Outlaw's Reckoning

by Ralph Compton

  “That’s why you stay low. Trust me. Hunker down in a shadow somewhere and keep your face wrapped up. The last thing they’ll expect is to find you resting along the side of the street. Odds are they’re too busy gathering their forces right now, anyway.”

  Abigail didn’t get a chance to protest any more because Gus had already walked into the saloon. He followed his own advice by pulling his hat down low and tugging the bandanna around his neck up a bit to brush against his chin. That only left a small section of his face to be seen by anyone who was interested enough to look.

  “Cold night, mister?” the barkeep asked as Gus walked over to him.

  “Lookin’ for a card game,” he replied.

  “Then look over in the back. If you sit down to play, you’d best order a drink. I’m runnin’ a business here.”

  Although Gus hadn’t spotted his partner when he’d first arrived, he soon heard the distinctive sound of Doyle’s laugh coming from the back of the saloon. It was a small place, but was chock-full of so many folks that only half of them had room to sit down. The other half stood or elbowed their neighbors for more breathing room. A few even threw a punch or two just to claim one of the chairs. All of the men sitting at the card table in the back of the room were among the fortunate ones. They had chairs and plenty of whiskey to go along with them.

  Gus approached the table cautiously. He got close enough to spot Doyle and then waited until his partner glanced his way. When he did, Gus waved toward the door and then turned around to leave. Stepping outside, Gus felt the knot in his belly tighten. Abigail wasn’t where he’d left her. Before he could kick himself for leaving her out there, he saw one of the huddled shapes across the street wave at him.

  Hurrying over to her, Gus offered his hand and helped Abigail to her feet. “Come on. We’re leaving.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll know when we get there.”

  Gus and Doyle met in the street, but didn’t stay put for long. As soon as the two caught sight of each other, they went to where their horses were being kept and rode to the outskirts of the camp. After changing his mind a few times when he didn’t like the looks of the first couple spots, Gus settled upon a cluster of tents that looked to have been there since the camp had been founded. Tattered sections of canvas were held up by weathered boards, gnarled sticks or even rope tied between two trees. Most of the tents were empty and the folks residing in the others were content to let the three new arrivals go about their business.

  Every step of the way, Gus could feel Doyle simmering like a teakettle that was ready to shriek. When they finally came to a stop, Doyle jumped down from his horse and stormed over to Gus. “Who the hell is that?” he asked as he stabbed a finger toward Abigail.

  Gus helped Abigail down and replied, “This is the lady we were after.”

  “I have a name, you know,” Abigail said.

  But neither of the men took notice of her. Although he could now feel her stewing almost as much as Doyle, Gus kept her behind him and his eyes locked upon his partner. Both of them may have had tempers, but Doyle had the guns to back it up.

  “You were supposed to go have a look over there,” Doyle said. “Just a look!”

  “She’s why we’re here,” Gus pointed out.

  “Why didn’t you wait for me? I’ve been sitting back there, waiting to catch a piece of hot lead in my back while digging for information about them kidnappers. You even stop to think I may have found out something important?”

  “What did you find out, Doyle?”

  He looked around, but saw nothing other than the wilted tents and a few poor souls forced to live in them. Leaning forward and dropping his voice to a whisper, Doyle said, “It’s the kidnappers hiring guns, all right. Either that or Bateman Supply is into more than just snatching up pretty blondes.”

  Gus had to glance over to Abigail when he heard that. It wasn’t until just then that he realized he hadn’t taken a real good look at her yet. From the moment he’d first seen her, Gus had only been concerned about who she was and how to get her away from those armed men. Now that things had settled down a little, he could let his eyes take their time in soaking her up.

  Abigail was about five and a half feet tall, with thick blond hair streaming down well past her shoulders. Although her hair was a tussled mess, she’d gathered most of it up and tied it behind her head to form a single bushy tail. Her face was a narrow oval shape accentuated by a small mouth and a pert nose. Gus couldn’t tell what color her eyes were, but her lashes were almost as long as her fingertips and fluttered like butterfly wings as she blinked and fretted under his scrutiny.

  “What is it?” she asked. Getting no reply from Gus, Abigail took it upon herself to look for whatever had captured his attention. She started by fussing with her hair, which kept her busy from then on.

  Doyle snapped his fingers in front of Gus’s face. “You hear what I just told you?”

  “Yeah,” Gus replied. “Bateman Supply does more than kidnap pretty blondes.”

  Doyle’s eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth. “You sure as hell didn’t waste any time in getting her, did you? What the hell were you thinkin’?”

  “Just tell me the rest of what you found out before we open that can of worms.”

  “There are gunmen coming in from all over,” Doyle continued. “At least, there’s supposed to be. One of the bosses over at that supply company was supposed to be at the Broken Spur, but he was tending to other matters. I didn’t get a word with him, but the fella seemed awfully upset about something.”

  “He may have found out what happened in Benson.”

  “That’s right. Seems even the fellas at that card game knew something was brewing. Hired guns are at the top of the wanted list for the folks at Bateman Supply and they’re payin’ top dollar for them. The fee for steering good men their way ain’t too shabby. Supposedly, there’s already a dozen or so men who’ve signed on and are waiting to meet with Mr. Smythe.”

