The Loner: Rattlesnake Valley

by J. A. Johnstone

  It was a long speech, and The Kid was a little hoarse by the time he finished it. He had been putting the theory together in his head as he spoke, and when he saw how neatly it all fit together, he was convinced it was true.

  Parnell confirmed that by saying, “You’re a smart bastard, Morgan, but what good is it going to do you? You and your friends are trapped here.”

  “What are you going to do?” asked The Kid. “Wipe out the whole town, once you’ve finished us off?”

  Parnell smiled, and the cold malice in the expression made a chill go up and down The Kid’s spine. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Parnell said. “I’m tired of waiting. There’s going to be a great tragedy here today, Morgan. The citizens of Bristol are going to be killed in the crossfire of a big battle between Diamondback and Trident, and the town is going to be set on fire and burned to the ground. There won’t be anything left here to save or rebuild. Malone has no heirs, and neither do Starbird and his niece. Their ranches will go to the state, and the men who are backing me will help me swoop in and gather them up. The same holds true for the little ranchers. All of them can be bought out cheaply. You see, Morgan, nothing can stop progress. Building a reservoir here is for the greater good.”

  “And it’ll make you a mighty rich man in the process.”

  Parnell shrugged. “That’s beside the point, isn’t it?”

  “And all you have to do is murder a couple hundred people.”

  “I told you,” Parnell snapped, “it’s for the greater good.”

  “You can tell yourself that all you want, mister. You’re still a murdering outlaw as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Then it’s a good thing there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” Parnell said, smiling again.

  “Now, you see, that’s where you’re wrong,” The Kid said.

  His gun came up in a blur of speed and he shot Jefferson Parnell right smack between the eyes.

  Parnell fell backward off his horse before he even had a chance to look surprised. By the time his body thudded to the ground, The Kid had whirled around and dived back through the batwings. Shots roared out from the men down the street, but they were too late. The bullets chewed up the boardwalk and smacked into the saloon’s front wall.

  As The Kid scrambled back over to the window, Rocklin asked, “Was all that crazy story about turnin’ the valley into a lake true?”

  “You heard Parnell,” The Kid said. “He admitted it.”

  Rocklin shook his head. “Plumb loco, if you ask me.” He nodded toward the street. “You reckon the rest of his bunch will give it up now that he’s dead?”

  The sound of shots rose to a veritable barrage as Parnell’s men continued firing.

  “I kind of doubt it,” The Kid said in answer to Rocklin’s question. “Some of those gunmen are bound to know what was at stake here. They’ll try to take advantage of Parnell’s death and grab the prize for themselves.”

  “Yeah, and here they come to do some grabbin’ now!” Rocklin yelled as the thunder of hoofbeats filled the air outside the saloon, along with the gunshots.

  For the next few minutes, the action was fast and furious inside the saloon, as well as out in the street. The air was filled with the stink of powdersmoke, the roar of shots, and the whistle and whine of hot lead. Crouched at the window, The Kid emptied his Colt, reloaded, and emptied the gun again. More of Parnell’s hired killers fell to the defenders’ bullets, but some of the men inside the saloon went down, too, most of them just wounded but a few mortally injured.

  Then the attackers swung around and galloped off down the street again. Their direct assault on the Rattler’s Den had failed, but The Kid had no doubt that they would be back.

  “See to the wounded,” he ordered as he reloaded again. He was running low on fresh cartridges, and he suspected that many of the other defenders were, too. A couple of more attacks like that and the men in the saloon would be out of ammunition.

  “Morgan!” Owen Starbird called from behind the bar. The Kid went over to see what he wanted. Starbird looked up at him and said, “This is not a sustainable position, Morgan. Those bloody bastards will exhaust our ammunition with continuing attacks and then overrun us when we can no longer fight back.”

  The Kid nodded. “I know, Captain. You have any ideas how we can turn the tables on them?”

  “Indeed. We need to close quarters with them. Our fire will be most effective that way.”

  “You mean let them in here?” The Kid asked with a frown.

