by Lisa Rae
“I know, but I want to help, and I refuse to be left behind like some helpless ninny,” Julianna said irritably.
After filling Roark in on all that had happened to her and Gabriel, Julianna said, “I guess I should go help Barry in the cook’s shack, so that everything seems normal.”
“That’s probably a good idea, but first you lay down and at least get a nap. You’ve been riding all day yesterday and last night. You’re exhausted. And that way it will give me time to go bragging around camp that you came back to me.” Roark said with a grin.
Smiling, Julianna laid down on the small bed and closed her eyes …
*
While Julianna slept, Roark made the rounds. He started at the Phantom outlaw’s cook shack, where he had breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes.
The room was full of hardcase outlaws eating breakfast, and Roark took advantage of it when he walked into the door grinning from ear to ear.
“Hey Roark, what’s got you so happy?” One of Roark’s outlaw buddies asked loudly.
Still smiling Roark replied, “Julianna escaped from Spotted Elk and came back to me.” The truth was, he was just happy Gabriel was alive, and that Gabriel and Julianna were both safe.
Clayton and Ted were listening to the conversation over at a corner table, before Clayton asked, “How did she find my hideout?”
“Julianna ran into Levi and Tate in Colorado City. They led her here blindfolded.”
Nodding approval and satisfied with Roark’s answer, Clayton didn’t reply back.
When Roark finished his breakfast, he headed to the camp’s mercantile store, then the blacksmith’s shed, before he finally went to the outlaw camp’s saloon where he found Chet and a few others. Alex had already filled Roark in on Chet’s behavior with Julianna on the way back to the Phantom’s hideout, when Gabriel had first kidnapped her. Roark wanted to make damn sure Chet knew to stay away from her.
“Tommy, give everyone in here a round on me!” Roark hollered with a wide smile on his face, which got everyone’s attention.
With all eyes on Roark, Chet asked, “What are we celebrating?”
“Julianna came back to me! After she escaped Spotted Elk, she ran into Levi and Tate who lead her back here to me.” Roark emphasized the last part to Chet directly.
He didn’t like it, but Chet received the message loud and clear. He downed his mug of beer before ordering another one from Tom.
Roark didn’t want to disturb Julianna while she slept, so he stayed at the saloon playing poker all afternoon with different gang members. Luckily Angel had taught him well. He would lose a few hands, then win a big hand. He never made any real money, just enough to keep him playing all day without anyone getting suspicious.
When Angel finally walked into the camp’s saloon later that afternoon, she spotted Roark playing cards as she walked up to the bar and ordered a mug of beer. After Tom placed the mug in front of her, she picked it up and turned around to face the tables in the saloon as she took a drink.
In between hands, Roark looked up to see Angel looking his way and said to her, “Hey Angel. Julianna is back. She’s over in the shack if you want to go visit with her.”
Angel was so shocked at what Roark just told her, that she had a hard time hiding her feelings from the rest of the outlaws in the saloon. Smiling she said, “Okay Roark. I’m glad to hear she’s back with you. I’ll go visit her.”
Confused was more like it. What was Julianna doing back here in the Phantom gang’s camp? Gabriel had said she was safely back at Spotted Elk’s village. Angel hurried and finished her beer, paid for it and walked out the batwing doors of the saloon. When she reached the shack, Angel knocked before she walked in.
Julianna was yawning and stretching as Angel came in, “I assume Roark told you I was here?”
“Yes, but that’s all he could say with a bunch of the outlaws around. So tell me what’s going on? I met with Gabriel in Colorado City last night, and he said you was at Spotted Elk’s village.”
“I just couldn’t stay there while Gabe was here in danger.”
“So you thought you’d come here and put yourself in danger too?” Angel asked angrily.
“No, I came to help.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” Angel asked sarcastically.
“I don’t know,” Julianna replied as she lowered her head sadly, “I thought I lost him once already. I don’t want to be away from him ever again.”
“Oh Julianna! I’m sorry I was harsh with you. I do understand, but now we have to worry about protecting you too,” Angel said, as her heart went out to her.
