Nazareth

by Tony Masero

  ‘Hell if I know,’ said Les dismissively. ‘Fool couldn’t find his own pecker in his pants, he’ll be wandering around somewhere.’

  Jethro looked across at Minnie who was watching him closely, a twist of distain on her lips.

  ‘So, what do we do?’ asked Les.

  ‘There you go again,’ spat Jethro irritably. ‘Always asking me what to do. How the hell should I know? What I do know is that there’s five thousand dollars on this woman’s head and that those beggars are about to take LaBone out from under me.’

  He saw Minnie shake her head from side to side negatively.

  ‘What?’ Jethro asked. ‘You don’t think they will? Well, either they do or they don’t, whichever way it goes we stand to make a lot of money out of you, so we’ll stick around and see how it pans out.’

  Crone was at his side again, appearing out of the darkness with a torchbearer by his side.

  ‘Come on,’ said Crone. ‘We’ll leave them at it and go see the boss. He’ll want to know about Minnie pronto.’

  Billy Lee and Doctor Jack crept through the shadows under the overhanging branches of pine that marked the driveway and made their way towards Burk’s palatial house. They bunched in and crouched down behind the flowerbeds at the fringes of the light coming from the big French windows.

  ‘Quite a place,’ observed Doctor Jack.

  ‘The devil’s den,’ Billy Lee answered grimly. ‘Don’t underestimate this fellow, Doctor Jack. I worked for him long enough to know he was born the wrong side of evil.’

  Doctor Jack raised his nose and sniffed the air, ‘It is good to smell the sea again, Billy Lee. It is good to be home once more.’

  ‘There’s nothing homey about this place and best you remember it.’

  Doctor Jack cocked his head to one side and gazed up at the sky, ‘We must take what the Great Spirit gives us and make the most of it. It is a long time since I have breathed the sacred smoke of my own land.’

  ‘Don’t you go all whimsy on me now, Indian,’ said Billy Lee but he broke off as a shape moved behind the windows. ‘Look here, there he is, that’s the sonofabitch would have me killed, that’s James Burk.’

  Doctor Jack watched the figure through the window, his eyes narrowing as he saw Burk move across to his drinks cabinet and pour himself a glass.

  ‘So let us go and kill him.’

  ‘All we have to do is get inside,’ said Billy Lee grimly.

  ‘I will be glad to oblige in that respect. Follow me.’

  They moved rapidly across the tiled patio outside the windows and Doctor Jack swept up a large potted plant as they approached. He swung the ceramic pot back and threw it full-force at one of the windowed doorways. There was an almighty crash and the entire front of the door collapsed in an explosion of splintered glass.

  ‘That’ll do it,’ said Billy Lee approvingly and he followed the pot through the broken glass, his Colt held before him.

  Burk stood frozen, the whiskey glass held halfway to his lips.

  He breathed a long sigh, ‘Well what do you know? Billy Lee back from the dead. You boys like a drink?’

  Billy Lee looked at him coldly, ‘Not likely is it?’

  The door to the room burst open and a man with a gun in hand rushed in, ‘You alright, boss? I heard….’

  He made it no further as Doctor Jack turned on him and fired from the hip sending a clean shot into the gunman who spun back through the doorway and into the hallway beyond.

  The interruption was enough for Burk, who took the opportunity to hurl his glass at Billy Lee and dive sideways and take cover behind his desk. Billy Lee loosed off a shot after him but his bullet only blew a corner from the desk’s woodwork.

  He was about to follow after Burk when a tirade of shots coming from the garden peppered the wall behind him. Lathe and plaster work flew in a cloud and a cavity appeared as the wall as it received a blast from the firearms outside. The panels of glass on the remaining French doors imploded or were starred with pistol shots as the fusillade continued. The three lamps alight in the room were destroyed, plunging the room into instant darkness.

  Both Billy Lee and Doctor Jack dived to the floor fast, then they heard Jed Crone call out over the gunfire, ‘We’re coming for you Mister Burk, hang on in there!’

  ‘You get these suckers, Jed!’ Burk roared back.

  From his position of the floor, Billy Lee could see out of one of the destroyed doorways but could not make out Burk lying protected behind his heavy desk. He heard a drawer opening in the desk and guessed that Burk was arming himself from a weapon inside. Just to keep his head down Billy Lee sent two shots slamming into the desk front, ripping the woodwork open and splintering the fine polished paneling.

