The Loner: The Blood of Renegades

by J. A. Johnstone

  Conrad was sure of one thing: the trouble was far from over.

  Because Kiley was right. There was no place for them to go where the avenging angels couldn’t find them.

  Chapter 3

  Conrad, Arturo, and their unexpected companion didn’t stop until they had gone at least a mile. Conrad kept checking behind them. He was ready to stop and throw up a screen of rifle fire to cover their getaway, but the gunmen didn’t come after them.

  When they finally reined in, the horses were fatigued by the hard run. The young woman’s horse was in the worst shape. She had been fleeing from her pursuers before Conrad and Arturo joined the chase.

  She wasn’t in much better shape. Trying to dismount, she half fell out of the saddle and had to grab hold of a stirrup to keep herself from dropping to the ground.

  Conrad had already slid his Winchester into the saddle boot and swung down from the black. He reached out to grasp her arm and steady her. “Arturo,” he said, “get one of the canteens.”

  Arturo turned around on the buggy seat, found a canteen in their boxes and bags of supplies, and brought the water over to them. Conrad unscrewed the cap and held the canteen to the young woman’s mouth. She grabbed it with both hands and gulped down as much water as she could, but Conrad pulled the canteen away after a couple swallows.

  “Take it easy,” he told her. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

  “I . . . I . . . Thank you,” she gasped. “If you hadn’t come along . . . I wouldn’t have made it much farther.”

  While Conrad waited a moment before he gave her another drink, he took advantage of the opportunity to have a good look at her. She was tall and slender, and hair a little lighter in color than honey flowed all the way down her back to her hips. She wore men’s clothing: a rough cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up a couple turns on tanned forearms, brown twill trousers with suspenders that went over her shoulders, and work boots that laced up. Despite the clothing, no one would ever take her for anything but female.

  “What’s your name?” Conrad asked.

  She’d been breathless when she dismounted, but she was starting to recover. “Selena. Selena Webster.”

  “I’m Conrad Browning. This is my friend Arturo Vincenzo.”

  Conrad handed her the canteen. She took a long drink but not enough to make her sick. As she gave him the canteen, she said, “I can’t thank you enough for helping me, but I’m afraid you’ve just doomed yourselves. Like Jackson Leatherwood said, when you interfere with Father Agony’s men, you’ve signed your own death warrant.”

  Despite the perilousness of their situation, Conrad laughed. “Father Agony?” he repeated. “That’s a pretty melodramatic name, don’t you think?”

  Selena smiled, but there was no real humor in the expression. “That’s what some of his wives call him. His name is Agonistes Hissop.”

  “The man’s parents had odd taste in nomenclature,” Arturo said.

  “Or else they were readers and admirers of Milton’s Samson Agonistes,” Conrad said. “Agonistes being from Greek for ‘one who struggles for a worthy cause.’”

  Selena gave him an odd look. He didn’t bother explaining he had taken a number of courses in the classics during his university days.

  “The man’s parents raised a monster,” Selena said after a moment. “His name is hardly the worst thing about him.”

  “He’s the elder Leatherwood and who the others work for?” Conrad guessed.

  Selena nodded. “He has a ranch about twenty miles northwest of here in a place called Juniper Canyon. It’s more like his own little town, because a lot of his followers live there as well. He’s a very rich, important man, and he doesn’t let anyone forget it.”

  “You mentioned his . . . wives,” Conrad said. “I seem to remember reading in the newspaper that the Mormon Church outlawed polygamy almost ten years ago.”

  That brought a laugh from Selena. “Just because Father Agony is a saint doesn’t mean he agrees with everything the church leadership does. He believes he’s a prophet, like Joseph Smith, and that God has granted him the wisdom and right to make his own laws. He’s always had multiple wives, and he doesn’t want to give them up.”

  Conrad nodded. “And let me guess . . . he wants to add you to the number?”

