To Reap and to Sow

by J. R. Roberts

  The Colt bucked against Clint’s palm and sent a shot past Mark’s head. Both men raised their hands and fired right back at him. Eclipse didn’t need to feel more than half a nudge from Clint to know what to do. The Darley Arabian turned sharply from the gunfire and tore away.

  Clint twisted in the saddle and fired at the two men again. Both of them had already ducked behind the stable. The bank robber was even taking the time to line up his shot.

  Cursing under his breath, Clint pulled on the reins to make Eclipse turn sharply around and change direction before Smalls drew a bead on him. Another shot hissed a few yards away from him and might have drawn blood if Clint hadn’t made the sudden move. Unfortunately, it took another couple of seconds for Eclipse to turn around again.

  “Go on!” Smalls shouted.

  Both Smalls and Mark ran from the stable and into the nearby field. Their horses waited there behind a few trees. Even though Clint had seen the animals there, he hadn’t had much time to do anything about it. Keeping his body low over the stallion’s neck, he got Eclipse racing toward the two men.

  Before making it to the field, Smalls turned his back to the trees and kept moving toward them using a backward shuffle. He wore a wide smile on his face as he raised both arms to take aim with a pistol in each hand.

  Clint pulled sharply on the reins and fired a shot at Smalls, hoping it might be enough to keep the approaching storm of lead away for another second or two. But Smalls didn’t even flinch at the incoming round. Instead, he started pulling his triggers and firing both guns at Clint.

  Firing reflexively, Clint put one bullet into Smalls’s arm. Even that wasn’t enough to back the other man down. Just as the incoming bullets got closer to hitting Clint, another shot was fired from the house.

  That shot sparked against the gun in Smalls’s right hand and forced him to turn tail and race for his horse.

  Clint glanced at the house and saw Lynn wave at him from the roof. He didn’t know how she’d managed to get up there so quickly, but he reminded himself to thank her for it when he got back. For the moment, however, Clint had his hands full.

  He wasn’t about to let Mark get away from him again, so Clint fired a few more times at the trees and snapped the reins so Eclipse could close the distance between them.

  Within seconds after Mark and Smalls stopped shooting, they were in their saddles and racing away from the trees. They were racing away from the house, as well, and heading into one of Wes’s fields.

  Putting Eclipse on a straight course, Clint gripped the reins in his teeth and used both hands to quickly reload the Colt. It wasn’t the safest way to go about the task, but it sure brought a smile to his face as he closed the distance between himself and the fleeing gunmen.

  FORTY-FOUR

  “Where the hell did those two come from?” Wes asked as he ran to his front porch.

  Tina stepped outside carrying a shotgun. “I thought I saw something moving and Lynn spotted them poking around the barn. She took a shot at them and spooked them before they got inside.”

  “So they didn’t make it into the barn?” Wes asked.

  “I don’t think so. I went to get the shotgun, and Lynn climbed up to the roof like we agreed if there was any trouble. I think she might have hit one of them from up there.”

  Wes looked his daughter over quickly and let out his breath when he saw she wasn’t hurt. “We’d better all get to our spots like we talked about. This might be what we were preparing for.”

  “I swear that gold is in there!” Mark hollered as he furiously whipped his horse with the reins. “If we could’ve gotten into that barn, you would’ve seen for yourself. You gotta believe me!”

  Still wearing the grin that had been on his face since the shooting started, Smalls fired one more shot over his shoulder and looked back to Mark. “You can stop the cryin’. I believe you.”

  For a moment, Mark was more focused on Smalls than on the man who was chasing them. “You do?”

  “Sure I do. With that many guns guarding the place, there’s gotta be somethin’ worth having in that barn. There sure as hell is more than just some damn bales of hay. Having a chunk of gold in there sounds about right to me.”

  “So do we go get the others?” Mark asked. “Or should we come back later?”

