Double The Bounty
Page 9
“He was okay last night,” the third man said. “I saw him in the saloon. He had a drink and then said he was turning in for the night.”
Decker looked around the room and saw a bloody shirt on the floor. He moved toward the examining table and saw a basin next to it. He saw what was in the basin, picked it up, and put it in his pocket before anybody saw him.
He was taking his hand out of his pocket when the harried-looking sheriff turned around and saw him.
“Who are you?”
“Decker.”
“Oh, right.” The sheriff looked at the body again and then looked away. “What do I do now? Jesus Christ, I ain’t never seen nothing like this.”
“Well, for starters,” Decker said, “you could have him taken over to the undertaker’s.”
“Yeah,” the sheriff said, taking his hat off and running his fingers through his hair, “yeah. Nick, go and get some help. We’ll take him to the undertaker’s.”
“Okay, Sheriff.” It was the same man who had run into the sheriff’s office with the news.
The sheriff looked at Decker as if he were seeing him for the first time, and asked, “What’s your interest in this, Decker?”
“Nothing, Sheriff,” Decker said. “I’m just passing through.”
Rebecca and Felicia were waiting in front of the saloon with the horses.
“Let’s mount up and get out of here,” he said, grabbing John Henry’s reins.
“What did you find out?” Rebecca asked.
“The town doctor is dead. His throat’s been cut.”
“So?” Rebecca asked.
“There was a bloody shirt on the floor.”
“And?”
“What did the sheriff in Bell’s Crossing say the old woman had used to shoot Foxx?”
“A derringer, a small-caliber derringer.”
“I found this in a basin next to the doctor’s examining table.”
He opened his hand to show her.
A spent bullet.
A small-caliber spent bullet.
When they were clear of the town, they reined in.
“You want to explain this to us so we can understand it, too?” Rebecca asked.
“The shirt on the floor had a bullet hole which came from a small-caliber gun.”
“You’re saying that this is the town where one brother brought the other for treatment of his wound?”
“Right. I heard somebody say that the doctor was fine last night and that he had turned in for the night. That means that the Foxx brothers got here sometime during the night, had the wound treated, and then cut the doctor’s throat so he couldn’t tell anyone they were here.”
“That’s awful!” Felicia said. “You know, everything I read about Brian Foxx made him out to be some kind of Robin Hood, never hurting or killing anyone—and then all of a sudden people started to get hurt.”
“Then my brother got killed.”
“And then the old woman was shot, and the bank manager and the deputy, and now the doctor is killed in cold blood.”
“What does it all mean?”
“It means,” Decker said, “that the wrong Foxx is starting to take charge, and we’ve got to get to them before he kills his own brother.”
PART FOUR
FOXX TAIL
Chapter XXIX
“What’s wrong?” Brent Foxx asked Brian.
They had paused to let the horses rest—at least, that was what Brian told Brent. What he really wanted to do was allow Brent to rest. They were four days out of Stillwell and had just crossed into Colorado, and Brent hadn’t once asked to rest. It would have been great to be able to think of the gesture as noble or courageous, but the pure fact of the matter was that Brent was too stubborn to admit he needed rest.
Now Brent saw Brian peering intently past him, back the way they had come.
“Somebody’s on our tail, Brent,” Brian said, squinting in an attempt to get a better look.
“Who?” Brent immediately thought of a posse from Stillwell.
“I don’t know. I can’t see very well, but from the amount of dust they’re raising I’d say two or three riders, maybe even more.”
“That’s too small for a posse.”
“A posse wouldn’t have followed us this far from Bell’s Crossing.”
Brent didn’t offer an opinion on that.
“What then?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but we’d better get a move on if we don’t want them to catch us.”
“I’m ready”
“Let’s go, then.”
They started off again, at an increased pace.
Two hours later they stopped again and Brian looked behind them. Brent didn’t turn in his saddle for fear of reopening his wound. Instead he turned his horse to face the opposite way.
“I don’t see anything.”
“They’re still there,” Brian said.
“Where?”
“Keep looking. See! See that dust?”
“I never was much good at this, Brian,” Brent said, shaking his head. “I’ll take your word for it that there’s someone there, but what do we do about it?”
“Let’s change direction,” Brian said. “We’ll travel south for a while, head toward New Mexico, and see if they stay on our tail.”
“And if they do?”
“We’ll have to shake them off.”
“I know a perfect way of doing that,” Brent said, touching his gun.
“We’d be outnumbered, Brent, and your hand is still a little unsteady, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Brent frowned and brought his hand up in front of his face where he could see it.
“I’m all right.”
“That’s right, you are. You managed to survive getting shot and you’re all right—and I want to keep both of us that way. We’ll try and shake them. That way we won’t have to face them.”
