The Gunsmith 420

by JR Roberts

  “Is this all of it?” he asked.

  “No,” Belinda said. “We have a lot of ammunition.”

  “And a lot of food,” Loretta said. “We can hold out here for a long time.”

  “Maybe,” Teresa said, “they’ll get impatient.”

  “Lomax thinks you killed his brothers,” Clint said, “and he cleared out a whole town just to prove a point. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who’s going to get impatient.”

  “So what do we do?” Teresa asked.

  “Well,” Clint said, “for now, we eat some of that food you’ve got. I’m hungry.”

  Thirty-Six

  They ate cold chicken and vegetables, not bothering to heat anything up.

  “I understand what you mean about your walls,” Clint said. “this house is well built.”

  “We didn’t build it,” Loretta said. “But when we found it, it was abandoned. We did some repairs, and renovations. We hired men from town to help us.”

  “That was when the townspeople weren’t against us,” Teresa said.

  “What happened?” Clint asked. “What changed?”

  “The men,” Loretta said. “They started to think they were entitled to more than just money and appreciation.”

  “And their wives didn’t like it,” Teresa said.

  “When one of them made advances toward Belinda, I sent him home with a finger missin’,” Loretta said.

  “And that did it?”

  “That started it,” she said. “The sheriff came out, but he didn’t have the gumption he needed and we turned him away. After that, nobody would come out to help us, anymore.”

  “And when we shopped in town, they overcharged us,” Belinda said.

  “And that was the end of that,” Loretta said. “You can see why we’re not so upset about what happened to Corazon. When we shop now we’ll have to shop in Silver City—if we live through this.”

  “How did you meet the Lomax boys?” Clint asked. “You never did tell me that.”

  The women all exchanged glances, and it was Loretta who spoke.

  “They rode up to the house one day,” she said. “They’d heard about the three women who lived outside of town, and were curious. We fed them, they helped us with some chores, and the rest is some very terrible history.”

  “Where did you get married?”

  “The boys went into town and brought back the preacher,” Teresa said.

  “Unwillingly, I’m sure.”

  “Tied to a horse,” Belinda said.

  “After the ceremony they tied him to the horse again and slapped it on the rump,” Teresa said.

  “We assume he got back to town,” Loretta said.

  “You girls almost sound happy about it.”

  “It didn’t go bad right away,” Loretta said. “But it did turn fairly quickly and we discovered how brutal they really were.”

  “How did Frank find out where they all lived?”

  “We don’t know,” Loretta said. “Either they wrote to him, or sent him a telegram.”

  “And by the time he got here they were dead,” Clint said.

  “For all he knew,” Loretta said, “they were just gone by the time he got here, but ...”

  “ ... but he didn’t believe that.”

  “I guess not.”

  They finished eating and the girls cleared away the mess.

  “Okay,” Clint said, sitting back with a cup of coffee, “we have to set watches. We’ll take turns sitting at the front window, and a back window.”

  “You think they’ll come from the back?” Teresa asked.

  “Front or back,” Clint said, “we’ll have to be ready. I’ll take the back, one of you take the front, and then the other two can relieve us after four hours.”

  “Should we have guns?” Belinda asked.

  “Yes,” Clint said, “preferably rifles.”

  “And when do we shoot?” Teresa asked.

  “Unless they’re actually on the porch or at the doors,” Clint said, “not until I say so. Got it?”

  “We got it,” Loretta said. “I’ll take the front first.”

  “No,” Clint said, “let’s make it Teresa. Then you and Belinda can relieve us.”

  “All right,” Loretta said. “You’re the boss.”

  ~*~

  Holby decided he’d better get back to camp and tell Lomax what was going on. There was still no sign of Pierce, and that wasn’t good.

  He backed away from the edge, then stood up and ran down to his horse. Mounting up, he rode hell-bent-for-leather back to camp.

  ~*~

  As Holby reined in and got off his horse, Skinner came over to him.

  “What are you doin’ back here?” he demanded. “You’re supposed wait to be relieved.”

  “Is Pierce back here?” Holby asked.

  “What?” No, you were supposed to relieve him.”

  “Well, he wasn’t waitin’ when I got there.”

  “Where’d he go?”

  “I don’t know. I watched for a while, but he never showed up.”

  “Well,” Skinner said, “you better tell Lomax.”

  “Uh, could you tell him?” Holby asked.

  “Not a chance in hell!”

  Thirty-Seven

  Lomax smoked a cigarette while listening to Holby tell him what happened—and what didn’t happen.

  “So,” Lomax said, when Holby finished, “nobody’s out there watchin’ the house right now?”

  “No, sir,” Holby said, his hat in his hand, “but I thought you oughtta know about Pierce.”

  Holby stood there, waiting for Lomax to draw his gun and shoot him. He knew he couldn’t out draw the man.

  “Well, you were right,” Lomax said, “but somebody’s gotta go back out there and watch, for now.”

  “I can ride back—”

  “No,” Lomax said, “I’ll have skinner send Miller. Tell him I need him.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Holby got out of the shack before Lomax changed his mind and killed him, anyway.

