The Tylers 2

by Neil Hunter

  He returned to camp with the horses and the water. Tethering them beside his own he headed for the fire, and found Alvin LeRoy sitting up, his back against a tree.

  ‘Had a feeling you’d followed me,’ LeRoy said.

  ‘I figured it was time I took a hand.’

  LeRoy glanced at the coffee-pot bubbling on the fire. ‘That looks about ready.’

  Removing the pot Seth filled a couple of mugs. He handed one to LeRoy, then sat down.

  ‘Who was it?’

  ‘Couple of bounty hunters. I’d just got the drop on your brother and the girl with him when this pair rode up. I read ‘em the way it was, but it appears they didn’t take me too serious. Next thing I knew one of them poked a gun at me and put a bullet in me.’

  ‘I found your horse,’ Seth said. ‘And Jacob’s pair, so they must have got away.’

  ‘Or they’re dead. Those bounty-men looked the type who preferred dead captives.’

  Seth drained his coffee. ‘I’d say that he’s still alive. Bounty hunter has to have something to show to collect his money. Dead or alive. And that means horses to carry a prisoner — or a corpse.’

  ‘So they could be anywhere,’ LeRoy said. ‘Tyler. your brother and the girl. Before those bounty hunters turned up I put manacles on them. It’s not going to make it easy for them.’

  ‘You sound like you’re feeling sorry for Jacob.’

  LeRoy held out his mug for a refill. ‘I figure any man should get justice. No matter what he’s done. But bounty hunters shouldn’t be wished on anyone. I still mean your brother to stand before a court. If he can prove I’ve been wrong then I’ll be the first to shake his hand. If not, then I’ll only have done my job.’

  Before it got too dark Seth cleaned and bandaged LeRoy’s shoulder. After he prepared a meal of beans and bacon for them both, and soon after that both of them turned in for the night.

  Seth was up at first light. He cooked a quick breakfast, reboiled the coffee. By the time it was ready LeRoy was awake. The marshal took a slow walk round the camp; his shoulder was stiff and sore, he was feeling weak, but he was determined to carry on — next to losing a prisoner having one stolen from him was one of the ways to bring out LeRoy’s inborn stubbornness, a trait that had earned him his reputation over the years.

  As soon as they’d eaten and broken camp Seth and LeRoy returned to the spot where the bounty-hunters had first appeared. It didn’t take LeRoy long to find the place where Jacob and Hannah had gone down into the river-bed. He made a note of the direction of their tracks, and then he and Seth rode along the rim of the bank, searching for the place where Jacob and Hannah had come out.

  The tracks were easier to follow when they reached level ground. Now they found the tracks of two horses, overlaying the trail made by Jacob and Hannah. Moving on they spotted the place where the trail vanished into the gully, and again they followed the gully until they found the place where a horse had been tethered on the rim of the gully. One man had gone down the bank, but two people had come up and had mounted the horse.

  ‘Seems they’ve got themselves a horse,’ LeRoy said. ‘Took off that way.’

  He pointed. Seth followed the line of hoof prints. ‘Tell me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the general direction of Bannock?’

  LeRoy eased himself in the saddle. ‘Yeah.’

  They rode out, moving in the same direction as the tracks, LeRoy leading, Seth following on, the two spare horses following him on the end of a slack rope.

  Seth had a feeling that there was going to be a showdown in Bannock, and he hoped that he’d get there in time. Jacob might be needing help.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Bannock’s blacksmith had his place at one end of town, just before a corral-complex. It was early when Jacob and Hannah rode in, and when Jacob took the horse to the rear of the blacksmith’s there was no sound or movement in the place.

  They dismounted and Jacob tied the horse. The door to the workshop was unlocked. Inside he searched around until he found what he was looking for; a heavy chisel and a large hammer. He laid the chain on the anvil.

  ‘Give me that,’ Hannah said, taking the chisel from him. She positioned it on one of the links.

