He didn’t have time to do anything except gape in surprise before she pulled the trigger and shot him in the face.
The gun’s roar was loud inside the car. As its echoes bounced back and forth, women screamed and men shouted curses and questions.
Delia ignored them all and shoved aside the dying man she had stabbed, leaving the knife buried in his belly. She was surprisingly strong for her petite size, even more so when she was fueled by rage and madness.
As she stepped through the vestibule and out onto the platform, she saw that the train had reached the pass. With smoke boiling from its stack, the locomotive rumbled through the gap in the mountains and started down the long, steep grade toward a trestle that spanned a fast-flowing river.
She took that in with a glance as she stepped across the narrow gap to the platform on the front of the caboose and reached for the doorknob with a hand smeared with blood.
CHAPTER 16
Bertram and the conductor huddled at the desk in the caboose, no doubt going over the plans for what would take place when the train reached the junction. Chadwick and the other three guards seemed relaxed, apparently confident the plan was working well enough that there wouldn’t be any trouble.
Luke kept his eyes on his prisoner. The caboose didn’t have any windows except a couple small ones for ventilation, so he couldn’t see what was going on outside, but he could tell when they reached the mountains. The train slowed and the angle changed as they began climbing the grade.
Bertram barked at Chadwick and the other guard. “All right. You men look sharp now. There are more places up here for an ambush, and the train’s going slower. It would be easier for outlaws to get on board.”
“Nobody’s going to bother that gold, Mr. Bertram,” Chadwick declared. “If they try, we’ll give ’em a hot lead welcome. Anyway, once the train makes it through the pass, we’ll pick up speed again on the downhill slant.”
Luke didn’t share Chadwick’s confidence. He’d been thinking about it and had decided that half a dozen guards weren’t nearly enough to protect the gold if a large gang of outlaws came after it. Bertram was relying too much on secrecy and trickery and not enough on sheer manpower. Things like that happened when a man was too clever for his own good, as Bertram appeared to be.
McCluskey said quietly to Luke, “You know what I’d do if I was bossing the job of stealin’ that gold?”
“No, and I don’t want to know,” Luke replied, although to be honest, he was a little curious. He didn’t want to encourage McCluskey by admitting that, however.
McCluskey didn’t need encouragement. “I’d hit this train when Bertram and his boys are least expectin’ it, when they’re starting to think they’re safe.”
“On the other side of the pass?” Luke asked, despite his own good intentions.
McCluskey said solemnly, “That’s right. And as slow as we’re goin’, I’d say we’re just about there.”
Luke thought the outlaw was right. He had ridden enough trains through mountainous country to recognize the sensation of a locomotive laboring up the last few yards of a steep grade.
His head jerked up as he heard what sounded like the flat blast of a gunshot. It was hard to tell because of the rattling racket the train made, plus the wind in the mountains whipped sounds away quickly.
He wasn’t the only one who heard it. Bertram bolted to his feet and exclaimed, “What was that? It sounded like a shot!”
Instantly, the guards were alert.
Chadwick said, “Hard to tell. Could have been. I can send one of the men to check—”
“No!” Bertram cried. “Don’t open that door under any circumstances!”
The train leveled out as it reached the top of the pass, which was a short one. After only a moment, the floor of the caboose slanted again as the train started down the slope.
The doorknob rattled loudly as someone tried to turn it on the other side and found it locked. Tensely, Chadwick and the other guards pointed their rifles at the door.
On the small platform at the front of the caboose, a woman screamed. “Outlaws!” she shrieked. “They’re killing everyone! Let me in! Oh, God, please let me in!”
Chadwick looked hard at Bertram. “What do we—”
His face was covered with sweat. He was torn with indecision, as was obvious from his wild-eyed stare. He twitched as the woman screamed again.
“Bertram, what do we—”
“Let her in!” he burst out.
