The Loner: Rattlesnake Valley

by J. A. Johnstone

  “Sophia’s the only person I met in Bristol who seemed willing to stand up to Malone,” The Kid pointed out. “She doesn’t want him taking over the valley. Nobody else cares, as long as he leaves them alone.”

  Starbird said, “It’s shameful the way people can simply turn their back on evil as long as it doesn’t threaten them. I thought you American frontiersmen were supposed to have more of a sense of honor than that.”

  “Most do,” The Kid said, “but I reckon times are changing. Even out here, a lot of people have lost whatever it was that made the pioneers special. They want life to be easy. They want somebody to hand them everything and take care of them.” The Kid shook his head. “Malone has figured that out, and he’ll take advantage of it as much as he can, for as long as he can.”

  Diana said, “But you’re not that way, Kid. You’ll still help us fight him.”

  The Kid shrugged. “Sometimes I’m just too stubborn for my own good.” He went on to give them the details of his conversation with Sophia and Jefferson Parnell, then his visit to the doctor’s house, and finally he explained about finding the battle going on at the line shack.

  When The Kid was finished, Owen Starbird nodded and said solemnly, “Thank you for everything you’ve done on our behalf, Morgan. But despite what you said to my niece about helping us fight Malone, you simply can’t.”

  The Kid frowned at Starbird in surprise. “Why not, Captain? That decision is up to me, isn’t it?”

  “This isn’t your fight,” Starbird replied with a shake of his head. “This land belongs to Diana and me. It was her father, my brother, who made this valley what it is. We’re bound to it by blood. And it’s the job of Mr. Rocklin and the rest of the men who work for us to defend it as well. It’s their duty, although I wouldn’t hold back any man who wished to ride away nor bear him any ill will for doing so. But you, sir…you won’t take our wages, nor do you have any personal reason for declaring your opposition to that bloody pirate!”

  “I’ve tussled with some of his men twice,” The Kid pointed out, “not to mention been shot at a few times by men who were probably working for him.”

  “Is that enough reason to throw your life away?”

  “Uncle Owen!” Diana exclaimed. “You’re talking like we can’t possibly win.”

  Starbird spread his hands. “What can we do? Malone has us surrounded. He’s brought the hostilities out in the open. It’s highly likely that he’ll attack the ranch again, and even if he doesn’t, he can cut off our supplies and starve us into submission while his rustlers continue stealing our stock. We don’t have enough men to fight him, and the men we have are ranch hands not gunfighters.”

  Diana stared at him as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She said, “I never thought you’d give up. Of all the people I know, I figured you’d be the one to fight right until the bitter end, Uncle Owen.”

  “How can a man fight when he can’t even walk? When you shoved me into that room and locked the door last night, Diana, you forced me to accept the truth at long last. I’m just a worthless old cripple.”

  “Aw, now, boss,” Rocklin began, “don’t talk like—”

  “No, Sam,” Starbird insisted. “It’s the truth, I tell you. Diamondback is being run by a helpless cripple and a girl. What chance do the likes of us have against a ruthless pirate such as Malone?”

  Diana came to her feet. “You didn’t act like that when you were the captain of your own ship!” she cried. “You never give up. You captured Black Terence and sent him to prison!”

  “Yes,” Starbird said in a hollow voice, “and now we’re all reaping the whirlwind for that, aren’t we?”

  The Kid leaned back in his chair and reached for the cup of coffee beside his empty soup bowl. “Captain,” he said, “I know things look pretty bad right now, but Diana’s right. You can’t give up. Maybe it’s true that your troubles aren’t really any of my business, but I was brought up not to turn my back on folks who need help.”

  That was true in a way. The time he had spent with Frank Morgan over the past few years—and with Rebel—had taught him that. Those were the years when he had really grown up.

  “I can’t very well stop you, can I?” Starbird said. “All right, Morgan, you have my blessing—and my thanks—for whatever it is you can do to help us. I just hope it doesn’t wind up getting you killed.”

  “That’s a chance I’m willing to take,” The Kid said.

