by Jake Logan
“So you mean to settle down here?” said Old Jan.
Billy looked down at his boots. “Well, yeah,” he said. “I reckon. I mean, well, hell, I’m still with you guys. Till we get the job done. I ain’t running out on you or nothing like that.”
“Billy,” said Slocum, “we’ve got Sheriff Holmes here with us now. You don’t have to follow this thing through. We’ll get it done all right.”
“No,” Billy said. “I’m with you. I been with you all this way, and I’m in it till the end.”
“All right,” Slocum said. “It’s up to you. You ought to know, though, that Sluice and Gillian are right up there.” He pointed. “The place right next to yours.”
“They up there now?” Billy asked.
“Far as we know,” Slocum said.
“We just met the old man who sold it to them,” said Old Jan. “He’s in the bar spending those gold coins they stole.”
“I’ll be damned,” said Billy. “Well, what are you planning to do?”
“We’re going to watch that path that goes up there,” Slocum said. “Try to catch them on their way down into town. We don’t want to fight them down here.”
“Too many people,” said Holmes.
“Yeah,” said Old Jan. “We had one fight down here already.”
“That was you?” said Billy. “I heard the shots. What happened?”
“Remember Jigs and Limpy and them?” Old Jan said.
“Yeah. Sure.”
“They came riding in just as big as you please. Saw us before we saw them and started shooting. We didn’t have a choice. Slocum killed Jigs. I shot one of them others. I don’t know his name. We got the last two all hog-tied. Holmes is going to take them to his jail when he goes.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. I thought that Limpy and them other two was going to Texas,” Billy said.
“They should have,” said Slocum.
“I’ll be damned. And I missed the whole thing.”
“You didn’t miss much, pard,” Slocum said.
“You don’t need me just now, do you?” Billy asked. “I come back down here to get some groceries for Maggie. She ain’t got no food up at her place.”
“Then I’d say go get the groceries,” Slocum said. “Nothing more’s going to happen down here for a spell.”
“You sure?”
“Go on.”
Billy mounted his horse and rejoined the heavy traffic moving down the street. He was soon out of sight. Old Jan, still watching the path up the hill, said, “Slocum. Look.”
Slocum looked up the path and saw the figures of Sluice and Gillian on horseback coming down toward town.
“Let’s go,” he said. They rushed to their horses and mounted up. Fighting their way through the crowd, they reached the bottom of the path and headed up. Each man had his rifle out and ready. They made it about a quarter of the way up. Gillian and Sluice were about halfway down. The two killers pulled their rifles loose, put the rifles to their shoulders, and fired quick shots. The bullets came close, but not close enough. Slocum returned fire. His shot knocked the hat off Sluice’s head.
“Goddamn,” Sluice shouted.
Holmes fired and hit Gillian in the thigh.
“Ah,” Gillian shouted. “The son of a bitch got me.”
Old Jan fired and missed. Each of the three men cranked shells into the chambers of their rifles as Gillian and Sluice turned their horses and headed back for their mining camp.
“Come on,” said Slocum. “We can’t let them get set up there.”
They kicked their horses into a run, hurrying after their prey. If Sluice and Gillian got themselves under cover too fast, Slocum and his partners would still be out in the open on the path. They were closing the gap fast. Sluice dismounted first. He did not wait for Gillian. He ran for cover toward the mine entrance. Gillian kicked his horse in the sides and headed for an outcropping of rocks nestled against the hillside. He dropped out of the saddle and limped behind the rocks.
Slocum was the first of his bunch to reach the camp. He vaulted from the saddle and ducked into the tent with his Winchester. He cranked a shot into the chamber and looked out toward the mine entrance and then the outcropping. He knew where Holmes and Old Jan were hidden, but he could not see either one. Holmes had ducked behind an old ore car that was sitting unused outside the entrance to the mine, and Old Jan had dropped down behind a wooden barrel. They waited. The atmosphere was thick with tension.
