Slashed cursed. He eased the Winchester’s hammer down against the firing pin, then tossed the rifle into some soft-looking brush to his right. Pecos set the wagon’s brake, wrapped the reins around the whip-sock, then tossed away his Colt’s revolving rifle, which had been leaning against the seat between him and Slash.
Crunching, scraping footsteps sounded to Slash’s right. He turned to see a man descending the steep, talus-strewn ridge on the trail’s right side, weaving through the scattered pines. He held a Spencer repeating rifle in one hand, aiming it out from his right hip while he used his free hand to grab tree trunks and branches to break his fall.
“Now, the hoglegs!” he shouted as he approached the bottom of the canyon.
He appeared to be a young man—whipcord lean and wearing a shabby black suit coat coppered with age over a ragged buckskin shirt unbuttoned halfway down his bony, hairless chest. A badly mistreated opera hat sat askew on his head, from which a tangled mess of lusterless, sandy hair hung straight down to his shoulders.
An old-model Colt jostled in a soft brown holster hanging loose on his right leg.
He stopped near the bottom of the trail, sidled up to a stout pine, and aimed the rifle straight out from his right shoulder, narrowing one coyote eye down the barrel at Slash’s head. “Ain’t gonna tell you old tinhorns again. Just gonna drill you a third eye. One you can’t see out of!”
He gave a crow-like caw of laughter, obviously pleased with his own joke.
“More insults,” Slash said, staring at the coyote-faced youngster. He couldn’t have been much over twenty. The scars from a recent bout of pimples remained on his cheeks and forehead. “First we’re old scalawags. Now we’re tinhorns.”
“You fellas are startin’ to hurt our feelin’s,” said the Pecos River Kid, looking from the younker on the right side of the trail to the Brit now descending the slope on the trail’s left side.
“We’ll hurt more than that, old man,” said the limey as he dropped down even with the kid, on the opposite side of the trail. He was older but not any better-looking. “If’n you don’t shed those shootin’ irons I can plainly see residin’ in your belt sheaths, you’re gonna be snugglin’ with the diamondbacks. The knives, too. Nice bowies, they appear. Might have to confiscate those. I’m a knife man, myself. Had to be in the Five Points. I have quite a collection, and an ever-growin’ one, I might add.”
He smiled, showing large, horsey teeth the color of old ivory. “I keep ’em sharp enough to split hairs with, don’t ya know.” The smile grew more suggestive, menacing.
Slash exchanged another dark glance with Pecos. Slash carefully slid his two matched, stag-butted Colt .44s from their holsters—one positioned for the cross-draw on his left hip, the other thonged on his right thigh—and tossed them away, again aiming for a relatively soft landing. As a man who’d lived his life depending on his guns to stay alive, he didn’t like mistreating them.
Pecos wore only one pistol—a big, top-break Russian. 44—in a holster tied down on his right thigh. He pulled the big popper free of its holster with two fingers and heaved it into some brush on the trail’s left side, near where the limey stood aiming his Winchester at him.
When he and Slash had both gotten shed of their bowie knives as well, the two ex-cutthroats and current freighters sat in uneasy silence, hands raised shoulder-high, palms out. Slash didn’t like this position. He wasn’t used to it. He was usually the one calling the shots and facing men staring back at him, warily, with their own hands raised shoulder-high.
He hadn’t realized what an uneasy feeling it was, having guns held on you, your life almost literally in the hands of someone else. Someone who might just have an itchy trigger finger, like the scrawny kid in the opera hat, for instance. The kid not only looked like he had an itch to sling some lead, but the maniacal glint in his coyote eyes told Slash he had a fondness for killing.
Or at least of inflicting fear.
The kid and the limey continued on down the slope, keeping their rifles aimed at Slash and Pecos. As they did, two more men appeared, stepping out from behind boulders on either side of the trail, thirty and fifty yards beyond, respectively, where the trail doglegged to the left.
One was a big, beefy Mexican in a shabby suit that was two sizes too small for him. He’d probably stolen the garb off some hapless wayfarer now feeding buzzards in a deep mountain ravine. He wore a bowler hat and two sidearms, and was wielding a Winchester Yellowboy rifle. A thick, black mustache drooped down over the corners of his mouth.
