by Rory Black
The five other outlaws followed Lynch’s lead. They all grabbed at their reins, tore them from the long hitching pole and grabbed their saddle horns.
‘Ya better not try and mount them horses!’ Iron Eyes shouted out. ‘I’ll kill ya if ya do!’
Adams used his tall horse as a shield and stared over its neck at the awesome vision of the legendary bounty hunter. The outlaw waved his left hand at his men.
‘Wait up, boys! He means it. He’ll kill us all if we try and ride out of here.’
The outlaws remained between their horses. They knew that even the deadly Iron Eyes could not shoot through the body of a half-dozen mounts.
Iron Eyes held both his guns at hip height and stood like a statue before the outlaws. It was as if he were daring them to react. Daring them to try and outgun him.
‘What’s Snake Adams doing in this neck of the woods?’ the thin man shouted. ‘Come to let me kill ya?’
Adams cocked the hammers of his gun.
‘We don’t want no truck with you, Iron Eyes! We was only here on business. Leave us be and we’ll ride.’
‘Ya want me to let you go?’ Iron Eyes shouted.
‘We’d be obliged ifn ya did. Like I said, we are only here to meet up with an Eastern gent. He owes us some money.’
The keen mind of the bounty hunter started to work on the words coming at him from Adams.
‘What was the name of this gent, Snake?’
‘Jackson Wylie!’ Adams called back. ‘You know him?’
Lighting flashed again. The horses spooked but their masters managed to keep them in check.
‘Maybe!’ Iron Eyes thought about the man he had knocked out a few minutes earlier in the saloon. He tried to figure out what sort of connection there could be between a city dude and the six outlaws.
‘I reckon ya toying with us, Iron Eyes!’ Adams shouted again at the bounty hunter. ‘Tell us what ya know about him. Is he alive or dead?’
‘Why would he wanna do business with gutter slime like you, Snake?’ Iron Eyes taunted.
‘’Cause I got somethin’ he wants!’ Adams yelled.
‘Well he ain’t gonna give ya no money at the moment, Snake,’ Iron Eyes snarled. ‘I left him knocked out in the saloon. I kinda misunderstood what he was talkin’ about. Reckon he thought I was you.’
Suddenly the loudest thunderclap any of the men had ever heard exploded all around them. The muddy ground beneath their feet shook violently. Iron Eyes felt himself stagger sideways as all six of the terrified horses reared up, leaving their masters exposed. Their hoofs tried to kick out at the invisible monsters which had frightened them.
‘Kill him, boys!’ Adams ordered.
Iron Eyes saw Adams and his men under the bellies of their mounts as the horses continued to rear up into the air. The guns of all six outlaws spewed out their deadly lead at the bounty hunter. Bullets cut through the air all round the thin figure as he squeezed both his triggers at exactly the same time.
Ben Lynch gave out a pitiful cry as the two bullets went straight through his middle. He fell into the mud as his skittish horse’s hoofs crashed down on to his unguarded head.
Parker and Brewster moved from between the horses and blasted their guns at the bounty hunter. Iron Eyes felt the heat of the hot lead as his coat tails were hit. He fell into the mud and fought to drag his boots from the quagmire.
Hanney rushed to the aid of his friend and fired both barrels of his shotgun straight into the tightly grouped bunch of men and horseflesh. There was a chilling sound that only death can muster.
The wounded Brewster and Parker limped back to the horses.
One of the horses fell heavily as the buckshot tore its neck and shoulder apart. None of the outlaws or their mounts escaped the lead shot as Ferdy Mayne disappeared beneath the massive weight of the horse. The outlaws did not have time to make a sound as every bone in his body was crushed.
Iron Eyes dragged his thin legs out of the mud and dropped on to the boardwalk beside his older companion. Bullets cut up the wooden walkway, sending a million splinters over the two men. He rolled over and fired blindly into the heart of the outlaws.
Coop Starr ducked beneath his mount as it reared up and waited for its forelegs to land. He then opened up his saddle-bag’s satchel and pulled out two sticks of dynamite and a length of fuse wire.
Brewster watched in horror as the outlaw beside him pushed the detonator caps into the soft explosive sticks.
