them, nor saddles from the others. Heeseman had come to make a siege of it.

  Jim did not move hastily. A ragged section of cliff, quite high, above and to the left of the south exit, gave him misgivings. That was a likely place for ambush. Farther to the west, however, where the shooting came from, there was some hope of locating an enemy.

  Lying flat, Jim wormed his way a few yards to the fringe of brush, and took another survey. Almost at once he caught a movement of a dark object through a crevice in the rim. The distance was far for accurate shooting at so small a target. But with a rest he drew a coarse steady aim and fired.

  The object flopped over. A shrill cry, unmistakable to any man used to gunplay, rent the air. Jim knew he had reached one of the Heeseman gang, to disable him if not more. Next instant a raking fire swept the brush on both sides of him. Like a crab he scuttled back, almost falling into the hole. Bullets had hissed only a foot above his head. He dropped down into the cave.

  Smoky stood there, in the act of climbing.

  "Fire in your eye, Jim," he drawled.

  "They damn near got me," rang out Jim. "I hit one of them way over where they shot at Bridges. There's a bunch of them hid on that cliff to the right of the outlet, you know, where Jeff went up to scout."

  "Ahuh. Thet's way this side of the smoke I seen."

  "Yes. It's pretty close. But they can't do us any harm from there, if we keep low bridge."

  "Jim, they got us located," replied Slocum, gravely.

  "Sure. But so long as they can't line on us in here--"

  "They can move all around. An' pretty soon Heeseman will figger thet men behind the high center in front can shoot straight in hyar."

  "Smoky, you're right. One of us ought to be on the far side of the oval."

  "I can work round there without bein' seen. Along the cliff wall hyar, 'crost the gorge, round under the cottonwoods, an' up thet draw on the far side."

  "You might. But suppose some of Heeseman's outfit are below, as Hays said?"

  "Thet'd end history for Smoky Slocum."

  "Wait, then. Don't risk it. I believe I can see over that high center."

  "Whar from?"

  "This hole above. The side towards the oval is a foot lower. It'd be reasonably safe."

  "I'll go up with you."

  Bridges lay groaning, his big hands clutching his clothes, his face a bluish cast. Mac sat helplessly beside him. Hays knelt out by the corner of wall, with Jack whispering behind him.

  "Hold my rifle. I'll go up," said Jim. Without encumbrance he readily climbed to the shelf, finding to his satisfaction that he could stand on it and look out over the oval without being seen from the cliff.

  "Hand up both rifles."

  Smoky complied, and was soon beside Jim, but owing to his smaller stature he could not see over the rim. However, he found steps for his feet, by which he surmounted the difficulty. Like a general he swept the lay of the land. "Jim, there's only one place we couldn't see, an' thet's straight back of the center. If they savvy it they'll almost shore try to work in from the west."

  "You're right, old-timer," replied Jim, grimly, and pointed to the western entrance, where two stealthily moving figures could even then be discerned slipping, like Indians, from bush to bush.

  "Jim, you're a right fine fightin' pard," quoth Smoky, delighted.

  "Now, ain't thet jest a shame? They won't have sense enough to run like hell, givin' us hard shots. They'll sneak it. . . . Shore, look at 'em. I could almost bore one already."

  "It's nervy of them at that," admitted Jim, "after I shot from the top of this bank."

  "They might not know thet. It takes a good quarter of an hour to grade round thet cliff an' down. . . . Where'd they go, Jim?"

  "They're below the ridge now. Look sharp, Smoky, or they might get a couple of shots in first."

  "Wal, if they do, I hope both bullets lodge in Hank's gizzard."

  "My sentiments exactly. . . . Smoky, I saw something shine. Tip of a rifle. Right--to the right. . . . Ah!"

  "Take the first feller, Jim. . . . One--two--three."

  The rifles cracked in unison. Jim's mark sprang convulsively up, and plunged down to roll and weave out of sight. The man Smoky had shot at sank flat and lay still. Next moment a volley banged from the cliff and a storm of bullets swept hissing and spanging too uncomfortably close.

  "Low bridge, Jim," chuckled Smoky. "Gimme your gun. Drop down.

  They're shootin' lower."

  Jim slid and leaped to the floor of the cave below. Smoky, by lying down, lowered the rifles to him, and then came scrambling after.

  Hays had slouched back to them, followed by Happy.