  Another shot was fired from behind them, which hissed through the air directly between them. Mark pulled away so quickly that he nearly fell from his saddle. Smalls, on the other hand, casually checked over his shoulder as if looking for a sign of rain.

  “If we wait, those farmers will just find some more guns to guard that place with,” Smalls said. “Or they’ll move the gold. We’ll head back and catch ’em when they think we’re runnin’.”

  “Just us?”

  “Hell, no! I got a little surprise for them farmers.”

  Clint snapped the Colt shut with a flick of his wrist. He kept the gun in hand while taking hold of the reins. The field was flat, but there were plenty of tall crops and the occasional scarecrow in his line of sight to give the two men in front of him a little cover. Clint didn’t know what the crops were, but he sure could have gotten a better shot without them in his way.

  He urged Eclipse into a row between the tall stalks and was about to close the gap even more when he saw another group of horses converge on the two in front of him. As soon as both groups met up, they turned around to face Clint head-on.

  Knowing a bad spot when he saw one, Clint followed suit and made a direction change of his own. Rather than head straight back to the barn, he circled around to the left and hung on as the stalks whipped at him from both sides.

  Now that Eclipse was no longer running straight down one of the rows in between the stalks, it wasn’t so easy to build up speed. It was a lot easier, however, to disappear from view as both groups of gunmen started firing toward Clint.

  “Glad to see you boys could make it,” Smalls shouted at Vin and John, who rode on either side of Joey.

  John tipped his hat and replied, “All we needed to do was keep this one quiet while we followed you two.”

  “What about the gold?” Vincent asked. “Is it there?”

  “There’s somethin’ valuable in that barn,” Smalls replied excitedly. “And it’ll belong to us when we ride out of here.”

  With that, Smalls snapped his reins and led the charge onto the Petrowski farm.

  FORTY-FIVE

  Clint raced back toward the house and circled around to the front. Since he’d managed to get out of their sights with his last couple of turns, he was able to work his way to the gate directly in front of the farmhouse. Hopefully, everyone else had had enough time to get to the spots they’d all practiced.

  As soon as Clint bolted through the gate, he held his breath and prayed that nobody would take a panicked shot at him. No shots came, so he kept riding toward the barn. He didn’t make it there before the riders cleared the field behind him.

  Smalls led the way and fired his pistol while standing up in his stirrups. He shouted like a crazed barbarian and thundered straight toward the barn.

  Vincent and John were close behind Smalls, and they rode toward the house. That path also put them in the clear, which set them up almost as well as a pair of bottles in a field.

  Lynn’s first shot caught John in the shoulder. It wasn’t fatal, but it hit with more than enough force to knock him off his horse. Her second shot came soon after, but hissed through the air past Vincent’s head.

  John hit the ground on his side and spat all the air from his lungs in one pained grunt. It was a struggle to get to his feet, but once he did he immediately started running toward the barn. He was about three paces from the front barn doors when a petite figure leaned out of the small square window that opened from the stable’s loft.

  With the shotgun already against her shoulder, Tina sighted along the barrels and pulled both triggers. The impact knocked her back into the loft, but she sent enough buckshot into the air to cut John down
where he stood.

  Several pellets hit John in the legs and back. Those, combined with the wounds he’d already taken, ended his run right then and there.

  Vincent fired up toward the house’s roof, but hit nothing more than a few shingles and an attic window. When he heard the shotgun, he turned in that direction while swinging his pistol around as well. He still couldn’t see anyone to shoot at, which brought a mix of anger and confusion to his face.

  “Hey, boy,” Wes said as he emerged from the house’s front door.

  Vincent turned and took aim at the old farmer. He pulled his trigger at the same time that Wes pulled his.

  Both men drew blood and both men hit the ground hard.

  As soon as he’d ridden around to the back of the barn, Smalls jumped down from his saddle and ran for the rear door. “This the spot, Mark?”

