The Loner: The Big Gundown

by J. A. Johnstone

  He looked up toward the ridge, thinking that he might spot the outlaws and the cannon, but he couldn’t see anything. Even if he had, his Colt wouldn’t do him any good at that range. He needed his Winchester, or the Sharps Big Fifty. They were in the livery stable with the buckskin and his saddle.

  Come to think of it, maybe it would be a good idea to head for the stable, he realized. He and Glory would be safer outside of Titusville.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as he tugged her along the street.

  “To get my horse and maybe a mount for you,” he replied. “We’re going to get out of here.”

  “Wait! What about Edward?”

  The question surprised The Kid. He hadn’t figured that she gave a damn one way or the other about her husband, the way she’d been acting ever since he met her. He would have said that the only thing that mattered to her about Edward Sheffield was his money. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she was at least a little fond of him.

  Morgan glanced toward the building that housed the mining company headquarters. One corner of it had crumpled under the impact of a cannonball, but at least it wasn’t on fire. If Sheffield was in there, he was probably still alive.

  The mining company was in the opposite direction from the stable, though. “We’ll get some horses first,” The Kid told Glory. “Then we’ll come back to see if we can find him.”

  She tried to pull her arm free. “Let me go!” she demanded. “I can’t let anything happen to Edward! I just can’t!”

  The Kid didn’t relax his grip on her arm. “We’ll get him if we can,” he promised.

  She stopped struggling and let him lead her down the street to the livery stable. The noise of the shelling and the smoke from the fires had spooked the horses, who whinnied shrilly and lunged back and forth in their stalls. Except for The Kid’s buckskin, that is. He looked rather wild-eyed but was still under control.

  The two hostlers were trying to calm the maddened horses, with no success. They paid no attention to The Kid as he opened the buckskin’s stall and went in to throw his saddle on the horse. He had to let go of Glory to do so, but she took a deep breath and told him, “Don’t worry, Kid. I won’t run off. I know I’ll need your help finding Edward.”

  The Kid nodded as he worked at the cinches. He wasn’t sure they would be able to get Sheffield out of town. He’d counted on being able to saddle one of the other horses, but all of them were too crazed. He and Glory could ride double on the buckskin, but even that stalwart animal couldn’t carry the two of them and Edward Sheffield.

  When he had his mount ready to ride, he swung up into the saddle and extended a hand to Glory. “Come on!” he told her. “You can ride in front of me.”

  “What about Edward?”

  “We’ll find another horse for him on the street, once we’ve located him.”

  She seemed to accept that answer. She grasped The Kid’s wrist as he took hold of hers, and then with a foot in the stirrup, she raised up onto the buckskin’s back. Morgan settled her in front of him, slid his left arm around her waist to hold her securely in place, and used his right to handle the reins. He heeled the buckskin into motion and rode out of the stable.

  As they emerged on to the street, Morgan heard the rattle of gunfire. That didn’t particularly surprise him. The Cannon Gang had used their big gun to soften up the town, wreaking havoc and terrifying the citizens of Titusville, and intended to raid the settlement and loot it of everything valuable they could get their hands on. Colonel Black knew that Edward Sheffield owned most of the town. Anything they did to Titusville, they were doing to Sheffield, and that fit right in with Black’s insane thirst for vengeance on the tycoon.

  It couldn’t have worked out better for the colonel, because Phil Bateman and most of Sheffield’s hired guns were out of town, searching for the outlaws. Black had known that Titusville wouldn’t be able to mount much of a defense.

  The Kid couldn’t fight the gang alone, either. That was why he wanted to get Glory and possibly Sheffield safely out of there. At least he could keep them alive that way.

  As they headed for the mining company headquarters, a group of men on horseback burst out of a side street with a swift rataplan of hoofbeats. In the garish light from the burning buildings, The Kid saw the long dusters, the bandannas masking their faces, the pulled-down hats. The Cannon Gang had invaded Titusville, all right, and they had cut him and Glory off from the building where her husband probably was.

