The Loner: Rattlesnake Valley
Page 21
“It sounds to me like you’re challenging Captain Starbird to a duel. I’d say that because of his medical condition, he has a right to have a proxy act on his behalf.”
“A proxy!” The exclamation startled out of Malone. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”
The Kid nodded toward the sword lying in the dust at the foot of the steps. “I’ll fight you in the captain’s place.”
“Haw!” Malone burst out scornfully. “I know what you’re tryin’ to do, gunfighter. If I agree to that, you’ll just shoot me as soon as you get the chance!”
The Kid shook his head and started to unbuckle his gunbelt. “No. I’m talking about a fair fight, you and me with those swords. No guns.” He took the gunbelt off, coiled it, and held it out to Rocklin. “Hang on to this for me, would you, Sam?”
Rocklin hesitated, then took the Colt. “You sure about this, Kid?”
“Morgan, this won’t do at all,” Starbird said. “Malone’s an expert with a blade. At least, he was during his buccaneering days, and I doubt if he’s lost much skill.”
“Not a whit,” Malone said with a grin. “You know, I’ve got a grudge against you, too, Morgan, so I sort of like this idea. I’ll gut you, then Starbird.”
The Kid nodded. “We have an agreement, then. Let the woman go.”
“Not on your life. She stays right where she is until all the rest are gone and it’s just you, me, and Starbird.”
“Diana, I insist you leave with Sam and the others,” Starbird told his niece. “Please go now.”
She looked a little stunned by everything that was happening as she said, “But…but—”
“Go on, Diana,” The Kid urged her. “It’s the only way.” He swung down from the buckskin’s back, took off his coat, and put it and his hat on the saddle. Then he stepped forward to pick up the sword. He swung it back and forth a couple of times, awkwardly, as he gauged the weight and balance of the weapon.
“Go…please,” Starbird whispered to Diana.
She let out a tortured cry and started to sob, but when Rocklin brought his horse over beside the buggy and took his foot out of the stirrup on that side, Diana used it to swing up behind him. Rocklin looked at Starbird and asked, “You’re sure, Cap’n?”
“Positive.” Starbird smiled. “Look after things if it becomes necessary, will you, Sam?”
“Bet a hat on it,” Rocklin replied in a voice choked with emotion. Then he waved a hand at the other punchers and said, “Come on, boys. We’ll ride a mile or so back up the trail.”
They trotted off, leaving Starbird in the buggy, Malone and Carmelita on the porch, and The Kid standing there facing the former pirate and his hostage. Malone didn’t release Carmelita as he waited for the dust from the horses to travel a good distance away from the house.
Starbird said, “You know that the lads won’t let you leave here alive, Malone.”
“I don’t give a damn about that,” Malone said with a harsh laugh. “I just want you dead, Starbird. You and that troublemaking young fool.” He sneered at The Kid. “You should have turned around and ridden away the first day you saw my skull and crossbones, Morgan.”
“That wasn’t meant to be,” The Kid said quietly.
“No, but your death was.” Malone suddenly gave Carmelita a hard shove that sent her staggering along the porch. He leaped down the steps, swinging the sword as he yelled, “Have at you!”
Sunlight flashed on The Kid’s blade as it leaped up to block Malone’s blow. Metal rang against metal. The impact of the collision drove The Kid back a step. Malone chopped at him again and forced him to continue giving ground.
Malone changed tactics abruptly, switching from raw power to finesse. The tip of his blade darted at The Kid’s legs. The Kid twisted aside, but not before the sword ripped through his trousers and left a shallow gash in his thigh. The wound was painful but didn’t come close to disabling him. He parried Malone’s follow-up thrust and saw the sudden flash of surprise in the pirate’s eyes. Malone had thought he had him, that the fight was over almost before it started.
The Kid counterattacked.
Steel rang against steel again and again as the two men plunged back and forth across the yard in front of the ranch house. The Kid nicked Malone in the side, causing a red bloodstain to blossom on Malone’s shirt. Neither man seemed able to strike a fatal blow. They were evenly matched.
Then one of The Kid’s feet slipped just a little…but it was enough to make him lose his balance and Malone’s blade slipped past his. The thrust was an awkward one, and as The Kid tried to twist aside from it, the flat of Malone’s blade struck him hard on the side of the head, just above his left ear. The blow drove him off his feet and sent him rolling toward the porch.