  Jacob wrapped a piece of sacking around the head of the hammer to muffle the sound. It took more than five minutes to cut through the first half of the link, but Jacob forced himself to take it steady, despite his desire to get out of the place; he had a dislike of being hemmed in. His shoulder was playing up, too, aching badly through the effort he was putting into the hammering.

  Finally it was done, the chain parted, though they wore the manacles around their wrists.

  ‘I want you to take the horse and wait in that grove of trees just beyond town,’ Jacob said.

  ‘I’d rather stay,’ Hannah protested, but she knew as she spoke that Jacob had made his decision.

  ‘No! Hannah, things might get rough. I want you out of harm’s way.’

  She nodded agreement. ‘All right, Jacob. Be careful.’

  He watched her lead the horse towards the trees, and only when she was out of sight did he turn and start up towards town.

  The jail was at the other end of Bannock. Jacob saw no one the whole walk up the street. Even before he reached the jail he began to suspect that it was deserted.

  The jail was silent and empty. Jacob walked inside and stood in the center of the office. Where was Will? And where were his deputies? It was unusual for an entire law force to be out of town at the same time. Maybe Will was still out scouring the hills looking for Jacob. Or maybe he’d taken fright and run. Jacob wondered if he’d come too late again. Had he let Will slip away once more?

  Jacob stepped outside and stood on the edge of the boardwalk. He felt at a loss. He’d come to Bannock determined to settle with Will Retford once and for all, and now it seemed that Will had already left Bannock. But Jacob knew he could be wrong. Will might return to Bannock at any time. It was worth a wait.

  Jacob went back inside the jail. The clock on the wall behind the desk read almost seven.

  Hannah, well-concealed in the grove of trees, heard the single horse approaching down the trail that led into Bannock. From where she was she saw that the horse carried two riders, and she easily recognised the two bounty hunters, Benteen and Hinds. She felt the cold chill that their presence always invoked. There was something evil, almost alien about them. As they rode by she found herself wondering about Jacob. She’d heard nothing since he had left her, and that was more than an hour ago. She was beginning to get worried. Where was Jacob? How was he?

  She watched Benteen and Hinds riding slowly up the street. A few people were about now. The stores were beginning to open. Despite her promise to Jacob, Hannah felt she ought to go and warn him about the bounty hunters.

  She picked up the shotgun, untied the reins, and led the horse out of the trees.

  Ike Hinds reined in halfway down the street. His partner slid down off the horse’s back. Hinds climbed down, sliding his rifle out of the sheath.

  ‘That bastard’s here somewhere,’ he said.

  Benteen took out his handgun. ‘All I need is one clear shot. You remember, Ike, he’s mine!’

  ‘We got to find him first.’

  Benteen smiled his yellow-toothed smile. ‘I got me a notion where he is!’

  Seth and Alvin LeRoy had ridden hard for Bannock, both day and night, barely stopping, save for quick, cold meals. They were both tired and edgy by the time their horses took them down the trail that would bring them into town.

  LeRoy, still weak from the bullet that had gone through his shoulder, had surprised Seth by his determination. He’d stayed in his saddle without once asking for help, though Seth had seen him sway limply a time or two. LeRoy was driven by a compunction that over-rode his physical condition.

  It was LeRoy who spotted Hannah on the trail, leading a horse, a shotgun clasped in one hand.

  They rode up to her and she turned suddenly, her
eyes wide with alarm.

  ‘I thought you were dead,’ she said to LeRoy.

  ‘Got to feeling that way myself a couple of times, ma’am,’ LeRoy said. ‘If it hadn’t been for Marshal Tyler, here, I might just have been.’

  ‘Tyler?’ Hannah glanced up at Seth, seeing at once the likeness to Jacob. ‘Are you Jacob’s brother?’

  ‘Seth.’ He swung down out of the saddle. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘He went looking for Will Retford.’

  ‘Will’s here? In Bannock?’

  Hannah nodded. ‘Yes. He’s the law here. Calls himself Will Ford!’