  “It’s the only way,” Starbird said. “Our forces are still relatively even with theirs, are they not?”

  “I reckon they outnumber us by a few.”

  “But not all that many. And they have no way of knowing exactly how many of us are left. I suggest that most of us withdraw to the second floor, leaving a few men down here to put up only a token resistance the next time they attack, and then fire down on them when they rush in here thinking that they’ve won.”

  The Kid thought about it for a second, then nodded. “That might work. But if it doesn’t, we’re all dead.”

  “If the situation continues as it is, we shall all die anyway.”

  The Kid couldn’t argue with that. He said, “All right. We’ll try to draw them in and have the showdown while we’ve still got some bullets.”

  Quickly, he passed the word to everyone else. “We’ll leave three men down here to put up a fight,” he explained. “Everybody else will be upstairs, and when those varmints come rushing in to finish us off, let them have it. Just hold your fire until most of them are inside.”

  “I’m one of the three who’ll stay down here,” Rocklin declared without hesitation.

  “And I’m another,” Starbird said.

  Diana shook her head. “Uncle Owen, you know that’s not possible. Some of the men will take you upstairs—”

  “Blast it, girl!” Starbird reached up, grasped the top of the bar, and started pulling himself to his feet. “I’ve put up with you giving me orders because I know you think it’s best, but no longer! Some of you lads give me a hand here. Put me in a chair by the window, and I can shoot at those bounders just fine!”

  “Uncle Owen—” Diana began stubbornly, but The Kid stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  “It’s his decision,” The Kid said. He nodded to Starbird. “I know I’d be proud to have you fighting at my side, Captain.”

  “So you’ll be the third man, huh? Can’t say as I’m surprised.” Starbird looked around, then roared in a voice that must have carried easily from one end of HMS Scorpion’s deck to the other, “Well? Someone give me a hand here!”

  Diana frowned at The Kid as several of the punchers from Diamondback helped Starbird get into position by one of the shattered front windows. A man picked up an overturned chair, set it upright, and the others lowered Starbird onto it. Another man handed him a pair of pistols.

  “This is splendid!” Starbird said as he hefted the guns. “Just splendid!”

  “He had better come through this alive,” Diana warned The Kid in a low voice.

  “There’s no guarantee any of us will,” The Kid told her. “Do your part. Grab a gun and get ready to cut down some of those gunmen when they come rushing in here.”

  She jerked her head in a nod. “Damn right I will.”

  Once they had decided on the plan, it didn’t take long to put it into action. The Kid and Rocklin took their places at the other window while all the rest of the defenders hurried upstairs. The Kid spotted Sophia carrying a double-barreled shotgun she took from under the bar. He caught her eye and asked, “Can you use that greener?”

  “You just hide and watch,” she said with a determined nod. The blood from the cut on her forehead had dried in a streak down her face, but even with that savage decoration, she still managed to look lovely.

  It was a good thing everyone moved as quickly as they did, because no sooner were the other defenders upstairs than Rocklin called out, “G
et ready! Yonder they come again!”

  “Space your shots out like you’re trying to conserve bullets,” The Kid told him and Starbird.

  That was actually what they were trying to do, he thought. They had to defeat Parnell’s men right there in the saloon in the next few minutes, or not at all. Victory or death…that sure boiled things right down to the nub.

  Hoofbeats thundered and guns began to roar. The Kid, Rocklin, and Starbird returned the fire as slugs chipped away at the saloon’s walls. The Kid squeezed off a couple of deliberately spaced shots and saw one of the attackers go backwards out of the saddle. Despite that, he sensed a new urgency on the part of the masked killers. They sensed victory, and like sharks smelling blood in the water, they were ready to swarm.

  “Watch out, Kid!” Rocklin yelled as one of the men leaped his horse onto the porch and sent the animal charging right through the space where the big window had been. The Kid and Rocklin had to fling themselves to right and left to keep from being trampled.

  More riders jumped on the porch, forcing their mounts through the windows and past the batwings. Others dismounted and charged in on foot. In a matter of seconds, the saloon’s main room was crowded with masked, duster-clad gunmen.

