Jake took a deep breath for control. “You’ve got to show me where Latimer’s place is, Charlie. I’ll pay you. You don’t have to go in yourself if you don’t want. Just guide me there. I’ll do the rest.”
“Hell, Jake, I’ll take you there. You don’t have to pay me. I don’t think you can do it alone, though. There must be fifteen men out there.”
“I’m gonna help,” Downing told Charlie. “I hate the sonofabitch, but I could never go after him on my own. I figure the best chance I’ll ever have is if it’s Jake Harkner who’s after the man, if Jake here is as good as everybody says he is.”
Charlie watched Jake, feeling a little sorry for him. “He is. Ain’t nobody faster. Anybody who can take on Bill Kennedy’s bunch twice and live to tell about it has to be good.” He walked closer to Jake. “I’ll do what I can too, Jake, for old times’ sake. I’ll get you in there. I know a way we can take that we won’t be seen. What we need is ol’ Jess helpin’ too. Where is he?”
Jake held his eyes. “Jess died a few months back—lung cancer.”
Miranda was surprised at the genuine sorrow in Charlie’s eyes. How strange that these men could be so vulgar and lawless, yet be capable of affection and loyalty to each other. “I’m damn sorry to hear that. I know you was good friends.”
“You know Lloyd, then?” Jake asked, his eyes bloodshot from fury and terror for his son.
Charlie nodded. “I seen him quite a few months ago down at Brown’s Park. He was drunk as a skunk, hangin’ with some rustlers, goin’ around wantin’ to know if anybody had heard of his father, the notorious Jake Harkner, sayin’ it real sarcastic like. I tried talkin’ to him, had a feelin’ you wouldn’t like him hangin’ around these parts. He just shoved me away and told me to mind my own business, but I could see right through him. That boy loves you, Jake. He just ain’t about to admit it.”
Jake glanced at Miranda, and she saw the deep pain in his eyes. He turned to his horse then and mounted up. “There’s no time to waste. Go get dressed, Charlie. There’s plenty of daylight left.”
The man nodded. “Just before we get there, I’ll draw you a layout of the place.”
The man turned, and Jake called after him. “You don’t have to do this.” He looked at Downing. “Neither one of you. You’re risking your lives.”
Downing just grinned. “I figure havin’ you along is worth five, maybe six men. Besides, some men will do anything for money.”
Jake adjusted his hat against the wind. “Money or not, I’m obliged.”
“Hell, we’ve both been gettin’ a little bored anyway,” Charlie spoke up, but Miranda did not miss the worry in his eyes. She was grateful to the man, a little surprised that he and Hank Downing had offered to help. Apparently a lot of these men were like Jake, rough on the outside, but some of them had heart.
She mounted up, and Jake looked at her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going with you,” she answered, surprised by his question.
Jake looked at Charlie. “Can those women in there be trusted to watch after her while we’re gone?”
Charlie nodded. “Sure they can.”
“No!” Miranda protested vehemently. “Lloyd could be hurt bad by now! I have to be there, Jake! I’ll go crazy waiting here!”
“It’s too dangerous!”
“I’ve come this far, Jake Harkner! I’ll not wait here like some fainting flower! Why did you bother teaching me to shoot this pistol and that shotgun? I might be able to help you, and besides that, you or Hank or Charlie could get hurt. You need me, and that’s my son out there! If I have to kill someone to get to him, then I’ll do it! I’ve forgiven you for a lot of things, Jake Harkner, but I won’t forgive you for leaving me behind now after the hell I’ve been through coming this far!”
Jake felt torn at the look of terror and helplessness in her eyes. She was right. She’d been through more hell than any woman should know in the years she had been with him, especially these last four years that Lloyd had been missing. “All right,” he agreed. “You can go partway, but not all the way in. We’ll find a place to hide you until I can come for you. That way you’ll be close but safe.” He wanted to hold her, but he was too full of fury and dread, too tense and full of thoughts of murder to have any gentle feelings for the moment.
