‘A little profit,’ roared the old man, falsetto. ‘By God, the nerve of it. I aim to come out of this showin’ one hell of a profit.’
Halliday came waddling forward, thrusting his chin and his belly forward aggressively. Mart Summers looked at him as if he were something the cat had spewed up. Halliday hit the old man in the mouth with the back of his hand. He hurt his hand on Mart’s teeth and went: ‘Oooh.’ The old man rocked back on his heels and spat.
Halliday yelled: ‘You keep it shet, you ole bastard.’ Then his eyes fell on the parfleche. ‘What in hell’s this, Harry? This ain’t no goddam fortune.’ He spun around on the girls and Blade, shouting: ‘There has to be more than this.’ He strode on his short legs to Blade and shouted into his face: ‘Where’s the rest of it, Blade? You can tell me nice or you can have your teeth knocked down your throat.’
Blade said: ‘You’ll hurt your hand.’
Halliday hit him. Or he meant to hit him. Blade moved his head a couple of inches to one side and the man struck air. The miss brought him close to Roxanne. The girl kicked him in the crotch and he doubled up, holding himself.
Lister saw that this could escalate. He shouted: ‘Back up, girlie, or it’ll go hard with you.’
Blade said something urgently to her and she went still.
Halliday said: ‘Ooooh,’ again and looked up at the sky in an ecstasy of pain. Lister said: ‘It ain’t such a good trip for you, is it, Halliday?’
Salome said: ‘All the gold ain’t here, boys.’ Blade looked at her in horror. He knew she was going to reveal his hole card, which was Doke down the tunnel. But there was nothing he could do to stop her.
‘Where’s the rest of it?’ a man standing near her asked.
She gestured to the rocks and said: ‘There’s the mouth of a tunnel up there. Doke Struther is in there fetching out some more gold.’
Lister jerked his head to one of the men and said: ‘Go take a look and tell us if she’s lyin’. And you girls lay down your guns like I said. I shall shoot Roxanne first if you don’t do like I say.’
Salome said: ‘You wouldn’t shoot a woman, Harry. Not even a gutter rat like you.’
Lister bit down on his sudden fury.
‘Roxanne,’ he said, ‘you tell your cousin to go easy or she gets hurt. Tell her for crissake or you can kiss her good-bye.’
‘A gutter rat like Harry would shoot a woman, Sal,’ said Roxanne.
Salome said: ‘He ain’t a gutter rat, he’s a yeller dawg.’
An inarticulate sound came from Lister’s throat. He took his rifle in his left hand and his right hand moved imperceptibly. The gun jumped from its scabbard and it was cocked and fired in the same second. The red-gold hair tumbling to Salome’s shoulder jumped and a piece of it fluttered loose on the mountain breeze. The girl’s face went white.
‘Put the guns down,’ Lister whispered.
Both girls obeyed.
The man who had climbed up to find the old man’s tunnel shouted that he had found it.
Lister yelled: ‘You get that Doke down here, Bob.’
The man said: ‘Sure,’ and disappeared from view.
Blade watched the rocks, fascinated.
As he lowered his eyes to make a quick assessment of the men near him, his eye caught that of Mart Summers. The old man winked.
Lister intercepted the wink and said: ‘You try anything, Joe, and the girls get it.’
Blade said: ‘Time hasn’t done too much to improve you, Harry. What the girls said about you sounds just about right.’ Lister gave him a look of pure hatred. ‘I’ll plant you before we’re through, Joe.’
‘Only if you come at me from behind,’ said Blade.
They all froze as there came the sound of a muffled shot. They lifted their gaze to the rocks above.
First they heard a clatter of loose rocks. Then came the dragging of boot heels. The man Bob came slowly into view. Halliday demanded eagerly: ‘You get him? Bob?’
Bob’s only reply was to lean out over the nothingness below him. Then he pitched forward and came down all legs and arms. Everyone there winced at the sound he made when he hit the rocks below. Nobody doubted that he was dead.
Halliday said in a kind of soft despair: ‘Aw, my God.’
Blade laughed.
‘You won’t get old Doke out of there in a month of Sundays, Harry,’ he said.