Luke was on his feet, gun in hand. Suspicion roiled inside him. The idea of outlaws boarding the train was easy enough to swallow. No matter how secret Bertram had tried to keep the shipment, word of that much gold almost always slipped out. But how could outlaws be killing everyone on the train when only one shot had been fired?
Luke was about to call to Chadwick to stop, but the leader of the guards had already reached the door and turned the key. He grabbed the knob, twisted it, and flung the door open.
Flame lanced through the gap as a gun roared again. Chadwick rocked back and dropped his rifle as he gasped in shock and pain.
Luke raised his Remington, hoping to get a shot at whoever was on the platform. He had a pretty good idea who that was.
A dull boom sounded over the noise of the train’s wheels, but it didn’t sound like it came from elsewhere on the train. Whatever it was had an immediate result.
The train lurched violently as the engineer in the cab threw on the brakes for all they were worth. The wheels screeched against the rails like all the banshees out of hell.
The men in the caboose were thrown off their feet. McCluskey, still sitting in the chair, toppled forward and crashed heavily to the floor. As Luke glanced up, he caught a glimpse of the woman who had shot Chadwick flying backward toward the gap between the caboose and the last passenger car. Her petite size, blond hair, and blue dress told him his hunch was right.
Somehow, Delia had gotten out of jail in Rattlesnake Wells and was trying once again to free her lover McCluskey.
She screamed for real as she dropped out of sight.
That she had slipped between the cars, falling to a grisly death under the train’s wheels flashed through his mind in the instant before he slammed to the floor hard enough to knock the breath out of him and stun him. Somehow, he managed to hang on to the revolver.
The train continued to shudder and jerk and act like it was going to fly off the rails at any moment. Luke pushed himself up onto hands and knees and looked around. The rest of the men were still down, and McCluskey—
McCluskey rammed into his side and knocked him sprawling. The Remington slipped out of his fingers and slid along the sloping floor.
The chair had broken when McCluskey was thrown forward so violently. His hands were still cuffed behind his back and he still wore the leg irons, but he had writhed free of the chair’s wreckage. He rolled, swung his legs up, and drove them out in a double kick that smashed into Luke’s ribs and kept him from retrieving the gun.
Luke grunted and tried not to pass out. He pushed himself out of McCluskey’s reach and fought his way to his feet, staggering as the train swayed and the brakes continued to scream.
Whatever was waiting at the bottom of the grade, it had to be bad.
Delia clung with all her strength to the front edge of the platform. She had grabbed it with one hand and had one foot hooked over it, and those were the only things holding her up. If she lost her grip, she would fall, bounce off the coupling, and land under the train. That was certain death.
Before the mysterious explosion, before the train had braked and thrown her off the platform, she had caught a glimpse of McCluskey through the open door. Knowing he was in the caboose, so close to her, gave her strength she didn’t know she had. Slowly, she began to pull herself back up onto the platform, even as the whole train continued to shake.
Delia got her other hand on the platform, and as she solidified her grip she was able to pull herself up and roll onto the steel
floor. She looked through the open caboose door and saw McCluskey kick Luke Jensen. Frank was still in irons, but he hadn’t given up. He was still fighting. That determination was just one of the things she loved about him.
She had dropped the pistol when she was thrown off her feet, but a rifle lay just inside the door. Realizing the man she had shot had dropped it, she scrambled up onto her hands and knees and lunged toward the weapon before anyone inside the caboose noticed her.
Jensen had gotten away from McCluskey and managed to stand up again. Delia lifted the rifle and swung it up. It was heavy, but she didn’t care. She pointed it at Jensen and fired.
The whip crack of the shot was loud in the caboose. With the train shaking so much, accuracy was almost impossible, and she was disgusted to see that Jensen was still on his feet. She worked the rifle’s lever and fired again, but just as flame spouted from the muzzle, one of the other men lurched upward, trying to stand.
The slug caught him in the throat. Blood spurted from the wound in a red fountain as he went over backward, gurgling grotesquely.
