The seven riders of the Bar 10 rode with revenge brewing in their souls. They thundered like knights on a holy crusade after the dozen outlaws. With the skillful tracker Tomahawk riding point the horsemen knew that it was only a matter of time before they caught up with their prey.
The dust rose into the cloudless blue sky as Tomahawk stopped his quarter horse and surveyed the ground before them. The wily old timer dismounted as his seven fellow cowboys held their mounts in check around him.
Adams watched Tomahawk kneel and run a hand across the surface of the well-used trail. The rancher leaned over from his high perch atop his chestnut mare.
‘What is it, Tomahawk?’
Tomahawk was silent for a few moments as his mind calculated the signs which only he was skilled enough to understand. Finally he rose back up and shook his head as if he did not believe the clues he had read in the dust.
‘These hoof tracks are real deep, Gene boy.’ Tomahawk explained. ‘I figure they must have shared out the gold between ’em before they left the Circle J. Their horses were already making deep tracks before they reached the ranch. I reckon they got themselves more weapons on their saddles than we ever dreamed about.’
‘What difference does that make, old timer?’ Adams pressed. ‘So they happen to be loaded for bear? We already figured that much.’
‘It means that every one of their horses is plumb tuckered out, Gene boy. That’s what difference it makes.’ Tomahawk rubbed his bushy beard. ‘Now smart folks would have used a couple of pack horses to take the burden. These loco beans have managed to bring their saddle horses almost to their knees. I can’t see one of them sets of tracks that ain’t swaying like a drunken sailor.’
Johnny swung his pinto pony around and stared at Tomahawk as the old rider clambered back up on to his gelding.
‘That means their mounts are gonna start dropping from exhaustion real soon, Tomahawk.’ Johnny said. ‘Am I right?’
Tomahawk gathered his reins up and then looked at his fellow horsemen. ‘Ya would be right, Johnny if’n they’d headed south of the border like we figured they would. Reckon they couldn’t have gone more than two miles before their horses began to drop.’
‘I figure we’ll set eyes on them darn soon, boys.’ Larry Drake said. ‘I’m ready for a fight.’
‘Me too.’ Rip agreed.
Adams looked at his six cowhands like a father studies his sons and raised a gloved hand. He silenced them and then moved his mare before Tomahawk’s black gelding. Both men’s eyes locked.
‘Finish what you were saying, you old goat. I’ve known you way too long not to have heard something in that voice of yours that made the hairs on my neck rise. Finish telling us what you read in them tracks.’
Tomahawk nodded. ‘Like I said, if’n they’d ridden south we’d be catching up with them real soon, Gene boy. Trouble is they didn’t head south at all like we figured.’
Happy struck a match across his saddle horn and cupped its flame to the end of his cigarette. He sucked smoke deep into his lungs and then exhaled.
‘Are ya telling us they headed someplace else, Tomahawk?’
‘Where?’ Red Evans asked looking all around them. ‘There ain’t nowhere to ride except down into Mexico.’
Adams straightened up on his saddle. ‘Wrong. There is one place those varmints could have headed. Fargo Springs.’
Johnny rode next to the rancher. ‘Would they risk it? If they got paper on them and bounty, that sure seems a mighty dangerous place to go.’
Adams gritted his teeth. ‘We ain’t talking about a bunch of saddle tramps here, Johnny. Whoever these critters are they come from the prison at Los Angelo. I’m figuring they’re a lot more dangerous than the usual drifters who ride these parts. If anyone is in danger when they ride into Fargo Springs it sure ain’t them.’
The youngster was about to speak again when suddenly a volley of shots rang out from high up on the canyon walls to their left. Adams felt the heat of a bullet as it passed within inches of his face. Then to his horror he saw Red fall limply from his saddle and crash into the unforgiving sand.
More deafening shots echoed out.