  The grimace that momentarily twisted Selena’s face was answer enough to that question. “I’ll never marry him. He can kill me first, or more likely have Leatherwood and the rest of his avenging angels do it for him, but I don’t care. That would be better than . . . than . . .”

  “Maybe it won’t come to that,” Conrad said so she wouldn’t have to go on. “I don’t like to brag, but Arturo and I are pretty good at handling trouble.”

  “Have you ever had an army of triggerites after you? Because that’s what you’ll be facing if you try to help me. I appreciate what you did, but you’d be better off if we went our separate ways. If Leatherwood and the others see that I’m not traveling with you, maybe he’ll spare your lives. Maybe.”

  Conrad shook his head. “We’re not going to abandon you. Once I take cards in a game, I like to play it out.” He glanced toward the sun. “It’s past the middle of the afternoon. We’ll let the horses rest for a while longer, then we can start looking for a place to hole up for the night.”

  “Why don’t you sit in the buggy, Miss Webster?” Arturo suggested. “The canopy provides a bit of shade from that brutal sun.”

  Selena smiled. “Thank you. You’re very nice.”

  “Not really. I just know that having you suffer a sunstroke would only make our situation worse.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Well, in that case, I appreciate it anyway.” She climbed onto the buggy seat and heaved a weary sigh.

  Conrad kept an eye not only on the area where they had left Jackson Leatherwood and the other avenging angels but also on the rest of the landscape around them. He wouldn’t put it past Leatherwood and the others to circle around and come at them from a different direction. The vast expanse of Utah seemed as open and empty as if it had been on the moon.

  Selena’s exhaustion caught up to her, and she dozed off with her head sagging forward. While she was sleeping, Arturo asked Conrad, “Are you sure that getting involved in this young woman’s problems is a good idea, sir?”

  “No,” Conrad said, “it’s a terrible idea. We need to get on about our own business. I know that. But . . . look at her. She’s not much more than a girl.”

  “A very attractive girl.”

  Conrad shrugged. “Yes, but that doesn’t have anything to do with it. She’s in trouble, and if we don’t help her, who will? Maybe we can take her some place where she’ll be safe from those men.”

  He didn’t explain to Arturo how his dreams—and sometimes even his waking moments—had been haunted by Rebel for months after her death. Whenever he’d been faced by the decision of whether to help someone or just ride on, her sweet voice had seemed to whisper in his ear that he had to help . . . because that’s what she would have done. Rebel wasn’t there anymore, but Conrad could honor the life she had led and the legacy she left behind by not turning his back on people who needed a hand.

  Or in his case, a gun hand.

  Half an hour later, Conrad tied Selena’s horse to the back of the buggy. Selena stirred when Arturo climbed onto the seat beside her. Suddenly her head snapped up and she looked around, wide-eyed with terror.

  “It’s all right, Miss Webster,” Arturo told her. “You’re among friends.”

  She looked like she wanted to bolt out of the buggy and take off running. After a moment, her fear seemed to subside, and she sank back onto the seat. “I’m sorry. At first I . . . I didn’t remember what happened. I thought I’d passed out somewhere and that Leatherwood and his men were still after me.” Her laugh was edged with bitterness. “Which they still are, of course. They’ll never give up. Not as long as they’re alive.” She looked back and forth between Conrad and Arturo. “Are you sure you want to ta
ke on my troubles?”

  Conrad stepped up into the saddle. “We wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said with a smile.

  Chapter 4

  They made camp at the foot of a small mesa, giving them protection from the chilly winds that often sprang up at night. Conrad started to unsaddle Selena’s horse before he tended to the black and the buggy team.

  She hopped down from the buggy and hurried over. “I can take care of my horse. I don’t want to be any more of a burden than I have to.”

  “I don’t mind—”

  “No, I’ll handle it,” she said as she unstrapped the saddlebags and set them aside. “I insist.”

  Conrad shrugged and turned to the black gelding. Obviously, Selena Webster was a proud young woman.

