To Reap and to Sow (17 page)

A shot blasted through the air and struck home loudly enough to be heard from a distance. Seeing that they'd dropped their target, the person behind the rifle let out a victorious cheer.

“All right, all right,” Clint said. “You hit a bottle. No need to celebrate just yet.”

Lynn straightened up and held the rifle propped against her hip as if she was posing for a photographer. “Considering that's only after a few lessons, I think it's more than enough cause to celebrate.”

“See if you can spot the other target I set up for you,” Clint replied.

Lowering herself back down so she was lying on her stomach, Lynn stretched her legs out behind her and settled in behind her rifle. The constant flow of wind caught her hair and a piece of her skirt, ruffling both but not disturbing either too much.

Clint sat beside her on the roof of the house. His legs dangled over the side and he used one hand to keep his hat from flying off.

“So,” Lynn said as she sighted along the top of her rifle and slowly searched the field in front of her. “You've been spending a lot of time with Tina.”

“Yep.”

“She and I have always been close. One thing that bothers me, though…” After being still for a second, Lynn pulled the trigger and sent a single shot into the field. The shot was followed by the sound of shattering glass. “She always goes after any man who I spend more than an hour with.”

Clint had been watching the bottle he'd placed in the field and was genuinely impressed that Lynn had found it and hit it so quickly. “Sounds like something you two should work out. Nice shot, by the way.”

Lynn looked up at him for a few moments before grinning. “I've seen some men squirm when I bring that up.”

“Well, there's plenty worse things out there than two friends who squabble over things like that. Would either one of you try to steal a husband from the other?”

“No,” Lynn replied quickly.

“Then that's all you need to know. Everything else is just bickering. If you don't like that about her, maybe you shouldn't be friends.”

Lynn was still staring up at him for a while, as if she was mulling something over in her head. After settling her cheek against the rifle once more, she said, “We've come to an agreement about this very thing a long time ago. I just like to see how a man reacts when he hears about it.”

“Why go through all that? Is it that much fun to see someone squirm?”

“Sometimes, yeah.” With that, Lynn fired off another shot.

“There's no more bottles out there, you know.”

Lynn was still grinning as she levered in another round. “The reason we bring this up with certain men is sort of…a test.”

“Should I even ask what you're testing for?”

“To see if a fellow can handle both of us.”

Clint looked down at her to see if she was kidding. Even though Lynn wasn't looking back at him, he could tell she knew she was being watched. He could also tell that she wasn't kidding.

“My imagination is running wild,” Clint said as he shifted his gaze out toward the field.

Lynn fired another shot and levered in another round. “When all this is over, maybe we could celebrate.”

“Just us two, or…?”

Allowing the question to hang in the air, Lynn fired a round into the field. This time, however, she hit something. A single crow flew up from the spot where the bullet had landed. Lynn levered in a round, sighted down the barrel and fired a shot.

Clint let out a low whistle as he watched the crow spin in midair and drop to the ground. “I didn't even see that one hiding down there. Very impressive.”

“Thank you,” Lynn replied as she extended her arm so Clint could help her up.

“Seems like you've got plenty of hidden talents.”

“Play your cards right,” she said with a wink, “and some more of 'em won't stay hidden too much longer.”

As he helped Lynn climb down from the roof, Clint had a hard time focusing on the steps he was taking. His mind was elsewhere, sifting through the many wonderful possibilities that had arisen during their target practice.

At least some of those possibilities had to do with Lynn's marksmanship.

It was early evening and Clint was getting restless. He wasn't the only one. Wes, Tina and Lynn were feeling the same way. Fixing and eating supper had given them all something to do, but that didn't hold them over for long. Eventually, Clint found himself with Wes riding the perimeter of the farm.

“You think Tina's going to be able to hold her own?” Clint asked.

“Hell, yes,” the farmer replied proudly. “She's always been a fine shot. I taught her myself when she was a girl. Lynn too.”

“Yeah. I found that out a while ago. What about you? How are you holding up?”

“Strangely enough, I wish those assholes would take a run at me sooner rather than later. If they don't come soon, does that mean I'm supposed to live with a knot in my gut for years to come?”

“If they don't come soon,” Clint replied, “I doubt there'll be a problem. I'd give it a few days to a week at the most. Anything past that is probably beyond the limit of the killers' patience.”

“Let's hope so.”

As if answering the old man's wish, a shot was fired in the distance. Both Wes and Clint looked that way and then looked at each other.

“That came from the house,” Wes said.

Although the farmer got his horse moving first, Clint had no trouble overtaking him. Eclipse raced forward and reached the house in no time. Clint pulled back on the reins before getting there and then motioned for Wes to do the same. The farmer slowed, but looked too anxious to keep still for long.

“Until we see who's shooting at what, we shouldn't just run into anything,” Clint said.

Wes nodded, but didn't look happy about it. He seemed to feel a little better once he got his rifle in his hands. “I'll head toward the house and you circle around the barn. Sound good to you?”

“Sounds great. Let's go.” With that, Clint flicked the reins with one hand and filled the other with his modified Colt. Eclipse responded to every subtle shift of Clint's legs or feet, moving as if he could read Clint's thoughts.

“They're over there, Wes!” Lynn shouted from the house.

Clint couldn't see where Lynn might have been pointing, but he could sure see the two figures rushing away from the barn. As soon as one of the figures leaned out to look back at the house, another shot was fired at him.

“God damn!” Smalls shouted as he pulled his head back and ran a little faster toward the stable.

As he steered to cut the men off, Clint sifted through various calculations in his head. He estimated things like how much he was moving in the saddle and how much farther it would be before he was in the Colt's range. He didn't have to wonder how long it would take for the other men to hear him coming, since both of them looked directly at him.

