by Ralph Cotton
“All right, then,” Mangett said, “in the spirit of starting anew, ny name is Dave Johnson. This here is Jack and—”
“He called you Roy,” said Toby, cutting him off again, stiffening his grip on the big goose gun.
Roy winced at his mistake.
“Yes, you’re right. He did,” he said. He half turned to Joey Rose as he said, “But this one—?” He shook his head. “Hell, it don’t matter,” he said, dismissing it. He turned back quickly, grabbing the shotgun barrel quickly, jerking it so hard Toby had to let it go, or fall.
Catching himself, Toby started to grab and retrieve the gun, but the gun reversed itself in Mangett’s hands. The metal-trimmed butt came forward with a hard snap and struck him squarely in his forehead. Lindsey shrieked as she saw Toby fall backward and lie limp on the ground. She lunged at him with the butcher knife as she screamed. But Chris Weidel caught her by her wrist and slung her around.
“Where you going with that pigsticker, little gal?” he said gruffly. Before she could catch her balance, he dealt her a hard backhand slap across the face and wrenched the knife from her hand as she fell backward herself.
Joey Rose’s gun came out of his holster. But he stood only watching now that everything was over. Stepping in over Toby, he stared down at him, at the vicious rising gash on the young man’s forehead. Toby eyes were half open, turned severely upward. His boots twitched in the dirt, his shoulders jerked spasmodically.
“I believe you’ve killed this one, Roy,” he said.
“Did I, sure enough?” said Mangett. He stepped over and stared down at Toby with a bemused look on his face. “Damn, I expect I don’t know my own strength sometimes.” He looked at the metal cover on the goose gun’s butt plate and wiped a streak of blood from it with his thumb. “If he stops wiggling and carrying on, tie him to the wagon wheel. See if you can keep him alive.”
“We going to leave them here?” Rose asked.
“Was going to,” Mangett said. He looked back and forth at the twins, trying to guess their ages. “Now, I’m not so sure. I know traders south of the border would thump down a chunk of money for a real live pair of twins.”
Joey Rose, stepped in closer and looked down at the two. Lindsey had begun to recover; she sat up in the dirt, hand to the side of her burning face.
“I hear what you’re saying, Roy,” said Rose. “They might pay for this girl.” He nodded at Lindsey.
“They’ll pay for both, Joey,” said Roy. “Use your head. What good is one twin without the other?”
“I am using my head,” Joey replied. “I know what they’ll do with a young woman. But what are they going to do with a boy?”
Roy Mangett just stared at him; Chris Weidel gave a chuff under his breath. He grinned flatly.
“You’ve got a lot to learn, Joey Rose,” he said knowingly.
• • •
It was dark when Toby awakened, propped back against the wagon, his hands behind his back, tied around the wheel. The front of his head throbbed with pain. His vision took a few seconds to clear, so did his memory. But as the plight of his sister and himself came back to him, he sat still, and looked around guardedly.
He saw Lindsey lying in the dirt only inches away, her hands also tied, only hers were tied in front of her. A long rope circled her waist, knotted at the center of her back. The rope ran from her back to the wagon wheel, long enough to allow her to move around in a ten-foot radius.
Keeping his head lowered, Toby gazed sidelong through the pain in his forehead and saw the three men seated around a small fire. He watched and listened as Joey Rose stood in a crouch and refilled Mangett’s tin cup with hot coffee from a blackened coffeepot.
When Joey finished filling Mangett’s cup he stepped over to Weidel and offered to pour.
But the older gunman pulled his cup away.
“No, thanks,” he said. “If that little gal is as bad at everything else as she is boiling coffee, you’d better sell her quick then run like hell.”
Mangett and Rose gave a short laugh.
“She’ll have to learn as she goes,” Mangett said, “just like everything else.”
Up the side of the hill came the sound of thrashing in the dried brush along the rock paths. Amid the thrashing, a sharp yelp, followed by a deep growl.
