by Neil Hunter
On one side of the road the ground sloped at an angle, stunted Palo Verde trees and mesquite dotting the slope. The vegetation was sparse, interspersed with a scattering of rocks. Not a great deal of cover but enough so that three men with rifles were able to converge and target the prison guards.
On a signal from Elkins the hidden shooters opened fire. The guards were caught unprepared and three of them went down in the first volley. Two died instantly. One man took two slugs through his back and dropped, rolling partway beneath the wagon. The horses, startled by the shooting, lunged forward, dragging the heavy wagon forward, one of the iron-rimmed wheels rolling over the wounded guard’s head and crushing his skull.
The two guards still on their feet, responded to the ambush and returned fire at the concealed riflemen. They scored a hit on one of Elkin’s men. The man went down with a rifle slug through his heart. Before either guard could find adequate cover behind the wagon, a concentrated volley from Elkins and his surviving man hit them both and they were dropped to the ground.
Elkins led the way down to the road where he greeted Cagle, Benedict and Dancer. He wasted no time.
‘I got horses back there,’ he said. ‘Time we got away from here.’
Vince Cagle, as surprised as he might have been at the unexpected occurrence, recovered quickly.
‘Damn right,’ he said. ‘Let’s go, boys.’
Without a backward glance they followed Elkins, leaving the rest of the bewildered prisoners to their own devices. Within a mile they reached the spot where Elkins had horses and a change of clothes for them. The trio got rid of their striped prison garb and pulled on fresh clothing and boots. Elkins had handguns and rifles for them as well.
‘Told you I wouldn’t forget,’ Elkins said.
‘Took you three years to remember,’ Billy Dancer grumbled.
‘You always was an ungrateful son of a bitch,’ Elkins said. ‘This ain’t been easy to fix. And I got a life to lead as well.’
‘Don’t pay him no mind,’ Benedict said. ‘Maybe we should have left him behind.’
They mounted up and rode away from the area, knowing that once the breakout was discovered the prison would be mounting a search. Indian trackers – Cocopah, Papago, Yaqui, were paid to hunt down anyone who escaped from the prison. Even Mexicans from across the border had been known to take up the chase. It didn’t happen very often and any man who broke out would find himself being tracked by the Indians. The feeling was if a man was close to being caught by the trackers he might be better off dead. In this instance, with there being dead prison guards left behind, the hunt was going to be intense.
They rode clear of the area, Elkins knowing the territory better than most, and he was able to keep them ahead of anyone following.
‘Those fellers back at Yuma are going to have their hands full with all the others who ran free,’ Cagle said. ‘That’s got to help us.’
‘We ain’t clear yet,’ Elkins pointed out.
‘I’m not making light of it. Just suggesting with so many on the loose it takes some of the pressure off us.’
They made camp as soon as it got dark. Elkins had brought food that didn’t need cooking and as much as they wanted a taste of hot coffee there was no way they were going to light a fire. Elkins had brought the next best thing. He broke out a couple of stone bottles of whisky.
‘Man, that tastes good,’ Benedict said as he took a swallow. ‘Three years without is a cruel thing to make a man suffer.’
‘Make it a perfect evening if you had a woman tucked away in those saddlebags,’ Cagle said.
‘Damn,’ Elkins said, ‘I knew I forgot something.’
‘You going to be making jokes every damn day?’ Dancer grumbled.
‘If I’ve a mind to,’ Elkins said. ‘He never changes does he. Ungrateful bastard.’
‘Pay him no mind,’ Cagle said. ‘Billy just doesn’t see the funny side of anything.’
‘Ain’t much fun in being on the run,’ Dancer said peevishly.
‘Maybe you’d prefer to be back in that hellhole,’ Elkins said.
‘Man has a point,’ Benedict said.
Dancer went back to chewing on a piece of beef jerky.
‘Time we talked business, Walt,’ Cagle said. ‘You know you’ll get well paid for all this. I don’t forget a friend.’
‘Hell, Vince, I know that. But we have to play smart until it’s safe to go for the cache. Wait until things quiet down. Law will be watching out for you going after that money. You never gave up the location all through your trial.’
