The Shadow of a Noose
Page 22
“Bill, you’re hit?” Mather asked, taking him by a shoulder and lifting him up. Bill Longley came to his feet, staggering to one side, and went back down.
“Yes, damn it all! I caught a bullet in my hip. But I’m still game. I’ll get him. I hate an ambusher worse than anything.”
“Hell’s fire, Bill,” Dave Mather said, he and Danielle both moving in to take a closer look at the flow of blood from Bill Longley’s hip wound. “You’re not going anywhere if we don’t get this bleeding stopped.”
“It’s clean through, ain’t it?” Longley asked, his fingers searching the wound in the darkness.
“Yeah, but it’s bleeding bad,” Mather replied.
“Bleeding never hurt nothing. Get me to my feet, damn it!” Longley demanded. “I’ve got time to kill that skunk yet.”
In the darkness behind them, voices called back and forth asking one another about the gunfire. Boots thrashed through the brush toward them. “Listen back there, Bill,” Mather said. “Every one of them is Newt Grago’s man in some way or another. We don’t stand a chance against all of them, especially with you shot up.”
“Mather’s right, Longley,” Danielle joined in as she punched out her spent cartridges. “Let’s get you away from here. We’ll get your blankets and gear and get off a ways. It’ll be daylight in another hour. You can come back for Newt Grago once we get you taken care of. I’ll even help you kill him.”
“I don’t need no help killing him,” said Longley, again struggling to stand up. On his feet with an arm looped across Mather’s shoulder, he asked, “What tipped you off that it was a setup, Dave?”
“You can thank Danny Duggin here for that, Bill,” Mather replied, adjusting Longley’s weight against his side. “He caught on to it no sooner than the two of you left the tent.”
“Much obliged then, Danny,” Longley grunted. “I reckon you’re right. Let me get patched up. Then we’ll go kill us a whole slew of rats.”
“What about this poor woman?” Danielle asked as Mather and Longley lumbered away toward their dark campsite.
“What about her?” Longley said over his shoulder. “She played the hand Grago dealt her. She lost. Burying her ain’t my responsibility.”
Danielle sighed under her breath, looking down at the dead woman on the ground. But then she shook her head and caught up to Mather and Longley for a moment. “I’ve got something to take care of. You two go on. There’s a little creek down over the rise. You’ll see my mare along there. I’ll meet you there.”
“Where are you going, Danny?” Mather asked. “This place is going to blow wide open once Newt sees his boys didn’t get the job done. He’ll try to kill you the second he lays eyes on you.”
“I know,” Danielle said, “but I’ve got to take care of something. It’s important.”
“Part of your mission, I take it?” Mather asked.
“Yeah,” Danielle said, backing away, “You could call it that.”
Inside the shack, Newt Grago seethed at the wounded rifleman who had fled there to escape the hail of gunfire once his companions had fallen. “Tan ner, you cowardly cur!” Grago shouted in his face. Grabbing him by his shirt and yanking him in close. “You mean to tell me that four riflemen couldn’t handle Bill Longley?”
“It weren’t just Longley, Newt, I swear!” the frightened Lloyd Tanner insisted. “There was that gunman Duggin, and Mysterious Dave Mather! I heard them call out to one another!”
“Damn it to hell!” Grago raged, shoving Tanner away from him and pacing back and forth, needing to think.
“They’ll be coming, Newt,” said Tanner. “What are we going to do?”
“Shut up, Tanner!” Newt Grago barked at him. He paced some more, rubbing his temples. Then he abruptly stopped. “All right, here’s the plan. You ride out a mile along the west trail. You’ll find Rufe Gaddis and some others camped there. Bring them back here as fast as you can. Get back before sunup. I’ll round up the whole camp and tell them what that bastard Duggin did to my bother Dunc. We’ll get this straightened out, you can count on it.”
“What did he do to your brother Dunc?” Tanner asked, holding his left hand tight against the bullet graze on his right shoulder.
“I’ll show you what he did!” Grago screamed, dragging Tanner to the body of Duncan Grago lying in the corner. “There, take a look at him! That’s what he did! Duggin killed him! Left poor Dunc hanging from an oak limb. Now get out there and get Rufe and the boys and get back here pronto!”
