The Loner: The Blood of Renegades

by J. A. Johnstone

  He reloaded the Colt and slipped it back into the holster. The horses belonging to the two dead men were spooked by the shooting and gunsmoke, but they were tied securely behind the shed and weren’t going anywhere. Kiley’s horse stood off down the tracks, seeming to have calmed down after being grazed by that bullet. Conrad figured he and his companions would take all three of the horses with them. In the rugged country, having extra mounts could turn out to be very important.

  His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of dust moving along the tracks to the east where he had left Arturo and Selena. Figuring Leatherwood and the other avenging angels might have found them, Conrad hurried toward Kiley’s horse, talking softly in hopes the animal wouldn’t shy away. He wanted the Winchester in the saddle boot.

  The horse gave him a wall-eyed stare but didn’t run. Conrad grabbed hold of the reins with his left hand and used his right to draw the rifle from its sheath. Moving quickly, he led the horse back to the shed and tied it with the other two. They knew Kiley’s horse and nickered softly in welcome.

  Conrad stepped to the corner of the shed and levered a round into the Winchester’s firing chamber. Ready to bring the rifle to his shoulder and start shooting, he watched the cloud of dust come closer.

  He began to make out the shape at the base of the cloud and grunted in surprise as he recognized the buggy. When the vehicle came closer he saw Arturo handling the team and Selena sitting beside him. Conrad didn’t see anyone chasing them.

  He stepped out from behind the shed so they could see him. As the buggy got closer, Arturo slowed the team and brought it to a halt. Conrad was a little surprised to see Selena holding Arturo’s Winchester. He wondered if she would have used it if she’d needed to.

  “Are you all right?” she called to him as she climbed down from the buggy.

  “I’m fine,” Conrad told her.

  She turned toward him, and exclaimed, “My God, you’re bleeding!”

  Conrad reached up and touched his cheek. A single drop of blood was on his fingertip when he took it away.

  “A flying splinter nicked me, that’s all. I’m all right. The question is, what are you two doing here? You were supposed to wait for me to come back and get you.”

  “Tell that to the young lady,” Arturo said. “We heard shots—”

  “And then a few minutes later we heard more,” Selena said. “I thought you might need our help.”

  “Miss Webster can be very persistent when she wants something,” Arturo said, which Conrad thought was pretty ironic. Few people he had ever encountered could be more persistent—and annoying about it—than Arturo.

  “Well, it’s all over now, and I’m fine. Let’s fill up those canteens and the water barrel while we’ve got the chance.”

  “The men who were waiting here . . .” Selena began.

  Conrad leaned his head toward the shed. “Around on the other side. You don’t want to go there.”

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’ve caused so much trouble. Three men are dead because of me.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Those men are dead because they were willing to kill to do what that fellow Hissop wants. If you want to blame somebody, blame them, and him, not yourself.”

  “I . . . I know you’re right. I just wish it had never come to this.”

  “So do I,” Conrad said.

  Arturo got the water barrel and the canteens out of the buggy while Conrad got hold of the chain attached to the spout leading from the tank.

  “We’re going to get wet,” he warned Arturo. “These tanks are designed so locomotives can refill their boilers, not for putting water in smaller containers like these. If there was a station here, the railroad would’ve put in a hand pump and a spigot, but they figure something like that isn’t necessary at a water stop.”

  Arturo tugged his derby down tighter on his head. “I’ll be fine, sir.” He stood on the tracks and held the barrel out in front of him. “Fill away.”

  Conrad tugged the chain to lower the spout, and water began to gush from it. The flow splashed over Arturo’s head and splattered on Conrad. He called to Selena, “Come hold the chain while I help Arturo with the barrel!”

  She was smiling as she came over to him, and he had to admit the sight of Arturo getting soaked was pretty amusing. A moment later he was in the same boat as he helped his friend hold the barrel under the pouring water. In moments they were both wet to the skin.