In a fury, Lister turned on him and struck him. But Blade was moving and the man made a poor job of it. It would not have ended there had not the old man yelled: ‘Doke’s outa there, Joe. Look at that.’
They all turned and looked up at the rocks. They did so to hear the report and see the first puff of smoke from Doke’s first shot.
Roxanne said: ‘Where’d he get the gun?’
Blade made no reply but swept her from her feet. Lister, whose attention had been captured momentarily by the shot from above, spun on Blade fast as a cat. But he was not fast enough to dodge the blow that Blade threw at him. Blade’s fist caught him high on the temple and knocked him backward off his feet. The men nearest the rocks were diving for cover. Halliday was in an agony of indecision. He turned first this way and then that. He almost ran into old Mart Summers who instantly paid him back for the blow in the mouth. He hit the fat man a swinging haymaker and caught him hard in the throat. The fat man went down, choking. Salome kicked him in the head as he hit dirt and she was on her way to join her cousin. As she went, she swept her rifle from the ground.
Blade jumped both feet into Harry Lister’s belly and one of the men in the rocks fired a shot that missed him by inches.
Blade and Roxanne gained their feet in the same second and rammed each other. Blade swore. Roxanne also swore. One of the men straining for cover in the rocks went down yelling that some bastard had broken his leg. Mart Summers caught hold of a man going past him on the run and clutched the unfortunate man in a massive bear hug. The man dropped his rifle and screamed. Blade saw Harry Lister go out of sight. That was a pity, he told himself. While Lister was free, nothing would go right. Blade lit out after him, but he had not gone a dozen yards into the rocks when he came under fierce fire from above?. His pursuit of Lister, however, was so hot that he ran on, ignoring the flying lead. Nothing seemed to matter then but the defeat of Lister. If he were finished, their troubles would be over. Roxanne was apparently of another mind. She seemed to come from nowhere, tackling him low around the legs and bringing him down like an expert. He hit dirt so hard that there did not seem to be an ounce of breath left in him. The danger he had been in from the rifle fire was brought home to him by a shot that missed him by no more than inches and hit rock in front of him, splattering him with limestone fragments.
Unaware that Roxanne had so violently saved his life, he looked around to find who had brought him low. Still clinging to his legs and indeed resting her cheek affectionately against his lower calf was that delectable example of young American womanhood.
‘Have you no shame, woman,’ he asked, ‘throwing yourself at a man like that full in the public gaze?’
‘Blade,’ she replied, ‘I couldn’t see you get yourself killed dead. There ain’t too many of your kind left.’
‘You should know,’ said Blade, ‘that I was in the process of capturing our enemy, one Harry Lister. Now I have to start all over again.’
She rose cautiously to one knee, looking around for the marksman.
‘Don’t fret,’ she said, ‘while we have the gold Harry ain’t goin’ to be far off.’
Blade sat up. The marksman did not try for him again.
‘By the way,’ said Blade, ‘where is the gold?’
‘Here it comes now,’ said Roxanne.
Blade spied Salome picking her way through the rocks carrying the heavy parfleche with some difficulty. Behind her, looking considerably the worse for wear, limped old Mart Summers yelping: ‘You come back here with that thar gold of mine this very minute, young woman.’
Blade called out: ‘Watch out,
Salome, there’s a rifle above you.’
‘Old Doke drove him off,’ she replied and came up to dump the parfleche beside Blade. ‘On your feet, Blade, an’ git to totin’ that.’
‘Tote it,’ said Blade, ‘where?’
Salome, looking very much in charge of the situation and showing she was the boss with a flourish or two of the Winchester that was now back in her hand, said: ‘Lister and his crew have pulled out west, so we work our way around the mountain in the opposite direction. Doke has gone back into the tunnel, so we go in by the cave entrance and meet up with him. That way us girls gits to get all the gold.’
Mart Summers gazed at her, shocked.
‘I’ll be goddamed,’ he exclaimed.
Salome looked at him with her eyes slitted in a sinister manner.
‘Old man,’ she said, ‘you stay close where we can see you. While you’re with us, the gold’s safe. Out of our sight, I don’t know what you’ll get up to. The only difference between an old man and a young one is the old one has lived long enough to learn a few more tricks.’