  Chapter 18

  The Kid wouldn’t have been surprised if there was more trouble during the night, but the hours of darkness passed quietly on Diamondback. The fevered state of his dreams wasn’t so peaceful. Once again, all the men he had killed haunted him. He was still weary when he went down to breakfast early the next morning. He found Diana already in the kitchen with Carmelita.

  “Have you been out to the bunkhouse to check on those wounded cowboys?” he asked the older woman.

  “Sí,” Carmelita replied. “I think Señor Deuce is better this morning, and the other two are not hurt too badly. Junior’s wound looked worse than it really was.”

  “I agree,” Diana said from her seat at the table. “I looked in on them, too.”

  “I’m sure they appreciated that,” The Kid said as he took the cup of coffee Carmelita offered him.

  Diana frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I never saw a man yet who didn’t enjoy being fussed over by a pretty girl, especially a young cowboy.”

  “I didn’t fuss over them. Anyway, I’m not a pretty girl to the hands, I’m one of their bosses.”

  “Hmmph,” Carmelita said.

  “Wait a minute.” Diana put her hands flat on the table. “Are you telling me that some of those ranch hands are…are sweet on me?”

  “They are young men,” Carmelita said. “How could they not be?”

  “Anyway,” The Kid added with a grin, “I’ve been told that all the hands from all the other ranches in the valley have come courting at one time or another, before Malone got here, of course. You must know how popular you are with the cowboys, Diana.”

  “I know I’m not looking for a husband,” she snapped. “Especially not some forty-a-month-and-found cowpoke who’s just as interested in marrying a ranch like this as he is in me! And who in blazes has been telling stories about me? I’ll bet it was that saloon hussy, Sophia Kincaid!”

  “As a matter of fact, it was the newspaperman, Parnell.”

  “Oh.” Diana frowned. “Well, he shouldn’t be gossiping about me, and I intend to tell him as much the next time I see him. Anyway, there’s no truth to it. A few of the cowboys in the valley may have tried to court me, but not all of them. Not hardly.”

  “Whatever you say,” The Kid said. “Carmelita, you think you could whip up some huevos rancheros?”

  “Of course, Señor Morgan.”

  The Kid turned back to Diana and asked, “Have you seen your uncle this morning?”

  She sighed and shook her head. “I couldn’t believe it last night when Uncle Owen said he was giving up. That’s not like him at all. He was always a fighter, just like my father. I never knew him until he’d started having trouble with his legs, of course, but even then, he was eager to take any problem or danger head on.”

  “Man as proud as your uncle has a hard time relying on others for anything,” The Kid said. “I reckon after a while the feeling just wore him down.”

  At the stove, Carmelita nodded. “Señor Morgan is right. Every man has his limits, señorita.”

  The Kid had come damn close to reaching his own limits when Rebel was killed. The tragedy had almost broken him. Even long months later, there were moments when he felt like she was still right there beside him, like he could reach out and touch the softness of her hair, smell the sweet scent of her, hear the caress of her voice. In those moments he still felt the sharp pain of losing her. Some of the wounded places inside his heart had healed, but others were still there and maybe always would be.
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  Anyway, he didn’t want to forget her. That was the most frightening possibility of all. If the pain meant she was still with him in the only way she could be, then so be it. He could live with the pain. When the time came, he could die with it.

  “Kid?”

  The soft voice belonged to a woman, but it wasn’t Rebel’s. He knew that as he lifted his head and looked across the table at Diana Starbird. But he was shaken for a second, anyway.

  “You suddenly looked like you were a million miles away, Kid,” she went on. “Is something wrong?”

  He forced a smile to his lips. “No,” he lied. “I was just trying to figure out what to do about Malone. You know, if I rode up to his ranch, I don’t think anybody could stop me from killing him.”

  “And you’d be dead a few seconds later! His men would fill you full of lead, Kid, and you know it. Trying something like that would be just plain suicide.” Diana paused in her protest. “And it wouldn’t stop the rest of that bunch, anyway. You think men like Wolfram and Greavy, or even Breck and Early, would just go away if something happened to Malone? If anything, he’s been keeping them from ravaging the whole valley like a pack of wild dogs.”