  The Kid whirled his horse to head back the other way. “Wait!” Glory cried. “We have to find Edward!”

  “Black’s bunch is between us and him!” The Kid told her.

  “Circle around! We have to save him!”

  She was exhibiting a whole lot more concern for Sheffield than The Kid would have been believed possible. He sent the buckskin toward another side street, hoping to avoid the outlaws that way.

  It was a futile hope. Before they reached the corner, another group of riders appeared there, firing six-guns at anybody unlucky enough to get in their way. The Kid bit back a curse and hauled on the reins again. They were caught between the two groups of raiders.

  Glory realized that, too. “Kid!” she screamed. “What are we going to do?”

  Morgan suddenly spotted Colonel Gideon Black. Unlike the rest of his men, the renegade former soldier wasn’t trying to disguise himself. He rode at the head of one of the groups in his cavalry trousers, boots, and hat, as well as the buckskin shirt. He had a saber in his hand, of all things, and he raised it above his head, poised to sweep it down and order a charge.

  Before Black could do that, The Kid abruptly sent his horse toward the outlaws. “Colonel!” he shouted as he clamped his arm tighter around Glory Sheffield. “Colonel, look what I’ve got for you!”

  Chapter 25

  It was a desperate ploy, but the only one The Kid could think of on such short notice and in such perilous circumstances. As he rode toward Colonel Black, the guns in the hands of the other outlaws swung toward him, and he knew that he and Glory were right on the hair-trigger edge of being filled full of lead.

  Black made a slashing motion with the saber. “Hold your fire!” he shouted to his men. “Hold your fire!”

  The Kid leaned his head close to Glory’s and said in her ear, “Fight me! Make it look real. I’ll explain later.”

  She was quick-witted enough to realize that he had some sort of plan. She began struggling frantically against him, screaming, “No! Let me go, damn you! Let me go!”

  She was doing a good job of acting, he thought as he jerked his head to the side so that the elbow she tried to ram into his face barely grazed his jaw. Maybe she wasn’t acting. Maybe she was so terrified that the meaning of his words hadn’t really penetrated her brain. Either way, Black’s men didn’t riddle them with bullets as they rode up to the colonel, and that was all The Kid cared about.

  “Morgan!” Black exclaimed. “When you didn’t show up at the appointed time, I thought you had decided to double cross me.”

  “I got delayed,” The Kid said, nodding toward the squirming, cursing bundle of redheaded female in his arms. “When the shooting started, I figured you must be raiding the town, so I grabbed Mrs. Sheffield and came looking for you. She’s one of the things you’re after, isn’t she?”

  Black waved his men on, then brought his horse closer to The Kid’s and reached out toward Glory, who flinched away from his touch. “My dear,” he said. “It’s so wonderful to see you again.”

  “Get away from me, you bastard!” she cried. “Let me go!” She tried again to reach behind her and hit The Kid. “Damn you, Morgan!”

  Colonel Black smiled. “Can you hang on to her, Morgan, or do you want me to take her?”

  “I’ve got her,” The Kid said. “Don’t worry, Colonel, she won’t get away.”

  “Then we’re on the same side, you and I?”

  The Kid let a savage grin stretch across his face. “I always like to be on the winning side
, and from the looks of it, this isn’t even a contest.”

  Here and there along the street, fires continued to rage. The masked outlaws rode back and forth, their guns spitting death at anyone who dared to oppose them. Not many of the townspeople were doing that anymore. From the looks of it, the Cannon Gang had Titusville just about buffaloed.

  “It was never a contest,” Black said as a triumphant smile of his own appeared on his face. “Edward Sheffield and his minions were doomed from the moment he betrayed me. It was just a matter of time before I took my vengeance on him and reclaimed what’s rightfully mine.”

  The look he gave Glory made it abundantly clear that he considered her part of the spoils of his victory.

  “You’re mad!” she told him. “You’re out of your mind, Gideon!”

  “Don’t say that, my dear. You’ll soon love me again.”