The other man was almost as big as the Mexican, but he was older, maybe in his forties. He had red hair beneath a black slouch hat. He was dressed in a paisley vest and sleeve garters, like a pimp or a gambler, and he carried a double-barreled shotgun at port arms across his chest—a grim, angry-looking gent with a large, wide slab of a face outfitted with small, gray eyes set too far apart, giving him the look of a demented mongrel. All four were likely riding a bout of hard luck in these remote mountains, probably having followed gold veins to nowhere. They’d probably thrown in together to make do, which meant haunting lonely trails for pilgrims to plunder and send nestling with the diamondbacks.
The redheaded mongrel’s thick lips were set in a hard line. His ratty string tie blew back over one shoulder as he caught up to the Mexican, and they stopped about ten feet out beyond the two lead mules, who shifted uneasily in their hames and traces.
“How much you carryin’?” asked the red-haired man, giving his chin a belligerent rise and shoving it forward.
“I’ll do the askin’, Cord,” said the Brit.
“Get on with it then,” Cord said, an angry flush blazing in his nose.
The Mexican grinned as though nothing thrilled him like dissension.
The limey turned to Slash and Pecos. “How much you carryin’?”
The kid squealed a little laugh. The Mexican’s grin broadened.
Their demeanors told Slash that they weren’t professionals, and that they hadn’t been together long. Sure enough, they’d merely thrown in together to try their hands at highway robbery for a stake that would take them to the Southwest before the first winter snows. Their types were a dime a dozen on the western frontier.
“What’re you talkin’ about?” Slash said.
“Don’t let’s chase the nanny goat around the apple orchard,” the kid said, canting his head and twisting his face angrily. “We seen you comin’ up this trail two days ago. You had a good load on ya. You came up from Fort Collins. We followed you out of town. Now, your wagon bed is empty, and we’re thinkin’ you mighta made a tidy little sum for deliverin’ them goods up to one o’ the minin’ camps in the higher reaches.”
Pecos glanced at his partner and said, “Slash, I think they’re fixin’ to rob us of our hard-earned wages. What do you think of that?”
“I don’t like it, Pecos. I don’t like it one bit.”
Pecos looked at the limey and then at the kid standing on the opposite side of the trail from him, aiming his rifle out from his right hip. “Why don’t you four raggedy-heeled vermin get yourselves some honest jobs? Try workin’ for a livin’!”
Given his and Slash’s shared past, Slash glanced at him skeptically. Pecos caught the glance and shrugged it off.
“Wait, wait, wait,” the kid said, scowling again, again canting his head to one side and staring at the two former cutthroats through skeptically narrowed eyes. “Did you say Slash an’ Pecos?”
Slash winced.
Now that he and Pecos had given up their outlaw ways and had bought a freight company in Fort Collins and become honest, hardworking, and more or less upstanding citizens, he and his partner had tried to forget their old handles and call each other by their given names instead. Slash was now Jim or Jimmy, and Pecos was now Mel or Melvin.
Old habits died hard.
The kid grinned like the cat that ate the canary and slapped his thigh. “I’ll be damned!”
“What?” asked the Mex.
The kid glanced at each of his long coulee-riding partners in turn and said, “You know who these two old coots are?”
“Who?” asked the limey.
“Why, they’re Slash Braddock and the Pecos River Kid, that’s who!” The kid threw his head back and laughed, showing that he was missing one of his eyeteeth.
“You mean,” said the Brit, dubiously, “you think these two old men sitting here in this freight wagon are Slash an’ Pecos?” He stared at the two freighters and shook his head. “No. No. Nonsense. You’re gettin’ soft in your thinker box, Donny boy.”
“We ain’t that old, fer chrissakes!” Slash said, scowling angrily at the younger men, all four of whom were now laughing at him and his partner. “We ain’t but fifty or so . . .”
“Give ’er take,” put in Pecos.
“Whatever,” Slash said. “That hardly makes us old men. Besides, were you fellas raised by wolves? Don’t you know you’re supposed to respect your elders, not rob and belittle ’em?”