  She was probably right about that, The Kid thought. He said, “All right, we’ll think of something else.”

  Heavy footsteps clomped in the front room. Sam Rocklin came in to the kitchen wearing a worried look on his face. Diana saw that and sat up straighter in her chair.

  “What is it, Sam?”

  “Maybe nothin’, Miss Diana,” Rocklin replied as he scratched at his jaw. “One of the fellas spotted some smoke west of here.”

  “A range fire?”

  The Kid knew how dangerous and destructive such blazes could be. He didn’t think it was likely that such a fire would spread in Rattlesnake Valley, though. All the grass was fairly green and wouldn’t burn easily.

  Rocklin shook his head. “No, it ain’t that kind of smoke. Looks more like somebody’s lighted a signal fire up in the mountains, not far from the pass.”

  That obviously meant something to Diana, judging by the sudden look of alarm on her face, and after a second The Kid figured out what it was as he remembered the errand she’d been on a couple of days earlier, when he met her for the first time.

  “Gray Hawk!” she exclaimed.

  “That’s kinda what I was thinkin’,” Rocklin said. “I’ve never been up to that old Injun’s place, but you and your pa both told me about him. Seems like the smoke might be comin’ from somewhere around there.”

  Diana was on her feet. “If he’s sending smoke signals, something must be wrong. I have to go see about him.”

  “Hold on,” The Kid said. “You know that Malone’s men are lurking out there. If he’s ready to declare all-out war on Diamondback, I reckon he’d love to get his hands on you. With you as a hostage, your uncle and the rest of the crew couldn’t fight back.”

  “I know that,” Diana said, “but I promised my father that I’d look after Gray Hawk. I gave him my word.”

  “You sure can’t go up there by yourself,” Rocklin said.

  Diana frowned at him. “This is still my ranch, Sam. Half of it, anyway. Nobody tells me where to ride.”

  “What Sam meant is that you can’t go up there by yourself,” The Kid said as he stood up. “I’m coming with you.”

  “But Señor Morgan,” Carmelita protested, “you have not eaten.”

  “It’ll have to wait. Sorry.”

  Carmelita muttered something in Spanish. Rocklin sighed and said, “I’m comin’ along, too, ma’am, and I’ll get some of the boys to ride with us, if you’re bound and determined to go up there.”

  Stubbornly, Diana shook her head. “No, Gray Hawk doesn’t want a lot of people around. He doesn’t trust anyone except me, just like he never really trusted anyone except my father. If a big bunch rides up there, it’ll just spook him. He’s liable to hide in the mountains where we’ll never find him.”

  “If he’s in trouble, seems like he’d want all the help he can get,” Rocklin argued.

  “I know, but I can’t risk it.” Diana looked at The Kid. “You can come along. I don’t think it’ll frighten the old man too much if he sees that there’s just one other person with me.”

  “All right,” The Kid said with a nod. “Let’s go.”

  They hurried out of the kitchen with Carmelita exhorting them to be careful. Rocklin said, “You two go get your guns. I’ll tell the boys to throw saddles on your hosses.”

  The Kid stepped onto the front porch a few minutes later, carrying his Winchester and Sharps. He turned to peer off toward the west, where the mountains closed off that end of the valley except for the narrow pass. A frown creased his forehead as something he couldn’t put his finger on started to bother him, but before he could figure out what it was, Diana emerged from the house, the screen door banging behind her as she came onto the porch.

  The Kid lifted a hand and pointed at a narrow, broken column of white smoke. “Yeah, it’s there, all right, and it looks like it’s coming from a signal fire, just like Sam said. See the way there are separate puffs of smoke?”

  “I know what smoke signals look like,” Diana said. “I’m certain they’re coming from the vicinity of Gray Hawk’s cave, too.”

  “He lives in a cave?” The Kid asked.

  “He’s a simple man. He doesn’t need much, or want much. Come on, Kid.”