“But, Newt, what about my shoulder? I’m bleeding like a stuck hog,” Tanner pleaded.
“You haven’t seen bleeding yet, if you don’t get moving,” Grago said through clenched teeth. He stomped across the shack, picked up his gun belt from a chair back, and slung it around his waist. Before he got it buckled, Tanner was out the door and running toward the corral, snatching a saddle and bridle up from the ground out front of the shack on his way. The gunfire had awakened the encampment, and as Tanner fumbled with the rope, loosening the corral gate, Arno rushed up beside him.
“Tanner, what the hell’s going on?” Dunne asked, seeing the blood on Tanner’s shoulder.
“Get away from me, Arno! I’ve no time for you. All hell has busted loose here!” He hurried into the milling horses, grabbed one by its mane, and pitched the bridle around its head, tossing his saddle up across the horse’s back. “Duggin kilt Dunc Grago and left him hanging in a tree! Newt’s coming now to get everybody after Duggin, Mather, and Longley!”
“Mather and Longley?” Dunne asked. “Did they have something to do with it?”
“I don’t know!” Tanner yanked the saddle cinch tight. “But I’m gone to bring in Rufe Gaddis and the boys. Now get out’n my way!” He shoved Dunne back, then hurled himself up onto the saddle and kicked the horse forward. Dunne watched him ride away, then closing the rope gate, he cursed to himself, “Damn it. Today was my day for making a killing here.”
Danielle stood back out of the chaos in the encampment clearing, searching among the torch-lit faces for her brothers, Tim and Jed. Around the corner from Lulu’s gambling tent, she saw men strap on their pistols and check their rifles while others came running forward hitching up their galluses, rubbing sleep from their eyes. Danielle finally spotted Tim and Jed as Arno Dunne came hurrying up to them, standing too close for her to say anything. She hunkered down against the side of the tent and waited, feeling precious seconds tick by. In another few minutes the first rays of sun would begin peeping up over the horizon, shedding her cover of darkness.
She listened to Dunne, only making out part of what he was telling the twins. But she did manage to hear him tell Tim and Jed that Tanner had gone to get Rufe Gaddis and the boys, and that they would be here in just a few minutes. Hearing it caused her blood to race. In the glow of lantern and torchlight, she saw Arno Dunne step back from the twins. “Stay here,” Danielle heard Arno Dunne instruct her brothers, “I’ll get my rifle and be right back.”
As soon as Dunne moved away, Danielle called out in a hushed voice, “Tim, Jed, over here, by the tent.”
They looked around at the sound of her voice. “Danny Duggin?” Jed asked, barely lowering his voice.
Tim caught the secretive manner in which Danny Duggin was addressing them and poked Jed in the ribs, whispering, “Keep it down, Jed.”
Looking all around first to make sure no one had heard them, Tim nudged Jed toward the side of the tent, where he saw Danielle’s green eyes flashing at them from beneath her lowered hat brim. “Hurry up!” Danielle hissed at them.
“Danny!” Tim said as he and Jed hunkered down out of sight. “Arno Dunne said you killed Newt’s brother Dunc. Is it true?”
“No,” Danielle whispered, “but it might as well be. Now listen to me, we don’t have much time. Duncan Grago is one of the two outlaws who killed Elvin Bray back in St. Joe and tried to ambush you on the trail.”
“What the—?” Tim and Jed looked at one another, stunned.
“Hey!” Tim said, interrupting her, “What do you know about our pa? Or about Elvin Bray?” His hand went to the butt of his pistol.
Danielle lowered her head, seeing she wasn’t going to get by with the explanation she had planned to tell them. “All right, Tim,” she said, “just pay attention. We’re in a bad spot here.” She peeled the fake mustache back from her lip and looked up, pushing her hat brim up for a better view. “It’s me, your sister . . . Danielle.” Then she stared in silence for a second, letting it sink in.
“Oh Lord God,” Tim finally whispered in astonishment.
“My goodness gracious, it is you,” Jed murmured, his voice beginning to tremble. “Danielle . . . we came looking for you! We were going to snoop around, see what we could find out, try to find you—” Jed’s voice stuck in his throat, and they both leaned forward. Tim joined him, and all three of them, kneeling in hiding, threw their arms around one another.
