Kurt looked at the two captured men. Then, with a shake of his head, he lowered his gun.
‘These men are all yours to look after.’
‘That’s fine with us,’ Shackleton said.
Kurt pointed at Shackleton. ‘But if you ever turn a gun on me again, you’d better be prepared to pull that trigger because I sure as hell will blast you away.’
Shackleton nodded, then looked towards the saloon.
‘And now if we’ve settled that matter, we should get the men we came for.’
Kurt grunted that he agreed with that, so Elwood stepped forward to pull The Preacher to his feet. Shackleton did the same to Nathaniel.
‘You two won’t give us no trouble, will you?’ Elwood said.
The Preacher ignored him, but Nathaniel looked over his shoulder at Shackleton.
‘We won’t, but I didn’t deserve to be in that cage heading for the gallows. Turner Jackson is the only man who knows that to be the case and he’s in the saloon. Let me help you and I’ll get him to speak the truth.’
Elwood exchanged an amused glance with Shackleton. After three years delivering prisoners to Beaver Ridge jail they had heard every kind of protestation of innocence imaginable.
‘Yeah, yeah, save it for the judge,’ Shackleton said, pushing Nathaniel forward.
‘But—’
‘I said be quiet! Like Kurt said we saw the bodies you left behind in Wilson’s Crossing. You’d better save your breath to explain that one away.’
This comment made Nathaniel bow his head in shame, now knowing that the smith had not given the goods willingly.
Given more time Shackleton would have tied the prisoners up, but he couldn’t now that the men inside the saloon had been alerted to the fact that something was wrong and after Kurt had wasted time arguing. So he and Elwood stayed back letting Kurt pace into town at the front.
Kurt took a path close to the few buildings and walked with the steady confidence of someone who had visited this town before and knew this to be a safe route. With his head held high and his gun drawn and held low he walked straight towards the saloon.
Elwood caught Shackleton’s eye with a look that said he couldn’t believe how reckless he was being with Javier Rodriguez being inside, but when Kurt approached the saloon’s only window he veered to the side.
He pressed himself to the wall, listening, then edged round the side of the saloon to the back.
Although Kurt hadn’t given any instructions Shackleton and Elwood followed. When they reached the back they got all the explanations they needed for his actions.
‘Like I thought,’ he said, peering round the back corner. ‘While you were busy questioning my orders, those damn varmints have hightailed it out of here.’
Shackleton ignored the misplaced rebuke and joined Kurt in looking at the back, seeing that the ground fell away sharply behind the saloon, with a trail zigzagging its way down into the gathering gloom. A door at the back of the saloon was open.
When Shackleton recalled the scene at the front of the saloon he remembered seeing only a few horses: not enough for the whole Gallows Gang. Three steeds were mooching around at the back, presumably owned by the shot men.
‘The horses?’ he asked.
Kurt sighed. ‘Yeah. I’d better see who’s left inside. I might be able to shake something out of them.’
Kurt headed to the door and moved to walk in, but then flinched back a pace and gestured for Shackleton to join him.
Shackleton glanced inside and saw that a man was dangling from a gibbet beside the door, although gunshot wounds marred his chest.
‘I recognize him,’ he said. ‘He’s the man we followed back in Devil’s Canyon.’
‘So they’re turning on each other now,’ Kurt said. ‘But is that a good sign or a bad one?’
‘Take it all,’ Javier shouted to the remaining members of the Gallows gang. ‘Then we ride.’
Three of the men, Chester, William, and Aaron whooped with delight then made their way down the aisle, leaving Mitch and Turner to stay with Javier and cover the frightened passengers.
‘Going well, ain’t it?’ Turner asked, looking at Mitch.
Mitch shrugged. ‘I still reckon trains provide slim pickings unless you know there’s some mighty interesting cargo on board.’
‘Interesting cargo means heavily guarded trains. This is easy money before we move on to raiding Bear Creek’s bank.’
Javier hadn’t agreed to Turner’s plan yet, but he let the argument bounce back and forth between them, as it had done since he’d decided to raid the train bound for Bear Creek.