“How far off did you drag that son of a bitch?” Mangett asked Rose. Glancing at the horses tied a few yards away, Mangett saw them grow restless and mill back and forth at the sound of wolves.
While Toby listened, he felt around behind him and ran a thumb along the sharp metal edge covering the face of the wagon wheel. The hot desert sand had honed the metal as surely as a grinding wheel over the past weeks.
“I don’t know,” Rose replied to Mangett with a shrug. “Far enough I reckon.”
One of the horses nickered. At the wagon, the mule stood stone still as if frozen in place.
“I hope you did,” Mangett said. “I’m not going to spend the night tossing while every wolf in the badlands is chewing and lapping at Arnold’s innards.”
Weidel gave a short dark chuckle.
Toby wasted no time. He began rubbing the rope on his tied hands against the steel edge of the wheel behind him. He kept watch on the men around the fire as he worked, making sure they didn’t hear him, and look around. He knew the metal edge was doing its job, he could feel it cutting into the rope. Knowing it, he rubbed faster.
Toby stopped rubbing suddenly as Mangett stood up and slung coffee from his tin cup and dropped the cup to the ground.
“That is some terrible coffee, sure enough,” he said. He looked over at Lindsey lying a few feet away. “I might better check and see what she is and ain’t any good at.” He stepped over to her.
Toby saw his sister spring up and try to scoot away in the dirt.
“Stay away from me,” Lindsey cried out. “Don’t touch me!”
But Mangett grabbed the rope and yanked her to a halt. He laughed, looking down at her. He loosened his gun belt and laid it aside.
“Settle down. You ain’t going nowhere,” he said.
Toby rubbed harder, faster on the rope, his head bursting with pain. The two gunmen turned and watched over their shoulders.
Holding Lindsey by the rope, Mangett stooped down, held her face in his hand and studied it closely.
“How old are you, little darling?” he asked, tightening his grip on her face to keep her from pulling away.
Lindsey didn’t answer; at the wagon fifteen feet away Toby rubbed harder, feeling the rope widening as the metal bit deeper into it.
Mangett shook Lindsey’s face in his hand.
“I asked you a question,” he demanded.
“Check her teeth,” Weidel called out with a dark laugh.
“I will,” said Mangett. “Open your mouth,” he ordered the frightened girl.
“Hunh-uh!” Lindsey shook her head.
Mangett squeezed her cheeks until she was forced to open her mouth. He put his thumb against the edge of her teeth and ran it back and forth.
“Ouch,” he said with a dark laugh. “She’s a young one, Chris.”
“Stop it, Roy,” said Joey Rose, sounding nervous at such rough play.
Mangett ignored Rose. At the wagon wheel Toby continued sawing back and forth madly, knowing where this was headed.
Mangett let go of Lindsey’s face. He reached down and unbuttoned his fly.
“How old are you, young lady?” he asked.
Lindsey lied quickly, hoping, praying. . . .
“Thirteen,” she said in a shaky voice.
Mangett slapped her, not hard, a warning slap.
“Damn it, Roy, don’t do this!” said Rose. His hand went to the gun on his hip. But he stopped as Weidel gave him a warning stare.
“I know you’re not twenty, girl,” Mangett sai
d. “I know you’re not eighteen.” He grabbed the top on her dress, twisted it in his fist, ready to tear it away. “But I know damn well you’re not thirteen.”
“Please, please,” she sobbed, struggling against his grip.
“If you’re going to lie, I ain’t going to listen,” Mangett said. He tightened his grip.
Toby sawed madly at the rope.
But just as Mangett started to rip the dress away, a terrible yelping, growling, snarling sound came from the hillside so intensely that it pulled Rose and Weidel to their feet.
“Jesus!” said Weidel. “A wolf fight.”
“Damn it to hell!” said Mangett, springing up, buttoning his fly quickly. “I ain’t having this.” He stepped over, grabbed his gun belt up from the dirt and slung it around his waist. “How damn far did you say, Joey?”
Weidel reached for his rifle.
“Not damn far enough,” he said, before the younger gunman could answer.
