“Should we have a word with him?” Ed asked.
“After we eat,” Clint replied. “Something tells me he’ll wait for us.”
FIFTEEN
Clint actually enjoyed the beans and rice he was given. The chicken wasn’t much more than a few leathery strips of charred gristle, but the dog sitting in the comer didn’t turn his nose up at them. Ed wolfed his meal down so quickly that he even swallowed an entire cup of the filthy water before realizing what he’d done.
“I’m gonna regret that later,” Ed grunted.
“Me too, probably.” With that, Clint paid for the food and walked out of the shack. He immediately spotted the short man as he jumped up from where he’d been sitting a few doorways away and walked slowly toward him.
“You see that?” Ed asked.
“Yes. Let’s just lead him away from here.”
As he climbed into his saddle, Ed asked, “Any notion of what we do after that?”
“That’s up to him.”
Now that they no longer had the rustling of the horses and the sound of them settling into the saddles to cover their voices, Clint and Ed didn’t say anything else as they rode out of the village. Clint took the lead, knowing that Ed would follow. Not only did he stay beside Clint, Ed also put a tired look on his face for the rest of the locals who happened to be watching.
“He’s still back there,” Ed said quietly.
Clint stretched and looked over his shoulder. When he turned back around, he said, “I don’t see him.”
“But he’s back there. I can feel it.”
Trusting Ed’s instincts, Clint nodded and said, “All right, then. You think he’s one of the men that reports back to Brewer?”
“There’s no other reason for him to be so interested in us.”
“Good. You see those trees up ahead?”
Ed had to squint to make out much of anything in the darkness, but he eventually nodded. “Yeah.”
“Once we pass them, I’ll keep going and you circle around behind him after he goes by.”
“I can handle that.”
“I sure hope so.” With that, Clint snapped his reins and got Eclipse moving at a quicker pace. Ed followed suit, and soon both men were racing toward the cluster of dead trees in the distance.
It didn’t take much for Clint to pull ahead of Ed’s horse. Even if Ed had wanted to take the lead, there was no way for his gelding to get past the Darley Arabian. The spark of competition that arose on the way to the trees was perfect, however, since it also kicked up plenty of dust.
With the darkness as thick as inky water anyway, the dust cloud rose like a wall between Clint and Ed and the man following them. Clint looked over his shoulder as the trees drew closer, and he saw Ed nod right back at him. Waiting until he passed by the cluster of deadwood, Clint snapped his reins and coaxed Eclipse into a full gallop.
He glanced back once more and found that he was alone in his race. Ed had pulled away without a sound and was now nestled in so well among those trees that Clint could barely even see him. Clint hadn’t expected any less from the tracker, and he slowed Eclipse down a bit before the stallion accidentally found a hole in the road.
Now that the stallion’s hooves weren’t pounding against the baked ground, Clint could hear another horse not too far behind him. Those steps faded away as the rider slowed down enough to keep from announcing his presence even more.
Clint didn’t bother looking around. Instead, he headed down the trail for a little ways farther before slowing Eclipse to a walk. Even though he couldn’t hear the rider following him, Clint had enough hairs standing on the back of his neck to tell him the other man was there. With a twist of the reins, he turned Eclipse all the way around to face the trail behind him.
“Evenin’,” Clint said to the short rider who’d drawn up to within ten yards of him. “You looking for someone?”
The rider seemed a bit surprised at first, but quickly regained his composure. “You must be lost, señor. You’re headed into some bad country.”
“I know exactly where I’m headed and something tells me you know too.”
“If that’s the case,” the short man said with a crooked grin, “then you’ll be dead before the sun rises.”
“Maybe,” Clint said.
Just then, Ed rode up behind the rider with his gun drawn. “Or maybe not,” Ed announced.
The rider still didn’t look worried. In fact, he couldn’t stop looking up over Clint’s head. “You should have listened, señor. Now you will die for sure.”
Clint could still hear the sounds of movement coming from behind him. Unfortunately, they were also coming from every other angle and closing in fast.
SIXTEEN
Clint didn’t move.
He barely even allowed himself to breathe.
He’d seen the hills to his right and the rocks to his left, but had done his best to steer clear of them. He’d even made his move quickly before too many people even knew he and Ed were there. None of that had been good enough, and Clint didn’t have the time to figure out why.
“There’s no need for all this,” Ed shouted in a voice that cut through the night like a rock through plate glass. “We’re just passing through.”
The short rider who’d followed them from town shook his head. “Too late for that, señor.”
“We just took a wrong turn,” Clint said as he raised his hands. “We’ll turn right around and you won’t hear from us again.”
“If that is so, then I am sorry. But I do not think that is so, since you ride with that vendejo.”
As more and more eyes turned toward him, Ed grunted, “Me?”
“You are the bounty killer who dragged the bodies of three of our amigos through the sand just so you could get your blood money,” the short rider said.
Ed gnawed on the inside of his cheek before saying, “Yeah. I guess that was me.”
Clint spotted the movement of Ed’s gun as it was brought up to aim at the rider. Since it was already too late to avoid any trouble, he followed Ed’s lead for a change and plucked the Colt from its holster in a lightning-fast draw.
