The Loner: The Blood of Renegades (6 page)
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Chapter 10
Conrad told Selena to watch for a train while he and Arturo attended to the grim task of burying the two gunmen behind the shed. He hadn’t done that for Kiley, and he wouldn’t have bothered for those two if he hadn’t thought it might make Selena feel a little better if she knew the bodies hadn’t been left for the buzzards.
At Conrad’s suggestion, she climbed onto the platform and sat beside the water tank where she could look up and down the tracks. He told her to check the other directions from time to time as they still had to worry about Leatherwood and the men who had gone to Frenchman’s Flat showing up.
Conrad was tamping down the dirt he’d replaced in the grave shared by the two avenging angels when Selena called, “I think I see something coming! It might be a train!”
Conrad tossed the shovel to Arturo to put back in the buggy, and climbed up to join Selena on the platform. She pointed along the tracks to the east where puffs of smoke could be seen in the far distance.
“Looks like a locomotive, all right,” he said. “And it’s even headed in the right direction. It’s still several miles away.”
“Maybe it won’t stop here.” Hope and worry mingled in Selena’s voice.
“Chances are it will. I can’t imagine an engineer passing up a chance to take on water in country like this.”
At that moment, Arturo called from below in an alarmed voice, “Riders coming from the south!”
Conrad bit back a curse and hurried around the tank so he could look in that direction. Arturo was right. A dust cloud swirled into the air.
Selena came around the tank to join Conrad. “It’s Leatherwood! It has to be.”
Conrad thought she was probably right. It was going to be a tight race to see who arrived at the water stop first. The riders were closer, but the train was moving faster. Conrad figured there was a good chance everybody would get there about the same time.
He urged Selena toward the ladder. “You and Arturo get in the buggy and get ready to head out in a hurry.”
“They’re too close! We’d never get away from them!”
She had a point, Conrad decided. They would have a running fight on their hands. It would be better to make a stand where they had some cover.
“All right. If the train stops and there’s time to get you on it, we will. Then Arturo and I can keep Leatherwood busy while the train pulls out. If you make it on board, find the conductor and tell him Conrad Browning said to make sure you get to San Francisco safely.”
She stared at him for a second. “Who
are
you? Your name carries that much weight with the railroad?”
are
you? Your name carries that much weight with the railroad?”
“Don’t worry about it, just do what I told you.”
Selena nodded. “All right. I need my saddlebags, though. Everything I own in the world is in them.”
“Hurry, then,” Conrad urged.
While Selena climbed down, he went to the edge of the platform and called to Arturo, “Pitch my rifle up here!”
“Are we going to make a stand?”
Conrad glanced at the train and the dust cloud. “It’s starting to look like it!”
Arturo fetched Conrad’s Winchester and tossed it into the air next to the platform. Conrad reached out and caught the rifle by the barrel. It wouldn’t be long until the riders were in range. He wished he could see them a little better. He didn’t want to start blazing away at them without being absolutely certain they were Jackson Leatherwood and the avenging angels.
He glanced down and saw Selena taking her saddlebags off her horse. She slung them over her shoulder and went to the corner of the shed where she could see the train and the approaching riders. Conrad could tell by the stiff stance of her slim body how tense she was.
The dust cloud suddenly changed direction, and veered to the east, toward Navajo Wash. For a moment Conrad couldn’t figure out what they were doing. The realization burst on his brain as the riders closed in on the tracks and began shooting.
Leatherwood was making a smart move. Having figured out his quarry was at the water tank, he wanted the train to highball on through without stopping—without even slowing down—leaving Conrad, Selena, and Arturo stuck there.
It would appear Leatherwood and his companions were trying to stop the train. The engineer and fireman in the locomotive’s cab would assume it was a holdup, and not stop to take on water.
Conrad bit back a curse. The range was long, but he leveled the Winchester and started firing at the horsemen. He still couldn’t be completely sure they were Leathewood and the other gunmen, but their attack on the train made it clear they weren’t on the same side as Conrad and his companions. If he could force them to break off their attack, the train still might stop.