Hank Downing mounted his horse, and Charlie stood at the door to the whorehouse, chuckling. “Now I know why you married her,” he told Jake with a wink. “You finally come across somebody you couldn’t whip. Takes a strong woman to handle the likes of you. I reckon you found one.” He laughed again, going inside.
Jake turned to Miranda, edging his horse closer. “I reckon I did,” he mimicked Charlie. He reached into his jacket pocket and took out his mother’s cross and rosary beads. He put them into Miranda’s hand. “Keep these for me. Your prayers seem to have a lot of power, woman. Let’s hope they’re more powerful than Jube Latimer and my guns put together.”
***
They stopped near the waterfall under which Charlie claimed Miranda could hide. The Bighorn River rushed past them as everyone dismounted and Charlie knelt to the sand along the bank of the river and began drawing a layout of Latimer’s ranch.
“We’re here, to the southwest,” he explained. “The ranch is just on the other side of them bluffs we come past. The bluffs is what hid us. Now we’re close to a couple of isolated buttes that form the south entrance to the ranch. They ain’t very high, but big enough to shelter the entrance. There’s always a man up top of each one keepin’ watch. We’re still safe along the river here where there’s so much overgrowth.” He pointed to a flat-topped butte just to the north of them. “That’s the last barrier that’s keepin’ them from seein’ us. I’m gonna move across the river, get your wife and her horse hid under that there waterfall. There’s plenty of room underneath. She’ll be safe there.”
He looked at Miranda. “If nobody comes for you by nightfall, you head back come mornin’. The river will take you right back to Hole-in-the-Wall. You go to Ella’s place. They ain’t your kind of women, but Ella will see that you find somebody you can trust to take you back to Laramie. Nobody around Hole-in-the-Wall will give you trouble on account of you’re Jake’s woman.”
Miranda tried to control the sick feeling the man’s words had brought to her stomach. If nobody comes for you by nightfall…
“Do exactly what he says,” Jake told her. “And don’t you move from under that waterfall.”
Their eyes held for a moment before he looked back at Charlie’s drawing, and Miranda knew there would not even be a chance for a last good-bye, one more embrace.
“I’ll head up the west butte the back way,” Charlie was saying. “I think I can get to the guard there from behind. I’ll knife him if I can, keep things quiet a little longer to give you time to position yourself to shoot down the man at the top of the east butte. Once you’ve killed your man, Hank can ride around the east side of the butte where you’ll be and come in on the east side of the ranch. There’s trees and fencing there to hide behind, and there’s bound to be a couple of men out in this area where they keep stolen horses. Hank will take care of them, if he can keep himself from gettin’ shot. From then on it’s every man for himself. Jake, you can ride straight in. Hank will be to your right, I’ll be to your left comin’ in on the west side here. I’ll head for the bunkhouse. It’s right here.”
The man drew a square at the northwest corner of the ranch. “To the right of that is a barn, and then a shed. There’s liable to be men in every building and in the main house, which is right here in the center. We’ll just have to take down whatever comes at us. Our only advantage is surprise, and your accuracy with them guns, Jake. Ordinarily I’d say we should just ride in there and demand Latimer hand over your son, but he don’t behave like other men. We’d just end up with ourselves surrounded, and he’d have the pleasu
re of sayin’ he killed both the Harkners. He thinks he’s a big man. Fact is, I have a feelin’ he didn’t go after Lloyd just because the boy shot a couple of his men. He’s probably figurin’ like some of the rest of us, that you’d come after the kid once you was freed. He’d like to have your head mounted on his wall so’s he can say he was the one to shoot Jake Harkner, even though he don’t even know you. It’s the name that counts.” The man rose, looking from Jake to Hank. “You two ready?”
“You bet,” Jake answered. He drew his shotgun and rifle from his horse and handed the shotgun to Miranda. “You use that if you have to, and remember what I said about not hesitating. These men will kill anything, including women and kids, so don’t feel sorry for them. Just remember they’ve hurt our son.”
She took the shotgun. “I’ll do whatever I have to do.”
Jake handed her a leather bagful of extra shells. “Just in case you need more.”
