Handy arose and rubbed a finger along the stubble of beard. It was no way in which to call on a lady. Still…he walked down the opposite side of the street from the saloon and turned in at the gate from which Rodd had emerged.
Hesitating to step up on the porch, he walked around to the side, past the rose bushes that grew near the window. He could see the woman inside; no longer a girl, but all woman, Maria looked like someone who knew what she wanted and how to get it.
Handy Indian-toed it to the back door and tried the canvas covered outer door. It opened under his hand. It was warmer inside, and the air was close. There was a smell of food, and over it, of coffee.
He moved toward the lighted door and stopped as Maria framed herself there. Her breath caught, but she made no other sound. “Who are you?” she demanded. Maria, Handy saw, was not easily flustered.
“A driftin’ cowhand who smelled fresh coffee and thought we might talk a little.”
“We’ve nothing to talk about. Now rattle your hocks out of here before my man comes back.”
“You mean Buck…or Salter?”
The beautiful eyes became less beautiful, but very cold and wary. “You’d better leave while you’re able. If Buck should come back—”
“Maria,” he said, “you’re a beautiful woman. You’re also a very smart one. By the time they’ve split that money so many ways there won’t be enough left for your trouble. It won’t hardly be enough for a woman like you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Suppose only two of us was splitting it, and one of us wasn’t greedy? I’m the kind of man who makes big money fast, so I’d not need half. I’d be happy with a third. Then I could ride on alone, or if you were so inclined—?”
There was cold calculation in her eyes now. Beautiful she might be, but Maria was dangerous as a rattler in the blind. Handy felt a little shiver go over him, and knew he could not relax for an instant when with this woman. Did Buck Rodd realize what dynamite he was playing with?
“How about that coffee, Maria?”
“I’ll get it,” she said.
She filled both cups and he watched, while seeming unconcerned.
“You’re new around here.” Her voice was low, almost friendly. He felt as a wild horse must feel at the soothing voice of a cowhand before he slipped the bit in his mouth.
“I’ve been new in a lot of places.”
“Have I heard of you?”
“Wing Mathy thought he knew me.”
“Then he will remember. Wing never forgets anybody, or anything.”
“Maybe we won’t be around then. That’s a lot of money, Maria, and Frisco is a lot of town.”
“What money are you talking about?”
“The money I got rooked out of. A few days ago over in Pagosa there was talk of a lot of cattle being sold. Damned poor prices, but these ranchers are all broke, anyway. I heard some talk, so I picked my spot and waited. The trouble was I waited too far up the road.”
“What happened?” She was feeling him out now, trying him.
“How should I know? I didn’t see it. However, I had heard about you and Salter. I also knew about you and Buck Rodd, which Salter didn’t know. Fifteen thousand is a lot of money.”
“You think I’d doublecross Buck Rodd for you?”
“Not for me, although the difference between what you’d get from Buck and what you’d get from me might make me a lot better looking.”
Maria studied him. “If you were shaved you’d be quite a handsome man. Fixed up, you’d look better than Buck Rodd.”
“See what money does? I’m already looking better. Of course, you don’t need it. I never saw so much woman in one package before. Finding somebody like you in a town like this makes me believe in miracles.”
“You’d need the miracle if Buck found you here. Or any of his boys. They don’t ask questions, believe me.”
He smiled. “I know Buck Rodd.”
“You don’t seem buffaloed by him. Who are you, anyway?”
“Around here they call me Handy. In some other places they called me Sonora Hack.”
“Sonora Hack!” She caught her breath. “But you—you were in prison!”
“Uh-huh. My horse stepped in a badger hole that time. They got me. But as you can see, I’m not in prison now. I served my time.”
She was silent, refilling his cup. Obviously she was weighing possibilities.
“Where’s the money, Maria? Whatever we do has to be done now. You tell me where that money is, and within a week we’ll be in Los Angeles on our way to Frisco.”
