“Give me your rifles,” Huckabee said. “Come on. Give them to me. I can even out the odds.”
“What the ... ?” began Cato.
Huckabee cut him short.
“I’ll fit your guns with fast-shooting levers and when we go in, Hallam’ll think the whole damn’ Seventh Cavalry has arrived.”
Yancey didn’t hesitate.
“You were right, Huckabee. We can use you. Here’s my rifle. But be fast—and silent.”
Huckabee said nothing as he took the weapon and, feeling for the trigger-guard, used the edge of the coin to unscrew the small retaining bolt. In a matter of seconds, it seemed, he was pushing the rifle back into Yancey’s hands and fixing the device to Cato’s Winchester.
“Make sure that little toggle is locked out,” Huckabee cautioned them both. “Otherwise it won’t work the trigger.”
“Okay, Huckabee,” Yancey whispered. “This squares us all, right? You’re square with us for saving your neck, and soon as we wipe out this lot and get that gold rifle, we’re square with you.”
“My hand on it.”
The Winchester man gripped briefly with both men and Yancey’s teeth flashed briefly in the dark.
“You’re all right, Huckabee.”
Then he sent Cato off to the left and the Winchester man to the right. Yancey crouched beside the rock, felt again to make sure the quick-fire toggle was in position, then started down towards the camp. The outlaws were wolfing food around the fire, apparently oblivious to the dangers. Yancey’s gaze kept going to Kate. She hadn’t moved. He had a terrible fear that she might already be—dead. As far as he could see, her clothing wasn’t ripped or disarrayed, or stained with blood. But that didn’t mean Hallam hadn’t already—
Suddenly he froze and dropped to his belly as one of the outlaws stood, picking up a tin plate of beans and a mug of coffee. His voice reached Yancey clear]y.
“Taking some grub up to Mitch,” he said, and started in a straight line out of the camp that would bring him right to where Yancey lay.
The Enforcer knew the man was taking food to the guard he had killed. There was no point in delaying any longer: they had to go in. And fast.
Yancey came up as if shot from a spring. He let out a wild rebel yell and started working the quick-fire lever on his Winchester. The gun blasted in three shots so fast that they sounded like a single, prolonged explosion. The guard went down, cartwheeling and the other outlaws scattered, kicking the coffee pot into the campfire with practiced, instinctive motions.
The camp was plunged into half-light, some of the flames still flickering. Yancey had no time to see what was going on with Kate. Cato and Huckabee came charging in from their positions, their rifles hammering. Lead was flying wildly and his heart was in his mouth as he worried about Kate’s safety. He saw an outlaw spin across a rock and bounce off, lying still. Another man tripped over the body and went down, but rolled and came up onto one knee, his gun gripped in both hands and shooting wildly. Yancey felt the wind of the lead as he worked the lever again. Two slugs took the man in the heart and blew him halfway across the clearing.
Another man screamed as he clawed his way up the walls of the draw. He was almost to the top when lead ripped into his back and he plummeted down. Guns were hammering and smashing all around and it sounded like a small war with the quick-firing Winchesters blasting out their death. Yancey dodged a falling body and leapt across the campfire, looking for Kate.
But he couldn’t see her. The Enforcer spun towards a sound in the rocks behind him and he ducked as lead whipped past his face, almost searing his skin. He caught a glimpse of a struggling, dark figure, and made out Brett Hallam fighting to hold the bound and gagged Kate across his body for a shield. Although she was tied, she fought and struggled and made it as hard as possible for him.
Hallam cursed as he lost his grip and she fell heavily. He triggered two shots at Yancey and one down towards Kate before spinning and plunging away into the night. Yancey had three shots left in the Winchester. He could just make out Hallam’s fleeing figure and saw the man turn to fire at him.
Yancey braced the rifle butt against his hip and worked the lever as fast as he could. The last three shots spat from the muzzle and Brett Hallam moved forward as if he had been shot from a bow. He slammed face first into the trunk of a tree, cannoned off and crumpled into a heap at its base.
The Enforcer was aware that there was no more gunfire and he glanced swiftly around as he ran towards the dark, still form of Kate. He knelt and ripped the gag from her mouth, afraid that Hallam’s downward shot had hit her.
“Kate,” he gasped.
“I—I’m all right, Yancey,” she breathed. “I—I don’t know how he missed ...”
“Hell with how,” Yancey said, clasping her to him and then working on the bonds with his knife blade. “He did, that’s the main thing.”
Cato came up and held out a splintered oblong box as Kate sat up slowly.
“Rifle’s in there,” Cato said heavily. “Not a scratch on it. But the box didn’t make it.”
Yancey nodded: “Huckabee?”
“He didn’t make it, either.”
Yancey froze, holding Kate tightly.
“He went down fighting,” Cato said. “Took on two of ’em. Nailed ’em both. One man’s gun exploded as it hit the ground. Nailed Huckabee right smack through the heart.”
Yancey nodded slowly. “An accident going someplace to happen,” he said very quietly. Then, after a spell, he stood and helped Kate to her feet. “Well, he’s all squared away with us this time, Johnny—I guess for us to square with him, we’ve gotta see the Governor gets that rifle.”
“That’s it,” Cato agreed.
Then, Kate clinging to Yancey and limping at his side, the trio walked away from the camp of death and out of the draw, towards the spot where they had tethered the horses.
The Bannerman Series
by Kirk Hamilton
The Enforcer
Ride the Lawless Land
Guns of Texas
A Gun for the Governor
Rogue Gun
Trail Wolves
Dead Shot
A Man Called Sundance
Mad Dog Hallam
… And more to come every month!
About the Author
Keith Hetherington
aka Kirk Hamilton, Brett Waring and Hank J. Kirby
Australian writer Keith has worked as television scriptwriter on such Australian TV shows as Homicide, Matlock Police, Division 4, Solo One, The Box, The Spoiler and Chopper Squad.
"I always liked writing little vignettes, trying to describe the 'action' sequences I saw in a film or the Saturday Afternoon Serial at local cinemas," remembers Keith Hetherington, better-known to Piccadilly Publishing readers as 'Hank J. Kirby', author of the Bronco Madigan series.
Keith went on to pen hundreds of westerns (the figure varies between 600 and 1000) under the names 'Kirk Hamilton' (including the legendary Bannerman the Enforcer series) and Clay Nash as 'Brett Waring'. Keith also worked as a journalist for the Queensland Health Education Council, writing weekly articles for newspapers on health subjects and radio plays dramatizing same.
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