‘Three years down the line I ain’t about to now. It’s the only reason they didn’t hang us. Kept us alive and locked up in Yuma figuring we might break and tell where it is.’
‘Now you’re out they’ll be waiting on you going after it.’
‘Mebbe so,’ Benedict said, ‘but they’ll be sore disappointed when we don’t.’
Elkins glanced across at him, worry etched across his face.
‘Don’t fret, Walt,’ Cagle said. ‘Tobe only means not for a while. Like you said, the law’s going to be interested in where that cache is. So we let them stew on it. Take our time. It’s not going anywhere…’
‘And only Vince knows where it is,’ Dancer said. ‘So he needs to stay free and alive.’
‘Safer that way,’ Cagle said.
‘Until you get you damned head blowed off.’
‘Billy, have faith,’ Elkins said.
‘Faith ain’t about to buy me what I want.’
‘Same for all of us,’ Benedict said.
‘Yeah? You boys are gettin’ older all the time. I’m still young. Got things to do an’ places to go. I need my cut. Before I get too old to enjoy it.’
‘Then you better make sure I don’t step in the way of a bullet, boy.’
Elkin’s partner, Teeler, a tall, skin and bone man had taken off to do some scouting for news. He was gone for the rest of the day and well into the next. They moved to a new location before he got back, but Teeler knew where Elkins was going to be and found them camped out in a dry canyon where they had built their first cook fire beneath a wide overhang. It had been decided to take the risk because the high place they had chosen allowed them to see the surrounding country for a long way and there was no sign of any pursuit. When Teeler returned and tethered his horse the first thing he did was help himself to a tin mug of coffee.
Dancer, as usual, was the least patient, demanding to know what Teller had learned.
‘Really wound up, aren’t you boy,’ Teeler said. ‘You ever sit easy?’
Dancer would have stepped up to challenge him if Cagle had not pushed him back.
‘Let the man take a breath, Billy. Happen he’s had a long ride.’
‘I rode through Yuma,’ Teeler said. ‘Some talk in town about what happened. Seems they got a search goin’ on around the border strip. They caught two of the fellers. One other tried to swim the river but drowned they say. I stayed with the crowd in one of the saloons and listened.’
‘They still got the trackers out?’ Benedict asked.
Teeler nodded. ‘They’s offerin’ fifty dollars for every con the trackers bring in, and they ain’t fussin’ about dead or alive.’
‘I figure I’m worth more than fifty dollars,’ Dancer grumbled.
‘Then you figured wrong,’ Elkins said.
Teeler stepped close to Elkins and spoke to him quietly. Cagle noticed the move and caught Teeler’s bony shoulder.
‘What?’ he asked.
Teeler glanced at him, then away.
‘Walt? Damn it, no secrets here.’
Elkins rubbed at the back of his neck while he debated what to say. Then he realized there was no easy way to do it.
‘The prison warden sent for Bodie. He showed up while Teeler was in Yuma.’
‘Big as life and lookin’ like he had things to do,’ Teeler said. ‘Talk is the warden wanted him to track you three boys, seein’ how he was…’
> ‘Say it, Teeler,’ Dancer snapped. ‘’Cause he was the one put us in the pen. For three damn years.’ He spun round on Cagle. ‘Money or not, we got a chance to put Bodie down for what he done. First we go after him, then collect our gold. Right, Vince? Right? It’s what we talked about all the time we were locked away.’
Cagle didn’t reply straight off. He stared across at Benedict. The man had a faint grin on his lips as he returned Cagle’s glance.
‘You up for this?’ Cagle said.
‘You really need to ask?’ Benedict said.