“How far, damn it?” Mangett asked again.
“At the top of the path there,” Rose replied.
“Right on the path?” Mangett asked.
“Well . . . yeah,” said Rose. “I figured nobody’s going to be coming along—”
“Right,” Mangett said in disgust, steeping over to the fire where he grabbed his rifle from his saddle lying in the dirt by his bedroll. “Come on, Chris,” he said. “Bring your horse. Let’s drag his dead ass away from here.” He looked around at Rose. “You stay here with the girl. I come back and see your prints on her, I’ll feed you to the wolves too.”
At the wagon wheel, Toby felt the rope give way. He stopped rubbing the metal edge. He kept his head lowered as Mangett and Weidel both looked over at him.
“Had I better check him before we go?” Weidel asked.
Toby felt fear clutch tight in his chest. But he managed to keep himself from making a move. He could leap up and run, but he wasn’t about to go anywhere without his sister.
“Naw,” said Mangett, dismissing the matter. “Leave him be. He ain’t waking up for a while . . . if he ever does at all.”
Chapter 10
No sooner had Weidel and Mangett stepped away out of the firelight and disappeared up the path onto the rocky hillside, Joey Rose walked over to where Lindsey lay sobbing on the ground. Stopping, he placed a cup of steaming coffee in front of her and watched her brush a strand of hair from her face with her tied hands. Then he reached out and brushed a strand from her other cheek and tried to give her a thin smile.
“Careful, that cup is hot,” he cautioned her.
She just stared at him. Atop the trail sixty yards up the wolves still snarled and growled and fought one another in the brush.
“I—I just want you to know I was having no part in what was going on here,” he said.
“You weren’t stopping it either,” she snapped back at him. She scooted away from him.
“I would have though,” Joey said. “I was fixing to when the wolves started.”
Lindsey only stared at him skeptically. She eyed the butcher knife lying on a rock by the fire.
“I mean it,” Joey said. “I’m not that kind of man. I believe women ought to be treated—” His words stopped short as a fist-sized rock in Toby’s hand slammed down atop his head. The attack came silent and sudden. Lindsey was even caught off guard by her brother’s fast, decisive move. She gasped as Joey Rose crumbled on the ground in front of her. She started to say something, but Toby clasped his hand over her mouth and pulled her to her feet.
“Shhh, don’t talk, Sis,” Toby said. “I’ve got to get you out of here before they get back. He untied the rope around her wrists, turned her around quickly and untied the rope from around her waist. She stepped over quickly to the fire and picked up the butcher knife and clutched it to her. With Toby’s arm around her, the two started to run toward a stretch of rock and brush on the far edge of the water hole.
Stopping suddenly, Lindsey looked back at their wagon, at the dark silhouette of the mule still hitched to it.
“Wait. What about Dan?” she asked in a whisper.
The sudden stop had almost thrown Toby off his feet. When he didn’t answer her, Lindsey grabbed him and looked at him closely. In the purple starlight she could see his forehead and left eye was covered with dried blood. Yet, even worse, she could see that the white of his eye was not white at all. It was filled with blood.
“Toby! Buck up!” she whispered, shaking him, feeling his unsteadiness.
“I’m all right, Sis,” he replied, seeming to shake off a dizziness. “Just weak, is all.” Looking back he pulled her on toward the rocks. “No time . . . to get Dan,” he said brokenly.
“I know,” Lindsey said, realizing her brother was barely able to stand. “Keep going. . . .” Arms around each other, the two hurried on in the darkness. Lindsey wielded the big butcher knife in her hand.
As they reached the stretch of rocks and started up into them, they heard Joey Rose’s slurred voice in the darkness behind them.
“Stop, damn you!” he shouted. His voice was followed by a series of six wild pistol shots in their direction. The two ducked into the rocks as bullets ricocheted and spun all around them. “I’ll kill you!” Rose screamed. “I was going to be good to you!”
Beside her, Lindsey heard her brother grunt, felt his arm stiffen around her for second. But as she stumbled, he shoved her up the rock path into the black shadowed darkness.