  Mark and Joey had been sure to come in behind the other three, so they’d only just arrived. Mark nodded, but couldn’t get his eyes to stay focused on one spot for very long. “Yeah, but that other one should be right—”

  “Right here,” Clint said as he pulled open the barn door. Eclipse was behind him and off to the right side where he could watch things unfold from a fairly safe distance.

  “Hand over the gold and we’ll leave in peace,” Smalls said.

  Clint scowled and looked at Smalls as if he’d heard a bad joke. “Too late to make that promise, don’t you think?”

  “All right then. How about you hand over the gold and I let you and all these farmers live?”

  “I don’t think you’ve got the firepower to back that up,” Clint replied.

  Smalls looked around and then waited for a few seconds, but all he heard was the thunder of the previous gunshots rolling farther away. “I got all I need right here,” Smalls said as he tightened his fist around his pistol.

  That subtle bit of motion was enough to make Clint’s entire body tense.

  Smalls reacted to that by reflexively lowering his arm before he got himself shot.

  “There’s no gold in here,” Clint said. “Take a look for yourself.”

  “It’s right there under those rags,” Mark shouted.

  Stepping sideways toward the little pile of rags in the corner, Smalls tapped it with his toe and kicked some of the rags aside. All he found underneath was straw and a wooden floor.

  “There was gold, I swear!” Mark groaned.

  Gritting his teeth, Smalls let out a snarl that eventually formed into some words. “There’s something you’re all guarding and I aim to find it. Even if I have to burn this whole fucking place to the ground!”

  As he uttered that vow, Smalls brought up his gun to make good on it.

  Clint’s arm snapped up and he aimed the modified Colt as if he was pointing his finger. He pulled the trigger once, which was enough to send a single round through Smalls’s skull.

  Even before Smalls had dropped, Mark was rushing into the barn. “It’s here, goddammit. I know it’s here!”

  “Just leave, Mark,” Lynn said as she stepped through the front door of the barn. Her face and dress were smudged from climbing up and down from the roof, but she still looked good enough to capture all of Mark’s attention.

  “You’re coming back with me,” Mark said as he rushed toward her.

  Clint shifted his aim and thumbed back his hammer. Sure enough, the metallic click from the pistol was enough to stop Mark in his tracks.

  Still, Mark reached out for Lynn and locked his eyes upon her.

  As she walked past Clint, Lynn patted him on the shoulder. “It’s all right. I need to have another word with him.”

  “I thought I saw Wes get shot,” Clint said.

  “He did, but it’s just a flesh wound. Tina’s tending to him right now.”

  “You probably should let me take care of these two.”

  “No,” Lynn insisted. “I need to finish this.”

  Clint let her get closer to him, but kept his Colt aimed at Mark’s chest. One stern glare was all it took to get Joey to drop his gun and raise his arms.

  “I’m not going with you, Mark,” Lynn said. “Not now. Not ever.”

  “But I did all this for you. All of it!”

  “Like shooting at my friends and coming here to kill these good people?”

  “Yeah,” Mark replied. “For you!”

  “You’re a sick son of a bitch,” Lynn spat.

  Mark pulled back his hand and snarled, “Dirty bitch!” He got through half of a swing intended to knock her head from her shoulders before Lynn’s rifle went off and dropped him to his knees.

  As much as he wanted to scream, Mark didn’t have enough breath to make a sound. All he could do was lie on his side, curl into a ball and grab at the bloody pulp of his groin.

  Taking advantage of the cold sweat that had broken out on Joey’s brow, Clint said, “If you spread any more lies about there being gold on this farm, you’ll get the same as your friend.”

  “I ain’t never seen that gold,” Joey stammered. “Please just take me to a jail far away from her.”

  “I think that can be arranged.”

  Clint then walked over to Lynn and moved her away so he could take Mark’s gun.

  The look in Lynn’s eyes was cold and distant as she said, “I did the bastard a favor. He never knew what to do with that thing of his anyway.”