Roxanne helped Blade tenderly to his feet and said: ‘Now don’t do nothin’ foolish, Joe darlin’, or Salome’ll shoot you. She don’t have deep feelin’s for you like I do.’
‘You can say that again,’ Salome snapped. ‘You never did have judgment where anythin’ in pants was concerned.’
Blade sighed gently, picked up the parfleche and said: ‘Mart, you behave yourself or I’ll get shot.’
‘That’ll be no loss,’ said the old man coldly, ‘for all the good you did us.’
Blade started off through the rocks, bent double under his burden. Salome came close behind to prod him with the muzzle of the Winchester every time his pace slackened.
Chapter Twelve
As though Providence could not make life hard enough for Blade, as soon as the two girls and their prisoners had started to circle the mountain, the rain began to fall again. A solid sheet of water suddenly pounded down out of the heavens on to them, instantly soaking them to the skin and just as quickly making the ground beneath their feet almost too slippery for them to walk on.
Old Mart Summers was fit to be tied. He was so mad that he tore his old hat from his head, hurled it down and stamped it into the mud that was quickly forming.
‘Don’t it beat all,’ he screamed. ‘I’m as blue as the backside of a babe in winter because I got my gold took from me. Now I’m blue with cold from this goddam rain. I’ll be so stiff with rheumatiz before night I’ll scarce be able to move a limb.’
Blade did not say a word. As he turned to watch the old man’s ballet of pure rage, his eyes fell upon Roxanne whose dress was plastered to her fine firm body by the rain. How could a man hate rain when it served him such a pleasant treat? And, when he turned to glance at her cousin, an equally charming sight met his view. It was, he thought, a great pity that he would have to take all this gold, and maybe more beside, from these two lovely creatures. Such girls were an irresistible challenge to a fellow’s manhood.
Salome shouted above the beat of the rain: ‘Do somethin’, Blade. I don’t like this at all.’
‘The only shelter,’ he said, ‘is the cave. The sooner we’re in it, the sooner I can build a fire and get you dry.’
‘Move along, for God’s sake,’ she said.
He moved along, slipping and sliding, sometimes going back one yard for every two. Every now and then, he lost his balance with his heavy burden, so that, before he had gone far, he was plastered with mud from head to foot. He looked a mess and Salome said: ‘Your boy don’t look so damn pretty now, Rox.’
‘All that glisters is not gold,’ said Roxanne, showing that she had read something more than the wish book.
Blade picked himself out of the mud for the fifth time and said: ‘I just lost all my desire for gold and beautiful women.’
Salome said: ‘Chance would be a fine thing.’
Old Mart Summers said: ‘I’ll do a deal with you, Joe. You git that thar gold away from these two harpies an’ I’ll split it with you fifty-fifty.’
‘Ho-ho-ho,’ said Salome, ‘how the old man dreams.’
They plodded on slowly for another fifteen minutes, leaning into the wind and rain until Blade halted. He dropped the parfleche and Salome said: ‘What the hell? Tote that gold, mister, like I said.’
Blade told her: ‘The cave’s up ahead. We have to make sure Lister and his boys ain’t in it before we all go in.’
‘I suppose you fancy indianing up on ’em,’ said Salome. ‘Who else?’
‘Not a chance,’ said the girl. ‘L:et the old man go. He’ll come back because we have the gold.’
The old man cackled with sudden delight.
‘The girl’s smart,’ he said. ‘You stay right here, my dear, an’ uncle Mart’ll go take a look-see.’
He went off slowly into the rain, hunched against it.
They waited there in the rain. The wind increased and Blade started to wonder if they would be blown off the mountain side. He found Roxanne’s hand in his.
‘Scared?’ he asked and there was no criticism in his voice. ‘Scared,’ she admitted. She came close to him and he put an arm around her. She seemed grateful for the kindness, but said: ‘You wouldn’t try to get my gun away from me, would you, Joe?’
‘Perish the thought,’ he said.
‘It’s not just the wind and the rain that’s scaring me. I’m just plain scared all through. I got a feelin’. Everythin’ goes wrong from here on in.’
Salome came close to them. She looked as if she too was grateful for company at that moment Blade said: ‘You scared too?’
Her face even looked lovely with her hair plastered to it by rain.