“I know, but isn’t there some way I can help?” Julianna asked.
“I don’t know. Let me think on it and talk with Roark. Maybe we’ll come up with something. I know I don’t want to be around when Gabriel finds out you are here. He’s going to be hotter than a desert sun in the middle of summer.”
Julianna nodded her head in agreement, then told Angel how she snuck away from Spotted Elk’s village and followed Gabriel to the hotel Angel was staying in. She finished up with how Levi and Tate brought her back to the Phantom gang’s camp before she said, “I better get over to help Barry with supper. Roark agreed that it would look less suspicious if I go back to my old routine.”
“I’ll walk with you. I’m hungry. I left out this morning without eating any breakfast before I left Colorado City.”
*
That night Barry made a cot up for Angel as usual. After they spent a couple hours chatting on the front porch of the cook’s shack, Angel said she was sleepy. Barry went to his bedroom in the back of the shack after kissing Angel goodnight and saying, “Goodnight my angel.”
Smiling up at him Angel told him, “Goodnight.” Inside, her heart was breaking. Barry may only be a cook now, but he had been a rough outlaw at one time. And before tomorrow was up, he’d either be dead or on his way to prison. Angel wanted to help him, but how? She believed in the law. It was her job to protect against men like him.
After Angel heard Barry snoring in the other room of the cook’s shack, she got up and quietly slipped out and over into Roark and Julianna’s shack. They were expecting her, and had the lamp turned down way low so as to not arouse any curiosity, if someone was to look that way this late at night.
“Did you get a chance to set up the explosives I brought in my saddlebags?” Angel asked Roark while she settled herself in one of the crudely made chairs at the table.
“Yes, they are all ready for you. I was thinkin’ that when Gabriel sets off the first big explosion, Julianna should already be in the mercantile store. That way she can convince Ruby to go outside to see what’s going on, while you blow it up. I really don’t want to see Ruby get hurt if we can help it,” Roark explained.
“I agree, but I don’t know if we can protect every woman that is in this camp.”
“No, but we’re not planning on blowing up their shacks like we are the mercantile. If they are smart, they will stay hid while all the fighting is going on.”
“Okay,” Angel agreed. “When I see Julianna bring Ruby out to a safe distance from the store, I will set off that explosive. Then I think Julianna should come back here and saddle up our horses and have them ready, just in case we need to get out fast.”
“Agreed!” Then Roark turned to Julianna. “Once you come back here and saddle up the horses, I want you to stay hidden in back with the horses. Understand?”
“Yes, but …”
“No buts! There is going to be dynamite going off all over, not counting all the gun fire. Gabriel knows where Angel and I will be, but he does not know you are here. What if he shoots somewhere and you are there unknown to him? All he knows is that this shack is the only safe zone because of our horses.”
“Alright. I will hide back with the horses,” Julianna said in defeat.
“Promise?” Angel asked Julianna.
“I promise.”
Once the thr
ee of them finished with all the details of the plan, Angel went back over to the cook’s shack to try and get some sleep.
*
At sunrise, Julianna dressed and headed over to the cook’s shack to help Barry one last time. She was tired from getting little sleep the night before because she was anxious for all of this to be over. And for Gabriel to be safe! She refused to think about the danger she was in.
After she finished cleaning up from the breakfast rush, Julianna walked over to the mercantile store and visited with Ruby, just like she use to do in the past. The first explosion rattled the windows and walls of the store. Julianna screamed for effect, even though the explosion did actually scare her. She had never heard anything like it, and wasn’t expecting it to be so loud.
As the commotion started outside with all the outlaws coming out of buildings to see what was happening, Julianna grabbed Ruby’s arm and proceeded to drag her outside too. Once outside, Julianna kept pulling Ruby along to get her far enough away from the mercantile store. As they rounded a shack to see what was going on, Angel, who had already made herself scarce, and was hiding up in a tree a long ways off, fired her Sharps .50 caliber Buffalo gun at the explosives sticking out from underneath the mercantile store.