A shrill whistle came from the locomotive and it surged ahead faster, barreling along the tracks at top speed. The gunmen had accomplished their goal. They threw a few more shots at the train just to speed it along, then slowed their horses and began to fall back. They paralleled the tracks and rode steadily toward the water tank.
The train passed them, and suddenly the riders lunged their mounts across the tracks and galloped alongside the caboose where Conrad couldn’t see them. Even running flat out, the horses couldn’t keep up with the train for more than a few moments, but that was long enough to shield the men until the train reached the water stop and roared on past the tank.
“Get behind the shed!” Conrad shouted to Arturo and Selena, bellowing at the top of his lungs to be heard over the train’s nearly deafening rumble.
Conrad retreated along the curve of the tank as the train flashed past. Smoke billowed from the locomotive’s diamond-shaped stack and stung his eyes and nose, making it difficult to see and breathe. Dropping to a knee, he brought the rifle to his shoulder as he caught a glimpse of Leatherwood through a gap in the smoke. The man’s ugly face was unmistakable.
Leatherwood spotted Conrad’s movement and pointed the gun in his hand upward. “Up there on the tank! Kill him!”
Conrad squeezed off a shot first, but even as the Winchester blasted, Leatherwood jerked his horse aside. Smoke and flame geysered from the muzzle of his gun as he fired twice. Conrad heard the bullets thud into the tank.
He levered the rifle and sprayed slugs across the tracks as fast as he could. From down below he heard the whipcrack of more shots as Arturo joined in the fight. Conrad saw one of the avenging angels send his horse leaping across the tracks, and knew the man was trying to get behind the shed.
“Be careful of the girl!” Leatherwood roared. The gun in his hand slammed out more shots.
Water spurted from several holes in the tank where bullets had drilled through the pitch-coated wood, giving Conrad an idea as he saw the third man force his horse across the tracks next to the tank. He ran around the narrow platform to the long, spring-loaded spout, grabbed it, and jerked it down. Water shot from it, arcing across the tracks and hitting Leatherwood. Unprepared, Leatherwood choked and reeled in the saddle, and his horse began to buck.
Tossing his empty rifle to the ground, Conrad wrapped his arms around the metal spout and slid down a couple feet, then let go and dropped to the ground next to the thick beams that served as legs under the tank. He landed lightly and his Colt flickered out as he spotted the man who had just ridden across the tracks. Ten feet away, the man swung his gun toward Conrad, but Conrad fired first. His bullet ripped through the man’s Adam’s apple and he toppled backward out of the saddle as blood fountained from his ruined throat.
More shots came from behind the shed. Conrad worried about Arturo and Selena, but couldn’t go to their aid. Throwing himself to the side he landed behind one of the thick legs as Leatherwood started shooting at him again. Conrad sent a couple of shots whistling back at the leader of the avenging angels.
A rifle cracked behind Conrad. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Arturo crouched at the corner of the shed, firing at Leatherwood. Conrad’s heart leaped at the realization that Arturo must have been able to deal with the man who had ridden around the shed to attack him. His friend was all right, or at least still in the fight, and now they outnumbered Leatherwood.
The scar-faced triggerite figured that out, too. Suddenly he whirled his horse and put the spurs to it. The animal leaped into a gallop, headed to the north away from the water tank. Conrad and Arturo both fired after him, but Leatherwood never slowed down.
Leatherwood was willing to get other men killed trying to follow Elder Hissop’s orders, Conrad thought, but he wasn’t devoted enough to face two-to-one odds by himself. The leader of the avenging angels was out of handgun range, so Conrad stood up and started to reload. Arturo took a couple more potshots at Leatherwood, but Conrad knew the chances of him hitting anything were small.
Arturo lowered the rifle and looked over at Conrad. “Sir, are you injured?”
“No, I’m fine. How about you?”
“I’m not—what’s the word?—ventilated. But not for lack of trying on the part of that man who galloped around the shed. He hesitated when he shouldn’t have, though, probably out of fear that one of his errant shots would strike Miss Webster, and I was able to drill him.”