  ~*~

  Outside he told Skinner, “He wants to see you.”

  “Get yourself some coffee,” Skinner told him. “You’re lucky you’re still alive.”

  “I know it!”

  Skinner went inside.

  ~*~

  Lomax was frowning mightily as Skinner entered the shack.

  “What do you know about Pierce?” Lomax asked.

  “Not much,” Skinner said. “But he seemed reliable.”

  “So you don’t think he just decided to ride off?”

  “No.”

  “Then Adams took him out.”

  “Looks that way.”

  “Damn,” Lomax said.

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Now,” Lomax said, “we go and get ’em. Get the men ready. I wanna talk to them.”

  “Right.”

  “And get Miller out there right now,” Lomax said. “I want somebody watchin’. Depending on what Pierce told Adams, they all might decide to leave.”

  “And we’d chase them down?” Skinner asked.

  “All the way to hell and back,” Lomax said. “Now get out and gather the men.”

  Skinner left, feeling satisfied that things were finally going to happen. He didn’t have anything against the three women, he just wanted to move forward.

  ~*~

  When Lomax came out, all the men were crowded in front of the shack.

  “You men know why we came here,” he said. “I know you’ve been waitin’ but it’s time for us to move and get revenge for my three brothers. But there’s somethin’ you don’t know. It’s not just three women in that house. They have a man with them, and if anybody wants to leave after I tell you who he is, there’s no hard feelings.”

  That sent a murmur though the crowd, as the men wondered who he was talking about.

  “His name is Clint Adams.”

  “The Gunsmith?” somebody asked.
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  “That’s right,” Lomax said. “The Gunsmith.”

  It got very quiet.

  “Anybody want to move on?” he asked. “If you do, the time is now. Step forward.”

  It took a moment, but a man finally stepped from the crowd, followed by a second, and then a third.

  “Anybody else?” Lomax asked.

  Another murmur, but no one else stepped forward.

  “All right, then,” Lomax said. “Mount up and ride out.”

  But as the men started to turn Lomax suddenly drew his gun and fired three times. All three men jerked and slumped to the ground.

  Lomax holstered his gun. “Like I said, no hard feelings. Now, somebody drag them away. We’ll come back and bury them when we finish at that house. The rest of you get mounted up.”

  ~*~

  Clint stood at the kitchen window, studying the land at back of the house, rifle in hand. He really thought that when Lomax came he’d ride right up to the front, but he’d feel foolish as hell if Lomax sent some men to the back and no one was there to see it.

  “Want some coffee while you’re here?”

  He turned, saw Loretta in the kitchen doorway.

  “Sure, thanks.”

  She heated it up for him, brought it over in a mug.

  “Teresa hasn’t seen any movement yet,” she said, “although she thinks somebody’s up on the bluff.”

  “I’m sure somebody is.”

  “Nothin’ out here?”

  “Not yet.”

  “He’ll come to the front, won’t he?” she asked.

  “More than likely,” Clint said. “He’ll want us to see all the men he’s got.”

  “To scare us.”

  “Yep.”

  “Well,” she said, “me and my sisters will be scared.”

  “You should be.”

  “You won’t, though, will you?”

  “Sure, I will. I’d be a fool not to be.”

  “Teresa said you’ve done this before,” Loretta said. “Faced a whole gang of men.”

  “A gang,” he said, “five or six men. Lomax has a small army.”

  “Then what are we gonna do?” Loretta asked.

  “The best we can.” He sipped his coffee and looked out.

  “Why are you doin’ this?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “Stayin’,” she said. “We knocked you out, handcuffed you ... you could just leave and save yourself. I wouldn’t blame you.”

  “That’s a really good question,” Clint said. “I’ve been in a lot of situations in my life where the easy thing would have been to leave, but I didn’t do it.”

  “And you survived.”

  “So far,” he said.

  “So this might be different.”

  “Every situation is different,” he said. “I just couldn’t live with myself if I left and he came down here and killed the three of you.”

  “I—I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I’ve never met a man like you.”

  “Don’t say anything,” he said. “Just go get some rest so you’ll be alert when you and Belinda relieve us.”

  “Right.”

  She turned and left the kitchen.

  ~*~

  By the time Belinda came in to relieve him some time later, he’d decided to go and get Eclipse out of the barn and bring him to the back of the house. He didn’t need Lomax and his men grabbing the Darley Arabian when they came down.

  He went to the front of the house, told the women, “I’ll be right back.”

  “Where you goin’?” Teresa asked.

  “I need to put my horse someplace safe.”

  “But ... what if they come?”

  “I’ll only be a minute,” Clint said. He looked at Loretta. “Just keep a sharp eye out.”

  “Right.”

  He opened the front door and went out.

  Thirty-Eight

  When he entered the barn, Pierce started talking right away.

  “So you got smart,” he said. “Gonna mount up and ride away? How about lettin’ me loose first.”

  “Shut up.”

  Clint went over to Eclipse’s stall, grabbed the horse’s bridle and put it on, then led the horse out.

  “You can’t just leave me here,” Pierce complained.

  “Sure I can,” Clint said.