The limey shook his head again and stared in disbelief at the two middle-aged freighters. “Damn, you two sure have changed. I’ve seen pictures of you both in the illustrated newspapers, an’, an’, well . . .”
“Yeah, well, we all get older,” Slash said, indignant. “Just wait—it’ll happen to you, amigo.”
“What’s Slash Braddock an’ the Pecos River Kid ridin’ a freight wagon for?” Donny asked, keeping his rifle aimed at the two former cutthroats. “You mossy-horns get too stove up to sit a saddle? Your peepers dim so bad that you can’t shoot?”
He smiled again, mockingly.
“As if it was any of your business,” Pecos said, “which it ain’t, we was both pardoned by none other than the president of the United States his ownself. So we got no more paper on our heads, and we’re free to live honest lives workin’ honest jobs, which is exactly what we’re tryin’ to do.”
That wasn’t the entire story. The agreement was that they’d be pardoned for their many sundry sins in exchange for, under the supervision of Chief Marshal Luther T. “Bleed-Em-So” Bledsoe, working unofficially from time to time as deputy U.S. marshals, hunting down the worst of the worst criminals on the western frontier. Between those man-hunting jobs, they were free to run their freight business, which they’d been doing now for six months, having bought the small outfit from an old man in Fort Collins who’d wanted to retire and live with his daughter in Denver.
“You’re also free to get robbed by blokes like us,” said the Brit, narrowing his eyes threateningly again, clicking back his rifle’s hammer. “Now... back to how much money you’re carryin’, which, by the way, we’ll be relievin’ you of.”
CHAPTER 2
Pecos turned to Slash and made a face. “Ah, hell. How much we got, Slash?”
Slash sighed as he reached inside his black wool suit coat, which he wore over a pinto vest and suspenders.
“Slow, now,” the limey warned, steadying the aimed Spencer in his hand.
Slowly, Slash reached into the breast pocket of his chambray shirt and withdrew the manila envelope in which he’d collected his and Pecos’s pay after delivering an organ to a canvas dance hall up in Boulder and sundry dry goods and whiskey to a mercantile in Estes Park.
He ran a thumb over the slender stack of bills, making soft clicking sounds. “One hundred and fifty dollars.”
“What?” the kid said, shocked.
“You heard me.”
“You mean you two old cutthroats ran a load of freight all the way up there into them mountains and are only bringin’ down one hundred and fifty dollars for your trouble?”
Slash felt the flush of embarrassment rise in his leathery but clean-shaven cheeks. Pecos glanced at him. He, too, looked sheepish. It used to be they’d done jobs for thousands of dollars. They never would have done a job—taken down a train or a stagecoach—unless they were sure they’d take home at least three times what they were carrying today for a whole lot more work.
Now, here they were busting their backs several days on the trail for a measly two hundred and fifty.
“That ain’t so bad,” Slash said, indignant.
“And it’s honest,” Pecos added, defensively.
“Jesus Christ!” said the limey, glancing at the kid. “From now on, I reckon we’d best keep our sights on whole freight trains instead of single wagons.”
“And on younger men,” said the redheaded mongrel, Cord, mockery flashing in his eyes.
Slash said, “You could try makin’ an honest livin’ your ownselves.”
“We tried that,” Donny said. “We been bustin’ rocks for two summers. The winters damn near killed us. We found a little color, all right, but not enough for a stake. Hell, this is easier.” He moved toward Slash’s side of the wagon, keeping his rifle aimed straight out from his hip. “Throw it down.”
“We need that money more than you do,” Pecos said.
“You don’t need it.” The kid stopped and looked up darkly at the two former cutthroats, his mouth lengthening, though the corners did not rise. “You ain’t gonna need a dime from here on in.”
“What’re you talkin’ about?” Pecos said.
Quietly, the kid said, “Throw the money down, Slash Braddock. Just toss it down here by my right boot.” The kid tapped the toe of his boot against the ground.
Slash glanced at Pecos. Pecos looked back at him, expressionless.
Slash glanced at the limey, then turned to the kid. “If you’re gonna kill us anyway, why should I turn over the money we worked so hard for?”