  ‘You okay, Doctor Jack?’ he called.

  ‘I believe so,’ replied the Indian.

  ‘Can you make it to the door?’

  With lead flying all around him and tearing into the furniture and walls of the room, Doctor Jack, who was nearest of the two, proceeded to roll across the floor heading for the door to the room where the fallen body of Burk’s bodyguard held it propped open with his dead legs.

  The shooting from outside stopped suddenly and Billy Lee turned his attention back to the garden.

  ‘We got something of yours out here, Billy Lee,’ he heard Crone call. ‘Want to see? She ain’t saying much but she’s still kinda pretty.’

  Billy Lee saw Minnie being pushed out from the shadows and forced to walk towards him across the patio tiles.

  Minnie paused, shivering and standing stock still in the open before the darkened doorways. She stared into the room through the broken doors and began to make quick gestures with her hands in front of her, movements that were hidden from the attackers in the garden behind.

  ‘What’s that about?’ breathed Billy Lee.

  ‘She is talking to us,’ replied Doctor Jack, who was glimpsing Minnie around the doorjamb.

  ‘That so?’

  ‘We have been learning sign language. She says there are eight of them out there, three are proceeding around the back of the house.’

  ‘What you doing, Minnie?’ rasped Crone suspiciously from the dark of the flowerbeds. ‘You just stand still, will you?’

  ‘Can you handle the one’s out back?’ Billy Lee asked the Indian.

  ‘It shall be done,’ agreed Doctor Jack. ‘She also says, she is glad to see that you live.’

  ‘Won’t be for much longer unless we get out of this pickle. Now go!’

  ‘Best give it up, Billy Lee,’ called Burk from behind the desk. ‘You want to see that lady walk away in one piece? I could nail her right now from where I am.’

  Flat on his belly, Billy Lee silently moved away from the windows and back towards the rear of the room.

  ‘Count your blessings while you may, Burk. I’m coming for you.’

  From where he lay, Billy Lee had a new angle on the desk and he could see the heel of a booted foot poking out from behind. Carefully, he lined up his Colt.

  ‘Come on, Billy Lee,’ called Crone. ‘Just walk out here and the lady lives.’

  Off to one side of him along the row of beds, Jethro was kneeling behind a carefully tended bush with his mind in a haze of confusion. Despite all his misgivings he did not like to see Minnie set up and exposed as she was.

  ‘That girl shouldn’t be out there,’ Les whispered in his ear. ‘Don’t matter what you say, it ain’t right.’

  Further along, Barnaby nodded agreement, ‘I don’t mind facing any man down but they shouldn’t be using a woman like this.’

  ‘Crone,’ whispered Jethro, finally giving in to his better part. ‘Let the girl go, we can take this guy without her.’

  ‘Shut your mouth,’ snarled Crone.

  ‘Hey, Crone!’ called Billy Lee suddenly. ‘You seen who’s coat and hat I’m wearing?’

  Crone stared off at the house his brow furrowed. ‘What you mean?’

  ‘You seen your friend Boulder lately?
’

  Crone pondered on it a moment, ‘Why, he’s off…. You telling me Abernathy ain’t no more?’

  ‘You can ask him yourself pretty soon.’

  There was a gunshot from inside the room and then a howl of pain and they could all hear Burk cursing bitterly. ‘Goddamn it! The sonofabitch, he shot my foot.’

  ‘You goldarned rat bastard!’ roared Crone as the news of Boulder’s demise sunk in. He raised his gun and took aim at Minnie’s back. ‘I’ll even things up for poor Abernathy right now!’

  Jethro twisted sideways and without thinking he fired, fanning the hammer and sending shot after shot into Crone’s body. The gunman rocked sideways at the impact, blood flying in strings and particles of meat exploding from the strikes. He turned and fired at Jethro as he fell.

  Alongside Crone, the man with him also turned at the unexpected attack and began shooting. Les and Barnaby, joined in and a gunfight soon began across the shadows amongst the flowerbeds.

  ‘Run to me Minnie!’ shouted Billy Lee, getting to his feet and striding across the room towards the desk. Cocking the Colt he leaned over the desktop and pointed the revolver down.