  While it was still light, Arturo kindled a small and almost smokeless fire to boil coffee, fry bacon, and heat up some beans and biscuits left over from supper the night before. The fire would be out by the time the sun set. Conrad figured Leatherwood and the others wouldn’t have much trouble tracking them, but it didn’t make sense to help their enemies by announcing where they were.

  Selena shook her head when Arturo offered her a cup of coffee. “I don’t take stimulants. No offense.”

  “Oh, none taken,” he assured her. “I do require stimulants, especially when traveling through a godforsaken wilderness. This way there’s more for me.”

  Selena smiled. “It’s not godforsaken. This part of Utah may not look like much, but God is here.”

  Conrad hunkered on his heels and reached for the cup Arturo offered him. “From the things you say, I suppose you’re a Mormon, too.”

  “Of course. I never denied my faith, Mr. Browning. Just because I don’t want to marry Father Agony doesn’t mean that I’m . . .”

  Conrad smiled. “A heathen Gentile like me?”

  “That’s not exactly how I would have put it.”

  “Don’t worry,” Conrad told her. “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about anybody’s religion, or lack of it, including my own. I’ll admit to being curious, though. Were you raised out here?”

  Selena nodded as she took the tin plate Arturo handed her. “That’s right. My grandparents on both sides came here with Brigham Young. My family has been here ever since.”

  “What about your parents? Do they live at this Juniper Canyon place?”

  Selena’s mouth tightened. “My father does. My mother passed away a year ago.”

  “Condolences,” Arturo murmured.

  “My father is one of Father Agony’s men,” Selena continued. “Father Agony has had his eye on me ever since . . . well, ever since I stopped being a little girl. My mother knew I didn’t want to marry him, so while she was still alive she was able to exert enough influence on my father to keep him dragging his feet on the matter whenever Father Agony approached him. But since she passed on . . . I knew it was just a matter of time before my father agreed to what Father Agony wants. He’ll make it worthwhile for my father.”

  “I have to say I mean no offense, Miss Webster, but bartering one’s flesh and blood that way seems rather medieval,” Arturo commented. “Even barbaric.”

  “It’s the way things are done at Juniper Canyon, and in other places, too,” Selena said with a fatalistic tone in her voice. “And it’s not always bad. Some of the elders are fine men, and their wives are very happy. I just don’t want to live my life that way.”

  “Nobody can blame you for that,” Conrad said. “And nobody should force you to, either.”

  “Unfortunately, they can do that, whether it’s legal or not. They’re a law unto themselves.” Selena looked off across the plains. “I thought if I could get away from there, I’d go to California. I might be safe there.”

  “How do you plan on getting there?”

  “I . . . I have a little money. My mother saved it. She meant to use it to help me get away when the time came, and she told me where she hid it. And that horse is mine. My father gave it to me. I didn’t steal it.”

  Conrad shook his head. “I never said you did.”

  “I know.” Selena cast her eyes down. “I’m sorry. I’m used to everyone being suspicious of me all the time.”

  “Perhaps with good reason,” Arturo put in, “since you did run away.”

  “All I know is that I’m not going back,” Selena said with more than a touch of defiance. “They’ll have to kill me to get me back to Juniper Canyon, and I don’t think Father Agony would be very happy about that.”

  “It’s not going to come to that,” Conrad said. “It just so happens we’re headed west. You’ll come along with us, and when we get into Nevada and find a town, we can put you on a train for San Francisco. The men who are after you will have a pretty hard time finding you there. We might even come across a flag stop along the way and manage to get you on a train before we get to Nevada.”

  “That would be wonderful! Like I said, I can pay—”

  “Don’t worry about that. You’ll need your money once you get to California.”

  “But you’ve already done so much—”

  “It won’t be a problem,” Conrad assured her.