  “Let it up!” Conrad told Selena when the barrel was almost full. After filling the canteens from the barrel, then refilling it to the top, he and Arturo carried it over to the buggy and placed it in the back. Arturo replaced the lid and tapped it down. Puddles of muddy water covered the ground, but it wouldn’t take long for the sandy soil to soak them up.

  “Now there’s just one more thing to do,” Conrad said as he reached into the back of the buggy and got a short-handled shovel from their gear.

  Selena’s smile disappeared when she saw what Conrad was holding. “You carry a shovel with you?”

  “You’d be surprised how often we have to bury someone,” Arturo said.

  Chapter 10

  Conrad told Selena to watch for a train while he and Arturo attended to the grim task of burying the two gunmen behind the shed. He hadn’t done that for Kiley, and he wouldn’t have bothered for those two if he hadn’t thought it might make Selena feel a little better if she knew the bodies hadn’t been left for the buzzards.

  At Conrad’s suggestion, she climbed onto the platform and sat beside the water tank where she could look up and down the tracks. He told her to check the other directions from time to time as they still had to worry about Leatherwood and the men who had gone to Frenchman’s Flat showing up.

  Conrad was tamping down the dirt he’d replaced in the grave shared by the two avenging angels when Selena called, “I think I see something coming! It might be a train!”

  Conrad tossed the shovel to Arturo to put back in the buggy, and climbed up to join Selena on the platform. She pointed along the tracks to the east where puffs of smoke could be seen in the far distance.

  “Looks like a locomotive, all right,” he said. “And it’s even headed in the right direction. It’s still several miles away.”

  “Maybe it won’t stop here.” Hope and worry mingled in Selena’s voice.

  “Chances are it will. I can’t imagine an engineer passing up a chance to take on water in country like this.”

  At that moment, Arturo called from below in an alarmed voice, “Riders coming from the south!”

  Conrad bit back a curse and hurried around the tank so he could look in that direction. Arturo was right. A dust cloud swirled into the air.

  Selena came around the tank to join Conrad. “It’s Leatherwood! It has to be.”

  Conrad thought she was probably right. It was going to be a tight race to see who arrived at the water stop first. The riders were closer, but the train was moving faster. Conrad figured there was a good chance everybody would get there about the same time.

  He urged Selena toward the ladder. “You and Arturo get in the buggy and get ready to head out in a hurry.”

  “They’re too close! We’d never get away from them!”

  She had a point, Conrad decided. They would have a running fight on their hands. It would be better to make a stand where they had some cover.

  “All right. If the train stops and there’s time to get you on it, we will. Then Arturo and I can keep Leatherwood busy while the train pulls out. If you make it on board, find the conductor and tell him Conrad Browning said to make sure you get to San Francisco safely.”

  She stared at him for a second. “Who are you? Your name carries that much weight with the railroad?”

  “Don’t worry about it, just do what I told you.”

  Selena nodded. “All right. I need my saddlebags, though. Everything I own in the world is in them.”

  “Hurry, then,” Conrad urged.

  While Selena clim
bed down, he went to the edge of the platform and called to Arturo, “Pitch my rifle up here!”

  “Are we going to make a stand?”

  Conrad glanced at the train and the dust cloud. “It’s starting to look like it!”

  Arturo fetched Conrad’s Winchester and tossed it into the air next to the platform. Conrad reached out and caught the rifle by the barrel. It wouldn’t be long until the riders were in range. He wished he could see them a little better. He didn’t want to start blazing away at them without being absolutely certain they were Jackson Leatherwood and the avenging angels.

  He glanced down and saw Selena taking her saddlebags off her horse. She slung them over her shoulder and went to the corner of the shed where she could see the train and the approaching riders. Conrad could tell by the stiff stance of her slim body how tense she was.

  The dust cloud suddenly changed direction, and veered to the east, toward Navajo Wash. For a moment Conrad couldn’t figure out what they were doing. The realization burst on his brain as the riders closed in on the tracks and began shooting.