Before any of the men in the shadows could do a thing about it, Clint and Ed fired their first shots. Ed sent a bullet into the closest target, which happened to be the rider who’d followed them all the way from the village. Clint set his sights on one of the figures in the nearby shadows, pulled his trigger, and then watched that figure fall to the ground.
“Scatter!” Clint shouted.
Ed didn’t need to be told twice, and he dug his heels into his horse’s sides to get it bolting away from his previous spot. He also didn’t need to be told to keep firing, which he did to cover his and Clint’s escape.
Clint’s aim was thrown off by turning Eclipse to one side and spurring the stallion on. Even so, he fired the rest of his rounds at the group of men surrounding him. He didn’t think he hit any of them, but he did a hell of job in getting them to bolt in several different directions.
After those first few shots, the night exploded with gunfire.
Bullets whipped through the air to spark off of rocks, thump into the ground and shred through flesh and bone.
Clint knew he’d done some shredding of his own, because he managed to catch one of the other riders as he charged straight toward him to get close enough to use the shotgun in his hands. Before he could pull his trigger, that rider was knocked off his saddle by a round from Clint’s gun. The rider flew off his horse and twisted through the air before landing on the ground in a heap.
Pointing Eclipse’s nose to the only open spot he could see, Clint kept his body low as he reloaded the Colt. The moment after he snapped the cylinder shut, he raised the pistol and fired a bullet into the skull of another rider a split second before that man pulled the trigger of his own rifle.
Not too far away, Clint could hear Ed hollering like a crazed Indian. The one-eyed man now had a pistol in each hand and his reins wrapped around one fist. It wa
s hard to tell whether he was purposely steering his horse in an erratic pattern or the animal was responding to the motions of Ed’s hand as he fired. Either way, the other riders were having a hard time drawing a bead on him.
“Come and get it, sons of bitches!” Ed shouted amid his own gunfire.
Clint could see a few of the riders circling around behind Ed. Several shots from the modified Colt forced them to choose another direction, while also drawing their attention off of Ed’s back. Despite the fact that he could keep his hand steady while being jostled on Eclipse’s back, Clint still couldn’t see in the dark.
Sometimes, Clint swore he’d put a man down, only to see him straighten up again and send a wild shot his way. Every now and then, Clint even found himself firing at a rider that turned out to be a shadow moving in the comer of his eye.
The only saving grace in all of this was that the riders seemed to be in the same predicament. Their guns were going off in a continuous stream, filling the air with lead that reminded Clint of a biblical plague of locusts. Just when it seemed the riders had been thinned out, their numbers were replenished.
And just when Clint thought he’d be able to get away, he saw riders moving around to flank both him and Ed.
“That’s it, boys!” Ed shouted as he rode toward Clint. “I’m right over here!”
Before Clint could try to talk some sense into the one-eyed man, he saw the flicker of a sputtering flame dangling next to Ed’s hand. “Holy shit.” Clint grunted as he brought Eclipse around and dug his heels into the stallion’s sides.
A second or two after Clint heard the crackling of the fuse, Ed was right beside him and tossing the stick of dynamite through the air behind him. There was a moment of relative quiet before the dynamite let out a fiery explosion that nearly knocked Eclipse off of his feet. Ed’s horse stumbled as well, but both animals dug in frantically and managed to right themselves before rolling onto their riders.
Looking over to Clint, Ed shouted something, but he couldn’t be heard over the ringing in Clint’s ears.
Clint looked back to find several horses flopping on their sides while trying to get back to their feet. A couple of the animals weren’t moving, and plenty of riders were laying on the ground. Taking the opportunity to refill his pistol, Clint jabbed a quick finger toward the trail that led back to the village.
Ed nodded and then dug into his saddlebag to find another stick of dynamite. He held it out to Clint as if he were offering him a cigar.
“Put that thing away before you blow us all to hell!” Clint shouted. Even as he watched Ed tuck the dynamite back into his saddlebag, he saw several of the figures behind him struggling to their feet and rallying together.
Clint resisted the urge to ask for the dynamite after all and instead snapped Eclipse’s reins. Ed didn’t have any trouble keeping up with him this time, and soon the ambush spot was well behind them.
Just to be safe, Clint and Ed kept on riding.
They didn’t head back to the village, so they rode north-east until their horses were straining to keep up their pace. Eventually, Eclipse was allowed to slow down and catch his breath.
Clint kept looking behind, and even looked ahead just to be certain they weren’t being followed again. Ed was doing the same thing, and Clint took it as a good sign when the tracker slowed down without a complaint. Finally, they picked a spot that allowed the horses to be kept out of sight and both men to put their backs to solid rock.
For the first minute, Clint and Ed pulled in some deep breaths.
Once his heart had stopped slamming against his ribs, Ed looked over to Clint and said, “I told you so.”
It took the last bit of Clint’s restraint for him to keep from punching Ed in the mouth.
SEVENTEEN
Since it would have been suicide to head back to the same village where they’d started, Clint and Ed rode until they crossed back into Texas and found a larger town that had a doctor’s office. Both men had caught a few bits of lead, but didn’t take away any serious injuries. The doctor patched them up without any questions asked.