  “Smythe’s on his way?”

  “They say he is,” Doyle said. “Far as we know, Smythe didn’t even make it off that train.”

  “Why wouldn’t he have made it off the train?”

  “Not on account of anything you did, but there was a whole lot of law around that station when we left. They could have all killed one another for all we know.”

  Gus shook his head. “That’s hoping for way too much. We were the ones who shot our way out of there and we were the ones to ride off with the posse on our tails. And before you say what you’re thinking, yes, I realize I was the one who started all the shooting.”

  “Just so long as you know it,” Doyle grumbled.

  “So Smythe ain’t here yet. Otherwise you probably would have seen him.”

  “I would have heard about it,” Doyle added. “Those card players sure liked to talk.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I got her when I did.”

  Doyle started to say something, but stopped as if he’d accidentally swallowed a bug. “What did you just say?”

  Gus looked at Abigail and found her still pulling the tangles from her hair. Although she watched them both, she wasn’t about to step in between the feuding partners. Lowering his voice so she couldn’t hear every last word, Gus said, “I went there with the intention of doing just what I said I was gonna do. I meant to get a look at that place and scout out how many men we’d have to contend with when we went back. When I got there, I was able to get a lot closer than I thought, because there weren’t nearly as many men watching the place as we expected. And maybe that’s because of what we both already did.”

  Doyle let out a single snort of a laugh. “All I been doing since I got here is watching and playing cards.”

  “I’m talkin’ about what we did in Benson. Those men on that train were supposed to come back here, but they didn’t. For all we know, they could be in jail or bound for this place. Since there ain’t no tracks through this camp, that means th
ey got to ride here, and even if they rode like the wind, there wouldn’t be as many men with them as they started out with.”

  “Because of what we did,” Doyle said with a grin.

  Gus nodded. “Because of what we did. It sounds like Smythe runs this whole show. Those others in the fancy suits were probably high up in the pecking order of this gang, which means them bein’ gone forces all the hired hands to sit around and wait for them to get back.”

  “And,” Doyle added, “when hired hands sit around and wait, they get lazy.”

  “That’s the word I’d use to describe the men that were watching her. Hell, I didn’t even spot more than one or two of them from the outside of that building and those looked about ready to fall asleep. What did you want me to do? Wait until they got their second wind?”

  Doyle’s entire face was scrunched up in thought. If he’d had gears inside of him, they would have been grinding with the effort of trying to see how one thing played off of another. “So that’s why you went in to get her without me?” he finally asked.

  “Yeah,” Gus said. “We couldn’t have gotten it all to line up better if we tried. Remember that bank we robbed in Kansas?”

  “The one with the twins running the place?”

  “No. The one with the diamonds in the safe.”

  That brought a smile to Doyle’s face. “Oh yeah. I remember that.”

  “We walked in to deposit the money we had stolen from that other job and found the place was nearly empty, so we robbed it. We got to the safe to find there just happened to be diamonds in it.”

  “And it turned out the bank was so empty because the manager and the staff all went to round up guards and a sheriff’s deputy to watch over the diamonds.” Doyle chuckled as he recounted the memory. “That was damned perfect.”

  “It was lucky timing,” Gus corrected. “But we took advantage of it. This is what we got here, only we’re the ones that put the timing into effect. I may have gone off half-cocked, but it made a big enough mess that it slowed them kidnappers down. Anyone that hadn’t known to come to this camp or what to look for once we got here wouldn’t have found that lady even if she was sitting by herself in that building. As it turned out, we knew right where she was and even made an opening for us to get there. I just took advantage of it.”

  “Just like that bank,” Doyle mused as if he’d only now put all the pieces together.

  Having been the one to set all the pieces directly in front of him, Gus said, “Just like the bank.”

  Slowly, the devious admiration faded from Doyle’s face to be replaced once again by anger. “You still shoulda come and got me.”

  “I would have, but there wasn’t time. I saw a chance and I took it.”

  Doyle watched Abigail fuss with the last knot in her hair. “However it happened, we got her. That means damn near every man who can use a gun in this camp will be lookin’ for us. We should get away from this place.”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t just take off on yer own and leave me here. Seems like I ain’t no good for anything, anyways.”

  “Are you going to stay sore about this forever?” Gus asked. “You want me to apologize?”

  Doyle looked at him expectantly.

  “Well, that’s not going to happen,” Gus told him. “We came here for that lady and now we got her. You did your job and I did mine. Thanks to you, we know this Bateman Supply organization is more than just some bunch of kidnappers. They’re more than a gang, even.”

  “And you had to go and cross them. Tell me something, Gus. Did you shoot any of their men or do we still have a chance at getting on this gang’s good side? They pay a hell of a lot better than most other gangs we worked in.”

  Gus ground his teeth together before saying, “I shot a few. Pushed another one down some stairs.”

  “You leave any alive?”

  “I think so.”

  “Well, then,” Doyle said, “that’s something. We can figure something out on our way to Prescott.”

  Gus patted Doyle on the shoulder and asked him, “Don’t I always figure something out?”

