The Reckoning Read online

  “But I ain’t,” Lorraine said. “The way I figure it, you stampeded those cattle right over Frank so you could be the top hand. Manning chose my Frank over you when you first came out here, and you hated Frank for it.”

  Kelly’s face turned into a snarl. “That should’ve been my job from the start—never should’ve been his. He never rode with us on all those raids back in Kansas, never got shot at, never was a wanted man. Should’ve always been my job. Your man was all hat and no cattle.”

  “You bastard.” Lorraine reached down and slapped Kelly, then stood as tears flowed down her face. A nod to Ike and she turned away.

  Kelly grabbed onto Ike’s arm. He peeled Kelly’s fingers off one by one until there was only a desperate hand reaching out, flailing at empty air. He walked over to Ally and mounted up.

  Everyone but Ike spurred for Cottonwood. He stared down at the prone raider who was desperately pressing both hands against his wound. Ike turned Ally away at a walk, then took a last look back. Kelly was crawling in the dirt, trying to get away as townspeople armed with rifles and torches converged on him in the dim light. Ike kicked Ally hard and caught up with the others.

  A scream echoed behind him, then silence overtook the high plateau again.

  A mixture of anger and sadness stirred in Ike. Had he really gone through all of this just to find out his sister was dead?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The five riders slowed as they neared Cottonwood in almost total darkness. Ike looked over at Lorraine. “You know you can’t go back to the boarding house. It ain’t safe anymore.”

  “I’ll not be told where I can and can’t go, mister. I’ll go back to my place if I want to. It just so happens that I don’t want to.”

  Ike smiled in spite of the grimness of the evening. “Let’s head for the creek then,” and they trotted down the back trail on the outskirts of town. Clouds hid their getaway.

  Buster rode ahead as they approached the glen after a cold, windy ride. He put a hand up as a stop signal. “Y’all stay back ’til I check things out.” He urged his horse forward at a slow pace and disappeared into the cottonwoods. Several minutes later, he reappeared with a welcoming wave. “All clear, come on.”

  Rob led the way. When they’d dismounted and tied the horses off near the firepit, Ike grabbed his younger brother and hugged him hard. “Sue was doin’ something she wanted to do when she died. You know how she was. I only hope we end up the same way.” The brothers had their arms on each other’s shoulders and wiped away tears. After a silent prayer, Ike turned back to the others. “This is my little brother Rob. He’s been feedin’ me information from the ranch. Kelly’s dead, but we still got more left to do.” An image of Manning flew through his head.

  Lorraine walked over to Ike and held him in a light embrace. “I’m sorry about Sue, but it sounded to me like she might still be alive. Might. If you remember, Kelly said he didn’t see Sue die, just that he shot her in that little meadow.”

  Ike wiped a hand across his cheek. Emotions warred inside him, wanting to believe Sue was still alive, but fearful Kelly had finished her off. “I hope you’re right.” He nodded down at her and tried to break her embrace.

  She held tight. “I agree there’s still more to be done, so what are we doin’ out here? This is no place to hide. There isn’t anything here. We’ll likely freeze to death.”

  Ike said, “That’s exactly why this is a good place. Nobody’s come by here in months ’cept me and Buster, so it’s likely no one’s gonna come by here tonight.” He disengaged from Lorraine and cleared his throat several times. “Let’s set up camp.”

  The professor looked around at the bare surroundings. “Set up camp? With what?”

  Just then, Buster came back out of the shadows with some blankets under his arms. “Me and Mr. Ike stored some stuff here a while back, figgerin’ this might be how things turned out tonight.”

  Lorraine said, “Good thinking. Did you cache some food too?”

  Ike forced a smile her way. “Why, yes, ma’am, we did.” He walked over to a wall of rock, reached up to a protected ledge, cleared away some rocks and pine boughs, and pulled down a wrapped-up tablecloth they’d stashed high enough so animals wouldn’t get it.

  Lorraine looked at the bundle and arched an eyebrow Ike’s way. “Let’s see if you brought anything out here worth cookin’, much less eatin’.” She untied the knot in the oil tablecloth and out spilled some potatoes, a slab of salted beef, and other provisions. She smiled up at the men. “You all set a fire, and I’ll see if I can make any of this edible.”