“Have it your way, brother,” Brent said. “You always do.”
But, Brent thought, things do have a way of changing.
Chapter XXX
“They’ve spotted us,” Decker said.
“How can you tell?”
“I still can’t see them,” Felicia complained, squinting mightily.
“You can’t see them, just their dust.”
“How can you be sure it’s them?” Rebecca asked.
“I can’t, but would you rather assume that it isn’t?”
“No.”
“Then we’ll assume that it is, and we’ll also have to assume that they’ve seen us.”
“Why?”
“They speeded up.”
“You can tell that from dust?”
“This is my profession, ladies,” Decker said. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t good at it. They’ve speeded up their progress, and we’ll have to speed up ours.”
There were no complaints, and that was what they did. “Doesn’t that beast ever get tired?” Rebecca asked, referring to John Henry.
“He never complains,” Decker said. He dismounted and studied the ground for a few moments, then stood up, looking south.
“They’ve seen us, all right,” he said. “They’ve changed direction.”
“Where are they going now?” Felicia asked.
“I don’t know where they’re going, but they’re heading toward New Mexico.”
“Maybe they’re not heading as far east as you thought,” Rebecca said.
Decker shook his head.
“They’re checking to see if we’re really following them.”
“And when they find out that we are?” Rebecca asked.
“Ah,” Decker said, mounting up, “but they won’t.”
Without allowing either of the women to ask a question, he spurred John Henry on at a gallop, and they shrugged at each other and followed.
It became a cat-and-mouse game after that.
Decker planned to circle away from the Foxxes while trying to keep their progress in view. It might convince
the Foxxes that they had lost their tail, and if they then slowed their progress he’d be able to catch up to them faster.
Still, with one of them wounded they wouldn’t be able Tomove too much faster than they were at the moment. His other option was to simply run them down, but that might have put either Felicia or Rebecca in some danger.
He was in no hurry and decided to play it this way instead, trying to fool them into slowing down.
Maybe they were good at robbing banks and bad at reading the trail.
“What do you think?” Rebecca asked, coming up alongside of Decker. Her horse was laboring to keep up with John Henry. Meanwhile, Felicia had fallen behind, and if she fell any farther behind he’d have to slow down to allow her to catch up.
“They haven’t slowed down any. I guess they’re too smart for that.”
“What’s next?”
Decker turned and looked at Rebecca, then turned and looked at Felicia.
“Rebecca, I’m going to ride ahead and try to run them down.”
“And what are we supposed to do?”
“I want you to stay with Felicia. She can’t keep up well and—”
“Oh, no, Decker,” Rebecca said. “You’re relegating me to baby-sitting duty.”
“Look, I can move faster without you, and I can also move better because I won’t have the two of you to consider before I make a decision.”
“What will happen when you catch them? There are two of them.”
“Do you really think I’d be any more effective with you and Felicia along? Face it, Rebecca, having both of you along is slowing me down. Let me go ahead, run them down, and do my job. By the time you catch up, I’ll have them both trussed up nice and neat.”
“You hope.”
“I hope,” he said, nodding. “There’s always the possibility that the ground could open up and swallow me. In that case, you’d be on your own. But that’s not going to happen. I’m going to catch them and take them back into custody.”
Rebecca turned and looked back at Felicia, and when she looked for Decker she found that he had already sprinted ahead of her.
“Okay,” she said, “have it your way”
Chapter XXXI
“So?” Brent asked. He used only the one word because he was too busy trying to catch his breath to use any others. He had a stitch in his side, and he thought he might be bleeding again.
“Still coming. We’re gonna have to keep moving, Brent.”
“So let’s move then.”
Brian cast a dubious look his brother’s way, then said, “All right.”
“Something’s wrong,” Brian said sometime later.
“What?”
“I can’t see them.”
“Maybe we lost them.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Brian looked from left to right as far as he could. He kept looking until he found them.
“I see what they’ve done.”
“What?”
“They’ve gone wide instead of staying directly behind us. Whoever’s in charge is pretty smart.”
“Good, we’ll give him a damn medal when he catches us.”
Brian looked at his brother and asked, “Are you all right?”
“Stupid question,” Brent said through his teeth. “You expect me to say no?”
“Brent—”
“Come on, let’s keep moving. I’d rather bleed to death in the saddle than let some bounty hunter take me.”
They moved forward, Brian wondering if it was indeed a bounty hunter. Those bastards didn’t quit, especially if the money was good.
And after recent occurrences, Brian Foxx knew that the money on him was going to be very good.
“Now what?” Brent asked in annoyance. “You’re doing me more damage than the damned trail with this stop-and-go shit. What are you looking at?”
“Some of them have slowed down. It looks like one of them has really increased his pace.”
“One man?”