‘Not exactly scared,’ she said, ‘but I have this funny feelin’.’
‘Well,’ he said, ‘just remember—gold ain’t worth dying for.’
‘I’ll remember it,’ said Salome, ‘but I don’t promise I’ll act on it. You wouldn’t try and get a gun away from a girl, would you, Joe?’
‘No, ma’am,’ said Blade. ‘While the gold’s right here and I’m still alive, what would I want a gun for?’
‘How about if Harry Lister shows up?’
‘I’ll worry about that when it happens. Right now he’s sheltering from the rain if he has any sense.’
Time ticked by.
Roxanne said: ‘You reckon that old man has lit out and left us high and dry.’
‘High but not dry,’ said Blade. Neither girl laughed. Blade did not blame them. He didn’t think it very funny himself. They were all shivering with cold now.
Salome began to despair. ‘That old man’s lit out and we’ll die of cold here.’
‘Not with the gold here he hasn’t,’ Blade told her.
‘There’s the rest of the gold with Doke,’ Roxanne put in. ‘The old man and Doke have both lit out with the rest of the gold.’
Salome protested: ‘That Doke is all gentleman, Roxy. He wouldn’t walk out on me.’
‘I don’t trust him,’ said Roxanne. ‘His eyes are too close together.’
‘He’s a very beautiful hombre,’ said Salome. That great bully you’re dingin’ to don’t hold a light on that Doke of mine.’
‘Somebody comin’,’ said Roxanne.
A dim, hunched figure came through the rain towards them. A moment later the old man stood there shivering and telling them that the cold would kill him. The rheumatiz was stiffening up like a Chinee torture.
‘Is Lister at the cave?’ Salome demanded impatiently.
‘There ain’t nobody at the cave,’ the old man snapped back. ‘But I ain’t claimin’ Lister ain’t down the tunnel. Hell, do you think I have second sight or somethin’?’
‘Tote the gold, Blade,’ Salome ordered.
Blade toted the gold, fell on his face, picked himself up and started towards the cave. Five minutes later, he stumbled into its shelter, dropped the gold on the floor and said: ‘Mr. Summers, you keep your eyes peel
ed for Harry Lister and his boys. I’m going to make the biggest damned fire you ever saw.’
Salome sat herself down on a large rock and said: ‘I’m starving to death if anybody is interested.’ Blade gave her some jerky from his pocket and she received it gratefully. She and Roxanne started chewing. Old Mart Summers carried his own jerky, but he didn’t have many teeth left to him and he didn’t look too happy using his few teeth to munch with.
There was a quantity of dry brush left by Lister and his men in the cave. Blade quickly built this into a tight fire and soon had a blaze going. Then he went out into the rain to gather any dry brush that he could find. When he had built the fire up, he brought in wet brush to dry by the fire. The girls huddled around it luxuriating in the welcome warmth. Salome even found a smile and said: ‘Maybe you ain’t so bad after all, Blade.’
Blade said: ‘Flattery is too late, honey. I hate you already.’
Even old Mart Summers smiled: ‘When you’re as old as me there ain’t nothin’ you hate more’n cold an’ wet.’ His clothes were steaming.
Salome said: ‘Why ain’t Doke here yet? It’s quicker down the tunnel than around the mountain.’
The smile came off Summers’ face: ‘He run off with my gold, the young bastard.’
Doke was already in Blade’s mind. In fact, he hadn’t stopped thinking about Doke since he had seen Harry Lister disappear into the rocks. He found, rather to his own surprise, that he had developed some regard for the drunken wreck he had picked up so short a while back. He realized that he would blame himself if something had happened to his protégé. He had had great hopes for Doke.
Maybe, he told himself, Doke’s nerve had cracked and he had run for it. Maybe, he had run into Harry Lister or one of his cronies. Maybe there was an endless list of maybe’s. Of one thing he was absolutely certain—Lister and the men who ran with him had kept on the trail of the gold in spite of the casualties inflicted on them. They had shown that they were not the kind of men to give up easily. The rain may have caused them to hole up somewhere, but they would be out after the gold before very long. Two girls, even though they might be as tough and resolute as Salome and Roxanne, weren’t going to hold off that kind of men forever.
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