“That could have been a lot worse,” Clint said as he and Ed walked out of the doctor’s office.
Ed winced and pressed a hand upon his freshly bandaged hip. “Speak for yerself. I bet I got it a lot worse than you did.”
“Probably. I just collected a few cuts and scratches. If we’d ridden in under a brighter sky, we’d probably both be dead.”
“A few scratches,” Ed muttered. “That doc had to dig a bullet out of my hip and I may never walk straight again.”
“You never walked straight before. Besides, you wouldn’t have caught any lead if you hadn’t ridden straight at them like a wild-eyed fool.”
Ed tried to keep his angry face on, but soon started to laugh. Glancing over his shoulder at the doorway they’d just left behind, he asked, “You think that doc’ll tell anyone we were here?”
“Not after what I paid him. It’s not like a bunch of outlaws will look into it that deeply. If they had this area wrapped up that tightly, they wouldn’t be hiding in the hills.”
“True enough. You still want to go after that prick?”
Clint looked over to Ed and said, “Yes. Don’t you?”
Ed shrugged and played up his limp a bit more. “In my line of work, you gotta know when to ease up on someone until they let their guard down again.”
“Brewer’s guard wasn’t down in the first place,” Clint pointed out.
“I know, and we almost wound up dead because of it.”
“I’ll take the blame for that one.”
“You’re damn right you will!”
“But this could work to our advantage, you know.”
Stopping in the middle of the boardwalk, Ed stood up straight and seemed to forget about his freshly bandaged wound. “I think you must’ve gotten knocked in the head.”
Clint motioned for Ed to follow him as he walked into a saloon and leaned against the bar. It was a bit early in the day for there to be too many people there yet, which gave them a lot more privacy than standing outside.
“Brewer might have lost a few scouts, or maybe just had some get shot up. Either way, all he knows is that his men ran off a few bounty hunters.”
“Jesus Christ,” Ed muttered. “They knew me well enough. It may take a while for me to live down running away with my tail tucked between my legs like that.”
“If that’s what they told Brewer, then that’s even better. He’ll be feeling real good about himself for a while. He may even start to think he’s safe in his little Mexican hole.”
“He seems pretty safe in there to me.”
Clint ordered two beers before the barkeep could get too close. After the beers were set in front of him, he said, “But he won’t stay in that hole for long.”
“Now you’re thinking straight,” Ed said. “Next time he shows his face, you and I or whoever’s closest will take him down and cash him in.”
But Clint was already shaking his head before Ed had completed his sentence. “I’m not going to wait for Brewer to show himself again.”
“And why not?”
“Because when he does, it’ll be with guns blazing and folks dying. That’s the way he works, Ed. You know that better than anybody.”
Even though he looked ready to argue some more, Ed couldn’t dispute what Clint was saying. “He may even be full of more piss and vinegar than before now that he chalked up a win against me. If he knew he got away from you again, he’d be ready to walk through fire.”
“Which is why he’s ripe for the picking.”
Ed was doing a good job of looking disinterested, but Clint knew him better than that. He could see the spark in Ed’s eye like it was a single ember burning in a pile of ash.
“I think you were right the first time,” Clint said, fanning that spark even more. “Maybe Callahan is the way to go.”
“I don’t know. I’m injured now.”
“Spare me the
dramatics, Ed. You didn’t whine this much when you lost your eye.”
“All right. Another ten percent of the bounty might dry up my tears.”
“Are you trying to con me?” Clint asked.
“You’re the one who’s in this for justice. Not me.”
“You’ve got your ten percent, but I don’t want to hear one more complaint from you about that hip.”
Ed smiled and shook Clint’s hand. “I’ll suffer in silence.”
EIGHTEEN
Riding to Callahan State Prison was the simplest thing Clint had done since the days he’d spent as the marshal of Sailsby. The prison was built in some rough terrain, which made escaping from it seem much less appealing. Between the swamps and swiftly flowing river currents, a prisoner on the run had very few alternatives. That same thing applied to men on horseback.
Clint and Ed took the one road that led to the prison and nearly got lost a few times, to boot. They knew they were getting close when they spotted men with badges riding toward them with weapons already drawn.
“You boys lost?” the largest of the lawmen asked. He was a bald man with leathery skin and whiskers that were in dire need of a shave. A barrel chest and heavy build made Clint instantly feel sorry for the horse that had to bear the lawman’s weight.
“No, sir.” Clint said. “We’re here to pay a visit to a prisoner.”
The second lawman was slightly thinner, but still looked as if he could lift his horse out of a deep puddle if the need arose. “Prisoners don’t get no unscheduled visits,” he said.
Ed wore a smirk on his face, but there was no friendliness about it. Swatting at a mosquito biting his neck, he said, “Then how do we schedule one?”
“You don’t,” the first lawman replied. He stared Ed down and added, “But you can keep that smart-ass tone to yerself, boy.”
“You’ll have to excuse my friend,” Clint said. “We both rode a long way to get here.”
“And you both can start riding back before it gets dark.”
“Any chance we could put our names on a list to visit a prisoner?”
One Man's Law Page 6