“There’s only one way you could do it. You’d have to kill Buck Rodd, and the rest of them, too.”
“That’s quite a job.”
He looked down into his cup. Not a half hour ago she had been in Buck’s arms; now she was telling him how to kill him. Or was this a trap?
She put her hand over his. “Sonora! That’s it! We could split the reward, too! Nobody would guess that I have the money, and if they were gone the case would be closed! They would think the money was buried somewhere in the desert!”
“Where’s the money, Maria? You tell me where it is and give me that shotgun.”
She laughed, her eyes dancing. She moved around the table toward him. “Oh, no! You take the shotgun and do your part. When you come back both the money and I will be waiting for you.”
He swore inwardly. Of course, he had been sure that was the way she would be. He had no intention of using any kind of a gun unless it was forced on him. The money meant a lot to Bailey, to say nothing of the others, and he meant to get it back if he could. As for a piece of Bailey’s ranch, that was a dream and no more than a dream. When Bailey discovered he was Sonora Hack he would have no further use for him. He certainly would not want him as a partner. Yet one thing he had established: Maria either had the money or knew where it was.
He looked down at her. “Maria, you don’t think I’d trust you, do you? You an’ me, we ride the same trail. We both want money, and a lot of it. You don’t trust me, and I don’t trust you, but if we work together we both stand to win.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Get the money now. Split in two halves. I’ll take mine, and then you call Buck Rodd and tell him there’s a man in your house. When he comes I’ll be waiting.”
He could almost feel her thoughts. How could she lose? If she stayed with them her part of the split would be a thousand dollars or less. Go his way and she could keep half, and she could find a way to get his half also.
If the worst happened, and Hack was killed, there was every chance Buck or some of his men would also be killed. Either way, her share would be larger.
Suddenly a new thought came to him. “What about Salter? Does he cut into this?”
She shrugged. “He was a fool! He agreed to run off with the money if somebody took care of Leeds. Wing Mathy and Carrero did that. When Salter got to where he was to meet me, Buck was waiting for him. It was a smooth job.”
He stared at her from the shadows. Smooth, all right, and deadly, as ruthless and deadly as she herself.
“Good! Let’s split the money now.”
An instant she hesitated, then crossing the room she slipped back a portion of the base panel and got out a sack. “There it is, all of it.”
A hinge creaked behind them and a cool young voice said, “I’ll take that!”
Ann Bailey!
Sonora felt a shock of cold go through him. This was the end. Nobody would never believe he intended to get the money and return it.
She stepped into the room, her gun held steady. “Oh, you’re contemptible! You promise to get our money back, and then you’re here with this, this awful woman! You were planning to kill all those men! I heard it! I heard every word!”
Maria’s eyes flashed at him. “I’ll live to see you die, Sonora Hack!”
“Hack?” Ann’s eyes flashed at him. “You?”
“That’
s right, and, although you’ll never believe it, I intended to get that money back to you. I had first to find out where it was.”
He could almost feel Maria’s hatred. He saw Ann’s left hand grasp the sack, saw her start backing toward the door. At that instant there was a heavy step on the front porch and a loud voice boomed out, “Maria? Where are you? The boys are comin’ over!”
Ann stepped out the back door as the voice sounded, and in the startled instant of surprise at the voice, Maria grabbed for the shotgun.
Sonora hit the back door running; the shotgun bellowed, but he was outside and to the left, wheeling around the house with but one thought, to get out of range of the shotgun. Ann had vanished as if she were a ghost. He vaulted the front fence just as three men stepped down off the boardwalk in front of the saloon. His horse was a block away in the livery stable, saddled, fortunately.
Once he was on the buckskin…but Ann? What of Ann?
Behind him Rodd was shouting, and he saw the three outlaws start to run down the street toward him. He dove for an opening between two houses, heard a gun bark behind him, charged around the end of the house, and ran full-tilt into a woodpile and sprawled over it to the ground!
Scrambling to his feet, his hands stinging with pain from the gravel, beyond the woodpile, he grabbed for his guns. He still had them.