Dancer gave a shrill laugh, gripping the Henry rifle he was holding. His lean face was flushed with excitement and he was already seeing Bodie dead and stretched out on the ground. He carried an obsessional desire to settled with the man hunter. He had talked about it incessantly during the long months in Yuma. It was more than simply personal for Billy Dancer. It drove him. Kept him going through the years behind Yuma’s brutal walls, and while a driving force for the three of them, Dancer carried it further. There was no way he would walk away now Bodie was around. The feverish gleam in Dancer’s eyes made Vince Cagle understand the younger man’s desire for a showdown. And though he wanted a reckoning himself, Dancer’s reaction to the news was unnerving…bringing back how it had happened three years ago…
Chapter Three
…it all went well at first. They walked into the bank at Mesa mid-morning, dust drifting off their clothing as they trod the plank floor. The moment they stepped through the door they pulled up the scarves from around their necks and covered their faces before anyone could see their faces, easing the heavy .45 Peacemakers from their holsters and covering the bank staff and the single customer.
Billy Dancer, the youngest member of the gang, closed the door and stood guard, while Vince Cagle and Tobe Benedict bellied up to the counter, covering the three bank employees.
‘Let’s make this easy for everyone,’ Cagle said. ‘You all know why we’re here. You have three satchels of gold coin in the vault. Came in last evening by Wells & Fargo special delivery. I want to see those satchels out front in the next couple of minutes. Mess me around and I will start by shooting the young woman in front of me. She’ll be the first. Won’t be the last.’
No one moved for a few seconds.
If the single customer had kept quiet he would have saved himself from injury. He didn’t and it cost him after he rounded on Benedict who was standing close by.
‘You believe we’re going to take orders from you cowards? I won’t allow you to threaten that young woman…’
Benedict turned with deliberate slowness as the man spoke. The way the corners of his eyes crinkled suggested he was smiling under his mask.
‘Mistake,’ he said. ‘You should have kept your mouth closed.’
And then he used the solid weight of the revolver to slam again and again into the man’s face. Even when the stunned figure fell back against the counter, blood pulsing from the ragged gashes in his face, his crushed nose and mouth, Benedict kept up the assault until the whimpering figure slid to the floor. His shirt and the jacket of his suit were wet with the blood coursing from his wounds.
Cagle turned to face the staff on the other side of the counter.
‘I figure you understand now,’ he said. ‘So I want those goddam satchels out here now.’
Still in position at the bank’s door Billy Dancer was giggling in his high voice at the senseless and bloody figure on the floor.
‘Hey,’ Benedict said, ‘quit wetting your damn pants and watch the street, kid. You learned nothin’ yet?’
Dancer scowled beneath his mask, but when Cagle turned to look at him as well he fell silent and turned stare out through the bank window. Nothing appeared to be happening out of the ordinary.
Minutes later the three bulky canvas satchels sat on the floor of the bank in front of Cagle. The three bank employees, the two tellers and the manager, were herded into the open vault and the door closed behind them.
‘One bag each,’ Cagle said. ‘We walk out easy. Mount up and ride out slow and steady.’
They pulled down the masks covering their faces. Holstered their guns.
‘What about him?’ Dancer said, pointing at the man on the floor, lying in a pool of blood.
‘He ain’t about to do a damn thing,’ Benedict said.
Cagle reached the door. ‘Remember, nice and easy.’
He opened the door and stepped outside, Benedict behind and Dancer bringing up the rear.
They were on the boardwalk, the sun bright in their faces, when the voice reached them.
‘This goes one of two ways. You put down the bags and raise your hands. Or I let go with this shotgun and we make a mess on the sidewalk. Your choice, boys. Just don’t take too damn long, ’cause it’s too hot to stand out here more than necessary.’
Cagle turned towards the voice and saw Bodie standing a few feet away. He was holding a double barrel piece that covered them all. Cagle held back the words forming in his throat. It wasn’t the time to argue, especially with the man hunter. Bodie’s reputation preceded him. There was no point making any argument with him. The man would as soon put a man down as exchange words, and as much as he felt angry at being taken so easily Vince Cagle knew there was little chance of walking away.
Billy Dancer chose the hard way. He dropped the satchel he was holding, screamed a mouthful of wild obscenities and went for his holstered gun. It was a foolish gesture, doomed from the start, and put all three of them in danger. Bodie could have easily tripped the shotgun’s dual triggers and blown them to pieces. Instead he swung the hardwood butt of the shotgun and slammed it across the side of Dancer’s face. The blow was brutal. It opened Dancer’s face to the bone, blood streaming from the torn gash. Dancer went down hard, unconscious.