  “Look, I can help,” Pierce sad. “If you’re leavin’, I can help those girls.”

  “The thing is, I’m not leaving.”

  “Oh ... well then, I can help all of you. You can use an extra gun, right?”

  “I’m not giving you a gun,” Clint said. “The first thing you’ll do is shoot me in the back.”

  “I ain’t no back shooter!”

  “Just relax, Pierce,” Clint said. “It’s all going to be over soon.”

  “What?” Pierce said. “What’d you do?”

  Clint walked Eclipse to the barn door and said, “Nothing yet.”

  ~*~

  Lomax dismounted and said to Skinner, “Stay here, keep the men here.”

  “Right.”

  Lomax walked up the hill and joined Miller at the crest.

  “So, anythin’?” he asked.

  “All the women are inside.”

  “Any sign of the man?”

  “Yeah,” Miller said, “he’s in the barn.”

  “Finally!” Lomax stood up.

  “Ain’t we supposed to be keepin’ out of sight?” Miller asked.

  “Not anymore,” Lomax said. “Stand up.”

  Miller stood next to Lomax and together they stared down at the barn.

  “There he is,” Miller said, as the man came out of the barn leading a horse.

  “And that horse,” Lomax said.

  “They watched as the man walked toward the house, leading the horse, then stopped suddenly and looked up at them.

  “Do we know who he is?” Miller asked.

  “His name is Clint Adams,” Lomax said.

  “The Gunsmith?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Jesus!”

  Lomax looked at Miller. The man seemed unnerved.

  “You want out, Miller?” he asked. “Wanna mount up and ride off. If you do, no hard feelings.”

  Miller looked at his boss’ face, then back down at the house.

  “No,” he said, “I’m not leavin’.”

  “Good. Let’s go down and join the others.”

  “We ridin’ down there?” Miller asked.

  “We’re ridin’ down there,” Lomax said. He turned and went back down the hill. Miller followed.

  ~*~

  Clint was leading Eclipse to the house when the big Darley jerked him to a stop and shook his head. That could only mean one thing. He looked up at the bluff and saw two men standing there, looking down at him.

  “Looks like they’re here,” Clint said. “Thanks, big guy. But come on. We’ve got to put you someplace safe.”

  He resumed walking, with Eclipse following willingly.

  ~*~

  When Clint reentered the house Belinda said, “I saw them up there. Two men.”

  “There’s more than two,” Clint said, “and they’re going to be coming down here any minute.”

  Teresa was there with Belinda, which meant Loretta was still at the kitchen window.

  “We’ve got to get ready to receive them,” Clint told them. “I haven’t had time to see which of you is the best shot. Who is it?”

  “Loretta,” Teresa said.

  “And then?’

  “Me,” Teresa said.

  “But I can shoot,” Belinda insisted.

  “Okay,” he said, “get Loretta. They’ll come right down the front.”

  Teresa ran to the kitchen.

  “How do you know that?” Belinda asked. “That they won’t send somebody to the back?”

  “They allowed me to see them standing up there,” Clint said. “They’re not hiding anything, anymore. They’ll be coming right in the fron
t door ...”

  “Oh, God!” Belinda said.

  “ ... if we let them.”

  Thirty-Nine

  There were windows on either side of the front door. Clint put Loretta at a window on one side, and Teresa at a window on the other side. Both with rifles.

  “Where should I be?” Belinda asked.

  “Take a rifle,” Clint said, “and go upstairs to a front window.”

  She started for the stairs, then stopped and turned.

  “You’re tryin’ to keep me out of danger.”

  “I need somebody to have a high vantage point,” Clint said. “You’ll have to decide when to take your own shot. I’m trusting you.”

  She stared at him, then nodded and ran up the stairs.

  “That was good,” Loretta said.

  “It was true,” he said.

  “How are we gonna play this?”

  “Frank’s going to want to talk first,” he said.

  “How do you know that?” Teresa asked.

  “They always want to talk,” Clint said. “They have to make their threats, try to scare you.”

  “I’m already scared,” Teresa said.

  “Good,” Clint said, “stay that way.”

  “Where are you gonna be?” Teresa asked.

  Clint walked to the door. “I’ll be out there.”

  “What?” Teresa said.

  “You can’t go out there!”

  “Relax,” Clint said. “Just don’t shoot before I do.”

  “You gave Belinda leave to fire when she thinks it’s necessary,” Loretta pointed out.

  “She has a better vantage point than either of you,” Clint said. “Just don’t fire if you don’t absolutely have to. Keep your eyes on me.”

  “This is crazy!” Teresa said.

  “On that,” Clint said, “we agree.”

  ~*~

  Lomax rode at the head of a column of his men, with Skinner right behind him. As they approached the house he saw the front door open and the Gunsmith step out.

  He held his hand up to halt his men. Skinner rode up alongside him.

  “What’s he doin’?”

  “Makin’ a grandstand play,” Lomax said. “What else would the Gunsmith do? You stay here, and keep the men back.”

  “You ain’t gonna ride right up to him,” Skinner said.

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “He won’t shoot.”