At last, Slocum fired at the outcropping. His shot hit the boulder that Gillian was behind. Old Jan and Holmes fired just after. Their shots also hit the boulder. Far from smoking Gillian out, the shots just made him duck deeper down behind his cover. There was no sign of any resistance yet coming from either Sluice or Gillian.
Down the hill, Billy Pierce was returning to Maggie’s shack with a load of groceries. He heard the shots first. Then he saw Old Jan and Holmes, and he knew that Slocum was up there somewhere. He considered going up to join them, but then he changed his mind. He reached the place where the path forked and the trail he would follow to Maggie’s place diverged from the main path. He followed that one, heading on back to Maggie’s. Along the way, he heard a couple more shots. When he reached Maggie’s shack, he found her standing outside. He dismounted, pulling his rifle out of the saddle boot.
“Get back inside, Maggie,” he said.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Just get in the house,” he said.
Maggie did as she was told, and Billy hurried over to a boulder up against the hillside. From there, he had a view of the neighboring mine, and he saw Gillian behind his boulder. He took a careful aim with his rifle and pulled the trigger. Gillian jerked and yelled. As he did, he moved and exposed himself, and Old Jan and Holmes both fired, knocking him down. He lay still. It was deathly quiet again.
Slocum stared at the mine entrance there before him. He knew that Sluice was in there. This was the end of his long trail. One way or the other, it would be finished here and now. He put the Winchester down on the cot inside the tent and pulled out his Colt. He cocked it. Sluice could be standing ready just inside the entrance, just inside the door to the half-shack that was built against the hill. If Slocum should expose himself, Sluice might have a good shot. Slocum thought for a moment. Then he called out to Old Jan and Holmes.
“Pepper that mine entrance,” he said.
Both men started shooting. It sounded like a small war. Splinters flew from the wooden framework that covered the entrance to the mine. If Sluice was standing there near the doorway, he would have backed up to escape that barrage. Slocum came suddenly out of the tent and ran toward the entrance. The barrage let up as he was about to come into the path of the bullets. Reaching the doorway, he threw himself inside and on the ground, rolling over as he landed. He looked around. Sluice was not in sight. Slocum stood up, still searching the semidarkness there. He cocked his Colt again. Sluice had gone deeper into the mine. There was no other possibility.
Slocum started moving cautiously into the mine. His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. Up ahead was a turn in the mine shaft, and as Slocum approached it, Sluice suddenly jumped out and started firing his six-gun. A bullet nicked Slocum’s left shoulder. Slocum fired one round. Sluice jerked and twitched as the bullet smashed his sternum. He tried to lift his gun to fire again. Slocum sent another shot into his chest, and Sluice fell over onto his back.
Slocum walked over to check, and found that Sluice was dead. He heaved a heavy sigh of relief and holstered his six-gun. Then, taking hold of one ankle of the corpse so he could drag it behind him, he started walking back toward the entrance to the mine.
When the shooting stopped, Billy and Maggie made their way over to the neighboring mine. The bodies of the two outlaws were thrown side by side, and the living started to search the whole area. They soon found the bags of gold. It was most of what Gillian and his gang had stolen.
“I don’t think anyone will worry about what lit
tle is missing,” Holmes said. “They’ll just be damn glad to get this much back. I think I’ll just commandeer that wagon over there and load it up with this gold and my two prisoners down there and head for home.”
“We’ll help you get started,” Slocum said. Before long, the sheriff was on his way. The others stood and watched him go for a couple of minutes. Then Billy Pierce spoke up.
“Say, I did bring home the groceries,” he said. “How about we all go over to Maggie’s place—”
“Our place,” Maggie corrected.
Billy grinned and ducked his head. “Yeah,” he said. “Our place, and have us a good meal.”
Slocum looked at Old Jan. “That sounds like a fine idea,” he said.
“So you’re going to stay here and work a mine?” Old Jan asked Billy.
“Yeah,” said Billy. “I think I will.”
“What do you know about mining anyhow?”
“Not much,” Billy admitted.
“Well, then,” said Old Jan, “in that case, if you two don’t mind, I just might hang around here with you and help you get started.”