‘Son of a bitch, I must be getting soft,’ Bodie said. ‘Now you pair toss those guns out on the street and pick up that kid.’
‘He’s not going to forget what you did,’ Cagle said.
‘It’ll give him something to think about long cold nights in his cell,’ Bodie said. ‘Unless they hang you boys. Now let’s get this over with. I been trailing you assholes for nigh on three weeks and kept missing you. Right now I want a bath and a hot meal, so let’s get you tucked up nice and tight first.’
Armed men appeared from where they had been waiting for Bodie’s signal and they took the prisoners and locked them up in Mesa’s jail, prior to Bodie escorting them to Yuma, their trial, and sentencing to three years in the grim prison on the bluff overlooking the muddy Colorado river.
Walt Elkins had brought in a slick lawyer to defend his friends, and it was the man’s persuasive words that had brought the prison sentence rather than a hang rope. It was a known fact that Cagle and his two partners had carried out a number of successful robberies, netting themselves a considerable amount of gold. Various agencies wanted that gold back, and the lawyer had bargained that being locked up in Yuma might persuade Cagle and company to give up the gold in exchange for a lessening of their long sentence. No guarantees from either side, but for a chance to regain possession of the gold the court and the agencies decided to take a chance. The presiding Judge who understood the fact that men who were hung were never going to come clean, and being a man with a reasonable expectation, put aside hanging and sentenced the trio to fifteen years – with a possible commutation if they gave up the gold cache.
Three years on, there was no compromise from the prisoners. They continued to serve their time. Elkins maintained the services of the lawyer and from time to time he was allowed to visit Yuma and discuss legal matters with Cagle. During those visits the lawyer would pass along messages from Elkins and take instruction from his client to pass back.
The most recent message from Cagle instructed Elkins to work out some method of breaking them free. They had bided their time for long enough. Cagle and Benedict and Dancer, seeing no other way, decided that three years was their limit and they wanted out.
So Elkins began to seek a way to break his friends free. He knew it was a nigh on impossible matter. Prisoners didn’t often escape from Yuma pen, but there was, he decided, a first time for everything.
And then he learned about the upcoming work party being set up from the guard in the Yuma saloon. The guard, one Cyrus Keno, Elkins had found out, was not just a drinker but a heavy gambler – and not a good one. The man owed money all over town. More money than he could ever afford. Guards working at the prison were not paid very well. The work was hard and ultimately not satisfying.
Elkins, had already become Keno’s close companion, working on the man and drawing him in with the long term intention of using the man. He sympathized with the man, bought him drinks and helped him out with money. When Keno let it slip a work crew was in the offing, Elkins upped the stakes. He offered Keno a large amount of money. Enough for Keno to clear his debts and have money in his pocket. All Keno had to do was make sure Cagle and company were on the work party. It turned out to be easier then Elkins had imagined. Keno, as a senior guard, was instrumental in setting up the prisoners who would be on the work party. He was also bossing the guards who would be overseeing the work. Once Keno conformed the set up, Elkins paid him half the money up front, with the rest to follow later.
He failed to inform Keno he wouldn’t be getting the second payment. The intention was for Keno to be shot down along with the other guards on the work detail. A neat way of preventing the man from ever letting slip his connection with Elkins and the breakout that would follow.
The break went by the book. Elkins and his two men cut down the unsuspecting guard detail, Keno included, and the work party made their escape. Elkins lost one of his men. He and Teeler led Cagle, Benedict and Dancer to the waiting horses and they vanished…
Chapter Four
‘So let’s get this done,’ Cagle said. ‘Sooner the better.’ He glanced at Elkins. ‘Walt?’
Elkins nodded. ‘Why not,’ he said. ‘I don’t give a horse’s ass if it is Bodie. If five of us can’t take one man it’s time we hung up our guns and took to our rockin’ chairs.’