  There was nobody there, Burk had gone!

  Minnie burst into the room and rushed over to Billy Lee. She fell into his arms and Billy Lee pulled her back away from the windows.

  ‘You alright?’ he asked.

  She nodded, her eyes shining bright with relief in the dim light as she pressed her face to his chest.

  Even with the mayhem going on outside it felt good to him to hold her again.

  ‘Who’re those guys out there?’ he asked her.

  She held a hand over her heart – they’re okay.

  Billy Lee looked over again behind the desk and saw the trail of blood black against the floor as it weaved a thin path towards the end French door and disappeared out into the darkness.

  ‘Stay here,’ he said. ‘Burk’s on the loose and I aim to get him.’

  Three silhouetted shapes suddenly loomed through one of the doors and Billy Lee turned, gun at the ready. But Minnie reached up and stayed his hand.

  Lee and Barnaby carried a sagging figure between them into the room, ‘He’s hurt, Minnie. It’s Jethro, he’s been shot.’

  Minnie give a sharp sorrowful sob and quickly rushed over to the fallen man. It gave Billy Lee a moment’s pause for thought. What was this man to her? And why should she care about someone who had been standing alongside Burk?

  ‘What about the other shooter out there?’ he asked the two men.

  ‘We got him, he’s dead.’ replied Les. ‘Look here, LaBone, we ain’t in on this. Jethro here, he took it bad that his brother got shot and that’s why he was after you but it was him that laid out that Crone fellow out there. That’s how he took the bullet. Me and Barnaby are his partners, we couldn’t leave him, that’s all it was.’

  Billy Lee watched them bending over the wounded man, ‘You take care of this lady then. Any harm comes to her and I’ll be looking for you, you understand?’

  Minnie looked over her shoulder at him, a worried expression on her face.

  ‘I got to finish this with Burk,’ he said in way of explanation and he turned away and slipped silently out through the French window, following the blood trail across the patio stones.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Billy Lee hugged the wall as he made it around the corner. He was into a narrow alleyway between the side of the house and a bank of tall bushes. The whole passageway was enclosed in darkness and Billy Lee could no longer see the dusty track at his feet. He felt his way along the path, one hand against the wall and the other holding his pistol.

  He knew the wounded foot would slow Burk down and he hoped to catch up with him before the man could find himself some transport and get away.

  Then suddenly, he stumbled over something in the darkness. Large and still, it lay stretched across his path. Kneeling down, Billy Lee ran his hand over the figure. It was Doctor Jack!

  Billy Lee cursed and felt for a pulse. It was strong and steady when he found it, the Indian was unconscious and not dead. With a sigh of relief, Billy Lee climbed to his feet.

  As he did so, something hard and heavy hit him on the side of the head. The bushes alongside parted and a man loomed out and grabbed him by the arms. Another stepped forward out of the shadows and hit him, a hefty blow to the jaw that left Billy Lee stunned and his pistol dropped from his grasp. His first attacker swung again with what seemed to be a rifle butt and Billy Lee sagged under the blow.

  They kept hitting on him and Billy Lee, with a roar, swung the man that had him by the arms and slammed him up against the brick wall of the house. Seeing nothing in the darkness, he lashed out, his one advantage being that despite his opponents outnumbering him three to one, whoever he managed to connect with was an enemy. They on the other hand were hitting at each other as well as Billy Lee.

  Grunts of pain and pants of exertion filled the narrow passageway as the struggling party slugged it out. Billy Lee was going down fast; he could feel blood streaming down his face and from his mouth and his body felt as if it were suffering under a rock fall as they beat at him.

  Then, a huge, hairy shape filled the corridor and one of the men was plucked off his feet and lifted aside. The snap of his neck sounded like a carrot cracking and was loudly audible above the noise of the struggle.

  ‘Goddamn!’ gasped another of the gunmen. ‘It’s a bear! Hell! There’s a wild bear in here.’

  His voice was suddenly stilled as Barnaby dropped him with a single crunching blow.

  The last gunman wailed in fright and made off down into the dark alley away from them.

  Billy Lee groggily knelt down and felt around for his revolver. He had his hand on it when he felt himself lifted onto his feet and he smelt buffalo and felt the hair of Barnaby’s robe against his cheek.