  ‘Damnation!’ Seth swung round on LeRoy. ‘Facts, marshal. Cold, hard facts.’

  LeRoy climbed down off his horse. ‘Like I said, Tyler, if I’m proved wrong I’ll be the first to apologise.’ He glanced up the street. ‘Is this Retford in town now?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Hannah said. ‘Jacob went looking for him. That was an hour ago. Since then I haven’t heard a thing.’ Hannah suddenly reached out and clasped Seth’s arm. ‘My God! I almost forgot. The bounty hunters — Benteen and Hinds. They rode in a few minutes ago. They’re up in town now, and they’ll be looking for Jacob.’

  And following on her words there came a sudden crackle of gunfire from up at the far end of town.

  Jacob had chosen to step out of the jail as Benteen and Hinds came up the street. He knew the moment he walked to the edge of the boardwalk that they had seen him, and he knew, too, that there would be no walking out of this without gunplay. The bounty hunters were after him, for without his body — dead or alive — they couldn’t claim their bounty. The pair had followed him a long way and they wouldn’t be giving up now.

  Benteen was in front, a gun in his hand; almost in that instant Jacob thought I wonder where he got the gun from, for he’d taken Benteen’s weapon from him back in the gully; it was one of those fleeting thoughts that seemed to create themselves out of nowhere at a time when concentration needs to be held fully on some other matter.

  Benteen’s partner, Hinds, was some yards beyond. He had a rifle, which he was carrying as if it were a walking stick, but Jacob knew that rifle was as ready to use as any he’d seen.

  The distance was rapidly closing as Benteen moved up the street. A few more yards and he would have his range, and once he did he would start shooting.

  Jacob stepped down off the boardwalk. The second his feet touched the street he reached for the gun at his side, drew, cocked and fired in one fluid motion. The big Colt crashed out its sound, smoke and flame blossoming from the muzzle.

  Benteen stopped in his tracks. Blood showed on his shirt, high up on his chest. For a moment it seemed he was going to fall, but with surprising agility he ran forward, bringing up his own gun. His left hand dragged back the hammer and he fired off all the chambers with a swift fanning action.

  Jacob had dropped into a crouch as Benteen ran forward. He ignored the spray of wild shots and set himself to return the fire. He steadied the Colt, aimed quickly and fired two close shots into Benteen’s body; this time there was no mistake; the bullets caught Benteen in the center of the chest, one of them driving through his body and severing his spine; Benteen collapsed like a limp rag, his body flopping helplessly in the bloody dust beneath him.

  In the brief time it took for the first exchange of fire, Ike Hinds turned and stepped up on the far boardwalk, taking cover behind a stack of empty crates. He swung up his rifle, aiming fast, and as Benteen crashed down into the dust, Hinds loosed off a shot at Jacob’s crouching figure. He knew he’d missed the second he fired. His bullet kicked up dirt to one side of Jacob’s running figure.

  He was about to fire again when he caught sight of three figures running up the street. Hinds saw the girl who’d been with Jacob Tyler, and there was the U.S. marshal he’d shot and left for dead. The third man was a stranger to Hinds, but he wore a lawman’s badge, too.

  Hinds felt trapped. His partner was dead and he was on his own, and he didn’t expect any kind of mercy from those out there.

  An anger, a red, blazing anger rose up in him. He felt only a wild desire to kill them all, and without realising it he stood up, bringing his rifle to his shoulder.

  As his finger pulled back on the trigger he heard a distant yell. Then he fired. He didn’t hear the bullet slam into the boardwalk on the other side of the street, for the sound was drowned out by a booming roar, a sound that Hinds knew well. He turned his head and saw with shocked surprise the girl, a flame-spitting shotgun in her hands. And it was aimed at him.

  It was the last thing Hinds saw, for the full charge from both barrels hit him then. He felt sudden, intense pain as his upper body was torn open by the blast. The force of the charge drove him back across the boardwalk, into and through the plate-glass window of a store. In the split-second before pain and shock rendered him unconscious, Hinds registered a final thought, which to him seemed worse than actually dying: Christ, shot by a damn woman!

