The Iron Eyes Collection

by Rory Black

  Denver turned. The metal buckle struck him across his face as the fiery female swung it with all her might. The impact sent the outlaw staggering sideways. He collided with the door and then crashed on to the floor.

  Blood splattered across the floorboards as the dazed Denver tried to gather his wits. Sally jumped forward and kicked the outlaw as hard as her bare foot would allow and then leapt over the table and dived through the open window.

  Sally landed on the dirt, quickly raced to her trusty Winchester which was still resting against the cabin front wall and snatched it. She pushed the hand guard down and then saw the shivering McGee looking at her from behind the pile of stacked logs.

  For a split second they both stared at one another in bewilderment. Then Sally fired the repeating rifle at the young outlaw. The bullet hit the freshly stacked logs and showered sawdust over the startled McGee.

  The outlaw ducked as his cold hands fumbled for his own rifle. Before McGee was able to lift his Winchester and look over the logs, Sally had darted for cover.

  ‘What was that?’ Vance yelled out as he came running to his cohort. ‘What the hell were you shooting at, Bill?’

  ‘The girl,’ McGee exclaimed as his eyes searched for her. ‘She did the shooting. She come out of that window like a jack rabbit, grabbed her rifle and fired at me.’

  Vance cocked his own rifle and looked beyond their skittish horses to where he had caught a glimpse of the half-naked female running. He squinted and grabbed the collar of his fellow outlaw.

  ‘Let’s check Denver,’ he said. ‘The way she’s running I got a feeling that she might’ve killed him.’

  McGee trailed Vance back to the open doorway. The flickering light of the lamp revealed the stunned Denver on the ground. Droplets of blood covered the door and floor from the injuries Sally had inflicted upon the groggy outlaw leader.

  McGee looked down upon Denver as he held his face and looked up at his two men. ‘What happened, Jody?’

  ‘Damned if I know,’ Denver admitted as they helped him clamber back to his feet. He held his bleeding face and blinked a few times. ‘Where’d she go?’

  Vance pointed. ‘She ran into the forest.’

  ‘You’ve got a mean cut there, Jody,’ McGee said as he looked at the bleeding gash across Denver’s face. ‘She must have hit you with the belt.’

  Denver sighed and rested a hand on the table. ‘I’m starting to think she was telling the truth about being Iron Eyes’ woman, boys. No normal female would have the grit to even try doing that.’

  ‘She almost blew my head off,’ McGee stammered.

  ‘She sure is a peppy little critter,’ Vance added as Denver straightened up and wiped the blood from his face. ‘A man could get himself killed getting frisky to something like that.’

  ‘I’m gonna kill that bitch,’ Denver growled as he grabbed his Winchester and pressed the palm of his hand against the savage gash. ‘Nobody does this to me and lives to brag about it. That buckle nearly blinded me.’

  The still dazed Denver moved back to the door when a bullet cut across the clearing and hit the wall. All three men ducked as clumps of wood flew in all directions.

  ‘That little vixen is shooting at us,’ Vance shouted as another bullet hit the door frame.

  Denver blew out the oil lamp and carefully looked to where the shots had come from. ‘That gal is a real pain in the backside, boys. She ain’t gonna be satisfied until she kills us.’

  McGee walked to the open window and peered out. ‘She’s got herself pretty good cover. From out there she got the door and the window covered. If we even try to leave the cabin she’ll pick us off.’

  Denver shook his head angrily.

  ‘No she won’t,’ he snarled. ‘No little runt is ever gonna pin Jody Denver down, boys.’

  ‘How do you intend stopping her, Jody?’ Vance asked as he brushed splinters off his coat and watched the older outlaw pace around the confines of the cabin. ‘Squirrel’s got us trapped and she knows it. If any of us move too close to the window or the door she’ll kill us.’

  Denver rested a hip on the table edge and brooded for a few moments as he tried to regain his thoughts. ‘There’s always a way, Dan. We just ain’t figured it yet.’