“Keep going, keep going,” Toby said.
Behind them they heard the voices of the other two gunmen as a rifle shot replaced Joey Rose’s pistol shots.
“You damn fool,” they heard Roy Mangett say to Rose, “you let them get away?”
“I didn’t let them, Roy, damn it,” they heard Rose shout in reply. “The boy got loose . . . hit me from behind.”
“They’re headed up into the rocks,” shouted Weidel. Another rifle shot resounded from Rose’s rifle in the darkness.
“Stop shooting, Joey,” Mangett demanded.
“Don’t stop, Sis,” Toby said, shoving his sister up the rocky path deeper into the rocks.
“Toby, are you all right?” she asked over her shoulder, noting he had slowed and appeared to be struggling along behind her. She stopped, looked around and saw him backed against a tall rock, his hand clutching his lower belly.
“No, Sis . . . ,” he said. “A bullet nicked me. I’m bleeding.”
“God, no!” she grabbed him by his shoulders. “What are we going to do, Toby?”
Gripping his belly tightly, Toby shoved her away with his free hand.
“You’re going on, Sis,” he said.
“No, I’m not,” Lindsey said.
“Don’t argue with me,” Toby said harshly. “I’ll slow you down. You’ve got to go on. Get over these rocks and down to the trail. Stay out of sight come morning until you know they’ve given up and gone on.”
“What about you?” she asked, realizing the shape he was in. “I can’t just leave you here to die.”
Toby heard her trembling, tearful voice.
“Who said anything about dying?” he said, trying to keep his voice strong for her sake. “I’m just not . . . able to run right now. I’ll get over into these rocks. They’ll never find me.”
“But, Toby—” The sound of a wild rifle shot cut her short.
“Don’t argue with me, Lindsey,” Toby snapped, giving her a shove. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be close behind.” Another wild rifle resounded. “Get going,” he demanded, “before you get us both killed!” He shoved her again with his free hand. This time at his coaxing she turned and ran as fast as she could as another rifle shot rang out behind her.
“Stop shooting, damn it, Joey,” She heard Roy Mangett shout as she disappeared farther into the rocks.
At the campfire, Mangett grabbed
Rose’s rifle from his hands.
Chris Weidel shoved Rose backward.
“Why don’t you just start calling out for that damned Ranger by name, you idiot.”
“My head’s been busted, Chris!” shouted Rose. “Look at me.” He tipped his bare head enough to show the large bump on top. His revolver lay smoking in his holster where he’d stuck it after empting it at the fleeing twins. He stepped forward to give them a look.
But instead of looking, Mangett shoved him away angrily.
“You’re lucky I don’t kill you!” he shouted. “Chris, get up in the rocks after them. “We’ll bring the horses around and meet you down at the main trail. There’s no point in staying here any longer, this fool has given us away.”
“You’ve got it, Roy,” said Weidel. He handed Mangett his rifle, turned quickly without another word on the matter and headed for the path into the rocks.
“Roy, I swear, there’s nothing I could do—” Rose managed to say before Mangett cut him off.
“Shut up, Joey!” Mangett shouted. “Get the horses. You’d better hope to hell we catch those two. I’m wondering if you let them go on purpose.”
“On purpose? Roy, look at my head!” Rose pleaded. “He busted me with a rock, knocked me cold!”
Mangett glared at him.
“Have you got those horses yet?” he said harshly.
• • •
Fortunately, the Ranger had not a made a camp for the night. In order to make better time, he had rested, grained and watered his three horses and had lain stretched out on the ground for little over an hour. When he’d heard the sound of gunfire from the direction of the Dutchman’s Tanks, he arose quickly, dusted himself off, and wasted no time getting under way. With a three-quarter moon in the starlit sky, he’d ridden at a brisk pace throughout the purple night. At first light he’d spotted the outline of the low hills surrounding the water hole and after looking all around, he’d left his horses among the rocks and slipped down quietly and looked all around.