  When they were inside the jail LeRoy removed the manacles from Jacob and Hannah.

  ‘You sure you want to do that?’ Jacob asked.

  LeRoy massaged his aching shoulder. ‘Mister, if I had any doubts you’d be in one of those cells back there.’

  ‘I already have been,’ Jacob said dryly.

  Hannah glanced across at him, his words reminding her of all that had happened since that day. The best thing seemed to be the fact that they’d met, and she didn’t regret one thing that had taken place since.

  ‘Will’s not likely to give himself up and confess,’ Jacob told LeRoy.

  ‘It’s something I had thought of.’ LeRoy sat down. ‘Miss, I’d be grateful for some of that coffee you’ve got brewing.’

  Hannah poured him a mugful.

  LeRoy glanced up at the wall-clock.

  It was almost a half-hour past noon.

  ‘You figure they’ll show?’ Seth had asked the question that was on all their minds.

  ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’ LeRoy shrugged.

  Jacob threw him a hard glance which LeRoy failed to see, but which Hannah caught. She moved to his side and put a hand on his arm.

  ‘Take it easy,’ she said softly. ‘He’s on your side now. Don’t go and sour him!’

  Jacob glanced at her, then smiled. She was right. There was no point in keeping on at LeRoy. What was important now was that the marshal almost believed Jacob’s story. All they needed was Will’s admittance of guilt. Which was going to be a hard thing to get.

  ‘Riders coming.’ Seth said from the door. He stepped out onto the street and after a minute he came back. ‘It’s them. Badges shining like they were at a lawman’s convention.’

  Jacob stepped forward, but LeRoy was suddenly blocking his way.

  ‘I’ll deal with it, Tyler.’

  LeRoy walked outside and stood on the boardwalk as Will and his bunch rode up to the jail. He watched Will closely, and noticed the resemblance to the Retfords he’d seen that day back at Blanco Station; it was another fact to strengthen Jacob Tyler’s claim; but LeRoy needed more — he needed the words from Will Retford himself.

  The posse reined in noisily, yet despite the air of recklessness, LeRoy was quick to notice the unease that clouded Will Retford’s face; it showed in his eyes, too.

  ‘You find him?’ LeRoy asked.

  Will leaned forward slightly. ‘Who?’

  ‘Tyler. Jacob Tyler. He’s the one you’ve been looking for isn’t it?’

  ‘Who are you, mister?’

  LeRoy eased his coat aside, exposing his badge. ‘LeRoy’s the name. U.S. Marshal Alvin LeRoy. Been after Tyler myself for some time now. Ever since that killing down at Blanco Station.’

  ‘You turned up anything new on that?’ Will asked.

  LeRoy shook his head. ‘Tyler’s still claiming there was another man there that day. Says he did the shooting. Calls him Retford. Will Retford.’

  Will’s face paled visibly. In his eyes was mounting fear; he was beginning to pa
nic; LeRoy realised he was on the right track.

  ‘He’ll be claiming he didn’t do the holdups and killings up here,’ Will said, trying to push the conversation on; yet while he spoke his mind was whirling as he tried to visualise his next step. ‘Even though he’s killed the one witness we had, and two of my deputies.’

  LeRoy didn’t answer and silence dragged on for a moment. He could almost see Will sweating; the man was undecided what to do; he was tense and getting close to the edge.

  Over his shoulder LeRoy called: ‘In the jail! Step out here.’

  Will shot a startled glance towards the jail door, and saw three figures step out into the sunlight.

  ‘That’s him, Marshal. Will Retford,’ Jacob said. ‘He’s the one who shot Nancy Boland! And he can tell you how Virgil Boone died!’

  At Jacob’s side stood Seth. ‘Jacob’s right, LeRoy. This is Retford!’

  And then there was Hannah, moving forward to stand beside Jacob. ‘You look into it, Marshal, I think you’ll find he knows more about these holdups than he and his men would admit to!’