This was something that Pablo too had always said wasn’t worth the effort. So it felt right that this should be his first raid since the news had got out about the demise of the Pablo Rodriguez gang and the rise of the new, more ruthless Gallows Gang.
It took his men ten minutes to work their way around the passengers and the reputation that preceded them meant everyone handed over their money and valuables without complaint or any sign of fighting back. When they’d been through the car, Javier was about to order his men to move out, but Turner raised a hand.
‘Perhaps Mitch was right,’ he said, this comment taking Mitch aback. ‘This raid will only be worth the effort if there’s some interesting cargo here. We should check out the other cars.’
‘I guess we could,’ Mitch said.
They’d already seen that there were only a few unpromising-looking crates and boxes stored on the train, but Javier judged that if checking helped to get Mitch and Turner to agree on something, it’d be worth the delay.
‘Do it,’ Javier said, ‘but do it quickly.’
Mitch and Turner hurried off while the other surviving members of the Gallows Gang, Chester, William, and Aaron slipped past him and jumped down from the train.
Javier slipped into the doorway to the car and eyed the frightened passengers, wondering if they had enough time to hang someone and so add to their ruthless reputation.
But then a gunshot blasted nearby, coming from the direction Mitch and Turner had gone, closely followed by a second shot.
Javier issued a quick order that none of the passengers should move if they wanted to live, then hurried off through the deserted cars.
He reached the end one, where he found the same collection of unpromising crates and boxes that he remembered, except that now Mitch was lying sprawled over one crate, a gunshot wound marring his back. A prone and dead engineer provided the story of what had happened, but Javier still demanded an explanation.
‘He was lying in wait,’ Turner said, pointing at the engineer. ‘He came up from behind a box without warning and shot Mitch in the back.’
‘String him up quickly as a warning that this is what happens to anyone who takes on the Gallows Gang. Then we ride before anything else goes wrong here.’
‘We did get something though,’ Turner said, smirking as he patted the crate over which Mitch lay. ‘We got ourselves some dynamite – ideal for a bank raid.’
Javier told Turner to bring the crate. Then they strung up the dead engineer and made their hurried departure.
It was only when they’d put several miles between them and the raided train that it occurred to Javier that he hadn’t seen a gun in the engineer’s hand.
CHAPTER 12
‘What did he say?’ Shackleton asked as Kurt rode up on to the mound.
From his sitting position Nathaniel watched Kurt dismount and join Shackleton in looking down at the group of men, who were standing beside the railroad and listening intently as Mayor Maxwell gave them his orders.
He crossed his fingers behind his back in hope that these wouldn’t prove to be his last moments of relative freedom.
‘He said plenty,’ Kurt said, ‘and none of it was cheering. Despite Javier still being on the loose, the governor is still coming.’
‘Hence all those men?’
‘Yup. Mayor Maxwell had said he had fifty men at his disposa
l to find Javier. It seems he’s decided to use them, except if they don’t find him, it’ll be us that’ll take the blame.’
Elwood looked up from where he was guarding Nathaniel and The Preacher.
‘Fifty men make a lot of noise,’ he said. ‘If that don’t make Javier go to ground, nothing will.’
‘I know, but only twenty will be out looking for him. He’s putting ten on the next train to make sure the governor gets here safely. Another ten will be guarding the next railroad payroll, and another ten are out searching for Narcissa. She went looking for Javier again.’
‘Then this time,’ Elwood said, ‘I hope she has more luck than we’re having.’
Kurt nodded, then pointed at their prisoners.
‘Either way, we can get some use out of these two. Mayor Maxwell has one body to show the governor. I’ve told him where he can find three more, but I reckon he’d enjoy having two live ones he can string up in front of the governor.’
‘I’m surprised,’ Shackleton said, ‘you didn’t mention them when you were down there.’
‘Like you said, looking after the prisoners is your responsibility.’ Kurt rubbed his jaw while providing a rueful smile. ‘And besides, he didn’t let me speak for long enough to say we’d got two prisoners.’
