Iron Eyes Must Die (5 page)

‘
Ain’t
nothing to be proud of!’ Payne shouted. ‘I heard of skunks but it
don’t mean I cotton to the critters!’

‘
Why
not?’ Iron Eyes leaned around the desk and fired again. ‘I reckon
you must be kin to skunks!’

A handful of bullets came back
almost instantly. The side of the desk was
smoldering from the heat of the hot
lead which had taken off its veneer.

‘
You
sure are a dumb critter, Iron Eyes!’ The sheriff laughed loudly as
he moved behind a huge wooden writing-bureau. ‘Dumbest critter I
ever done met!’

The bounty hunter slid to the opposite end of
the desk and looked around it. He wanted to kill this corrupt
lawman but knew that if he did, it would be his image on the next
batch of wanted posters to come off the presses. He would become
the hunted not the hunter.

‘
How
come I’m so dumb?’ he called out.

‘
You
fell into our trap!’ Payne continued to laugh.

‘
Trap?’ Iron Eyes repeated the word.

‘
We
knew you was coming here!’ the sheriff added. ‘We knew before you
did!’

‘
You
did?’ Iron Eyes was puzzled.

‘
Sure!’ Payne continued. ‘We was wired about you. You might
be a man that hunts bounty, but there’s a whole lot of outlaws
that’ll pay for your scalp, boy!’

‘
But I
was trailin’ the Jardine gang,’ Iron Eyes said loudly. ‘It was them
that headed here. I just followed them. There ain’t no way you
could have known I was coming here. Even I didn’t know
that!’

Payne laughed again.

‘
They
led you here, ya dumb fool! That was the plan! We set you up so we
could get ya either shot dead or strung up legal like! Either way,
me and my boys would make a lot of money.’

Iron Eyes stared across the
room into
the darkest corner.

‘
You
tryin’ to tell me that I’ve got a bounty on my head?’

‘
Damn
right!’

‘
That
don’t make no sense at all!’ Iron Eyes was confused by the
knowledge that he too had a bounty on his own head. Not one
arranged by the law, but one created by outlaws who wanted him
dead.

‘
It
does!’ the sheriff argued. ‘But you ain’t smart enough to figure it
out! Outlaws don’t want you huntin’ them down no more. They’ll pay
big bucks to have you stopped! Now do ya get it, Iron
Eyes?’

Iron Eyes
maneuvered himself up and then
raced across the room. A hail of bullets tore out of the black
shadows. One caught him high in his shoulder. The bounty hunter
felt himself being knocked off balance. He hit a wall and then
crashed into the ground. He blasted three shots back.

There was a sound which he had heard many
times in his life as a hunter.

It was the sound only made when a bullet hits
the belly. Iron Eyes knew that whether it was a deer or a man, the
sound was always the same.

Iron Eyes dragged himself back up and then
saw the sheriff coming at him with his gun held in his hand.

The lawman stopped and gritted his teeth.

Blood poured from the hole in his middle.
Sheriff Payne staggered and then fired again. The bullet missed its
target by only a whisker.

The bounty hunter dragged his
hammer back and went to return fire when he saw the blank
expression come over the lawman
’s features.

Payne fell like a tree.

The sound of his face breaking filled the
room.

‘
Damn
it all, Sheriff
¹
.’ Iron Eyes snarled. ‘Now you made me a
wanted man! Now I’m hunted by the law and the vermin!’

Suddenly the sound of fists
hammering on the front door echoed all around
the sheriff’s office. Iron Eyes
turned his head and glared in horror at the shaking
door.

‘
Sheriff?’ one of the deputies yelled out.

‘
You
OK, Brook?’ another shouted.

‘
Who’s
doing all the shooting in there?’

Iron Eyes rushed to the side door and slid
its bolt across. He pushed it open and stared into the alley which
ran the full length of the building. With blood pouring from his
shoulder, he staggered out into the morning light. He had no idea
where he was going. All the bounty hunter knew for sure was that he
had to get away from this place as fast as he could.

As Iron Eyes staggered between the buildings
towards the back alleys, he wondered where his Indian pony might
be. It had to be somewhere in this sun-bleached excuse for a town,
he thought. But where?

With every step he took he
stared down at the ground and watched the
droplets of blood which marked his
trail. He slipped the Navy Colt into his trail coat pocket and
pressed his hand over the wound in his shoulder. He tried vainly to
stop the blood from flowing out of his body.

He was leaving a trail that a blind man could
follow, and he knew it. His only hope was that none of the people
in this cursed settlement knew how to track.

Iron Eyes threw himself over a low sod wall
and cut across to another alley. He pushed a gate open and
cautiously edged his way towards a corner. His eyes burned with
lack of sleep and the bright morning sun which was still low.

‘
Where
am I?’ he growled to himself. ‘And where did they take my
pony?’

There were a few people off in the distance
but they did not look in his direction. They were absorbed in their
own daily rituals. He ran across from one back alley to another.
Then he saw the corral and the high-sided livery stable.

It was fifty feet away.

Somehow he managed to find the strength to
cover the distance without drawing the attention of anyone.

Iron Eyes climbed through the
corral
’s
bottom and middle poles and ran through the large open doors into
the dark interior of the stable. A number of horses were in stalls
to both sides of the tall figure. His eyes darted around the
animals until he spotted his own pony tied up in a stall to his
right.

The pitiful creature was still saddled.

He was about to go towards it when he heard
raised voices out in the street behind him. Iron Eyes somehow
managed to reach the pony. He searched its saddlebags until he
found a half bottle of whiskey. He pulled its cork and swallowed a
third of its fiery contents before his eyes spotted a ladder.