  ‘That rifle of hers is fully loaded,’ McGee muttered. ‘She can keep us pinned down for as long as she wants.’

  ‘Or until Iron Eyes shows up,’ Vance said drily.

  Denver glanced at Vance. ‘I’d forgotten about him. Damn, I don’t cotton to being trapped in here if that bastard shows his ugly face.’

  The sound of dry brush cracking across the clearing drew all three men’s attention. They turned and stared out at the trees that fringed the clearing and saw movement in the dense brush. Denver moved away from the table and stood with his rifle gripped in his shaking hands. His heart raced as he caught sight of the eerie figure moving through the moonlight toward the cabin.

  ‘Hell,’ he squirmed as he patted both his cohorts and pointed at the unholy image which was moving slowly astride his huge horse toward them. ‘He’s here.’

  McGee and Vance gripped their rifles.

  ‘Iron Eyes!’

  FINALE

  The eerie moonlight caught the branches of the trees as they parted to reveal the strangest sight any of the Denver gang had ever seen. The palomino stallion emerged from the undergrowth carrying its unmoving cargo toward the small cabin across the expanse of cleared ground.

  Vance gripped the rifle in his trembling hands as he stared through the moonlight at the horseman.

  ‘He ain’t got a head,’ the terrified outlaw yelled.

  McGee started to shake as he too saw the unholy vision.

  ‘He’s right, Jody,’ he shouted in near hysteria. ‘Iron Eyes ain’t got no head. Look at him. Look at the bastard.’

  Denver screwed up his eyes. His vision was at least fifteen years older than his gang members and nowhere as clear. Then he also saw the unbelievable sight.

  From inside the cabin door, it certainly appeared to the onlookers that the stallion was indeed carrying a headless horseman upon its high shoulders.

  The limp dust coat was perched upon the saddle with its empty sleeves moving in the evening breeze. Denver cranked his rifle’s hand guard and then swiftly raised the Winchester to his shoulder.

  ‘Whatever that is, I’m killing it.’ Denver spat.

  He fired and sent a bullet straight through chest of the long coat. Denver looked perplexed as he cocked and fired his rifle again.

  Within seconds all three of the gang were emptying their Winchesters at the strange vision. The palomino stallion halted its advance as the coat fell from where it had been perched upon the ornate Mexican saddle.

  Denver and his cohorts lowered their smoking rifles and stared in confusion at the coat as it floated slowly through the moonlight to the ground.

  ‘You’re gonna have to buy me a new coat,’ Iron Eyes drawled as he stepped out of the shadows beside the cabin and aimed both his Navy Colts at them. ‘Now drop them rifles.’

  The three outlaws watched as the hideous bounty hunter moved closer to the cabin with his guns trained on their innards. They did as he said and dropped their smoking rifles at their feet.

  ‘Now where’s Squirrel?’ Iron Eyes hissed like a rattler about to strike out at them. ‘Where’s my Squirrel?’

  Denver and his men still had their gun belts strapped around their middles as they stepped out of the cabin into the moonlight.

  ‘She’s over there someplace,’ Denver indicated with a tilt of his head. ‘That woman of yours has bin taking pot shots at us for the last ten minutes.’

  Iron Eyes lowered his head but continued to stare at them through his limp hair. ‘She’s still alive?’

  ‘She’s still alive,’ Denver and his men moved apart. They kept their hands hovering above their holstered six-guns as Iron Eyes remained perfectly still. ‘Now let us get to our horses and ride out of here or we’ll draw down on yo
u.’

  Iron Eyes could see Squirrel Sally moving away from the trees with her prized Winchester still clutched in her hands as he lowered his guns. His eyes darted back to the trio of outlaws.

  ‘I reckon that sounds fair,’ he whispered.

  Sally waved her rifle and drew his attention.

  ‘They’re the Denver gang, Iron Eyes,’ Sally screamed across the clearing. ‘They’re wanted dead or alive.’