  "What'd you shoot at?" he queried, hopefully.

  Jim did not deign to notice him. "Smoky, I winged mine and you hit yours plumb center."

  "Two more. Heeseman ain't havin' a walk-over. By Gawd! if we can KILL two or three more, an' particularly Heeseman, we'll have thet outfit licked!"

  "Yes. But how, Smoky? We're stuck here. And they'll take less risks now."

  "Wal, luck's with us. An' in a pinch I can work way round behind them."

  "Smoky, I don't want you to try that."

  "Wal, Jim, I ain't carin' a lot what you want. The thing is we can't let night overtake us in hyar."

  "Why not? It's as safe for us as for them."

  "Safe nothin'. We can't make no light. This green brush wouldn't burn. An' Heeseman has us located. He'd be slick enough to station men after dark. Behind the center an' the rocks. In thet wash, an' shore above us watchin' our hole. Then when daylight come we'd be snuffed out. No, if we don't end it before dark we shore gotta sneak out of hyar after dark."

  Hays swaggered closer. "Thet's a good idee, Smoky."

  "Air you talkin' to me?" asked Slocum, insolently.

  "Shore I am, you spit-cat! What'n hell's got into you--an' all of you?" shouted the robber, hoarsely.

  "You wanta talk, huh?"

  "Course I do. I'm boss hyar, an' what I say--"

  "Hey, fellers, the boss wants talk," interrupted Slocum, fiercely.

  "You, Happy an' Mac, talk to the skunk who used to be our boss.

  An' you, Jeff, air you able to talk to Hays?"

  The dying man raised a haggard, relentless face, which needed no speech to express his hate for the fallen chief.

  "Hays, when I--meet you in hell--I'll stamp your cheatin'--guts out!" whispered Bridges, in terrible effort to expand all hi
s last strength and passion in one denunciation. Then he sank back, his head fell on his breast, and he died.

  "Gone! Thet makes three of us," ejaculated Mac, twisting restless hands round his rifle.

  "Talk to Hays, damn you," yelled Smoky. "He wants talk."

  "I wouldn't talk to him if it WAS my last breath, like Jeff, an' talkin' would save my life."

  "Jim, can't you oblige our former chief an' pard?" asked Smoky, turning to Jim.

  "I'm past talking to him, Smoky--that is, with my mouth."

  "Wal, so it's left to me," declared Slocum, bitterly. "Me who ranged Utah with you fer ten years! Me whose life you saved an' who cottoned to you as to a brother! Me who slept with you, fought with you, robbed an' killed with you!"

  How potently significant that rifle barrel of Smoky's almost aligned with Hays' body! Jim felt a cold thrill of expectancy--

  Smoky would kill the chief. Hays might have held himself proof against words, but not against bullets.

  "Hank Hays, some of us will live long enough to tell the Utah border what you sunk to," went on Slocum. "An' this place, which I bet a million will be your grave, won't be forgot in history.

  Robbers' Roost? It oughter be Robbers' Grave. For many years, outfits like ours used to be will hole in hyar. An' many a low- down rustler or common hoss thief will laugh an' say: 'Hank Hays croaked in hyar, after doin' dirt to the best men who ever throwed a gun for each other. An' all fer a white-faced slip of a woman who was sickened near to death at him!'"

  "Aw, you go to hell!" shouted Hays, malignantly. "I ain't croaked yet."

  "Wal, if Heeseman doesn't do it, I will."

  "Man, air you drunk or crazy?" burst out Hays, in dazed incredulity.

  "Neither. An' thet's my last talk with you, Hank Hays," concluded Slocum, in cold finality.

  Jim, sitting back on a bulge of wall, watched and listened. He could not have asked more, though he had hoped Smoky would finish the chief then and there, despite the pressure of the peril from without. Hays' bravado did not deceive Jim. The foundations of Hays' manhood had been torn asunder, as indeed they had decayed during this last wild enterprise. He realized it, and the effect seemed tremendous. He was in his last ditch. Heeseman, an enemy of years' standing, was there to kill him. And if he and this remnant of his outfit succeeded in beating off the attackers, even then his doom was imminent. Smoky did not make idle threats. And if he failed to kill Hays, then this stranger, this mysterious gunman from Wyoming, would do it. Thus Hays' mind must have worked. Only one chance in a thousand for him! It looked as if he meant to take it in desperate spirit.