  Buster gathered some kindling and paper he’d stored near the firepit. “We got all the comforts of home here, missy. It’ll be like ridin’ trail and campin’ out, just like I used to do.”

  Ike dug a round black pot out from the rocks.

  Lorraine said, “You cowboys thought of ’most everything. I am surprised.”

  The edges of Ike’s mouth turned up a little.

  Rob said, “Let’s walk over behind this granite wall so we’re somewhat hidden.” He stoked a small fire to life, and Lorraine carefully set the pot in the middle of it. After dinner, they sat around the firepit, silently gazing into the flames. Buster kept the small fire going as a chill night wind blew through the hideout.

  As shadows of flames danced across their faces, Ike said, “Tomorrow, we’re gonna settle accounts with Manning and his men. His final reckoning is long overdue, and now payment is required.” He looked around at the others but was lost in thought, staring at the low blaze in front of him. Ike roused himself. “I’ve had enough of this day. It’s one I’ll never forget. I’m cashin’ in for the night.”

  Before Ike could leave though, Buster spoke up. “Not so fast, Mr. Ike. Please.” He got up and made a slow circle around the firepit. He paused for a long moment and stood staring at the fire, everyone else staring at him. Finally he said, “As long as everybody else has ’fessed up about their past, there’s somethin’ I gotta get off my chest, too. It’s been gnawin’ at me for too long.” His jaw muscles clenched in the light of the flickering campfire, and he shuffled his feet for a second. He looked back down at the fire. “I weren’t always a drunk. I was a good man once, a good man. I was a mountain man for years up in these hills around here. I made my own way and wasn’t in any man’s debt. I could look everyone I met in the eye with pride.”

  His four companions stared up at him.

  Buster cleared his throat. “Years ago, I used to guide settlers through these mountains to the west, take ’em over the right passes, escort ’em safely to the trading posts along the way. And I was good at it.” He paused and scuffed at a rock. “One winter a small party came through, too late in my mind to be pushin’ on into the mountains, but they was bound and determined to go, with or without me. So, against my better judgment, I said I’d lead ’em. It was hard sloggin’ right from the start. When we was nearin’ the top of one of the high passes west of here, a big storm hit, and we was stranded for days. There was a young family that had four kids with them.” Buster picked up a rock and heaved it far into the dark. “Two of them little ones died before we could pack on out of there a few days later. We just couldn’t keep them warm enough, and I couldn’t do nothin’ to help them kids ’cept watch them die. It tore my heart out, and I ain’t been the same since.” Shadows from the fire played across his face, and tears dripped down his cheeks as he stood there.

  Lorraine got up and hugged him. “That was an act of nature, Buster. It wasn’t your fault. It was just an act of nature.” Buster stood stiffly for a moment, then hugged Lorraine back, hard. His shoulders heaved.

  Ike pursed his lips hard, and his eyes welled up. Tears came easy for him right now.

  Lorraine knelt and passed a coffeepot around. No one spoke for a minute, then Ike said, “Thanks for thinkin’ enough of us enough to share that, Buster. I knew you was carryin’ around a heavy burden. Maybe now you can start lettin’ it go. And maybe we ca
n find out what happened to Sue. Manning is our last chance. We’ll go after him tomorrow night, but first, we got some business to take care of in town in the morning.” He looked around at everyone. “It’s been a long day. Let’s get some shut-eye.” He poked at the fire and scattered the burning wood. “Don’t need to be lightin’ up the sky showin’ everybody where we are tonight.” As the fire died down, orange embers glowed in the night. Ike lay down near the fire and threw his thin blanket over him. Lorraine ended up next to him. Buster and the professor would stand night watch in the cold hideout.

  Ike drifted off to a fitful sleep on the chill ground. The next thing he heard was Lorraine’s voice. “Hey, cowboy, the fire’s gone out, and it’s cold out here. Mind if I snuggle up to you?”

  “Snuggle away. Makes me glad you didn’t bring a warmer coat than that.”