  A slight smile came to the bounty hunter’s tortured features as he noticed the panic on the three faces before him.

  ‘I already knew that, Squirrel.’

  Denver went for his six-gun first, quickly followed by Vance and McGee. As their guns cleared their holsters Iron Eyes raised his Navy Colts and started firing. All three of the outlaws twisted on their heels as his deadly accurate bullets ripped through them. As they hit the ground the young female reached his side and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  ‘I knew you’d come to save me, Iron Eyes,’ she gushed as tears of relief rolled down her cheeks.

  ‘I didn’t come looking for you, Squirrel,’ Iron Eyes said as he stared down through the gunsmoke at the three dead outlaws a few feet away from him. ‘I come looking for my golden eagles.’

  She looked up into his stony face and smiled. ‘You liar, I know that you trailed me all the way from Mexico up into the goddamn wilderness. Only someone in love would do that.’

  Iron Eyes raised an eyebrow and looked down into her beautiful face. He sighed and then moved to his horse and patted its neck as he retrieved his bullet-ridden coat from the ground. He shook it and then slid it on. She moved to his side and grabbed his arm as he poked his smoking guns back into his deep pockets.

  ‘How’d you get this stinking coat to sit on your horse?’ she asked the tall figure.

  ‘A couple of branches helped, Squirrel,’ he muttered as he stared at the dead outlaws. ‘I made a frame, put the coat over it and sent the horse to the cabin. I cut around the clearing to get the drop on them.’

  She looked confused.

  ‘How’d you get this big horse to walk to the cabin?’ she wondered.

  ‘That was easy,’ Iron Eyes looked at her. ‘I just told him what to do and he done it. He’s pretty smart for a Mexican horse, come to think about it.’

  She made no effort to hide her womanly assets from his unconcerned eyes and danced before him in the moonlight. Her flesh sparkled in the crisp evening air. Iron Eyes did not appear to notice her lack of clothing though.

  ‘Are you thirsty?’ Sally asked coyly.

  ‘I already found your whiskey bottle,’ he said as he headed for the corpses and draped them over their horses in turn. ‘I already drunk most of it.’

  As he finished securing the bodies to the horses, he returned his attention to the still smiling female. He looked deep into her eyes and waited.

  ‘I’ve got a case of sipping whiskey in my stagecoach, Iron Eyes,’ she said as her eyelashes fluttered like butterflies, ‘A whole twelve bottles of real whiskey.’

  He led the three mounts toward her and then stared into her impish face. ‘I didn’t see any case of whiskey in your stagecoach, Squirrel.’

  Sally grinned. ‘It’s hid under one of the seats.’

  ‘A whole case, huh?’ Iron Eyes lashed the three outlaws’ horses’ leathers to his cantle and then mounted the palomino. He held out his hand to the young female and helped her climb up behind him. Sally wrapped her arms around his waist as he turned the exhausted stallion and started to retrace his trail back to her stagecoach. ‘At least you spent my money on something good, Squirrel.’

  She cleared her throat. Iron Eyes looked back at her as he steered the stallion back into the forest.

  ‘Now what do you want, Squirrel?’ he asked.

  ‘Didn’t you notice something different about me?’ she pressed her naked breasts into his back and squeezed even harder. ‘Something kinda nice?’

  He thought about her question for a moment.

  ‘You combed your hair?’ he asked.

  Sally frowned in frustration.

  ‘No, I ain’t combed my damn hair,’ she groaned. ‘I ain’t got a shirt on. I’m buck-naked apart from my britches. My chests is uncovered. What does that make you think about, dearest?’

  ‘Oh that, I just figured you were getting forgetful,’ Iron Eyes said as he guided the palomino back toward the stagecoach. He then felt her hand slip down, enter his pants pocket and start searching. ‘No point in looking in there. I’m clean out of cigars, Squirrel.’

  She pressed her mouth against his ear, ‘I ain’t looking for cigars, you ugly galoot.’