  “Let ’em have it!” The Kid bellowed. The Colt bucked in his hand as he shot another of the killers out of the saddle.

  The noise from dozens of pistols, rifles, and shotguns going off at once in the saloon was deafening. The Kid staggered as it seemed like the sound itself was going to pound him off his feet. He stayed upright and drilled another gunman. From the corner of his eye, he saw that Sam Rocklin had fought his way to Starbird’s side. The foreman had lifted Starbird out of the chair and stood with his left arm around him, holding Starbird up as both of them continued firing into the mass of attackers.

  It was utter, bloody chaos in the Rattler’s Den. Horses screamed as blood spurted from the wounds they suffered. Men fell to the floor and were trampled into ugly shapes that hardly looked human. Some of the defenders were mortally wounded and toppled from the balcony, vanishing into the melee. The place was a hornet’s nest of blood and death and flying lead.

  The hammer of The Kid’s Colt clicked on an empty chamber. He reached up, grabbed a long coat, and hauled the man out of the saddle. The Kid’s gun slammed into the man’s head and shattered bone. He shoved the dying gun-wolf aside and stumbled over to join Starbird and Rocklin. He saw blood on the clothes of both men, but they were still upright, still fighting. The Kid scooped a pair of fallen revolvers from the floor as he joined them, and all three men fired at once. Two of the raiders went down, shredded into crimson ruin by the hail of bullets.

  Then, suddenly, an eerie silence struck the saloon like the blow of a fist. The Kid stood there, breathing heavily, gunsmoke stinging his nose and mouth and eyes, as he looked around and saw that all the attackers were down. Some of them were only wounded, but their moans ceased abruptly as the Yaquis dropped lithely among them from the balcony and knives flashed. Diana and Sophia both turned away from the grisly sight.

  “Is…is it over?” Rocklin asked.

  “Looks like it,” The Kid said. “I reckon the town’s safe now, and so is the rest of the valley. It won’t be underwater after all.” He glanced at Starbird. “Unless that’s what you want, Captain. This would make a good reservoir.”

  “That’s something to think about on another day,” Starbird replied. “Sam, will you help me sit down?”

  “Sure, Cap’n.” Rocklin carefully lowered his employer back onto the chair.

  Diana rushed down the stairs, followed by Sophia. Diana threw her arms around her uncle, saying, “Are you all right? You’re bleeding!”

  “Minor injuries only, I assure you, my dear,” Starbird told her. “Nothing to be alarmed about.”

  Sophia looked up at The Kid. “How about you, Kid?”

  “I’m fine,” he said with a smile. “I don’t think I even got nicked.”

  “How in the world did you manage that?”

  “Just lucky, I guess,” Kid Morgan said.

  She put a hand on his arm, and the message in her green eyes was clear. He could be even luckier…if he wanted.

  But though he returned the smile she gave him, he turned away. There was still one more thing he had to do.

  He wanted to make sure that Black Terence Malone was dead.

  Chapter 30

  The former pirate’s body was nowhere to be found in the welter of corpses littering the streets and boardwalks of Bristol.

  Owen Starbird insisted that it was nothing to worry about, that Malone was no threat anymore. His men were dead and his hold on the valley had been broken. Despite that, The Kid could tell that Starbird was concerned and would have felt better if Malone’s body had been among the dead.

  The Kid felt exactly the same way.

  Of course, it was possible that Malone had been wounded and had slunk off somewhere to die. If that was the case, they might find his body later, outside of town. Until then, The Kid was going to be watchful, but that was nothing new. Being careful and alert was the way he stayed alive.

  The citizens of Bristol emerged from their hiding places and helped clean up the town. Close to a hundred bodies were carried to the undertaker’s and stacked behind the building like cordwood. Guards were posted to keep scavengers away from the corpses, and teams of gravediggers would work around the clock to get all the dead men into the ground. Bristol’s cemetery was going to be a mighty busy place for the next couple of days. In fact, there was a bustling air of renewed energy about the whole town now that it was out from under Malone’s thumb.