The explosion knocked Julianna and Ruby off their feet. They scrambled up and took off running in the opposite direction of the store. When Ruby headed towards the mass of outlaws standing outside with their guns drawn trying to find someone to shoot, Julianna headed towards her and Gabriel’s shack to saddle the horses.
The explosion at the mercantile store set off a chain reaction as the building caught on fire. All the ammunition on the store shelves started to go off, firing in all directions. Outlaws were having to take cover on the other side of the shacks, leaving them exposed to Gabriel’s, Roark’s, and Angel’s fire.
Gabriel had blown the side of a canyon wall down on the shacks of Clayton, Victor, and a few others. Unfortunately, there was no one inside them at the time. But it did get every outlaw in the camps attention. It also was the signal to Spotted Elk and his warrior brothers to descend upon the Phantom gang’s camp. Spotted Elk had already taken out the sentry that stood guard in the canyon branch they came into camp on.
The outlaws had spotted Gabriel, but they did not know who else was shooting at them. As the outlaws were firing back at Gabriel, Roark, and Angel; they heard the rumble of hooves and thin, high-pitched yelps. Clayton cocked his head and listened. “By God it sounds like injuns!”
Spotted Elk and his warriors swarmed through the Phantom gang’s camp. Some of them flung themselves directly onto the outlaws with war clubs held high, others used bow and arrows.
“No. Oh hell no! I can’t believe this. The injuns are attacking us!” Victor yelled over the roar of the battle.
About that time some of the flames from the burning mercantile store, fell through its floors to the cellar below where all the dynamite was stored. The next explosion was so big, it leveled the shacks closest to the burning store from the pressure, and sent burning boards and shrapnel flying everywhere. As flaming boards landed elsewhere, they caught other shacks on fire, and soon half the outlaw camp was burning.
Julianna had been watching through the railings of the corral behind the shack, where she was suppose to be hiding with the horses. She couldn’t believe the horror she was seeing as the building exploded. Outlaws were bludgeoned and scalped by Spotted Elk and his warriors, while other outlaws were shot dead or wounded by flying bullets coming from Gabriel, Roark, and Angel.
She was watching so intensely, that she did not notice Chet climbing into the little corral, until he grabbed her and she screamed for real this time. Having seen the horses saddled and ready to go when he climbed into the corral, Chet asked viciously, “What is going on here? Why do you have all these horses saddled?”
Acting brave Julianna said, “I didn’t know what was going on. So I was hiding and watching.”
“With the horses saddled?”
“I … I thought we may need to make a fast get-a-way, so I saddled them up,” Julianna said nervously.
“Come on. You’re coming with me,” he said as he pulled her along to the camp’s saloon, where many of the outlaws now took cover. Chet shoved Julianna through the batwing doors over towards Clayton and Victor. “I found her hiding in her corral with three horses saddled ready to go,” he told them.
“So she is part of this!” Victor exclaimed in vivid anger.
“No, no, I was scared and hiding. I didn’t know what was going on. I saddled the horses in case we needed to make a run for it.” Julianna tried to convince the outlaws.
The Ute Indian warriors had pulled back, and were waiting for the reinforcement that was coming. Now that the outlaws were holed up in the saloon, there wasn’t much the Indians could do against them. The Indians did not have guns like the outlaws did. So they were waiting them out. The outlaws couldn’t last long in the saloon with no food or supplies. With only beer and whiskey to drink in there, the men would either be thirsty or end up drunk. Neither a good situation to be in.
Gabriel and Roark would occasionally send a bullet whizzing into the saloon windows just as a reminder to the outlaws that they were surrounded. Angel stayed watching for any sign of movement inside the saloon that she could take aim at. After a couple of the outlaws were hit, from her Sharps rifle, they all stayed clear of the door and windows.
“What are we goin’ to do?” Ted asked Clayton.
“I know!” Victor replied as he grabbed up Julianna and started to the batwing doors. Standing to the side of the batwings with Julianna, Victor yelled out, “Gabriel!” After some silence he yelled again, “Gabriel. I have your woman Julianna. Now lower your weapon and come down here.”