Cursing her bad luck, Delia levered the rifle and fired again. She screamed, “Stay down, Frank!” and sprayed lead around the caboose. She didn’t care who she hit, as long as it wasn’t McCluskey.
Jensen kicked the caboose’s rear door open and vanished through it. Delia cursed again.
And the train finally ground to a halt.
Luke still had his second Remington, but he never got a shot at the crazy woman blazing away at him with the rifle. He wasn’t sure where she got the strength to wield the weapon, unless it was the pure insanity that drove her.
One of the slugs chewed splinters from the doorjamb as he ducked through the opening. He wanted to get out of the close confines of the caboose. He had seen what happened to Bertram and knew that the more wild slugs flew around, the better the chance of dying.
Out in the open, he thought he might be able to get on top of the car, race to the front of the caboose, and drop down behind her, taking her by surprise.
Besides, he wanted to find out what the hell was going on. Was that an explosion he had heard, right after Delia shot Chadwick?
He didn’t have a chance to put his plan into operation. The train finally shuddered and shivered to a stop. A rifle cracked somewhere close by, and a bullet ricocheted off the iron railing around the tiny platform at the rear of the caboose.
“Hold it right there, mister!” a man shouted. “Drop that gun and get your hands up!”
Luke looked around. The rails passed between two fairly steep slopes dotted with boulders. He spotted several rifle barrels protruding from behind those rocks and knew he was covered. Whoever those hidden gunmen were, they could riddle him with lead before he made a move.
He had no choice but to let his Remington thud onto the platform as he let go of it.
The train had come to a stop about fifty yards short of a trestle across a river that flowed through the mountains. Keeping his hands in plain sight so the riflemen on the slopes wouldn’t get trigger-happy, Luke leaned his head to the side and peered along the train toward the bridge. He saw twisted steel rails curling up in the middle of the span and knew what had happened. Outlaws had blown a hole in the bridge so the train had to stop or crash into the river. That was the explosion he had heard.
Men began emerging from behind the rocks and working their way down the slopes toward the train. As they closed in from both sides, Luke counted almost a dozen. They spread out, a couple heading for the cab, others splitting up to cover the two passenger cars and the caboose.
Suddenly, shots cracked from inside the cars. Some of the passengers were armed and willing to put up a fight. The outlaws dropped behind cover and returned the fire. Luke heard glass shatter as owlhoot lead raked through the windows of the passenger cars. Screams and angry shouts counterpointed the gunfire.
A shot roared inside the caboose, then a moment later another report sounded. Luke didn’t think whoever fired those shots was trying to defend the caboose against the outlaws.
His hunch proved correct. A moment later, Frank McCluskey appeared in the doorway, holding a revolver. He was free, although a cuff was still locked around each wrist. Short lengths of chain dangled from the cuffs. The leg irons were in the same shape. Luke knew the shots he had heard inside the caboose were Delia blowing the shackles apart and freeing McCluskey.
The outlaw grinned at the sight of Luke standing there unarmed, with his hands up. McCluskey stayed back enough that he wouldn’t be spotted by the bandits approaching the train. “You see, Jensen?” McCluskey gloated as Delia peeked around him at Luke, smirking. “I told you something would happen. It was just a matter of time.”
“You’re not out of the woods yet, McCluskey,” Luke said. “The men who stopped this train aren’t your friends. As far as they’re concerned, you’re just one more obstacle standing between them and those strongboxes full of gold.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” McCluskey leaned out a little and raised his voice. “Hey! Back here! The gold’s in the caboose!”
A couple outlaws ran along the tracks, rifles held ready for instant use. They arrived at the caboose’s rear platform and leveled the weapons at Luke.
He looked over the barrel of one of the rifles and felt a shock go through him like a hard punch to the belly. The man pointing the Winchester at him, clearly ready to kill him if he made a wrong move, was his old friend Derek Burroughs.
CHAPTER 17
Burroughs didn’t seem surprised.