“You never know,” the kid said with quiet menace, dark amusement glinting in his cold eyes, “I might change my mind... once I see the money. It’s enough to buy us all whiskey and girls for a coupla nights, anyway. We haven’t had neither in several days now.
“Throw it down, Slash,” the limey ordered.
Pecos turned to his partner, his eyes wide with fear. “Oh, hell—throw it down, Slash. Don’t give ’em a reason to kill us.” He glanced at Donny. “You wouldn’t kill two old codgers in cold blood, would you, boy? Throw it down, Slash. Throw it down, an’ let’s go home!”
“Yeah,” Cord said, moving slowly toward the wagon, stepping around the mules and striding toward Slash’s side of the driver’s box. The Mexican was sidling around toward Pecos. “Throw the money down, Slash... so you old cutthroats can go on home. Looks like one of you has lost his nerve in his old age.”
He stopped and blinked once, smiling.
“Oh, lordy,” Pecos said, throatily.
Slash glanced at him. “What is it, Pecos?”
“My ticker.”
“What?”
“My ticker. It’s... it’s actin’ up again.” Sweat dribbled down the middle-aged cutthroat’s cheeks.
“Ah, Jesus, Pecos—not now!”
“What the hell’s happening?” Donny said.
“Ah, hell,” Pecos said, leaning forward, dropping a knee onto the driver’s boot’s splintered wooden floor. “I can’t... I can’t breathe, Slash!”
“What the hell is going on?” asked the limey, striding down the slope, letting his rifle hang nearly straight down along his right leg.
“Can’t you see the poor man’s havin’ ticker trouble?” Slash said, dropping to a knee beside his partner.
“He’s fakin’ it,” said the kid. “He ain’t havin’ ticker trouble.”
Slash shot an angry look at him. “Yes, he is. It started a couple months back. We were hefting heavy freight down from the wagon box, and his chest tightened up on him and his arm went numb. He said he felt like a mule kicked him.” He turned back to Pecos, who was really sweating now, face mottled both red and gray. “Fight it, Pecos. Fight it off . . . just like last time!”
“I’ll be damned,” said the limey, leaning forward over the wagon’s left front wheel and tipping his head to one side to stare up into Pecos’s face. “I think he really is having ticker complaints.” He chuckled and glanced at the
kid. “I think we done made the Pecos River Kid so nervous, his heart is givin’ out on him!”
They all had a good laugh at that.
Meanwhile, Slash patted his partner’s back and said, “We need to get him down from here. We need to get him off the wagon and into some shade. Anybody got any whiskey? The sawbones told him he should have a few swigs of who-hit-John when he feels a spell comin’ on.”
“Yeah, I got whiskey,” the limey said. “But I sure as hell ain’t sharin’ it with him.”
They all had another good round of laughs.
“Just hand the money down, you old mossyhorn,” the kid said, extending his hand up toward Slash, who’d stuffed the envelope into his coat pocket. “Then you can be on your way and get that poor old broken-down excuse for the Pecos River Kid to a pill roller... if he lives that long.” He snapped his fingers impatiently. “Come on, hand it down, Slash. I ain’t gonna ask you again!”
“Oh, hell!” Slash said, drawing the envelope out of his coat pocket. “Here, take the blasted money!” He threw the envelope down. In doing so, he revealed the small, silver-chased, pearl-gripped over-and-under derringer he’d also pulled out of his pocket and that was residing in the palm of his right hand.
He flipped the gun upright. He closed his right index finger over one of the two eyelash triggers housed inside the brass guard. He shoved the pretty little popper down toward the kid, who blinked up at him, slow to comprehend what he’d just spied in Slash’s hand, his mind still on the money beside his right boot.
There was a pop like a stout branch snapping under a heavy foot.
The kid flinched as though he’d been pestered by a fly. His eyes snapped wide. Instantly, the rifle tumbled from his hands as he lifted them toward the ragged hole in the right side of his slender, lightly freckled neck.
A half an eye wink after the derringer spoke, Pecos, recovering miraculously from his near-death experience, shoved his right hand beneath the driver’s seat just off his right shoulder. He closed his hand around the neck of the twelve-gauge sawed-off shotgun housed there in the strap-iron cage he’d rigged for it, constructed to resemble part of the seat’s spring frame.
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