Clint recognized one of them as Mark Rowlett. Although the other wasn't wearing a duster, Clint was fairly certain he was one of the bank robbers who had been chased out of Thickett. That was more than enough for Clint to raise his gun and take the first shot that presented itself.

The Colt bucked against Clint's palm and sent a shot past Mark's head. Both men raised their hands and fired right back at him. Eclipse didn't need to feel more than half a nudge from Clint to know what to do. The Darley Arabian turned sharply from the gunfire and tore away.

Clint twisted in the saddle and fired at the two men again. Both of them had already ducked behind the stable. The bank robber was even taking the time to line up his shot.

Cursing under his breath, Clint pulled on the reins to make Eclipse turn sharply around and change direction before Smalls drew a bead on him. Another shot hissed a few yards away from him and might have drawn blood if Clint hadn't made the sudden move. Unfortunately, it took another couple of seconds for Eclipse to turn around again.

“Go on!” Smalls shouted.

Both Smalls and Mark ran from the stable and into the nearby field. Their horses waited there behind a few trees. Even though Clint had seen the animals there, he hadn't had much time to do anything about it. Keeping his body low over the stallion's neck, he got Eclipse racing toward the two men.

Before making it to the field, Smalls turned his back to the trees and kept moving toward them using a backward shuffle. He wore a wide smile on his face as he raised both arms to take aim with a pistol in each hand.

Clint pulled sharply on the reins and fired a shot at Smalls, hoping it might be enough to keep the approaching storm of lead away for another second or two. But Smalls didn't even flinch at the incoming round. Instead, he started pulling his triggers and firing both guns at Clint.

Firing reflexively, Clint put one bullet into Smalls's arm. Even that wasn't enough to back the other man down. Just as the incoming bullets got closer to hitting Clint, another shot was fired from the house.

That shot sparked against the gun in Smalls's right hand and forced him to turn tail and race for his horse.

Clint glanced at the house and saw Lynn wave at him from the roof. He didn't know how she'd managed to get up there so quickly, but he reminded himself to thank her for it when he got back. For the moment, however, Clint had his hands full.

He wasn't about to let Mark get away from him again, so Clint fired a few more times at the trees and snapped the reins so Eclipse could close the distance between them.

Within seconds after Mark and Smalls stopped shooting, they were in their saddles and racing away from the trees. They were racing away from the house, as well, and heading into one of Wes's fields.

Putting Eclipse on a straight course, Clint gripped the reins in his teeth and used both hands to quickly reload the Colt. It wasn't the safest way to go about the task, but it sure brought a smile to his face as he closed the distance between himself and the fleeing gunmen.

“Where the hell did those two come from?” Wes asked as he ran to his front porch.

Tina stepped outside carrying a shotgun. “I thought I saw something moving and Lynn spotted them poking around the barn. She took a shot at them and spooked them before they got inside.”

“So they didn't make it into the barn?” Wes asked.

“I don't think so. I went to get the shotgun, and Lynn climbed up to the roof like we agreed if there was any trouble. I think she might have hit one of them from up there.”

Wes looked his daughter over quickly and let out his breath when he saw she wasn't hurt. “We'd better all get to our spots like we talked about. This might be what we were preparing for.”

 

“I swear that gold is in there!” Mark hollered as he furiously whipped his horse with the reins. “If we could've gotten into that barn, you would've seen for yourself. You gotta believe me!”

Still wearing the grin that had been on his face since the shooting started, Smalls fired one more shot over his shoulder and looked back to Mark. “You can stop the cryin'. I believe you.”

For a moment, Mark was more focused on Smalls than on the man who was chasing them. “You do?”

“Sure I do. With that many guns guarding the place, there's gotta be somethin' worth having in that barn. There sure as hell is more than just some damn bales of hay. Having a chunk of gold in there sounds about right to me.”

“So do we go get the others?” Mark asked. “Or should we come back later?”

Another shot was fired from behind them, which hissed through the air directly between them. Mark pulled away so quickly that he nearly fell from his saddle. Smalls, on the other hand, casually checked over his shoulder as if looking for a sign of rain.

“If we wait, those farmers will just find some more guns to guard that place with,” Smalls said. “Or they'll move the gold. We'll head back and catch 'em when they think we're runnin'.”

“Just us?”

“Hell, no! I got a little surprise for them farmers.”

 

Clint snapped the Colt shut with a flick of his wrist. He kept the gun in hand while taking hold of the reins. The field was flat, but there were plenty of tall crops and the occasional scarecrow in his line of sight to give the two men in front of him a little cover. Clint didn't know what the crops were, but he sure could have gotten a better shot without them in his way.

He urged Eclipse into a row between the tall stalks and was about to close the gap even more when he saw another group of horses converge on the two in front of him. As soon as both groups met up, they turned around to face Clint head-on.

Knowing a bad spot when he saw one, Clint followed suit and made a direction change of his own. Rather than head straight back to the barn, he circled around to the left and hung on as the stalks whipped at him from both sides.

Now that Eclipse was no longer running straight down one of the rows in between the stalks, it wasn't so easy to build up speed. It was a lot easier, however, to disappear from view as both groups of gunmen started firing toward Clint.

 

“Glad to see you boys could make it,” Smalls shouted at Vin and John, who rode on either side of Joey.

John tipped his hat and replied, “All we needed to do was keep this one quiet while we followed you two.”

“What about the gold?” Vincent asked. “Is it there?”

“There's somethin' valuable in that barn,” Smalls replied excitedly. “And it'll belong to us when we ride out of here.”

With that, Smalls snapped his reins and led the charge onto the Petrowski farm.