  “I suppose you do. The only thing is that I ain’t sure how much longer I should listen.”

  “There ain’t a lot to listen to. We skin out of here and watch our backs as always. There’s bound to be men ridin’ after us, but that ain’t nothing new. The price is still on our heads, so we’ll watch for bounty hunters and the law.”

  “And you changed the letter like we agreed?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then that’s the ace up our sleeve,” Doyle said. “If that lady over there gives us too much grief, we’ll collect whatever ransom we can get and call it a day.” Doyle stuck out his hand. “Agreed?”

  In the years they’d ridden together, Gus had never gone back on a deal after he and Doyle had shaken on it. For both partners, that was a contract that the devil himself couldn’t break. Without it, one would have probably killed the other a long time ago.

  In the years they’d ridden together, Doyle had also gotten very good at picking up the different types of scowls Gus was known to put on. There was no mistaking the prickly one he wore now. “Fine,” Doyle grumbled. “We came this far, so we’ll play it your way. There’d better be somethin’ at the end of this other than a friendly thank-you.”

  Gus gripped Doyle’s hand, shook it once and said, “Agreed.”

  Chapter 14

  Their first order of business was to ride northwest toward the Salt River. Gus and Doyle didn’t ride as quickly as they could have because they had to be alert for an ambush. This would be the time when they would find out whether the kidnappers from Bateman Supply were organized enough to come after them right away. If they weren’t, that meant Gus and Doyle had some breathing room to plot their route a bit farther.

  Gus was used to riding at a full gallop without being able to see more than a couple paces in front of him. Some folks called that a foolhardy way to go about things, but it was a simple fact of life for a man trying to stay ahead of the law. Posses, bounty hunters and all other sorts of lawmen tended to work on a schedule. Apparently, so did Abigail Swann.

  “Where are we going?” she asked from behind Gus.

  He shifted in his saddle, which caused her to shift behind him. She rode with her arms wrapped around his chest and her head resting upon the back of his shoulder. Although it may have seemed quaint at first, she treated Gus with as much care as she’d show a lumpy pillow. Every so often, she even poked and prodded him as if that would make his back a little softer.

  “Did you hear me?” she groused.

  “Yeah, I heard you.”

  “Then why won’t you answer?”

  “Because I already answered you,” he replied.

  “That was this morning and all you said was that we were headed toward the river.”

  “And we still are.”

  Sighing impatiently, she asked, “Where’s the other one?”

  “You mean Doyle?”

  “Isn’t he the only other one?”

  Gus had to grin, but was careful not to let her see. So far, she had yet to acknowledge that Doyle was anything more than an irritating pup that insisted on nipping at her heels. “He rode ahead to scout the trail.”

  “Scout for what?”

  “Those men who kidnapped you were hiring reinforcements, so they’re probably after us. Then there’s Indians, the law or any number of things that could cost us valuable time.”

  “Wait. What did you say?”

  “The trail may be washed out,” Gus explained. “There could have been a rock slide or something else that’d cause us to double back and find another way.”

  “Not that,” Abigail snapped. “The part about the law. You’re worried about the law finding you?”

  Gus answered that by shrugging enough for her to feel it.

  “So you and the other one are both outlaws? Oh my Lord.”

  “We
saved your life,” Gus pointed out.

  “You did, but that other one wants to ransom me off. I heard you both talking last night. I heard the tone in his voice and I see the way he looks at me. He’s no better than the men that snatched me out of the coach.”

  “What coach?” Gus asked as he reined his horse to a stop.

  “What do you care?” For the last few seconds, Abigail’s grip around Gus’s torso had been tightening. In fact, he could feel her entire body tensing against his back like a coiled spring.

  “Look,” he said. “You’re not tied up anymore. You’re free—”

  “That’s right,” she announced. “I’m free and I’ll go where I please!” With that, she let go of him and started to pound her fists against Gus’s back. When he turned around, she smacked him upside his head with enough force to send his dusty old hat flying through the air.

  “What in the hell?” Gus hollered.

  “I won’t be anyone’s prisoner any longer! I’ll . . . I’ll . . .” Just then, she leaned forward and reached for the pistol holstered on Gus’s hip. When he slapped her hand away from the gun, Abigail turned her attention to the Sharps rifle that Doyle had stolen and Gus now carried in the boot hanging from his saddle. “I’ll fight my way out if I have to!”

  Gus was already twisting around one way, but had to twist around in the other before Abigail got her hands upon his rifle. The Sharps was halfway out of the boot when Gus got to it and he barely managed to keep her from claiming the weapon for herself. Even after he’d pulled the rifle from her fingers, she still clawed for the trigger.

  Rather than shove her or do anything that might result in Abigail falling from the horse’s back altogether, Gus took hold of her wrist and pulled her hand away from the rifle. He seemed to be making progress when Abigail pulled her arm back and shifted her weight away from the boot. Abigail gave him another smack on the arm and then slid off the other side of the horse.

  Gus whipped around and reached back to grab her before she hit the ground, but she hadn’t fallen from the saddle as he’d feared. Instead, she’d jumped down of her own volition and hit the sandy ground on both feet.