  Leatherwood was making a smart move. Having figured out his quarry was at the water tank, he wanted the train to highball on through without stopping—without even slowing down—leaving Conrad, Selena, and Arturo stuck there.

  It would appear Leatherwood and his companions were trying to stop the train. The engineer and fireman in the locomotive’s cab would assume it was a holdup, and not stop to take on water.

  Conrad bit back a curse. The range was long, but he leveled the Winchester and started firing at the horsemen. He still couldn’t be completely sure they were Leathewood and the other gunmen, but their attack on the train made it clear they weren’t on the same side as Conrad and his companions. If he could force them to break off their attack, the train still might stop.

  A shrill whistle came from the locomotive and it surged ahead faster, barreling along the tracks at top speed. The gunmen had accomplished their goal. They threw a few more shots at the train just to speed it along, then slowed their horses and began to fall back. They paralleled the tracks and rode steadily toward the water tank.

  The train passed them, and suddenly the riders lunged their mounts across the tracks and galloped alongside the caboose where Conrad couldn’t see them. Even running flat out, the horses couldn’t keep up with the train for more than a few moments, but that was long enough to shield the men until the train reached the water stop and roared on past the tank.

  “Get behind the shed!” Conrad shouted to Arturo and Selena, bellowing at the top of his lungs to be heard over the train’s nearly deafening rumble.

  Conrad retreated along the curve of the tank as the train flashed past. Smoke billowed from the locomotive’s diamond-shaped stack and stung his eyes and nose, making it difficult to see and breathe. Dropping to a knee, he brought the rifle to his shoulder as he caught a glimpse of Leatherwood through a gap in the smoke. The man’s ugly face was unmistakable.

  Leatherwood spotted Conrad’s movement and pointed the gun in his hand upward. “Up there on the tank! Kill him!”

  Conrad squeezed off a shot first, but even as the Winchester blasted, Leatherwood jerked his horse aside. Smoke and flame geysered from the muzzle of his gun as he fired twice. Conrad heard the bullets thud into the tank.

  He levered the rifle and sprayed slugs across the tracks as fast as he could. From down below he heard the whipcrack of more shots as Arturo joined in the fight. Conrad saw one of the avenging angels send his horse leaping across the tracks, and knew the man was trying to get behind the shed.

  “Be careful of the girl!” Leatherwood roared. The gun in his hand slammed out more shots.

  Water spurted from several holes in the tank where bullets had drilled through the pitch-coated wood, giving Conrad an idea as he saw the third man force his horse across the tracks next to the tank. He ran around the narrow platform to the long, spring-loaded spout, grabbed it, and jerked it down. Water shot from it, arcing across the tracks and hitting Leatherwood. Unprepared, Leatherwood choked and reeled in the saddle, and his horse began to buck.

  Tossing his empty rifle to the ground, Conrad wrapped his arms around the metal spout and slid down a couple feet, then let go and dropped to the ground next to the thick beams that served as legs under the tank. He landed lightly and his Colt flickered out as he spotted the man who had just ridden across the tracks. Ten feet away, the man swung his gun toward Conrad, but Conrad fired first. His bullet ripped through the man’s Adam’s apple and he toppled backward out of the saddle as blood fountained from his ruined throat.

  More shots came from behind the shed. Conrad worried about Arturo and Selena, but couldn’t go to their aid. Throwing himself to the side he landed behind one of the thick legs as Leatherwood started shooting at him again. Conrad sent a couple of shots whistling back at the leader of the avenging angels.

  A rifle cracked behind Conrad. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Arturo crouched at the corner of the shed, firing at Leatherwood. Conrad’s heart leaped at the realization that Arturo must have been able to deal with the man who had ridden around the shed to attack him. His friend was all right, or at least still in the fight, and now they outnumbered Leatherwood.

  The scar-faced triggerite figured that out, too. Suddenly he whirled his horse and put the spurs to it. The animal leaped into a gallop, headed to the north away from the water tank. Conrad and Arturo both fired after him, but Leatherwood never slowed down.