  “Never!”

  Glory had stopped struggling in The Kid’s grip, but tears of rage and fear and futility continued to run down her face. The Kid knew that pretending to join Black’s forces was the only way to save their lives, although it was likely that Black wouldn’t have allowed Glory to be killed. The Kid was still alive to help her and to continue trying to figure out a way to stop the colonel’s reign of terror.

  “Follow me, Morgan,” Black ordered as he turned his horse. “And be careful not to let that little hellcat get away.”

  “You can count on it, Colonel,” The Kid said. “She’s not going anywhere except with us.”

  They rode through the chaos and confusion that choked Titusville’s main street, heading north toward the ridge where the cannon was set up and the Dragoon Mountains beyond it. Black led the way, and as he pulled out a little ahead of Morgan and Glory, she leaned back and asked Morgan in a low voice, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Keeping both of us alive,” The Kid told her through clenched teeth. “Black approached me earlier tonight and tried to recruit me for his little owlhoot army. I went along with him. I was supposed to meet him up on the ridge before the attack started, but you caused me to miss that appointment.”

  “I’m sorry,” Glory said coldly.

  “Don’t be. This might work out even better.”

  “Better! How could it be better?”

  “By turning you over to him, I’ve convinced him more than ever that I’m on his side,” The Kid said. “Otherwise, he would have just killed me and taken you with him anyway.”

  Glory shook her head. “You don’t know how insane he is. You can’t trust him, Kid, not for a second.”

  “I don’t intend to. And I’ll keep you safe as much as I possibly can.”

  “That fate worse than death business again?” She laughed, but there wasn’t a trace of humor in the sound. “Don’t worry, Kid, Gideon can’t do anything to me that he hasn’t already done.”

  The Kid didn’t figure that was any of his business, but he didn’t say anything. He looked around him at the death and destruction that had descended on Titusville, and he was reminded once more of the wanton slaughter that had taken place at the Williams ranch. Colonel Black obviously had no regard whatsoever for human life. He snuffed it out casually, without even thinking about it, any time somebody got in his way or did something to offend his warped sense of justice. He was a monster, and sooner or later, The Kid was going to kill him.

  But that would have to wait for the right time, and as the horses began to climb the ridge above the burning town, The Kid didn’t know when that was going to be.

  It couldn’t come soon enough to suit him.

  Colonel Black obviously knew the trails in the foothills of the Dragoons, because he led them toward the top of the ridge with ease. Glory knew to continue her pose as a terrified prisoner of her vengeful ex-lover. It didn’t take much acting on her part, The Kid thought, because in truth, both of them actually were in a great deal of danger. Trying to fool someone as unstable and violent as the former colonel was a risky business.

  So far, though, Black seemed well pleased with the evening’s work. Titusville was in shambles, and Glory was in his power.

  “What are you going to do to Edward?” she called to Black as she and The Kid rode behind him.

  Black turned in the saddle to smile back at her. “Don’t worry, my dear. I gave strict orders that he wasn’t to be killed…yet. I want him to suffer first, as I suffered.”

  “But you didn’t suffer,” Glory argued. “You didn’t even go to prison, like you easily could have if not for my father.”

  The Kid didn’t think it was a particularly good idea to be reminding Black about that, but as usual, Glory had a mind of her own and wasn’t hesitant about expressing it.

  The colonel reined in and glared at her. “You think I should be grateful for the treachery practiced by your father and that so-called husband of yours? They cost me my military career. They stole all the respect that anyone ever felt for me.”

  “You did that yourself when you decided to become part of a crooked deal,” Glory shot back at him, ignoring the warning squeeze that The Kid gave her arm.

  “I was drawn into it by the scheming of those two!”

  “You knew exactly what you were doing,” Glory insisted.

  The Kid decided this had gone on long enough. He lifted a hand as if he were about to hit her and growled, “Shut up!”

  Instantly, Colonel Black whipped out his revolver. “Morgan!” he snapped. “I appreciate your help, but if you strike the lady, I’ll kill you.”