Conrad smiled. “Good for you. Did you make sure he was dead?”
Arturo’s eyes widened. “Oh, my word. I should have done that, shouldn’t I?”
He turned and ran behind the shed.
Conrad checked on the man he had shot, but considering what a gory mess his bullet had made of the man’s throat, there wasn’t much chance of him still being alive. Sure enough, the gunman was dead, and as Conrad straightened from that task, Arturo came trotting back around the shed.
“He’s deceased,” Arturo reported. “Next time I’ll make sure of that right away.” He caught his breath. “Next time? Good Lord, what am I saying? I hope there
isn’t
a next time.”
isn’t
a next time.”
“I do, too,” Conrad said.
But they both knew better.
Chapter 11
Conrad picked up his rifle, then started around the shed to check on Selena. He assumed she was all right, otherwise Arturo would have said something about her being hurt, but he wanted to see that with his own eyes.
She met him when he was only partway there, hurrying around the shed and unexpectedly throwing herself in his arms. Instinctively, he held her and felt the way her body trembled against his.
“So much shooting,” she said in a strained voice. “I thought for sure I was going to die.”
“The thought crossed my mind, too,” Conrad admitted. “For all of us.”
She lifted her head so she could look up at him. “What about Leatherwood?”
“He’s gone. Once he was the only one left, he didn’t have the stomach for a fight anymore.”
“He’ll be back,” Selena said. “He’ll get some more men, and he’ll come after us. He’ll never give up, and neither will Father Agony.”
Conrad shook his head. “That won’t matter. By then we’ll have a good lead on them and they won’t be able to catch us. We can reach the Nevada line in a couple days.”
“You don’t think that will stop them, do you? It won’t make any difference.”
“Sure it will. We’ll find another place you can get on the train. There’ll be another westbound tomorrow or the next day.”
She sighed. “You’re probably right. It’s just that . . . I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Conrad didn’t blame her for being doubtful. They had been very lucky to keep her out of Leatherwood’s hands so far. Sooner or later that good fortune was bound to run out.
There were two more bodies to bury, and since Leatherwood had already fled, Conrad figured there was time to do that. He got the shovel from the buggy and went behind the shed. Arturo had drilled the man, all right. He lay on his back with a single bullet wound to the chest. It was a good shot, Conrad thought.
He noticed Selena’s saddlebags lying against the shed’s rear wall. She’d had them draped over her shoulder when she and Arturo had retreated back there. Conrad supposed they had slipped off during the shooting, and she’d been so upset she had forgotten about them. Without really thinking about it, he bent to pick them up and put them back in the buggy before he started digging the fresh grave.
A frown creased his forehead as he straightened and felt the weight of the saddlebags. They were heavier than they would have been if Selena had filled them with food and other supplies before she left Juniper Canyon.
At that moment, she hurried around the corner of the shed, only to stop short at the sight of Conrad standing there holding the saddlebags. “What are you doing?” she asked with a slightly frantic note in her voice.
“I saw your saddlebags and thought I’d do you a favor by putting them back in the buggy.” Conrad shook them up and down a little and heard faint clinking sounds from inside the pouches. “I figured they were full of provisions.”
Selena came toward him and stretched out a hand. “I’ll take those.”
“Not just yet.” Anger had begun to smolder inside Conrad. “I think I’ll have a look in here first.”
“You can’t! You don’t have any right—”
“Arturo and I have risked our lives several times for you, and as you pointed out, we haven’t even known you for a full day yet.” His voice was flat and hard. “I think that gives me the right to know exactly who—and what—we’ve been fighting for.”
Selena stared at him with a mixture of anger and fear on her face. “Please . . .” she said softly.
Conrad ignored her. He unfastened the catch on one of the bags, opened the flap, and turned it upside down.
A stream of gold and silver coins cascaded out and landed on the sandy ground with a musical tinkling as they piled up.
Selena glared at him. “Are you satisfied now?”