“Jesus,” Brian said, “he’s really coming like a bat out of goddamned hell. He’s gonna try and run us down.”
“Let him. We’ll take care of him and be on our way.”
“We’ll take care of him, all right,” Brian said, “but we’re going to have to find a place Tomake our stand.”
“Well then, let’s find it.”
Brian Foxx knew the area pretty well, having traveled it before.
“I think I know the place, Brent. Let’s go.”
“It’s about time. I thought we were going to put up a fuckin’ welcome banner.”
Less than and hour later Brian found what he was looking for, and the lone man on horseback was still coming, not even bothering to try and disguise his approach.
“What’s that?”
“An abandoned church. I remembered it being here. That’s where we’re gonna make our stand.”
“In a damned church?”
“You got any better ideas?”
“I ain’t been to church in years.”
“Well then,” Brian said, “you’re way overdue.”
Chapter XXXII
Decker knew all along that for his plan to work the terrain was going to have to be flat and empty for miles. If there was a place for the Foxx boys Tomake a stand, they’d take it, and that would make his job much harder.
He kept riding, knowing that he was probably easy to spot now, but not caring. When they spotted him, they’d have to start galloping their horses as well, and the wounded Foxx brother would not be able to take that for very long.
It would have worked if it hadn’t been for the damned church.
Decker spotted the large stone structure and slowed John Henry down. There was no doubt in his mind that the Foxx boys would be in there. One of them was probably up in the bell tower right now, watching him.
He decided that there was no longer any rush to get to where he was going. The Foxx boys would be there whenever he arrived.
He reined John Henry in and sat staring at the church, which was less than a hundred fifty yards away. Already he could see by their tracks that they had gone into the church.
He had two options.
He could wait for them to come out.
Or he could go in after them.
In waiting for them to come out, it would be a question of who had the most provisions, especially water. Since he was traveling light—the women were carrying whatever stores they still had left— he certainly wouldn’t be able to outlast them—but then he wouldn’t have to. He’d only have to last until Rebecca and Felicia caught up.
That, however, would tell the Foxxes that all he had with him was two women, and that wouldn’t do. They might then decide to try and ride him down, knowing that he was saddled with two women.
Waiting was out. It would only bring the women into range.
That meant going in after them.
It was a large church, and there should only be two of them. Surely he could find a way in once he got close enough.
Of course, the trick was getting close enough. A man in the bell tower with a rifle could hold off ten men, and he was only one.
He turned John Henry’s head and urged him forward at a slow walk. He proceeded to walk in a wide circle around the entire church. If nothing else, it would confuse the men inside until he could figure something out.
Chapter XXXIII
“What the hell is he doing?” Brent shouted up to Brian, who was in the bell tower. Brent could see the man from one of the ground-floor windows.
“He’s riding around in circles.”
The man rode out of Brent’s view, and he was trying to decide whether or not it was worth it to get up and walk to the other side of the church.
“Can you see him?” he called out.
“Yeah, I see him. Stay where you are.”
“What’s he doing now?”
“He’s just walking his horse all the way around the church.”
“What’s he doing that for?”
“Can you see anyone else?”
Brian took his eyes away from the man on the horse and looked around.
“Jesus,” he said suddenly.
“What? What is it?”
“There’s a whole crew of men riding toward us from the south.”
“How can you tell there are so many?”
“Because they’re kicking up enough dust for a dust storm, that’s why.”
“Why would a posse be coming from the south?”
“They wouldn’t be. I don’t think it’s a posse.”
“Then what?”
“They’re coming this way from New Mexico, Brent. Who travels in large groups like that?”
“Cavalry?”
“They’d be riding in a column. These horses are all spread out.”
“Indians?”
“Possible—or something even worse.”
“What’s worse than Indians?”
Brian looked down at his brother and said, “Comancheros.”
“Jesus,” Brent said.
Brian looked at the man again. He could tell that he had also seen the dust cloud. The man had a decision Tomake. He could ride off or ride to the church for cover, in which case he’d have to tangle with Brian and his brother.
Brian felt sure that the man would ride away.
He was wrong.
Dead wrong.
The crazy son of a bitch started riding hell-bent for leather for the church!
“He’s coming in!” Brian shouted. “Brent, he’s coming in!”
“Shoot the bastard!”
Brian leveled his carbine at the man and fired off a shot, but the bastard was moving too fast, and Brian never was much of a shot anyway.
“Fire again!”
Brian was about to shoot again when something occurred to him.
“If I fire, the comancheros or Indians—whatever they are—are liable to hear it and come looking.”
“Well then get down here. Between the two of us we’ll have to take him without any more shooting.”
Fat chance of that. In fact, the son of a bitch was coming so fast Brian didn’t think he could get down from the tower in time.