  That realization left a slightly bitter taste in The Kid’s mouth. Other people had done the hard, bloody work of securing freedom once again, and the citizens who had cowered and carped would reap the benefits.

  But he supposed that was the way it had always been.

  He rode away from the settlement with Diana, Starbird, Rocklin, and the survivors from Diamondback. He didn’t figure he would ever return, unless it was briefly to replenish his supplies before he left Rattlesnake Valley.

  Gray Hawk and the Yaquis who had lived through the fight had already vanished, taking their dead and wounded with them. That was their way, The Kid supposed. Gray Hawk would probably return to his cave in the mountains, and the other Yaquis would go back wherever they had come from.

  It was midafternoon when the group rode up to Diamondback headquarters. The Kid and Rocklin were in the lead, followed by the buggy that Sophia Kincaid had loaned to Diana and Starbird. The rest of the punchers followed. As the riders reined in, the screen door of the big house opened, and Carmelita stepped out onto the porch, saying, “Señor?”

  The Kid stiffened as he spotted the man behind her. Terence Malone stood there, one arm around Carmelita’s stout figure while his other hand held a sword to her throat.

  “You like to hide behind women, don’t you, Malone?” The Kid drawled, forcing himself to stay calm and not show the surprise and anger he felt. He’d had a hunch that Malone would try something if he’d survived the battle in town, but The Kid hadn’t expected him to strike quite so soon.

  “Unhand that wonderful woman, you…you bounder!” Starbird cried as he leaned forward on the buggy seat. “Lads! Your weapons!”

  The Kid held up his left hand and called sharply, “Hold your fire!” The cowboys couldn’t shoot Malone without hitting Carmelita, too. Not even someone as fast and accurate as he was could make a shot like that. It would take perfect aim.

  “Everybody get out of here!” Malone yelled, his voice shaking with fury. “Everybody but Starbird! We’re gonna settle this like we should have nearly twenty years ago, man to man!”

  “I’ll fight you, you scoundrel!” Starbird said. “Any way you’d like, fists, guns, knives…”

  “Swords.” Malone moved a foot behind him, used his toe to hook something he had placed there earlier, and kicked another sword into view, sending it sliding a
cross the porch to clatter down the steps. “I been savin’ ’em for this day. Now everybody else clear out, or this fat cow dies!”

  Starbird sputtered for a second in his outrage, then said, “How dare you talk about Carmelita like that? She’s one of the finest women I’ve ever known! If you harm her, I swear I’ll see to it that you suffer the torments of the damned, Malone!”

  The pirate laughed. “Sounds like you’ve gone soft on her. A stiff-necked bastard like you? I wouldn’t have thought it, Captain.”

  “Just let her go,” Starbird said. “Your grudge is against me, not her or anyone else here. Just me.”

  Malone nodded. “That’s why I want to settle this, just the two of us.”

  Diana said, “We’re not going anywhere, Malone. You let Carmelita go right now, or…or…”

  “Or what?” Malone asked with a sneer. “What can you do?”

  Starbird said, “He’s right. I’m the only one who can do anything, and so I shall. Sam!”

  “Yeah, Cap’n?” Rocklin growled.

  “Take the men and leave.”

  “You can’t mean that, boss—”

  “I most certainly do,” Starbird snapped. “That’s an order, Sam. I’ll fight this battle myself. It was always going to come down to this, and I think I knew that, whether I wanted to acknowledge it or not.”

  “But Uncle Owen, you can’t,” Diana protested. “You can’t get around—”

  “I can use my wheelchair. Will you agree to that, Malone?”

  A grin creased Malone’s face. “Sure. I’d like to see that, in fact.”

  Diana shook her head and said to her uncle, “He’ll still cut you to pieces!”

  “As long as Carmelita and the rest of you are safe, that’s all I care about, my dear. Now, go with Sam and the rest of the men.” Starbird looked intently at his niece. “If you love me, you’ll do as I ask. This is my fight.”

  “Hold on a minute,” The Kid said.

  Malone glared at him. “What do you want, Morgan?”