“I know . . . I know,” Danielle whispered, holding back her sobs, taking up extra precious seconds to hold her brothers to her bosom. “It’s been hard on you . . . on all of us. I wanted to tell you sooner, but I couldn’t risk it.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. She smelled the road dust and dried sweat on her brothers and found comfort in it, knowing that they smelled the same scent on her, and that it was the scent of their long journey bringing the three of them together. “My brothers,” she whispered, “at last I can say those words . . . my brothers.” Even in their stunned surprise, Jed and Tim Strange looked at one another, each knowing that their venture had just taken a change for the better. Their family was reunited now, their destinies the same.
At the sound of boots running past them, close to their position, Danielle held them back at arm’s length. She ran a sleeve across her eyes, then said, “Listen to me. We’ll talk later. Right now, Bill Longley and Dave Mather are hiding out down by where I hid Sundown. You two can walk right into the corral while everybody’s busy wondering what’s going on. Get your horses, and get back here with them. We’ve got lots to do this morning.”
“Danielle,” Jed asked, “you mentioned the men who killed Pa are coming? Shouldn’t we wait here for them?”
“Come on, Jed,” Tim said, before Danielle could answer, “Danielle knows what she’s doing. Let’s get our horses and get them back over here. It’s turning daylight on us.”
Danielle hunkered down and watched them hurry to the corral. On their way back with their horses, Arno Dunne ran up beside them, trying to grab Tim’s reins, but Tim shook him loose. Dunne ran behind them on foot, cursing and waving his rifle in the air. As Tim and Jed turned their horses in alongside the big tent, Arno Dunne followed right behind them, ranting, “You lousy plowboys! You’re not going to run out on me! I came to see you make me some money, or else watch you die trying! You think you’re gonna run out on me?” He levered a round up into the rifle chamber and raised it. “You low-down—”
At the sound of the rifle lever, Tim and Jed had both swung around in their saddles, their pistols out and aimed. But they froze, seeing the knife handle sticking out of Dunne’s chest, Danielle’s hand wrapped around it as she stood behind him with her left arm wrapped around his throat. “I’m sorry I don’t have time to kill you proper-like, Arno Dunne, you rotten snake,” she rasped in his ear, “for using my brothers, turning them into the likes of you and your kind.” Across the clearing behind them, Newt Grago had stepped out onto the porch and called out to the gathering outlaws, waving them in closer to him. Danielle looked around over her shoulder at the sound of Grago’s voice but knew that killing him would have to wait until she returned. “I haven’t forgotten you, Grago,” she whispered to herself, tightening her grip on the knife handle in Dunne’s chest.
Tim and Jed both winced, seeing Danielle twist the knife blade deeper into Arno Dunne’s heart. Dunne’s mouth opened in a silent scream. “Lord, Danielle,” Tim whispered, watching Arno Dunne’s gloved hands jerk and quiver, then fall limp at his sides. Danielle let Dunne drop to the ground, leaving the knife still sunk in his chest.
“Let’s go,” she said, wiping blood from her hand as her brothers stared at her as if in disbelief. Danielle stepped forward, tossed herself up onto the rump of Tim’s horse, and threw her arm around Tim’s waist. Before Tim or Jed could respond, she batted her heels to the horse’s sides and sent it lunging into a full gallup.
Jed Strange looked back at the body of Arno Dunne lying on the ground in a dark circle of blood. “I’m glad you got the killing you’ve been looking for, Arno Dunne. I just wish it had of come from me.” He jerked the horse away and kicked it out behind his brother and sister.
Chapter 17
The last few yards, riding double to where Dave Mather and Bill Longley stood waiting for them, Danielle looked over Tim’s shoulder and saw the bodies of two outlaws lying on the ground. Mysterious Dave Mather stood back in the silver gray light of dawn, waving her and her brothers in. He smiled, a rifle hanging from one hand and a pistol from the other, as they rode in closer and sidled their horses up to him.
Longley sat on a mound of earth with his right leg stretched out before him, a blood-soaked bandanna pressed against his hip. Sundown’s reins were in Longley’s other hand, along with his pistol. “Well,” Dave Mather said, grinning up at Danielle, noting that her mustache was gone, “I see you took the time to shave before returning.”