‘What ya doing?’ Brewster yelled out at Starr.
‘I’m gonna blow them critters to hell,’ Starr snapped as his wet hands tried to ignite a match.
A terrified Brewster made to run when Iron Eyes’ bullets cut him down. The one-eared outlaw spun on his heels and landed face down in the mud beside the steaming body of a horse. Kyle Parker grabbed his saddle horn, threw himself on top of his horse and spurred hard.
He rode straight at the two kneeling figures with his gun blazing.
Duke Hanney stood and brought his shotgun up swiftly.
The twin barrels blasted. Kyle Parker was virtually cut in half by the lethal buckshot. What was left of him fell off the back of the galloping horse.
Iron Eyes got to his feet and continued to fire his smoking Colts. He watched as two of the already wounded horses fell as his bullets shattered their skulls.
Then he saw the unmistakable sight of burning fuses. Sparks flew off in all directions from the sticks of dynamite in Coop Starr’s right hand.
Iron Eyes steadied himself as the outlaw launched the deadly projectiles at him and Hanney. The bounty hunter stood before the livery man and fired both his guns high into the air at the moving targets.
Even the driving rain could not diminish the cloud of acrid smoke that hung in the air after the dynamite exploded violently above the outlaws and their mounts. Red-hot shafts of molten venom blasted into the creatures beneath it.
Before the cloud of choking smoke had cleared, Iron Eyes had reached them.
Iron Eyes held both his Navy Colts in his hands and surveyed the scene of carnage. They were all dead, even the horses. Then the bounty hunter noticed that the greatest prize was missing.
Hanney ran to his side.
‘What’s wrong, boy?’
Iron Eyes reloaded both his guns in turn, then tucked one into his belt. He cocked the hammer of the other as his eyes darted all around them.
‘Snake’s gone!’ he muttered angrily.
‘How’d he get away?’ Hanney wondered aloud, keeping a firm grip on his trusty shotgun. ‘We had them critters pinned down darn good.’
‘Must have bin when the dynamite went off!’ Iron Eyes said. He stared at the muddy ground until he spotted the boot-prints leading towards a narrow alley away from the hotel. ‘He must have made a break for it then!’
‘Where’d he go?’
Iron Eyes pointed at the alley with his Navy Colt. It was veiled in the blackest of shadows.
‘He went thataway!’
Hanney screwed up his eyes.
‘That alley cuts around the back of a few stores.’
‘He’s headed to the saloon!’ Iron Eyes stated firmly. He turned and raced back towards the brightly lit main street with the older man on his heels. ‘Snake’s gonna try and get that money off that Jackson Wylie critter!’
Snake Adams remembered riding past the brightly lit saloon on his way into Rio Concho. With the mocking words of Iron Eyes ringing in his ears, he emerged from the dark alley and made his way to the rear door of the Happy Suds saloon. He entered with both his guns in his hands. The drunks scattered out into the street leaving only the bartender and the still unconscious Jackson Wylie in the bar room.
The outlaw staggered to Wylie.
‘Get a bucket of water!’ Adams yelled frantically at the man behind the long counter. ‘Toss it over this dude. Wake him up!’
The bartender was not going to argue with the two guns in Adams’s hands. He carried the bucket to the table where Wyl
ie was stretched out. He threw the water over the unconscious man’s face. Wylie coughed and spluttered before he rolled off the green baize and landed on the sawdust-covered floor.
‘W . . . what’s going on?’ Jackson Wylie gasped.
Adams holstered one of his guns, dragged the man off the floor and pushed the barrel of his other weapon into the dazed Easterner’s face.
‘Get the gold, Wylie! It’s me, Snake Adams!’
Wylie looked at the man.
‘How do I know you’re Adams?’
Adams holstered his other gun and pulled out the sodden envelope from inside his shirt.
‘I got the document ya want! Here! Take it! Now where’s the gold?’
Jackson Wylie’s eyes suddenly brightened.
‘Upstairs! I have your money upstairs! Room Two! Now give me that envelope!’
Adams handed the envelope to the still stunned man and headed for the carpeted staircase. Suddenly a voice froze him in his tracks. He turned and stared at the bounty hunter.