A running man rounded a corner and he snapped a shot from the hip. It was a near miss, and the man yelped with surprise and fired in return. Sonora ducked into a crouch and ran, running from one building to another.
At least he was keeping them occupied, and he hoped Ann was getting away with the money. Where had she gotten to so quickly? And how had she gotten there in the first place? She must have followed him! Then she had never trusted him at all; but then, why should she?
His breath coming in racking gasps, he made the last building and rounded the corner. Behind him there was running and yelling. He flattened against the building at the corner. A man was standing in front of the livery stable, staring up the street to see what was happening.
A half-block up the street Gan Carrero, gun in hand, was surveying the street.
“Hsst!” Hack hissed.
The livery man turned his head sharply toward the sound. “Get that saddled buckskin out, pronto! Just turn him loose!”
The man ducked inside, and Sonora heard somebody blundering through the brush behind the building where he stood. Stepping into the street, he whistled shrilly for his horse.
Carrero wheeled and his gun came up, and Sonora fired. The outlaw stepped back. Sonora fired again, and Carrero fell to his face as the buckskin lunged from the stable, stirrups flopping.
Sonora hit the saddle on the fly, and the buckskin left town on a dead run. A bullet whistled by; another smacked viciously into some obstruction on his right. The buckskin was off and running now, and how that buckskin loved it!
Yet this was but the beginning; swinging into an opening under some cottonwoods, he began to circle back. What had become of Ann? They would want their money back, and they would want Ann dead, for she now knew of their guilt.
He walked the horse through the cottonwoods and up the slope toward a cut into the country beyond. The chaparral was thick, but there were plenty of openings, and he wove his way through. When he reached the cut he looked back. The lights of the town were plain, but he could see nothing else. Pursuit would be out there in the darkness, three deadly men and a woman, armed and prepared to kill.
Where was Ann? Scowling into the night, he tried to imagine what she would do, and how she would return to Pagosa. She knew the country much better than he for this was her home. Certainly, she would not keep to the trail, and if she had been shrewd enough to follow him she would be shrewd enough to think out an escape.
Yet behind her would be Buck Rodd, Shorty Hazel, and Wing Mathy. They would follow her, not him. She not only had the money, but her word could hang them.
Skirting a bluff, Hack rode down through a clump of Joshua trees where the cut was narrow. Due to the dip in the ground he would probably be unseen, so, dismounting, he knelt close to the earth and struck a match. He found no recent tracks.
Mounting, he started on through the cut. She should have a good start. His gunfight had delayed pursuit enough to give her a couple of miles start, which she could use to advantage. Her horse was probably a good one, and she would keep moving. Yet, her horse had been ridden the twenty miles from Pagosa, and perhaps the distance from her ranch to town.
Her pursuers would be on fresh horses, and would know the country as well as she.
The trail dipped and followed the bank of a small stream, which must be the same that flowed near Pagosa, and if so might offer an easy approach to the town. He again checked the trail for tracks.
Hoof prints! A horse had passed this way, perhaps within the last few minutes, for even as the match flared he saw a tiny bit of sand fall into one of the tracks.
A red-hot iron seemed to slash across his arm and, dropping the match, he dove off the trail, hearing a hard spang of a high-powered rifle.
He swung into the saddle, feeling the warm wetness of blood on his arm; yet he did not seem to have been badly hit, because his fingers were still working. Turning off the trail, he wove through the brush, keeping under cover. Pulling up for a moment, he felt carefully with the fingers of his other hand. The skin was only broken. With his bandana he made a crude bandage to stop the flow of blood, which was slight in any case.
He was through in this country. Ann would escape now, and would return to tell them what she had heard. She would also tell them he was Sonora Hack, and they would discover he had only recently been freed from prison. His chance of settling down in Pagosa and making a place for himself would be finished. Well, it had been a wild idea at best.