Their eyes held as Miranda took the bag. “I’ll be all right, Jake,” she assured him.
“You and Hank take your horses,” Charlie told Jake. “You can go in at a dead ride then. I’ll leave mine here with your wife and go up the back side of that butte on foot. You and Hank go on this way, headin’ east. Hide in the brush till you see my man go down, then draw a bead on the other guard. Once he’s down, start ridin’, Jake right up the center, Hank around here to the right like I said. Let’s go.”
The man took hold of the reins to his horse and to Miranda’s and headed across a shallow section of the river toward the waterfall. Miranda looked at Jake, struggling against tears of terror. “I’ll be watching for you,” she told him.
He nodded. “Vaya con Dios, mi querida,” he told her softly. He turned and mounted up then, and Hank followed, both men heading east along the riverbank.
Miranda watched Jake a moment longer, then hurried to catch up with Charlie, not wanting to slow anyone down. Charlie already had his and Miranda’s horses tied to a fallen branch not far from the other side of the waterfall, where they would be difficult for an intruder to see. He motioned for her to come and stand under the raging water. She waded through the shallow river and stepped along slippery, flat rocks to come and stand beside the man.
“Remember what Jake said. You stay right here. You’re close enough here to help your son real quick-like, once Jake’s got him.” He gave her a wink. “Don’t you fret. They don’t come any better than Jake.”
“Thank you for helping, Charlie. You be careful too.”
The man looked her over appreciatively. “Ol’ Jake sure outdid himself when he put a ring on your finger. I got a feelin’ that man would walk through fire for you.” He chuckled again and shook his head, turning and disappearing into the underbrush.
Miranda breathed deeply in an effort to relax, but it was almost impossible. The waterfall roared in her ears, and she wondered if she would even be able to hear gunshots while standing under it. She set the shotgun aside and took the shells from the bag they were in and began stuffing them into the pockets of her jacket so she would have nothing to carry but the shotgun itself. Her pistol rested in its holster. She picked up the shotgun again and sat down on a rock that rested against the much larger boulder over which the water cascaded into the river. There was nothing to do now but wait.
Thirty-three
Hank hung back while Jake dismounted and ran farther along the riverbank to take a position where he could see the guard at the top of the east butte. He watched the west butte, where a man was sitting rather than standing. If either Hank or Charlie were as good a shot as he from a distance, they would have taken both men by gunshot. Jake had considered taking them both himself, but from their position, the minute a shot was fired, the other man could easily spread himself flat and be out of sight. It was important to get both guards to be sure Jake and Hank could ride through and around the buttes without being shot at from above.
He caught a glimpse of Charlie then. He crouched and took aim, waiting. Quietly and quickly, Charlie, who’d learned his stealthy approaches from living with the Indians for a time, had an arm around his man’s throat and a knife rammed into his back. At the same moment, Jake fired at the second man. He watched the man’s arms fly up, his rifle tumble from his hand. Slowly, almost gracefully, his body dived forward for the long drop to the bottom of the butte. Jake heard the thud as it hit a large rock, watched it bounce against a couple more boulders before sprawling in gravel near the riverbank only a few yards away. His side vision caught the body of Charlie’s victim also plunging to his death from the west butte.
“Let’s go!” Jake called to Hank. “They’re both down!”
He mounted his horse, and Hank, already mounted, headed east, disappearing around the butte while Jake kicked Bandit’s sides and headed the horse at a hard gallop directly between the buttes and toward the ranch. Charlie scrambled down from his killing point and headed up along the west side of the grounds.
Under the falls, Miranda caught the faint sound of a gunshot. She knew it would be Jake’s. She took up the shotgun and rose from her resting place, feeling insane with wonder over what might be happening to her husband and son. She did not know a rider, who had been heading along the river to the ranch, one of Latimer’s men, had spotted her. The man had glanced at the waterfall and saw her sitting under it. Quickly he had turned his horse and ridden out of sight, then dismounted and headed for the river. He moved alongside the boulder near where Miranda sat. Water splashed his hat and face, but he paid no attention. Something was up. What the hell was a woman doing lurking under that waterfall?