But then again, he wouldn’t be, Luke thought. “When you told me you were going to do some prospecting for gold, Derek, I assumed you meant something else.”
“Sorry, Luke. I didn’t enjoy lying to you. Just don’t try anything. Nobody else has to die here.” Burroughs circled out a little so he could see into the doorway. “McCluskey! Throw that gun down.”
McCluskey edged back and to the side so he could use the doorjamb for cover. “The hell I will! I don’t know who you are, mister, but I’ve got the gold. That means you have to deal with me.”
It was true, Luke realized. McCluskey didn’t know who Burroughs was. Burroughs had hit him from behind, knocked him out, and hadn’t been around the jail after McCluskey had regained consciousness.
“Derek here is an old friend of mine,” Luke told McCluskey. “He’s the one who saved my life last night by buffaloing you just as you were about to shoot me.”
“Is that so?” McCluskey sneered. “Well, I don’t reckon it matters that much now. I’m not your prisoner anymore, Jensen, and like I said . . . I’ve got the gold.”
“What are you going to do with it?” Burroughs asked. “You can’t haul it out of there. It’s too heavy for one man to handle. And we’ve got the train surrounded.”
That was true. The shooting from the passenger cars had stopped. Either the men who’d been putting up a fight were all dead, or they had realized how futile their resistance was and had surrendered. Burroughs’ gang appeared to be firmly in control of the situation.
McCluskey was just a wild card—but sometimes wild cards could determine the outcome of the game.
“Listen, mister, you owe me,” McCluskey said quickly. “There were four guards in here. They’re all dead, thanks to me and my lady friend. You can waltz right in and take the gold without losing any men. Don’t you think I deserve something for that?”
The outlaw with Burroughs said, “Why don’t we just kill this loudmouth, too?”
Burroughs shook his head. “No, he’s got a point. Maybe we should cut him in for a share.”
“I ain’t sure the rest of the boys would go along with that idea.”
“They will if I say so, and if they know what’s good for them.” Burroughs’ voice was cold and hard as steel as he spoke, and the look on his face gave Luke a glimpse into what his old friend had become. He had turned outlaw, like so many former Confederate soldiers who had returned home to devastation and corruptio
n. There was no mercy left inside him.
Or not much, anyway. Burroughs had spared his old friend’s life—so far.
Luke had no doubt that could change in a heartbeat.
“I’m coming in there, McCluskey, and we can talk about this.” Burroughs went on. “Luke, you go back inside, too. I want you where I can keep an eye on you myself. You’re too tricky to trust otherwise.”
McCluskey frowned as he considered that, then he said, “All right, mister, but you’re the only one who comes in. The rest of your bunch stays out there, and if you try anything funny, you won’t leave this caboose alive.”
McCluskey backed away and motioned for Luke to follow him into the caboose. Burroughs came up the steps with his rifle. Caught between the two of them, Luke stepped back into the caboose.
All the bullets Delia had thrown around in here had resulted in a bloodbath. Luke had seen Bertram and Chadwick gunned down. The other three guards were dead, too, sprawled in limp heaps on the floor.
The only one who had survived was the conductor, who sat huddled against the wall nursing a wounded left arm. The sleeve of his uniform coat was dark with blood, and crimson ran down his hand and dripped from his fingers. Delia stood over him with a revolver in her hand, watching him.
Burroughs followed Luke into the caboose, looked around at the bodies, and nodded grimly. “Looks like you live up to your reputation as a killer, McCluskey.”
Luke didn’t say anything about how Delia was the one responsible for slaughtering the guards, and McCluskey didn’t correct Burroughs’ assumption, either.
As for Delia, she looked like she didn’t care whether McCluskey got credit for the killings. All that mattered to her was that she had been reunited with the outlaw she loved with such unaccountable intensity.
“Where’s the gold?” Burroughs glanced around. “Never mind. I see it,” he said as his gaze fell on the strongboxes stacked in the corner. He took a step toward them, but McCluskey got in his way.
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