  Through various companies and holdings he owned a considerable amount of stock in the Southern Pacific, and in a number of other railroad lines as well. In fact, due to his half of the business empire he had inherited from his mother, Conrad Browning was one of the richest men in the country. The only less likely tycoon was probably his father Frank Morgan, who had never let his newfound wealth change him one little bit from the drifting gunfighter he had been for decades.

  The sun was a red ball touching the tops of the mountains. As soon as it dropped below the peaks, night would fall with stunning swiftness. “We’d better put the fire out before it gets dark,” Conrad told Arturo.

  While Arturo was doing that, Conrad checked on the horses picketed nearby. As soon as the light faded, he intended to saddle the animals again, in case they needed to get away in a hurry during the night. In fact, he decided, it might be a good idea to take more precautions than that. Leatherwood or one of the other avenging angels might have been watching them from a distance with field glasses.

  Selena looked drowsy. She’d had a bedroll strapped behind her saddle, and Conrad figured she’d like to curl up in it and get some sleep. But those precautions he had thought of came first.

  He went back to kneel beside the extinguished fire and said quietly, “As soon as it’s dark, we’re going to move camp.”

  “Why?” Selena asked. “This seems like a good place.”

  “Yeah, and those fellas who are after you might think so, too. They may have been watching without us knowing. If they think this is where we’re camped, they’re liable to slip in here and grab you during the night.”

  A shudder ran through her at Conrad’s words. “I understand. I don’t want that to happen.”

  “Neither do we.”

  As Conrad expected, night descended quickly. The sky faded from blue to black, with millions of stars seeming to wink into existence. The floor of the desert was cloaked in stygian gloom.

  Working by feel, Conrad and Arturo hitched the team to the buggy. Conrad intended to saddle Selena’s horse for her, but by the time they were finished with the buggy, she had already taken care of that chore. Conrad turned his attention to the black gelding.

  When they were ready to go, he said quietly, “We’ll lead the horses at a slow walk to keep from making as much noise as we can. Sounds carry a long way out here.”

  “I know,” Selena said. “I grew up here, remember?”

  “Then maybe you know of some other place we can camp.”

  She thought about it for a moment, then said, “If I’m right about where we are, there are some big rocks about two miles from here.”

  “Can you find them in the dark?”

  “Maybe. They should be west of us. I know a little about steering by the stars.”

  “So do I,” Conrad said. “Let’s g
o.”

  Chapter 5

  Conrad listened for the sound of horses moving around the countryside as he, Arturo, and Selena led the animals at a deliberate pace toward the rocks Selena had mentioned. He didn’t hear anything except the steady hoofbeats of their horses and the faint sighing of the night wind. If Leatherwood and the rest of the Mormon gunmen were on the move, they were probably trying to be quiet about it, too.

  When they had gone what seemed like two miles, Selena whispered, “I don’t understand. We should have found the rocks by now.”

  “They’re around here somewhere,” Conrad told her. “If you get off line just a little, it can make a big difference in where you end up. Let’s stop here and take a look around.”

  They halted and spread out to scan the surrounding landscape as best they could by starlight. After a moment, Arturo said, “I think I see something.”

  Conrad and Selena joined him, and he pointed toward some dark shapes in the distance. “Could that be them?”

  “I think it is,” Selena said.

  With a specific destination in sight, they set off again, and a few minutes later found themselves standing in front of the scattered slabs of rock, the largest of which were ten feet tall and thirty feet wide.

  “What a distinctive formation,” Arturo said. “If I were a geologist, I think I might like to study these rocks.”

  “If you were a geologist, you probably wouldn’t be here,” Conrad pointed out.

  “I didn’t think I was a two-fisted, gun-totin’ frontiersman, either, but sometimes fate forces us into strange and unexpected roles.”

  Conrad laughed. “That’s certainly true. The two of you ought to be all right here. I’m going back to the mesa.”

  “Back to the mesa?” Selena repeated. “Why in the world would you do that if you think Leatherwood and his men might attack the camp we had there?”