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Carter was the first to reach the front door with Kelley trailing in his wake. Outside the stage was heading for the house, but the driver was pulling back on the reins, slowing the horses.
Ropes criss-crossed the driver’s chest, possibly binding him to the seat, and the fire was burning only in the back of the stage. Behind the stage in the darkness other forms milled about beyond the gates, their forms thrown into relief by the burning stage.
One man lay sprawled on the ground in the open gateway as if he’d jumped from the stage. This sighting convinced Carter that the driver was trying to avoid plowing the stage into the house.
“Cover me,” he shouted to Kelley and then set off before he could respond.
The driver yanked the reins, making the horses rear and then veer away. With much rattling and screeching from the protesting wheels he drew the burning stage to a halt outside the door.
“Get back inside,” the driver shouted. “They’re out there.”
Carter didn’t need to ask who ‘they’ were. He carried on running to the stage and leaped up on to the seat to join the driver. The man was young and wide-eyed with fear as he babbled an explanation of his situation in which Carter learned he was Buckley Sharpe.
Bruises and cuts covered his face and Carter confirmed his original impression that he had been tied into the seat. From the doorway Kelley fired at the gate. This encouraged whoever was out there to return a volley of gunfire, pinning him down.
The stage was still burning with flames rippling out of the windows, but after Kelley darted out to fire again, Annie and Victoria hurried out with buckets of water. The horses and stage partially covered them so they weren’t being completely reckless and by the time they’d thrown their water through the windows, Carter had untied Buckley and helped him down to the ground.
“No more water,” Carter shouted at the women. He wrapped an arm around Buckley’s shoulders to support his weight and helped him to the door.
“It’s still burning,” Annie shouted over her shoulder while following Victoria through the door.
“Then let it burn,” Carter said as he dragged Buckley in after them.
Kelley stayed in the doorway to fire one last time and then slammed the door shut. He hurried to the study, presumably to keep watch on the situation from the window.
“It’s a pity to let it burn,” Annie said with mock indignation in her tone. “I’ve become quite attached to that stage.”
Carter smiled. Then he signified that she should follow Kelley while he helped Buckley get down the hallway. When they arrived in the study the situation was much as he’d left it. Victoria had returned to comforting her father, who was now sitting propped against the wall and rocking back and forth.
Louis was guarding the prisoner and Kelley was standing by the window. As soon as Carter deposited Buckley in a chair, Kelley ordered him to take over the task of keeping lookout so he could question the new arrival.
The fire was now dying out and by its low glow and the moonlight there was no sign of anyone approaching the ranch house. So in a low voice the young man provided his story. It clarified the reasons behind many of the events of which they had seen only a small part, including the news that Spike was still alive. All the time Buckley kept his head lowered as if his actions in those events had ashamed him.
“So Deputy Ford and Spike captured me by the stage,” he said, finishing his tale. “They decided to tie me into it and forced me to come here.”
“Why?” Kelley asked.
Buckley turned to Maverick and asked him for his name.
“I’m Maverick Pullman,” he said.
“In that case, I have a message from Spike,” Buckley said. “He only wants you. If you give yourself up, he won’t attack the house and the others can go free.”
“Then I give myself up.”
“You won’t,” Carter said before anyone else could speak. “No matter what anyone says, we still haven’t proved whether Spike wants to silence you or to free you. You’ll stay here with us.”
“Carter’s opinion is irrelevant,” Kelley said. “He is now also a prisoner and has no say in the matter, but I believe Spike is aiming to silence you, so I will not hand you over. McKinney gave me a sworn duty and I will complete it.”
Carter sighed, deciding it wasn’t worth the effort involved in correcting his statement about the lawman giving him the prisoner.
“I know Spike,” Maverick said. “Everything Buckley said is right. He will kill you all if you don’t let me go.”
Nobody responded to this comment although from the determined set of everyone’s jaws, Carter gathered nobody was prepared to give up at this stage. Only Victoria and Frank failed to react to this conversation as if it didn’t concern them. Kelley brought them into the debate by heading over to them.
“How many ranch hands do you have to help us defend the house?” he asked Victoria.
She checked that her father wouldn’t reply before answering.
“There are none anymore. They all left last week after we had some trouble.”
Her cryptic comment made Frank snuffle and mumble to himself. Victoria laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“So the forces in this room are all we have,” Kelley said, turning to Buckley. “How many are we facing?”
“There was Ford and Spike,” Buckley said. “Then they joined up with another six men, I think.”
“Then we’re outnumbered and I must consider our options.”
Kelley appraised the group that consisted of three able men, two women, a broken man, a prisoner and a young, frightened man.
“We may not be in a good state, but we have the benefit of the house as cover,” Carter said. “All we need to do is—”
“Is to do nothing,” Kelley said. He walked across the room to the window and then paced back, ensuring he had everyone’s attention. “Our first duty is to keep everyone safe. Spike only wants to keep Maverick from testifying tomorrow. Therefore he will keep us pinned down and won’t attack while the situation is under control. So we need do nothing but wait him out.”
“Then what do we do?” Carter asked. “We have to leave sometime.”
Kelley clicked his heels. “Often the best strategy is not to do what your adversary expects you to do.”
With that comment Kelley turned his back on Carter, effectively ending the argument, but Buckley then stood up.