Conrad shook the last few coins out of the pouch, then toed them, spreading them out so he could get a good look at them. He saw five- and ten-dollar coins and an abundance of gold double eagles worth twenty dollars apiece. There had to be close to a thousand dollars lying on the ground at his feet, maybe more. Judging by the weight of the other saddlebag, it contained just as much.
“So Father Agony didn’t send his avenging angels after you just because he’s determined to marry you.”
“You had no right to do that,” Selena snapped, “and you have no right to judge me, either. You don’t know what it’s been like living there for the past few years, knowing that . . . that toad! . . . was determined to have me. You don’t know what it’s like to be sold like a piece of meat by your own father!”
Arturo came around the shed with a puzzled look on his face. “Is there some prob—Oh.” His eyes widened at the sight of the pile of coins on the ground. “Oh, my.”
Conrad dropped the saddlebags next to the money. “That’s why you wouldn’t let either of us tend to your horse. You didn’t want us picking up those bags and realizing something was in them besides supplies. You were afraid we wouldn’t help you if we knew you were a thief.”
“I tell you, it wasn’t like that!” Selena insisted. “I earned that money. I earned it in fear and loathing. I had to stand with a smile on my face while Hissop leered at me and patted me on the head and told me that someday I would be his wife. And my father stood right there smiling, too!”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Conrad said. “And I don’t mean to judge you. Lord knows, I’ve done plenty of things myself that I’m not proud of. But you could have told us about this. That way we would have known Leatherwood and the others were after you because of something other than Hissop’s wounded pride.”
“What difference would it have made? Leatherwood still would have tried to kill you and take me back to Juniper Canyon, no matter what the reason.”
Conrad had to admit she had a point. Once the lines were drawn and Leatherwood regarded him and Arturo as enemies, the violence would have played out the same way as long as the two of them tried to protect Selena. And Conrad also had to admit he wouldn’t have abandoned her and allowed Leatherwood to take her back to Hissop, even if he had known about the money.
He gestured toward the coins. “Just to be clear . . . you did steal this from Hissop, is that right?”
Selena’s chin jutted out defiantly. “Yes, I did. And I’d do it again.”
“You don’t have any money your mother saved to help you get away?”
“No. My father always kept her on too tight a rein to allow anything like that.”
“You didn’t happen to kill anybody when you stole the money and ran off, did you?”
Selena stared at him in evident disbelief. “Of course not! I wouldn’t do a thing like that.”
Conrad nudged the pile of coins with his boot. “Maybe not, but you’ve already done more than I would have expected just to look at you. That’s why one of those gunmen reacted like he did when I called you an innocent young woman. He said I was a fool for thinking that.”
Selena shook her head. “You’re not, Conrad. This is the only thing I’ve kept from you, and I only did it because I . . . was afraid. Think about it. You don’t know me, but I don’t really know you and Arturo, either. It wasn’t that I was afraid you wouldn’t help me. I was afraid if you knew about the money, you’d take it for yourselves and leave me for Leatherwood!”
“Miss Webster has a point, sir,” Arturo put in. “For all she knew when she met us, we might have been outlaws. Utter scoundrels. Cads. Bounders.”
“I get the idea, Arturo.” Conrad looked at Selena. “I don’t like being lied to, but I don’t suppose you really did that. You just didn’t tell us the whole truth. And you’re right that it wouldn’t have changed anything. So I guess”—he shrugged—“I guess I’m sorry. This money is your business, not ours. I’ll pick it up.”
“That’s all right.” She hurried forward and dropped to her knees next to the saddlebags and the spilled coins. “I’ll get it. You have other things to do.”
Arturo said, “I believe she’s referring to digging more graves, sir.”
“I know what she means.” Conrad picked up the shovel.
Selena had started stuffing the coins back in the saddlebags. She paused and looked up at Conrad. “You’re still going to take me to Nevada, or wherever you can put me on the train?”
“That’s right. Leatherwood and Hissop won’t get their hands on you if I can help it.”
“Thank you. I swear, I won’t lie to you again.”
Conrad nodded. He walked several yards away, and a moment later the shovel blade bit into the sandy ground as he began to dig.
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