‘Still obliged you consulted me first, for once.’ Shackleton gestured at the prisoners. ‘But I’ve been talking to them while you were down there. I reckon you ought to hear what Nathaniel has to say.’
Kurt glanced at Nathaniel, then sneered.
‘I ain’t interested in hearing anything those two have to say.’ Kurt raised his eyebrows. ‘And I’m surprised at you. I thought you’d looked after prisoners for long enough not to believe their lies, especially when they’re just days from the gallows.’
Shackleton’s abashed frown suggested he thought it highly likely that Kurt was right.
Over the last two days Nathaniel had tried and failed several times to talk to them. Now that they’d used up nearly half of their allotted seven days following leads on Javier Rodriguez, all of which had led nowhere, he had hoped they were in just the right frame of mind to listen to his offer.
‘Despite that, just listen to what he has to say,’ Shackleton said. ‘If you don’t like it, I’ll take them down to Mayor Maxwell.’
Kurt accepted these terms with a short nod, then stood over Nathaniel, who looked up at him and took a deep breath.
‘It’s like this,’ Nathaniel said, ‘I got wrongly accused of killing a man in Beaver Ridge jail and—’
‘If that’s what you’re going to whine about,’ Kurt snapped, ‘I ain’t wasting my time listening.’
‘Then I’ll give you the ending. I can take you to Javier Rodriguez.’
Kurt snorted. ‘So what they say about you is true. You would sell anyone out to save yourself.’
‘That ain’t the way it is. Turner Jackson sold everyone out, including me. I was after him because only the truth from him can save me from the gallows.’
‘All right, I believe you,’ Kurt said in a sneering tone that suggested the opposite. ‘So go on. Tell me where I can find Turner Jackson and Javier Rodriguez and I’ll make him tell the truth and save your neck from a stretching.’
‘I’ll do that but I want to be there, helping to get them. That’s part of the deal, or you won’t ever find him.’
‘As I thought. The deal is we free your bonds and then we ride around for days following your dubious directions while you look for a chance to run. That don’t sound like a good deal to me.’
‘Except I’ll take you directly to him.’
Kurt pursed his lips, as if were taking this offer seriously.
‘How far?’
Nathaniel sat back then raised his bound hands.
Kurt was just starting to shake his head when Shackleton spoke up.
‘You’ll have to give us something more than that, Nathaniel, as a show of faith, before we give you some leeway. Otherwise, I’ll take you down to the mayor myself and he’s determined to stretch someone’s neck in front of the governor whether they were wrongly accused or not.’
‘If you want something more, you’ll have to free The Preacher too,’ Nathaniel said, surprising himself with his comment. But now that he’d said it, it sounded right. The Preacher had saved his life, after all. ‘He’s the one who knows where Javier Rodriguez is.’
This comment made Kurt’s eyes open wide then snap round to look at The Preacher.
‘How can he possibly know that? He’s been our prisoner for the last two days.’
‘To be honest I don’t exactly know how, but he went to Baxter’s Point without making any detours or even looking as if he was following a trail. I reckon he can do the same again.’
‘But he’s a babbling madman.’
‘He ain’t. The Preacher’s intelligent. He’s remembered every line in the Bible and can quote them all, but because he does that people think him a madman. So they ignore him and talk openly in front of him. I reckon he hears it all and remembers, and that means in jail he heard Javier’s plans for what he’d do if he ever got free and that let him work out his weaknesses and motivations.’
Kurt shrugged and lowered his tone as if he were accepting this.
‘Javier’s motivation is simple. He’s an evil varmint. I don’t need no loco Bible man to tell me that.’
‘Except it’s more complicated than that. I can talk with him, sort of.’
‘So you can talk with a madman.’ Kurt snorted. ‘That don’t make me inclined to listen to you.’
With Kurt looking as if he’d heard enough, Nathaniel glanced at Shackleton. He gave an encouraging nod.
‘Tell him the about the other man,’ he said. ‘That might interest him more.’