The pounding of his heartbeat and the rushing of blood in his head filled his ears, but even so, he heard the sudden rattling buzz from somewhere nearby. As he came to a stop on his hands and knees, he saw the rattlesnake with the diamond-shaped markings on its scaly skin coiled next to the porch, only a couple of feet away from him. He flung himself desperately to the side as the rattler struck.
Malone had been coming in from behind The Kid, sword raised for a killing stroke. Instead, Malone screamed as the striking snake missed The Kid and sank its fangs into Malone’s thigh. Malone’s blade flashed down and cut the snake in two, but it clung stubbornly to his flesh until he reached down and tore it free. As he threw it aside in revulsion, he panted and laughed.
“I can feel the poison pumpin’ through my veins,” he said, “but I’ll send you and Starbird to hell before me, Morgan!”
He lunged at The Kid once again, attacking with the fierce desperation of knowing that he had only a few minutes before the snake’s venom killed him.
The Kid might have been able to hold him off that long and let the rattler’s bite do the work for him. Instead, The Kid’s blade flashed back and forth, parrying the blows too swiftly for the eye to follow, and then with a sudden lunge he buried the cold steel in Black Terence Malone’s chest with such force that the sword went all the way through Malone’s body and several inches ripped out through his back.
Malone dropped his sword and swayed, his eyes widening in shock. “How…how…you’re a…gunfighter…”
The Kid leaned closer to him and said quietly, “Fencing champion, back in my university days. We used to practice with swords, to make the foils seem even lighter.”
He let go of the sword. Malone gave out with a groan and toppled forward. He spasmed a couple of times and then didn’t move again.
The Kid turned toward the buggy where Starbird sat watching him with amazement. Carmelita stood beside the vehicle, holding Starbird’s hand. The Kid reached for the buckskin’s reins and said, “Now it’s over, Captain. I’d better go let Diana and Sam know that they can come back.”
“My God, Morgan!” Starbird burst out. “Where did you learn to handle a blade like that?”
“In another life,” Kid Morgan replied with the faintest of smiles.
That evening, The Kid dismounted in front of the Rattler’s Den, limping just a little from the wound on his thigh. As he had ridden into town, he was struck by how quickly things had gotten back to a semblance of normalcy in Bristol, although the undertaker and his helpers would certainly be burning the midnight oil. Folks were moving around, and talk and laughter came from inside the saloon as he stepped onto the boardwalk. No glass in the windows, a thousand bullet holes in the walls and the swinging doors, but men still wanted to drink and play cards and talk to good-looking women.
It was nice, in a way, to see that some things never changed.
Although, as he stepped inside, The Kid saw the saloon wasn’t nearly as busy as it sometimes was. In fact, Sophia spotted him right away and came over to him. She had changed her dress and cleaned the blood off her face. She had a bandage over the cut, put there no doubt by Dr. Eggars.
“Hello, Kid,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t expect to see you a
gain so soon.”
“I came into town to pick up a few supplies,” he explained.
“Supplies? Where are you going?”
“I never intended to stay in Rattlesnake Valley. I was always just passing through.”
Sophia frowned. “You’re leaving tonight? But that’s crazy! You could stay at Diamondback for a few days and rest up from everything that’s happened.”
“Diana suggested that,” The Kid replied with a shake of his head, “but I figured it might be best if I rode on.”
“Keep her from getting ideas in her head, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, you can have a drink before you get those supplies,” Sophia said. “It’s on the house.”
“I already have the supplies,” The Kid said. “I just stopped in here to say good-bye.”
Her smile was shaken by that. “But…but…there’s no reason for you to leave so fast. People around here owe you so much!”
“No, they don’t,” The Kid insisted. “I didn’t do it for them. I became mixed up in this because I didn’t like Malone, and then I found out that he and Parnell both had to be stopped. Somebody had to do it. It just happened to be me.”
“You can believe that if you want to, Kid, but I don’t. Fate brought you here.”
The Kid leaned down and brushed his lips over her cheek. “Good-bye, Sophia.” He turned and walked to the door, shouldering through the batwings.
She followed him onto the porch. “Kid,” she said with a note of longing entering her voice as he swung up onto the buckskin, “Kid…you can stay here for a spell…if you want.”
He paused and smiled down at her. “I reckon I do want that,” he said, “and that’s exactly the problem, right there.”
With that he lifted the reins and turned the horse. His heels sent the buckskin into a trot that carried him toward the eastern edge of town, the rest of the valley, and the wasteland beyond.
He thought he heard Sophia call softly, “Kid!” behind him, but he couldn’t be sure, and so he kept riding.
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