Remembering the conversation, he felt himself flushing to think that she would believe he was that kind of man. That he would plot with such a woman the cold-blooded murder of her confederates.
In sullen despair he told himself to keep on riding. He was finished here.
As if impelled by the thought, the buckskin started walking up the long roll of the pinon-tufted mountainside, and Sonora let him go. The buckskin quickened its pace and Hack, from old habit, slid his gun from its holster and removed the shells fired back at Hondo, then reloaded the pistol.
The buckskin, he realized, had found a trail, and now, of its own volition, was traveling at an easy canter.
Buck Rodd would not give up easily. That was more money than he was apt to see in a long time, and even if he had so wished, Maria would not permit it. He would follow Ann back to her ranch or to Pagosa.
Who in Pagosa could stand against him? Or the three together?
At this hour, there would be no one. Alerted, they might get men together to greet them, but now there would be no time for that. All three were men with notches on their guns, men willing and ready to kill.
That was their problem. He had made his bid and messed up. He should never have tried to get the money from Maria, yet he had been so close!
Killing had been no part of his plan. He had hoped to get the money back, leave Maria tied up, and return to Pagosa.
Remembering Ann’s flashing eyes and vitriolic tongue, he grinned despite himself. She was a terror, that one. The man who got her would have his work cut out for him.
The thought of her belonging to some other man was a burr under the saddle-blanket of his thoughts. And he did not like to ride away leaving her with the opinion of him she now had. It would be an ugly picture.
With neither conscience nor the memories of a red-haired girl to afflict him, the buckskin cantered briskly along the trail, making good time. Hack rode along with the unconscious ease of a man long accustomed to the saddle, deep in his own thoughts. It was not until there was a sudden flash of light in the corner of his eyes that he came to with a start.
He was on the edge of Pagosa! The buckskin had very naturally headed for the stable
where he had been taking it easy these past few days.
Realization hit him with a rush of horses’ hoofs, and he saw three horsemen come charging up to a fourth. A girl screamed and a man opened the door of a house. A rifle shot rang out, and a harsh voice ordered, “Get back in there or I’ll kill you! This is none of your affair!”
Another voice said, “Get the sack, Shorty.”
“What about the girl? Do we take her along?”
“Hell, no! She’d be nothing but trouble. We’ll find plenty of women below the border! We’ll just leave her lay, to teach them a lesson!”
The buckskin felt the unexpected stab of the spurs and hit the trail running.
“Hey!” a voice yelled. “Look out!”
A gun roared almost in his face, a black body loomed before him, and he fired. A lance of flame leaped at him and he was in the midst of a wild tangle of plunging horses and shouting, swearing men. He caught a glimpse of Ann, hat gone, hair flying in the wind, breaking from the crowd and leaping her horse for the shelter of the buildings.
A head loomed near him and he slashed at it with his six-gun, seeing the man fall; then his horse swung around, and he was knocked from his horse but hit the ground staggering.
A big man rushed at him and he had just time to steady himself. He threw a hard punch into a corded belly, ripped up and uppercut, and then, from behind him as the man staggered, he heard somebody yell, “Look out, Rodd! Let me have him!”
Hack let go everything and hit the dirt just as a gun roared behind him.
Rodd grunted, gasped and then yelled. “You fool! You bloody fool! You’ve hit me! You’ve killed—!”
Shorty Hazel’s voice shouted. “To Hell with it, Wing! Grab the bag and let’s go!”
Hack rolled over and came to his knee shooting. Something hit him below the knee and he rolled over, coming up against the body of a man, who might be alive or dead. Something grated on gravel and the man lunged to his feet, sack in hand, and sprang for the nearest horse.
He steadied himself, leaning on one elbow, and fired. The man dropped the sack and turned.
Fire stabbed the darkness, and the body of the man beside him jerked slightly. Sonora Hack was holding his left hand gun and he fired in return. The other man turned, fell against his horse, then swung into the saddle.
Collection 1981 - Buckskin Run (v5.0) Page 14