Iron Eyes moved around the pony
and climbed up into the hay loft. He dropped into the hay and
crawled to
the loft door. He stared through the narrow gap between its
weathered boards.

The street was no longer quiet.

Gleaming deputy stars flashed in the early
morning sun.

The bell of the massive
locomotive had rung out across the arid plains for more than twenty
minutes before the long train reached the small settlement. A blast
of steam brought the deafening whistle to life as the long vehicle
came to a halt. The engineer and stoker had not seen anything
untoward as they expertly brought the iron horse to a standstill
beside the water-tower. Dead-man
’s Flats appeared to be exactly the same
as it always was.

But the peaceful scene was about to
alter.

As passengers slowly disembarked to take
advantage of the sun-drenched stores which faced the six cars, they
did not notice the seven men who lurked unseen in the shadows.

Snake Adams walked to Brewster
and Mayne, who had been keeping their six
mounts quiet behind the cafe. He
snapped his fingers and drew their attention to him.

‘
You
and One Ear take the mounts a few miles down the tracks to where
the trail heads off south, Ferdy!’ Adams ordered.

‘
You
reckon there’ll be enough time for you boys to get the job done by
then, Snake?’ Mayne asked, rubbing his bearded chin.

‘
Whatever happens, you wait there for us!’ Adams added
firmly. ‘I’ll make sure the train stops there for us to get off,
Ferdy.’

‘
You
sure that it’s on there, Snake?’ Brewster questioned. His eyes
focused on the last car of the long train. A car unlike all the
others. A car with no windows and a solitary sliding
door.

Adams nodded.

‘
It’s
on there OK, One Ear!’

Both men stepped into their stirrups and
hauled themselves on to their high saddles. They shared the reins
of the five other horses between them.

‘
See
you later!’ Mayne nodded as he and Brewster spurred their horses.
Snake Adams inhaled deeply and watched as the pair of riders led
all their mounts a few miles down the trail.

Buck Harris moved to
Adams
’s
side. He was sweating heavily and stroking his gun grips with his
gloved hands.

‘
There
must be twenty or more passengers trying to get served in the
stores, Snake!’ he said nervously. ‘We got all the townsfolk tied
up behind the saloon. What’ll we do?’

‘
Go
tell them that everything’s on the house, Buck!’ Adams grinned.
‘Say that they can have anything they want. Liquor, grub and
anything else they take a hankering for! They won’t ask no
questions.’

‘
Why
won’t they ask questions?’ Harris frowned.

‘’
Cause
folks are greedy!’
Adams answered. ‘If they think they can strip this place clean,
they’ll do it!’

Harris shrugged and headed towards the
passengers.

Adams stepped down from the boardwalk and
rested his knuckles on his hips. He stared at the train and bit his
lip as the rest of his men gathered around him.

‘
What
we gonna do, Snake?’ Kyle Parker asked as he looked along the
length of the train. ‘I never thought it would be this
big!’

‘
What
we want is in the last car!’ Adams said knowingly.

‘
That’s a damn shame!’ Coop Starr grumbled. ‘That means we
have to take the whole damn thing!’

Adams nodded.

‘
Yep,
the whole damn thing!’

Ben Lynch leaned close to Adams.

‘
The
train crew are looking a tad curious, Snake! I reckon that they’re
wondering where the railroad folks are who are ’sposed to help them
water their boiler!’

Adams glanced along towards the
steaming engine. Lynch was right. The engineer and stoker were
hanging out from
their high cab, looking for the workers who lived in the
small town. Two attendants were also standing on the wooden
platform near the first two cars.

‘
I
don’t like this, Snake!’ Parker admitted. ‘This is gonna be tougher
than we thought.’

The others grunted in agreement.

‘
This
ain’t no tougher than any other job we’ve taken on, boys!’ Adams
insisted. ‘In fact, I’d say it’s as perfect as it could
be!’

‘
Yeah?’ Starr raised both eyebrows.

‘
We’ll
make the driver take this train to where the boys are waiting with
our horses. Then we’ll have them unhitch the last car and send them
on their way,’ Adams said as he watched the huge chute pouring
water from the tower into the thirsty boiler of the locomotive.
‘We’ll get what we’re after once we have that car separated from
the rest of the train.’

‘
What
exactly is it you want out of that car, Snake?’ Starr asked. ‘You
ain’t told us nothing about this job and we’ve ridden with you for
over a hundred miles. What could be so darned
important?’

Adams glanced at the inquisitive outlaw.

‘
You’ll know when I decide to tell you, Coop! Not one minute
sooner. OK?’

Starr gulped and nodded.

‘
OK,
Snake! Don’t get riled up.’

‘
Takes
more than a back-shooter like you to get me riled, Coop,’ Adams
said. He gazed at the end car. ‘What I will tell ya though is that
the thing I’m after is worth more than its weight in
gold!’

‘
It
ain’t money?’ Parker turned his head and stared at the thoughtful
Adams.

Adams smiled.

‘
Some
things are worth more than money, Kyle. A lot more.’

‘
I’ll
have to take ya word on that, Snake.’

‘
Damn
right!’ Adams spat.

The sound of pounding boots
drew their
attention. They all turned and watched as Buck Harris ran
out of the shadows and up to them. He could not have looked more
excited.

‘
I’ve
never seen folks so happy, Snake,’ he said in a surprised tone. ‘I
told them what you said about everything being free and up for
grabs, and they just swarmed like locusts over the stores and
saloon. Mostly the saloon.’