“I don’t believe you,” Gabriel replied. He knew Julianna was safe back at Spotted Elks village.
“Maybe you need some convincing,” Victor yelled as he twisted Julianna’s arm and made her scream out as he told her, “Tell him your here!”
When she did not, Victor twisted her arm again. “Gabe!” Julianna screamed.
Jules? What? How did she get here? Gabriel wondered. “If you hurt her, I will kill you personally!” Gabriel yelled back to Victor as his heart sunk. He had loved Dora, and Victor had killed her. Now he was in love with Jules, and Victor had a gun to her head.
“If you don’t want her harmed, then come down here and drop your guns,” Victor ordered.
“Don’t do it Gabe, he will kill you!” Julianna yelled as Victor slapped her to shut her up and she screamed.
“I’m comin’, leave her alone!” Gabriel pleaded.
Smiling, Victor looked back at Clayton and the rest of the men when he said, “Now we’ll put a end to this.”
As Gabriel climbed down from the side of the canyon wall, where he had been well protected behind some boulders he yelled out, “Everyone hold their fire!”
Angel and Roark watched intently. They kept their aim and was ready to fire if anything went wrong. Spotted Elk and his warriors were also ready to attack.
“Alright Victor, let her go,” Gabriel ordered as he stepped closer to the camp’s saloon.
Victor stepped out the batwing doors of the saloon with his pistol to Julianna’s head, while he had her in front of him as a shield. Gabriel could see the terrified look in Julianna’s eyes.
“We all thought you was dead,” Victor said to Gabriel calmly.
“The Devil said he wanted you. So I came back to oblige him,” Gabriel replied with murder in his eyes.
“That still don’t explain why you are shooting at us and blowing up our camp?”
“Maybe this will explain it all,” Gabriel said when he pulled his vest open to reveal his U.S. Marshal badge.
“You’re a law dog! I should kill your precious woman right now.” Victor threatened with the pistol at Julianna’s head.
“She is innocent in this. Let her go. I’ll trade myself for her.”
�
��Drop your weapons on the ground. Then we’ll talk about it,” Victor sneered.
While Gabriel was laying his weapons on the ground in front of him in a way that they could be quickly collected to use, Julianna remembered the .38 derringer Gabriel made her promise to carry with her at all times in her skirt pocket. She pulled it out and turned to face Victor. To distract Victor while she quietly pulled back the hammer of the . 38 pistol, Julianna pleaded with him, “Please don’t shoot him!”
Gabriel’s eagle eyes saw what Julianna was doing, and prepared himself to dive for his guns just at the right moment.
Victor heard the click of the hammer on her derringer, and the look of shock registered on his face just as she pulled the trigger.
“Jules run!” Gabriel yelled the second after she pulled the trigger. Gabriel dived behind a water trough as he grabbed for his own .45 Colt Peacemaker, and started firing at the outlaws inside the camp’s saloon when they started spitting lead at him.
Julianna didn’t have time to be upset or scared from all the blood that splattered on her when she shot Victor in the stomach. She didn’t stick around to watch him slump to the ground and die either. Julianna ran as hard as she could in the direction of Spotted Elk and his warriors.
Just then a loud thunder of hooves sounded as the Calvary charged into the Phantom outlaw’s camp. When their Commander saw what was going on, he halted his men just out of firing range to make plans of attack.
“Commander, I am U.S. Marshal Savage,” Roark said as he walked up to the Commander.
“I am Commander Finley. Which Savage would you be?” The Commander asked.
“I’m Roark. Gabriel is over there pinned down by that water trough. Angel is over that way in the rocks, and Spotted Elk and his warriors are here to help us too. We’ve got the outlaws all pinned in that saloon building.”
The Commander ordered some of his men to go around to the backside of the saloon. While they were working their way around to the other side, the Commander shouted to the saloon, “This is the U.S. Calvary. I am Commander Finley. Put down your weapons and come out, and no one else will be hurt.”
Clayton looked at the rest of the outlaws and asked, “Do any of you want to give up and go to prison, or hang from a noose?”