‘Reckon I’m gonna have to spoil ya business deal, Snake,’ Iron Eyes snarled as the swing-doors napped behind him. ‘Ya gonna have to kill me to get out of this town!’
Snake Adams twisted and drew both his guns.
The saloon rocked as both men blasted their guns at one another until their bullets ran out. As the gun smoke cleared, only one man remained on his feet.
Iron Eyes lowered his Navy Colts and looked down at the bleeding bullet hole in his leg.
‘Damn!’ he growled.
Finale
The blazing sun burned down mercilessly upon the border town of Rio Concho as its residents gradually came to grips with the fact that they no longer had to fear another new day. The ground was bone dry and showed no evidence of the previous night’s storm. The livery man ambled down the street towards his stables with the US marshal at his side. Both men watched the silent brooding figure of Iron Eyes seated upon an upturned water-barrel.
The bounty hunter held an almost empty whiskey bottle in his bony hands and watched the approaching men.
‘The telegraph is workin’, boy,’ Hanney said as he and the lawman reached the exhausted bounty hunter. ‘Ya got a whole heap of money coming.’
Iron Eyes looked at the marshal.
‘Ya took ya time getting here, Marshal.’
Casey Layne nodded.
‘Me and my boys rode day and night trying to catch up with Snake Adams and his gang,’ he admitted. ‘They led us a merry dance. We got here though.’
Iron Eyes looked at his bloodstained leg and the neat bullet hole in his pants’ leg.
‘Ya should have reached here sooner. I might not have gotten myself plugged again.’
Layne leaned against the wall of the livery stable.
‘I can give you a banker’s draft for the full amount of the bounty you’ve accumulated, Iron Eyes. You can cash it at the first bank you hit.’
Iron Eyes accepted the paper, pushed it into his deep pocket and almost smiled.
‘Is that for all the outlaws I killed, Marshal?’
Layne nodded.
‘Yep! I added it up myself.’
Iron Eyes finished the whiskey, tossed the bottle aside and then stood. He limped to the Indian pony and gathered up his reins.
‘Reckon my business is finally done in Rio Concho.’
Hanney walked to the head of the pony and held its crude rope bridle as the bounty hunter mounted. He looked up at the scarred face of the man he had grown to respect during the hours they had fought together.
‘Ya ought to have a doctor look at that leg, boy,’ he advised.
‘I don’t need no medicine-man, Hanney!’ Iron Eyes said, gathering up his reins in his bony hands. ‘I’ll cut the bullet out when I’m good and ready.’
The bearded man nodded. He had learned that it did not pay to argue with the infamous bounty hunter. Iron Eyes lived his life by his own rules. Rules that had served him well over the years.
‘Where ya headed, Iron Eyes?’
The thin man turned the head of his pony and stared out at the prairie. It looked refreshed after the hours of violence that nature had inflicted upon it. There was color beyond the boundaries of the town now.
Iron Eyes glanced up at the blue, cloudless sky and knew it would not last.
‘Reckon I’ll have to find me a town with some money in it so I can cash this banker’s draft, old-timer.’
Marshal Layne stepped towards the pony and pushed his Stetson off his weathered face.
‘You know anything about the bag of gold coin we found on that Jackson Wylie critter, Iron Eyes?’
Iron Eyes glanced down at the lawman.
‘I’d search that perfumed critter if I was you, Marshal. Snake gave him a darn important document a few minutes before I gunned him down. Might answer ya questions for ya.’
Layne touched the brim of his hat.
‘Thanks, son.’
‘Adios, boy.’ Hanney smiled.
Iron Eyes jabbed his spurs into the pony and thundered off towards the prairie. His long black mane of hair bounced on his shoulders like the wings of a bat.
When the dust had settled, Iron Eyes was gone.
The Iron Eyes Series
Iron Eyes
Iron Eyes the Avenger
The Spurs of Iron Eyes
The Fury of Iron Eyes
The Wrath of Iron Eyes
The Curse of Iron Eyes
The Spirit of Iron Eyes
The Ghost of Iron Eyes
Iron Eyes Must Die
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