  Rocklin came out of the barn leading The Kid’s buckskin and Diana’s chestnut. They went down the porch steps and hurried to meet the foreman. Rocklin handed over the reins.

  “I still say you ought to take some of us with you, Miss Diana,” he urged.

  She shook her head. “That would be a mistake, Sam. Trust me on this.”

  Rocklin nodded wearily. “Reckon I ain’t got no choice but to do that.”

  The Kid and Diana mounted up and rode out, leaving Rocklin staring worriedly after them.

  The sun hadn’t been up long. Reddish-gold light washed over the valley, rolling in waves like the sea until it came crashing up against the mountains to paint the rugged, rocky slopes with brilliant colors. It was a beautiful scene, The Kid thought, but sometimes death and ugliness lurked in the midst of beauty. The truth of that musing was brought home to him by the sight of a diamondback rattler squirming across the trail in front of them.

  Serpents in paradise, The Kid told himself as he and Diana reined in to keep their mounts from shying at the snake. Wasn’t that always the way?

  Diana had belted on a handgun, in addition to bringing her carbine. She said, “Ugh,” and reached for the revolver as she saw the snake, but The Kid stopped her from drawing the gun.

  “Better leave it alone,” he advised.

  “My father taught me to shoot those scaly bastards every time I saw one of them.”

  “I don’t doubt it, but if there’s trouble up at the pass, a shot might warn whoever’s causing it that we’re on our way.”

  “That’s true, I suppose. We’ll wait and let it get out of the trail. Still, I hate to let one of them go.” She shook her head and laughed hollowly. “Not that it ever did any good to kill them. They’re still all over the blasted valley. I don’t think anybody could ever wipe them out.”

  It only took a moment for the rattlesnake to slither across the trail and disappear into the brush. The Kid and Diana heeled their horses into motion and rode on toward the mountains.

  “You say this fella Gray Hawk is a Yaqui?” The Kid asked.

  “That’s right.”

  “I thought Yaquis didn’t get along well with whites…or anybody else, for that matter.”

  “Oh, yes, there was a time when they were fierce, according to what my father told me. Everyone in West Texas lived in fear of them. But then the Comanches pushed the Apaches farther west, and the Apaches pushed out the Yaquis. Most of them went south across the border to live in the mountains in Mexico. There were always some of them down there. Then the army drove t
he Apaches across the border, too. The Apaches still raid across the Rio Grande every now and then, but there haven’t been any Yaquis around here for years, except for Gray Hawk. He’s something of a rarity. In his younger days, he traveled widely, all over the West, something the rest of his people never did. He was friendly with my father, and, well, I guess you could say that he tolerates me.”

  The trail started to rise as they reached the foothills. Above them, the white puffs of smoke continued to climb into the pale blue early morning sky.

  The Kid suddenly reined in and motioned for Diana to do likewise. As she brought her horse to a halt alongside the buckskin, she asked, “What is it, Kid?”

  “Listen,” he said.

  Diana gasped as she heard it, too. The flat reports that echoed against the mountains could be only one thing.

  Gunshots.

  Chapter 19

  “No!” Diana cried. “Gray Hawk!”

  “He’s probably fine,” The Kid said. “The smoke wouldn’t come up in puffs like that unless somebody was doing it that way on purpose, so he has to still be alive.”

  More shots rattled out, shattering the early morning stillness.

  “But we’d better get up there before something does happen to him,” The Kid went on. “Can you lead the way to that cave of his?”

  “You bet I can!”

  Diana sent her horse leaping ahead into a gallop. The Kid was right behind her, his buckskin pulling even with her chestnut within a few strides.

  They followed the main trail for another half mile, which brought them close to the spot where The Kid had found the skull and crossbones and met Diana. She veered onto a smaller path that wound upward through rugged, prickly pear-covered ridges. The sun was high enough that the brilliant colors splashed over the mountains had faded. The peaks were granite gray again, with greenish-black splotches where stands of hardy pines found purchase in the rocky soil.