“Spike doesn’t expect you to fight,” he said, his eyes remaining downcast. “I can see why. Look at us – a prisoner, two women, that crying man. . . .” Buckley flinched as if a thought had come to him and then turned to Frank. “Is he Frank Doyle?”
“He is.”
“Then I might have something to cheer him up.”
Buckley went over to Frank and stood over him. Frank didn’t move, but Buckley withdrew a silver watch from his pocket. Carter murmured to himself and when Annie turned to him, he nodded, confirming it looked like the one he’d lost.
Buckley didn’t notice their interest and held the watch out. When Frank ignored him, Victoria took it from him, read the inscription and then placed it in Frank’s hand while whispering comforting words in his ear.
For long moments Frank was seemingly beyond caring about any attempts to jar him out of his withdrawn state, but then he raised the watch. He blinked. His hand shook. Then he gripped the watch tightly and held it to his chest.
“It ends now,” he said, his low voice perhaps not addressing anyone but himself. “I have turned a blind eye to Usher and ignored his activities for too long, but no longer.”
He stood up and without further comment headed to the door and into the hallway. Everyone shrugged, bemused by his apparent recovery. The only two people to follow him were Victoria and Carter.
They slipped into the hallway as Frank threw open the front door. Frank stood framed in the doorway with his shoulders hunched and a rifle dangling from a hand before pacing from view.
Carter broke into a run, drawing his gun as he pounded down the hallway. Victoria shouted into the study for help, but by the time people followed her, Carter was running through the door.
Ahead Frank was striding past the still smoldering stage toward the gates. Carter waited for a moment to let his eyes grow accustomed to the dark and to try to work out where Spike was. Frank was showing no such caution.
“Spike, get out here now,” Frank shouted, still advancing. “We end this.”
He received no response. So he thrust his rifle high and fired into the air.
“The next shot is for you, if you don’t come here,” he shouted.
He continued to advance while Carter stayed beside the horses. Frank had reached the gates when someone moved beyond the fence, fifty yards away.
“Stay there,” Spike ordered.
“I’m not doing nothing you say no more,” Frank said.
“We had a deal. No harm to your family if you kept quiet. Those people in—”
“That deal never existed because you’d already broken it. You got Samuel killed five years ago when you dragged him into your dealings.”
Frank swung the rifle toward the fence and fired. He kept walking and firing, but only managed two more shots before gunfire blasted at him. Carter also fired in the same direction as Frank had as the lead peppered Frank’s chest, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Carter broke into a run, halving the distance to him in seconds, but he was already too late. Frank raised his head, swung the rifle around and fired one last time. Then he flopped down to bury his head in the dirt.
A slug whistled past Carter’s side as on the run he fired at the people beyond the fence. This time he hit a target, making a man stand up straight and then go tumbling backward. Behind him he heard others coming out of the house.
Covering gunfire thundered, this at least giving Spike’s men more targets at which to aim. As he skidded to a halt beside Frank, he discerned the shapes of around six men crouched at regular intervals behind the fence.
He searched for Spike’s larger form, but then had his problem resolved when Spike loomed up behind the fence. Spike placed a steadying arm on the fence and aimed at him. Carter had but a moment to react, but it was long enough as he swung his gun around and planted a bullet in his upper chest.
Spike toppled over backward to disappear from view in the gloom and this had the doubly rewarding benefit of making the other shadowy forms back away. Taking advantage of their confusion Carter took hold of Frank’s shoulders and dragged him backward.
He’d nearly reached the stage when Louis joined him and helped him carry Frank to the house. Kelley had also come outside and with him providing covering fire they reached the ranch house without further trouble.
The moment Carter stepped into the light inside he confirmed that Frank was beyond help. At least three spreading blooms marred his chest. Victoria sobbed and held Frank against her chest and then lowered him until his head rested on her lap. She pleaded with him to recover, but when Frank cracked open an eye, he sought out Carter.
“Did I get him?” he asked.
“You shot Spike,” Carter said. “I saw him go down.”
Frank nodded. “Then I got my justice for Samuel.”
Carter nodded and backed away. He joined Kelley and the others and they retired to a respectful distance away. Using only gestures, Kelley ordered Louis to keep lookout and for the others to prepare for whatever might come.
As it turned out, the anticipated attack didn’t arrive and presently Victoria laid her father out on the floor. Then she stood up and made her way over to join Carter.
“You tried to save his life,” she said with her head lowered.
“I tried,” Carter said.
She took a deep breath and then met his eye for the first time.
“Pa knew about the trouble Samuel was in and from what I’ve just learned, Spike was behind that. So this is over.”
Carter gulped to moisten his dry throat. “I never came here for forgiveness.”
“Nobody is offering any, but my father’s last words were that the matter ends here. I can do nothing but accept your story. Now it’s up to you to live with what you did.”
She turned and headed back down the hallway.
“I’m sorry, for everything,” Carter said.
She stopped for a moment and then carried on to sit with Frank. Annie joined her, leaving the others to debate what they should do now.
“If Spike is dead, we stand a chance of getting out of here,” Louis said from beside the window in the study.
“We might, but from what Buckley’s told us of Deputy Ford, it still won’t be easy,” Carter said.
Everyone turned to Kelley for his decision, but surprisingly the newcomer spoke up first.
“I reckon Frank isn’t the only one who needs to start fighting,” Buckley said with a slap of a fist against his thigh.