‘There’s also Turner Jackson,’ Nathaniel said, ‘the man I want. I saw him with Javier and I reckon he’s wormed his way into Javier’s confidence, just like he did with others before like Hiram Deeds. For the last year I shared a cell with Turner, so I know how he thinks. I can find him, and The Preacher knows how Javier Rodriguez thinks and he can find him.’
‘What do you reckon?’ Shackleton asked, looking at Kurt. ‘Three days riding with these two men with some hope, or three days riding without them with no hope?’
For a full minute Kurt didn’t reply. Then, with a long sigh, he held out a hand for a knife.
‘Here’s the way it is,’ he said. ‘You both get to be free for the next three days. If you try to escape, I’ll shoot you. The moment I think you’re leading us in circles, I’ll make you wish I’d taken you to the gallows. You don’t get no weapon and once we have Javier Rodriguez, you both go straight to jail. Whether your help saves you from the gallows is up to the judge.’
‘Obliged,’ Nathaniel said as Kurt slit through his bonds, freeing his hands. ‘A chance to help is all I asked for.’
Kurt moved on to The Preacher who had his hands already held out in his usual posture of praying. Kurt hesitated before he ripped through the rope.
‘Not that anything will ever help to excuse this one before a judge.’
‘The assembly must judge between him and the avenger of blood,’ The Preacher said, ‘Numbers thirty-five, verse twenty-four.’
Kurt considered this comment, shaking his head then looked at Nathaniel who, to avoid guessing what it meant, stood and paced around, enjoying the feeling of being free to move again.
But when he stopped he found that all three of those who would now be his companions in the search for the Gallows Gang were staring down at The Preacher with some trepidation.
‘Just so I know,’ Nathaniel said, joining Shackleton. ‘What did The Preacher do to get sent to the gallows?’
Shackleton shivered then shook his head.
‘If you ever want to have a good night’s sleep again,’ he said, ‘don’t ask me that.’
CHAPTER 13
‘You lied,’ Kurt snapped, summing up two days of increasing frustration with his
simple comment.
Nathaniel looked down at the row of railroad men who were heading out of Chancer’s Pass. He had to admit that in Kurt’s position he’d have formed the same view.
‘I didn’t,’ he said. ‘There’s still a high ridge for them to traverse before they reach Bear Creek.’
Kurt slapped to the ground the telescope with which he’d been surveying the scene and shook his head.
Nathaniel looked at Shackleton, hoping for support, but Shackleton’s stern gaze showed that the small amount of faith he’d had in him when he’d accepted his offer had now gone. To Nathaniel’s surprise that lack of faith hurt him.
‘I agree with Kurt,’ Shackleton said. ‘Traipsing off after these men feels like wasted effort to me.’
‘But we’ve come this far,’ Nathaniel said. ‘We need to see it through. If the payroll reaches the bank safely, then hand us in, but not before.’
Shackleton looked at Elwood, who shook his head, then at the praying preacher who as usual appeared to be barely aware of what was happening around him, then at the sneering Kurt.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but this is where it ends for you, Nathaniel.’
Kurt grunted that he agreed. He picked up a coil of rope and waved it in Nathaniel’s his face.
‘Shackleton’s got the right idea,’ he said, ‘so give it to me one last time and convince me or these will be your last ever moments of freedom.’
Nathaniel looked down into the pass at the receding men, then at Kurt.
‘It’s like this,’ he said. ‘I reckon The Preacher told me that Javier is trying to better his brother. Pablo never wanted to raid trains or steal the railroad payroll, so Javier will now do precisely that. Turner was serving life for various bank raids and his last failed ambush happened to be on a railroad payroll where he tried to blow up the pass they were going through. And two days ago a crate of dynamite got stolen from the train.’
‘And so, based on the babbling of a madman and your hunch, you reckon Javier will blow up the pass?’
‘That’s what it amounts to.’
‘That’s a long way short,’ Shackleton said, ‘of you leading us directly to Javier Rodriguez like you promised. This is over.’
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