“It’s a long story, Mather,” Danielle said, dropping down from behind Tim. “These two are my brothers. I didn’t tell you before, but I’m telling you now, so you’ll know they’re both on our side.”
Mather’s grin widened. “Nothing like a little surprise on the verge of a gun battle, I always say.” He nodded at the two bodies on the ground. “Now here’s a surprise for you. We caught three of them coming in from the buttes, riding like hell. Said there’s a forty-man posse coming down on this place.” He nodded at one of the bodies, saying, “This one told us before he died. They were hightailing it back to Newt Grago. The one who got away should be getting to Grago about now. I felt bad having to shoot these two”—Mather shrugged—“but we needed their horses worse than they did.”
“A forty-man posse?” Danielle glanced back in the direction of the tall, slim buttes. “Damn it, why now? I’ve got things to take care of!”
“Oh, the mission?” Mather asked. Behind him, Bill Longley struggled to his feet, dusted his seat, and walked forward, leading the chestnut mare, not looking at all happy about it.
“Yeah, the mission,” Danielle said. She let out a breath. “Well, I’ve sided with you, Mather. Tell me how you two want to handle this thing. I won’t back out on it.”
“Far as we’re concerned, there’s nothing to back out on,” Bill Longley said in a gruff tone. “Do we look like fools to you? Dave and I ain’t facing no forty-man posse, not with all the charges I’ve got hanging over my head. They’d have to hang me eight or nine times just to get caught up.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Danielle asked, looking back and forth between the two. “A posse that size will leave some guards at the passes. How do you plan on slipping past them, especially when Longley’s wounded?”
Mather looked off in the direction of the buttes, then looked back at Danielle. “Oh, I’ll think of something. They don’t call me Mysterious Dave for nothing.”
Bill Longley cut in, saying, “Hope you’ve got no objections, but I’ll be taking this chestnut mare with me. You can ride one of those dead mongrels’ horses.” He nodded at the two horses they’d taken and hitched to a stand of scrub cedar.
Danielle’s first impulse was to throw her hand to her Colt and tell him he’d have to kill her before he’d ride away on Sundown. But she held herself in check, seeing something in Bill Longley’s eyes that said he was just testing her. �
�Be my guest, Longley,” she said. “There’s nothing I’d like better than to send you off on that mare.”
But Longley hesitated, looked at Mather, and said, “This peckerwood thinks he’s tricking me into something, don’t he?”
“It appears that way to me, Bill,” Mather said. “If I was to guess, I’d say Danny Duggin here knows that somebody in that posse is going to recognize that mare. Am I right, Danny Duggin?”
“Yep, you guessed it,” Danielle said. “Hell, I can’t do you this way, Longley, not even as a joke. If anybody in the posse spots that mare, you’ll never shake them off your tail.”
“A joke, huh?” Bill Longley flung Sundown’s reins over to Danielle. “I don’t see a damn thing funny about it.” He turned to Mather, adding, “Let’s get out of here, before I take a notion to start shooting everybody around me. I hate killing a man after he helped me out of a tight spot.” He eyed Danielle closely for a moment, then grumbled, “Watch your backside, Danny Duggin, I’m beholden to you.” He turned and limped over to the other two horses.
Mather spread a playful smile at Danielle. “I think Longley has taken a liking to you. You’re the first person I’ve ever seen that he’s let talk to him this way.” Mather took a step closer, looking into Danielle’s eyes. “It’s too bad about this mission of yours, Danny Duggin,” he said, close to her face.
“Why’s that, Dave?” Danielle asked, not backing up an inch, but getting an uncomfortable feeling from him standing so close. Mather’s eyes searched hers in a way she hadn’t felt for a long time.
Mather leaned nearer to her and whispered close to her ear, “Because without that mustache and low-slung Stetson, you are one fine-looking young woman . . . whoever you are.”
Danielle felt her cheeks flush. She stepped back, ready to issue her denial and make some tough-sounding statement. But before she could say a word, Dave Mather’s lips found hers and pressed a deep kiss on her, muffling her protest. Then before she could do anything else, he had moved back away from her. She stood enraged, yet powerless, and somewhat pleased that he had seen through her disguise. He was the first one who had done so in all her time on the outlaw trail.