by Brett Waring
“Now, if you an’ me are gonna face each other, Nash, it ain’t gonna be any too fair. Fact, it’ll be loaded in your favor, if I gotta try to drag iron with these here cuffs slowin’ me down.”
Nash held the man’s gaze, then reached slowly into the pocket of his wet trousers. He brought out the key to the manacles and tossed it at Shannon’s feet.
“Take ’em off, then.”
Shannon didn’t hesitate. He picked up the key and fumbled some but got the iron manacle cuffs off quickly. He massaged his raw wrists, shaking his head.
“I was wrong about you, Nash. I thought you’d make a good pard. But you’re too damn stupid for that. You just sealed you fate. I can outdraw you, friend.”
Swaying slightly with fatigue, Nash looked defiant.
“End of the trail, Shannon. I don’t aim to take you in alive this time.”
Shannon threw back his head and laughed.
“Hell, man, I don’t aim for you to take me in any way. Why, you couldn’t ...”
He stopped speaking abruptly, hoping his laugh and words had diverted Nash’s wavering attention, his right hand dipping towards his Colt. He palmed the gun, the hammer coming back to easy full cock as the barrel started to level.
Nash’s hand barely seemed to move but there was a blazing Colt in his fist before Shannon’s gun was fully lined-up.
The outlaw staggered as the first bullet took him in the side and he triggered, trying to bring his body around, using its weight to drag his gun into line for another shot at Nash.
But the Wells Fargo man fired again and Shannon was driven to one knee, still fighting to bring up his gun.
Nash shot him again and Shannon was driven back against a rock—still trying to get off one more shot.
Clay Nash finished him with a fourth bullet through the middle of the face. Then he abruptly sat down in the mud at the edge of the river—the whole world swaying crazily around him.
He knew it would settle down to an even keel shortly and then, somehow, he would load Shannon’s body onto his horse and, riding one of the outlaw’s mounts, he would move out of the Brazos’ wilderness, leading the dead man and the burro that carried the stolen gold.
It was one chore he was mighty glad to see finished.
Mighty glad.
About the Author
Keith Hetherington
aka Kirk Hamilton, Brett Waring and Hank J. Kirby
Australian writer Keith has worked as television scriptwriter on such Australian TV shows as Homicide, Matlock Police, Division 4, Solo One, The Box, The Spoiler and Chopper Squad.
“I always liked writing little vignettes, trying to describe the action sequences I saw in a film or the Saturday Afternoon Serial at local cinemas,” remembers Keith Hetherington, better-known to Piccadilly Publishing readers as Hank J. Kirby, author of the Bronco Madigan series.
Keith went on to pen hundreds of westerns (the figure varies between 600 and 1000) under the names Kirk Hamilton (including the legendary Bannerman the Enforcer series) and Clay Nash as Brett Waring. Keith also worked as a journalist for the Queensland Health Education Council, writing weekly articles for newspapers on health subjects and radio plays dramatizing same.
More on Keith Hetherington
The Clay Nash Series by Brett Waring
Undercover Gun
A Gun Is Waiting
Long Trail to Yuma
Reckoning at Rimrock
Last Stage to Shiloh
Slaughter Trail
Sundown in Socorro
The Fargo Code
Ride for Texas
Bullet by Bullet
The Santa Fe Run
This Lawless Land
Guns on Big River
Compadre
Sundance
Escape to Gunsight
Ride the Stage to Hangman’s Spur
Only a Bullet
Law of the Bullet
Noon at Shiloh
The Blood of Cody Mann
Hang Bodie
Wild Ride From Spanish Springs
The Brazos Chore
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More on Brett Waring
i As told in Clay Nash 19: Law of the Bullet