  ‘You alright?’ the big man asked.

  ‘Obliged to you, I think you got here just in time,’ said Billy Lee, rubbing his tender jaw carefully.

  ‘We come looking for the Indian doctor for Jethro,’ Les explained.

  ‘He’s been laid out back there,’ said Billy Lee. ‘He’s alive but out of it right now.’

  ‘Then we’ll go get one in the town.’

  Without answer, Billy Lee led the way along the alley until they reached the sheer cliff face that backed onto the rear of the building.

  ‘Which way?’ asked Les.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Billy Lee, searching the ground for some sign of Burk’s passage.

  Then they heard the rattle of falling stones from above and they all looked up. Cut in the cliff was a narrow zigzagging path leading upwards amongst the rocks. It shone pale in the dim light and they could just make out the fleeing figure of the gunman from the alleyway as he clambered up.

  ‘That’s it,’ said Billy Lee, stepping up onto the narrow pathway. As he did so, there was a gunshot from above and the rocks beside Billy Lee’s foot jumped and a bullet whined away in ricochet.

  All three sprung back, ‘Damn!’ spat Les. ‘He’s got us covered.’

  ‘Not for long,’ growled Barnaby, lifting his Sharps from the strap where it hung around his chest under his robe.

  ‘You won’t see him in this dark, let alone hit him,’ observed Billy Lee.

  ‘You don’t know Barnaby, mister,’ grinned Les confidently. ‘He can hit a needle’s eye inside a gunnysack at fifty yards. Ain’t that right, Barnaby?’

  ‘Shut up, I’m concentrating,’ muttered Barnaby, slowly raising the long rifle, locking back the hammer and taking aim.

  The gunman above fired again and at the same time Barnaby spotted the muzzle flash and fired himself. The Sharps boomed mightily and a .50 caliber lead ball screamed its way into the night.

  All three heard the brief sharp cry of pain and watched as a dark shadow filled the night and tumbled away from the cliff face, the body hit and bounced down towards them. Rolling and bumping loosely it flopped
down over the rocks and lay still.

  ‘Mighty nice shooting,’ Billy Lee approved.

  ‘Come on!’ said Les and leapt for the path.

  The three scurried up, Les in front, Billy Lee in the middle and Barnaby following behind. It was a steep climb and led between and over rocky outcrops that jutted from the face. A secret way that led to the Old Town that lay above.

  The wind blew cold around them and Billy Felt its cooling influence with some relief. He ached from head to toe and his face was raw with the blows he had suffered but the chill sharpened his senses and he looked out over the sea as he climbed. It shone silver and flat and was still in the starlight, the surface barely marked by waves, a great rippling expanse that stretched away into the night.

  They crested the rise and stood on the tussocky grass at the cliff edge and looked around.

  All was still.

  They stood only a few hundred yards away from The Broken Wing, the saloon dark and silent before them.

  Then they heard the sound of voices and two figures emerged from the shadows at the rear of the building.

  ‘Go on, get along,’ urged the one with a pistol and a large bandage on his head. ‘Pesky sucker, keep moving.’

  The figure in front, hopped and limped painfully, ‘I’m going as fast as I can, you asshole.’

  And with that, Billy Lee recognized the gravelly voice of James Burk.

  ‘Don’t ‘asshole’ me or I’ll rip you a new one myself.’

  Billy Lee heard Les beside him gasp in surprise.

  ‘It’s my cousin Freddie. Hellfire! Freddie what you doing there?’ he called out.

  Both men turned and looked across at the group, ‘Howdy, cuz, I got me some troublesome piece of work here,’ Freddie replied. ‘Fellow who likes to tell folks what to do all the time. A real irritating dumbass.’

  They crossed over and Billy Lee eyed Burk coldly, ‘Looks like you got took, Burk. I’m right pleased to see that.’

  ‘How’d you get here?’ Les asked Freddie.

  ‘I was getting a treatment from that Indian doc,’ Freddie explained. ‘I guess it was kind of successful but I must have swooned or something, next thing I know is I wake up by some shed back there. I feel great now, so it really worked. Then this fool comes gimping past and starts in on me. Do this and do that, go fetch him a pony, take him to a doctor, you know, like I’m his skivvy, or something. Guess I showed you, didn’t I, Mister High-and-Mighty?’