  She scooched close to Ike as he lay on his side and pressed her back into him as she did. “Now don’t be gettin’ any ideas, cowboy. This is just ’til I warm up. Keep your hands to yourself, and take that holster off while you’re at it, it’s diggin’ into my back. At least that better be your holster.”

  Ike smiled. “How rude of me to be wearin’ somethin’ that’s makin’ you uncomfortable, ma’am. I just ain’t very civilized, I guess.” He unbuckled the belt and placed it on the ground beside him.

  He’d started drifting off again, when Lorraine said, “You awake?”

  “I am now.”

  She kept on. “You ever wonder how we come to be doin’ the things we’re doin’, in the places we’re doin’ ’em at?”

  Ike rubbed at his forehead. “No, I never wondered any of that, but then there’s a lot of things I never wondered about. The only thing I do wonder about right now is where Sue is.”

  Lorraine spoke quietly in the darkness. “I just wonder how it came to be that I’m here sleepin’ on the ground on a cold night in the company of four riders that just killed a bunch of men. I never would have figured it.”

  Ike spoke in a low voice. “You spend a lot of time thinkin’ about the way things turn out, do you? I don’t. I figure things turn out pretty much the way they’re supposed to, with or without my help. And if that’s the way things work, then it seems to me that it don’t make much sense to worry about things I can’t change.”

  “What about Sue?”

  “I don’t know. I hope to heaven she’s still alive, like you said, but I can’t change whether she is or isn’t.”

  Lorraine nestled closer into Ike. “I have a feeling she is.”

  “That’s a hope I’m holdin’ on to.” He’d warmed up considerably where she lay curled into him.

  She said, “I got other feelings too.” Silence. “Like for me and you.”

  Ike wrapped an arm over her. “I got some of those same feelings.” He gathered her close.

  Dawn lightened the sky, and they untangled in the cold morning. While everyone was waking up, Ike brought the fire to life again. Lorraine heated up the coffee and some of the beef from last night over the welcome flames. Warmed-up biscuits topped the meal off.

  As they huddled around the firepit in the early chill, Ike told them what he had in mind for the morning. It was likely that Tompkins knew by now the raid had failed, and he and his men would be riding through Cottonwood soon on their way to Jefferson to see for themselves. It would be best to stay at the glen until he was sure they’d passed through town. By the time the early sun had taken the edge off the cold, Ike and his gang were riding on the faint trail back to Cottonwood, steamy breath trailing behind them in the still air.

  In town, they tied their horses off near the major’s new hotel. Rob looked over at his brother as Ike opened his saddlebags. “Where’d you get the dynamite, Ike?”

  “Miners up in the hills always have plenty. It’s just a matter of figurin’ out what they’ll take in trade for it.”

  “You traded somethin’ for dynamite?” Rob took off his cowboy hat and scratched his forehead. “You don’t have anything that’s worth a hoot, so far as I remember.”

  Ike broke into a small grin. “I reckon I do. I told them miners that there’d be some free beef for them soon.”

  Buster smiled as well. “Don’t that beat all. Sounds like we’re gonna give them miners some of Manning’s beef that ain’t ours to give, but that he ain’t gonna need anymore soon. Don’t that beat all.”

  Lorraine stood lookout as the four men planted charges around the corners of the hotel skeleton. After the professor placed his explosive, he said, “You Americans are a devious lot, indeed.” He shook his head and smiled as he said it.

  As the men set the dynamite, a small crowd gathered on Main Street. Lorraine moved people back and warned townspeople in nearby buildings to leave. After she’d spread the alarm and knocked on the last door, she walked back to where Ike stood looking things over. “Everyone’s out of the nearby buildings, so we can blow this thing as sky high as we want now.”

  Ike handed out matches, and the men trimmed the dynamite wicks to the same length. “We need to start these sticks to burnin’ at the same time, so when I say ‘go’, everybody light their fuse.” Heads nodded all around. Ike said the word, and they lit their sticks and ran, Lorraine ahead of all of them.