  The Kid lowered his hand. “Take it easy, Colonel,” he said. “I won’t hurt her. I just want her to stop her yapping.”

  Maybe Glory would get the message from that, he thought.

  “It’s not your place to worry about such things,” Black said coldly. “I’m in command here, Morgan, and don’t forget it.”

  The Kid nodded. “Sorry, Colonel. It won’t happen again.”

  They rode on, and thankfully, Glory quieted down. A few minutes later, the zigzagging trail they were following came out on top of the ridge. The Kid spotted the cannon perched near the edge. The area around it was lit by a couple of torches stuck in the ground. The bombardment had ended, and the men who had been working as gunners now stood around the cannon.

  The Kid got his first close-up look at the big gun. It was a massive thing, mounted on two wheels with a sort of cart behind it to give it extra support and absorb some of the recoil. A team of four mules stood off to one side, and The Kid knew that when the outlaws were ready to move the cannon, those mules would be hitched to it. Two mules were already hitched to another cart nearby. The Kid figured it was used to carry ammunition, powder, and everything else the gang needed to fire the big gun.

  The cannon’s barrel was about six feet long and a foot in diameter. The muzzle itself was six inches wide, The Kid estimated. A cannonball that size would pack a hell of a punch behind it. He had seen for himself the extent of the damage a round like that could do. It was a devastating weapon. The Kid wondered if Colonel Black had stolen it from some military armory somewhere.

  Black reined in. The Kid did likewise. With a proud smile, Black waved a hand toward the cannon.

  “How do you like my little toy, Morgan?” he asked.

  “That’s a pretty dangerous toy,” The Kid replied.

  “Indeed it is. Napoleon thought so, too, when he took it to Russia in 1812 and used it and all its brethren to lay siege to Moscow.”

  The Kid remembered studying about that at the academy and in college. He gave in to curiosity and asked, “How did you get your hands on it, Colonel?”

  “The French army abandoned most of their heavy artillery when Napoleon gave up and began retreating that winter. The entire campaign was riddled with terrible strategic mistakes.” The colonel had a note of smug superiority in his voice as he explained. “The Russians claimed the cannon, and later, they were brought to Fort Ross, the Russian settlement in what’s now California. When the Russians withdrew f
rom Fort Ross, they left behind several of the cannon, and this one”—Black leaned over in his saddle and patted the big gun’s barrel affectionately—“this one passed through a number of hands before winding up in mine. A man who plans to fight a war should be well armed, Morgan.”

  “You really are mad, Gideon,” Glory said quietly.

  Black didn’t lose his temper. He just shook his head and said, “You’ll see how wrong you are about me, Gloriana. You’ll see that you should have been loyal to me all along. I’ll win you over again, just like I’ll win this war against that treacherous husband of yours.”

  “What are you going to do then?” Glory demanded. “Go to Washington and lay siege to the War Department so you can satisfy your grudge against my father? I’d like to see you try that!”

  “Perhaps you shall,” Black said, still smiling confidently. “Who knows? Perhaps destroying your husband’s empire will be just the beginning. Who’s to say that I won’t wind up running the entire Arizona Territory? And from there—” Black stopped and shook his head. “Ah, well, it’s just a dream…for now. In the future, who knows? But those who are loyal to me—and you should listen to this, Morgan—those who are loyal to me will reap great rewards, I promise you that.”

  “Don’t worry, Colonel,” The Kid said. “I’ll back your play, all the way.”

  “Very good. Hang on to our prisoner. That’s your task for now.” Black turned to the other outlaws on the bluff. “Prepare the cannon to be moved. We’ll be returning to the stronghold as soon as the others finish in town and join us.”

  The stronghold. That sounded mighty interesting, The Kid thought. He would have to know where it was, if he was to have any hope of breaking the colonel’s power and bringing him to justice. And it looked like if he played along and could manage to stay alive for a while, he stood a good chance of finding out.