He peeked around the boulder, saw two horses tied beyond the waterfall on the other side. It was then he also heard the gunshot. He darted back again, unable to determine just where it had come from. When he looked around the boulder again, the woman was heading toward the other side of the fall. He quickly made his move, knowing the roaring water would keep her from hearing him.
Miranda gasped when an arm suddenly came around her chest and arms from behind. She felt a gun in her ribs. “Well, now, what do we have here?” came a man’s voice.
Never hesitate, Jake had told her so many times. It’s either you or them. She still held the shotgun, and her forearms were free. Quickly she turned the firearm in her hands and swung it backward, ramming it hard in the direction of the man’s face and hoping to hit her abductor with the barrel end. Her quick thinking worked. She felt the jolt, heard the man grunt as the end of the shotgun barrel landed into his eye.
He let go of Miranda, and she swung around, firing the shotgun without a moment’s hesitation. The jolt knocked her backward. She dropped the shotgun and landed on her back, then lay there a moment, struggling to get her breath. When she was able to get to her feet again, she saw her abductor lay sprawled on a rock under the waterfall, his middle a mass of blood.
Miranda gasped, vomit coming to her throat. In terror, she picked up the shotgun and ran, grabbing her doctor bag from her horse and heading out from under the waterfall. She followed the riverbank, searching for the two buttes Charlie had mentioned. “Help me, Jake,” she whimpered. “I’ve killed a man!” She stopped to get her breath, telling herself to calm down. She would be no help to her husband and son in a panicked condition. “Jake, Jake,” she whimpered, clinging to the shotgun. With shaking hands she hurriedly opened it and put another shell in the chamber she had emptied. They were both filled again. She closed the gun, then gasped when she heard more gunfire. She ran in the direction of the sound.
Jake was already heading straight into the ranch grounds. To his right he saw Hank running along the east fence. Two men were running toward Jake from a corral where horses were prancing about. A shot rang out, and one went down, shot in the back by Hank. Jake crouched in the saddle and shot the second man, trying to keep count. That was at least four down. On his way in he thought he’d heard the sound of his shotgun going off. The sound was so
distant and muffled he couldn’t be sure, but it had startled him for a moment. He had to fight to stay alert to what was happening right in front of him. Had Miranda fired the shotgun? What the hell was she shooting at? Had there been someone back there they hadn’t seen?
He jumped off Bandit before the horse could even come to a halt. The horse kept running, and Jake ducked behind a large stump. He saw Hank moving closer to the shed across the wide ranch grounds to his right. To his left Charlie moved along the western fence line. Suddenly a man charged out of the shed and rode around the back side of the buildings. Hank fired at him and missed. At the same time three men came clamoring out of the bunkhouse several yards ahead of Jake and beyond the house. Everything was happening at once.
Jake raised up and shot at the three men, who were cursing and shouting and trying to get to the house. Two went down right away. The third cried out and rolled to hide behind a pump house. Jake got up and ran hard toward a wagon. The third man and the one riding around the west end fired at him, and he felt a sting across the top of his left shoulder. He jumped into the wagon and lay flat.
Charlie rose up then and shot at the man on horseback, hitting him in the leg. The man shot back, and Charlie felt a jolt to his left arm. He fell flat and the wounded man kept riding. The third man, who Jake had wounded and who had hid behind the pump house, got up and ran toward the wagon then, thinking Jake might be lying dead inside. When he peeked over the side, Jake’s revolver was drawn. He fired, opening a hole in the man’s face. The man made no sound as his head jerked fiercely. He slumped to his death.
Jake looked out of the wagon to see Charlie down. The man he had wounded was still riding. To Jake’s horror he saw Miranda running along the fence then. He started to fire at the rider, but more gunshots erupted, this time from the house. They splintered into the wagon, and Jake dove flat again into its bottom. He heard the shotgun explode again, looked through a crack in the wagon to see the fleeing rider’s horse go down, sending the man sprawling. Miranda was on her rump. She pulled her pistol from its holster and shot at the rider before he could get up again.
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