  Even at a distance, the concussion from the explosion hurled them to the ground. Flying dirt and sharp wooden shards darkened the sky as they covered up. Lorraine was the first to regain her feet. She wiped at her face and dress as debris continued to dance in the air around them. In the aftermath of the violent explosion, the bombers struggled to their feet surrounded by the havoc they’d created.

  Rob looked over at Ike and smiled. “Think you used enough powder there, brother Ike?” A jagged piece of sharp wood had embedded itself in Rob’s thigh. He grabbed hold of the end that was sticking out and pulled. Fresh blood filled the hole where the fragment had been.

  Lorraine rushed over and tied a scarf tight over the wound. “You’ll live, wrangler. Come on, lean on me and come sit over here.” She led him to the nearby boardwalk.

  The professor surveyed the damage and smiled. “Unless I miss my guess, I don’t think this establishment is going to be finished on time. It looks like construction on this hotel has just experienced an unexpected delay.” He wiped dust from his black frock coat and put a hand to his cheek as blood trickled from a small cut.

  Ike seemed to be the most dazed as he slowly rose to a stand and stood tilted to one side.

  Buster said, “That probably didn’t do your leg no good, did it, Mr. Ike?”

  “No, it didn’t, but then it ain’t worked too good lately anyway.” He shook his head to clear the cobwebs. No more sounds of battle in his head. Lorraine was tending to Rob, and Ike stifled a laugh.

  “What’s so funny, mister?” She brushed at her face, then cast squinty eyes at Ike.

  Buster blurted, “All that white dust in your hair makes you look like an old woman.” As soon as he said it, his eyes widened in alarm and he stammered, “I mean, you ain’t, it’s just that…well, with all that stuff flyin’ around…you brushed everything else off ’cept the dust in your…”

  The professor spoke up. “Madam, I think what Buster means is that we are beholden to you for your hospitality, your nerve, and your beauty.” He bowed grandly in Lorraine’s direction.

  Lorraine gave the professor a flinty stare, then turned her back to the men and tousled her hair furiously, setting off a virtual dust storm. When she turned around again with her hair all askew, Ike raised a hand to his mouth and hid a smile. No one dared speak. Finally, Ike broke the silence.

  “I don’t think we can do much more damage to this hotel, so why don’t we get the heck out of here?”

  Lorraine stared at the little fires that continued to burn in the midst of the wooden jumble. “I just wish I could see Manning’s face when he sees this!”

  Ike limped to Ally and grabbed her reins. “He’ll hear about his hotel soon enough. Best we leave before he comes back t
hrough here. We still got a bunch more work ahead of us.”

  Townspeople stood in the street gaping at the devastation, some cheering, others just staring. As the sun climbed further overhead, the five riders mounted up and picked their way out of the debris. They trotted to the faint trail at the edge of town and galloped away back to their hideout at the creek.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  That same morning, when Kelly didn’t come in and tell him how things went, the major knew the Jefferson raid had gone sour. He stormed down to the bunkhouse and raged through the rickety wooden door. “Where’s Kelly? Get up off those bunks! What the hell happened in Jefferson last night?” Manning picked up a bedroll and threw it against the wall. “I want answers!”

  The ranch hands all inched slowly away and stared at Manning with their backs pressed against the building’s flimsy walls. He’d never come into the bunkhouse before. One of the wranglers volunteered that he didn’t know what happened to Kelly either. “All we know is five of ’em went ridin’ last night, and that’s the last we seen of ’em.”

  The major glared. “You.” He pointed to the speaker. “What’s your name?”

  “Austin, sir.”

  “Pick four men and come with me. Now!” He stomped out, headed for the barn. Manning saddled his palomino before checking his rifle and his saddlebag for ammunition. He grabbed his LeMat revolver, then holstered it and swung up on his golden mount. Without waiting, he spurred the horse hard and raced for Cottonwood. The others struggled to keep him in sight as they hurried their horses on from behind.

  After a half hour of hard riding, Manning pulled up in front of the jail and burst in. “Tucker! Get your big behind up off that desk and mount up.”

  The startled sheriff pushed his chair back and stood in what was, for him, a swift motion.

  “Major?”

  “You heard me, mount up!”

  “What’s the problem, Major?”