  Leatherwood was willing to get other men killed trying to follow Elder Hissop’s orders, Conrad thought, but he wasn’t devoted enough to face two-to-one odds by himself. The leader of the avenging angels was out of handgun range, so Conrad stood up and started to reload. Arturo took a couple more potshots at Leatherwood, but Conrad knew the chances of him hitting anything were small.

  Arturo lowered the rifle and looked over at Conrad. “Sir, are you injured?”

  “No, I’m fine. How about you?”

  “I’m not—what’s the word?—ventilated. But not for lack of trying on the part of that man who galloped around the shed. He hesitated when he shouldn’t have, though, probably out of fear that one of his errant shots would strike Miss Webster, and I was able to drill him.”

  Conrad smiled. “Good for you. Did you make sure he was dead?”

  Arturo’s eyes widened. “Oh, my word. I should have done that, shouldn’t I?”

  He turned and ran behind the shed.

  Conrad checked on the man he had shot, but considering what a gory mess his bullet had made of the man’s throat, there wasn’t much chance of him still being alive. Sure enough, the gunman was dead, and as Conrad straightened from that task, Arturo came trotting back around the shed.

  “He’s deceased,” Arturo reported. “Next time I’ll make sure of that right away.” He caught his breath. “Next time? Good Lord, what am I saying? I hope there isn’t a next time.”

  “I do, too,” Conrad said.

  But they both knew better.

  Chapter 11

  Conrad picked up his rifle, then started around the shed to check on Selena. He assumed she was all right, otherwise Arturo would have said something about her being hurt, but he wanted to see that with his own eyes.

  She met him when he was only partway there, hurrying around the shed and unexpectedly throwing herself in his arms. Instinctively, he held her and felt the way her body trembled against his.

  “So much shooting,” she said in a strained voice. “I thought for sure I was going to die.”

  “The thought crossed my mind, too,” Conrad admitted. “For all of us.”

  She lifted her head so she could look up at him. “What about Leatherwood?”

  “He’s gone. Once he was the only one left, he didn’t have the stomach for a fight anymore.”

  “He’ll be back,” Selena said. “He’ll get some more men, and he’ll come after us. He’ll never give up, and neither will Father Agony.”

  Conrad s
hook his head. “That won’t matter. By then we’ll have a good lead on them and they won’t be able to catch us. We can reach the Nevada line in a couple days.”

  “You don’t think that will stop them, do you? It won’t make any difference.”

  “Sure it will. We’ll find another place you can get on the train. There’ll be another westbound tomorrow or the next day.”

  She sighed. “You’re probably right. It’s just that . . . I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  Conrad didn’t blame her for being doubtful. They had been very lucky to keep her out of Leatherwood’s hands so far. Sooner or later that good fortune was bound to run out.

  There were two more bodies to bury, and since Leatherwood had already fled, Conrad figured there was time to do that. He got the shovel from the buggy and went behind the shed. Arturo had drilled the man, all right. He lay on his back with a single bullet wound to the chest. It was a good shot, Conrad thought.

  He noticed Selena’s saddlebags lying against the shed’s rear wall. She’d had them draped over her shoulder when she and Arturo had retreated back there. Conrad supposed they had slipped off during the shooting, and she’d been so upset she had forgotten about them. Without really thinking about it, he bent to pick them up and put them back in the buggy before he started digging the fresh grave.

  A frown creased his forehead as he straightened and felt the weight of the saddlebags. They were heavier than they would have been if Selena had filled them with food and other supplies before she left Juniper Canyon.

  At that moment, she hurried around the corner of the shed, only to stop short at the sight of Conrad standing there holding the saddlebags. “What are you doing?” she asked with a slightly frantic note in her voice.

  “I saw your saddlebags and thought I’d do you a favor by putting them back in the buggy.” Conrad shook them up and down a little and heard faint clinking sounds from inside the pouches. “I figured they were full of provisions.”