As Gabriel rode into the eerie shadows of Rockfall Pass he kept his hands away from his guns. Nor did he attempt to watch for lookouts hiding in the steep, rocky slopes on both sides of him. There was no point. The trail was hard and stony and he knew if anyone was there they could hear the stallion coming.
Now and then he heard loose stones falling as someone moved above him; and once, when the moon poked through the clouds, he glimpsed the silhouette of a man with a rifle leaping from rock to rock as he descended the slope.
So, Gabriel thought, they don’t plan on shooting me yet.
After a mile or so the pass widened and became a bowl-shaped canyon sheltered by towering red cliffs. In the moonlight the cliffs looked silver; but in sunlight they glowed like the fires of hell prompting the Mexicans who originally discovered the area to call it: El Cañon del Diablo.
Gabriel slowed the buckskin to a walk and entered the canyon. To his right a creek snaked out of the rocks in front of a collection of rundown shacks, barns and corrals. On the slopes above the shacks were the entrances to numerous abandoned mines – and out of every mine poked at least one rifle, sometimes three or four.
Gabriel kept both hands on the reins so no one could misinterpret his intentions and guided his horse toward the largest of the shacks.
As he drew near two men emerged. Gabriel recognized one as Mitch, the young man he’d rescued from the sheriff. The other he hadn’t seen before – but he knew from now on he’d never forget him.
Bald, red-bearded and ferocious-looking in an undershirt and pants he was easily the largest man Gabriel had ever seen. He towered over his son, who Gabriel remembered was about six feet, and his girth was larger around than a whiskey barrel. He was so large in fact that as Gabriel reined up in front of the shack he saw that the door had been specially widened in order for the man to squeeze through.
‘Is it him?’ the huge man asked Mitch.
‘Yep.’
‘Sure now?’
‘Yeah, Pa. He’s ridin’ a different horse but it’s him all right.’ Mitch looked up at Gabriel. ‘You got sand comin’ in here alone, mister. If I hadn’ta recognized you in the pass you’d be crow meat by now.’
‘So that was you with the rifle.’
‘You seen me?’ Mitch said, surprised.
‘Judas,’ the huge man said, cuffing him. ‘I taught you better’n that.’
‘He’s lyin’, Pa,’ Mitch said, sulking.
‘No, son. I saw you all right,’ Gabriel said. ‘Once. When the moon was right.’ He turned to the huge man. ‘You must be Remus Utley?’
‘What of it, mister?’
‘Expected you to have horns.’
Remus cocked his massive head and squinted at Gabriel as if sizing him up.
‘You just jawin’ or you got somethin’ worthwhile to spit out?’
‘I talk better when I’m afoot.’
Remus groped under his enormous belly and brought out a pistol that looked tiny in his meaty fist. Gabriel guessed it must have been stuck in the man’s shabby brown pants and wondered if he should risk going for his gun.
‘Slide down,’ Remus said, his voice a low rumble. Then as Gabriel slowly dismounted: ‘Give me your word you ain’t here to shoot us an’ you can keep your iron.’
‘You got it.’
‘Pa,’ Mitch exclaimed as his father tucked his pistol away, ‘how you know you can trust him?’
Remus Utley grinned at Gabriel, showing rotted teeth. ‘Make your play.’
Gabriel’s right hand moved with blurring speed. One instant it was empty, the next it was aiming his Colt at Remus. Then, even as Mitch gaped, the gun was back in its holster.
Remus cuffed his son on the head. ‘Now do you get it?’
Mitch backed away, grumbling: ‘Pa, I told you not to keep on hittin’ me like that.’
‘Look into a man’s eyes,’ Remus said. ‘If you don’t see fear where there should be fear, it’s ’cause he’s holdin’ all the aces. Now, speak your piece,’ he told Gabriel.
‘The woman an’ girl … I’ve come for them.’
‘Then you’ve come for nothin’.’
‘This ain’t their fight.’
‘They’re Reece Blackwood’s kin, ain’t they?’
‘So it is payback?’
‘Do unto others….’
‘Now who’s doin’ the jawin’?’
‘You’re wastin’ your breath,’ began Mitch.
‘Shut up, boy.’ Remus wiped his nose on his sweat-stained undershirt and glared at Gabriel. ‘You’re right. Using a woman and a girl as payback is a foul thing to do. Makes me sick to think I stooped that low. But I got no choice. Mr High an’ Mighty Blackwood made sure of that … him an’ his dirty lies. Made me out to be the devil incarnate. Got folks hatin’ us so bad we daren’t go to town for supplies or to even take our young’uns in to get proper schoolin’. An’ when we tried to board a train for Placerville, to buy food there, the sheriff and his gunmen threatened to rape our women if they ever saw ’em again. Lord knows, I tried to reason with Blackwood but all he can see is railroad money—’
‘Railroad money?’
‘Southern Pacific wants to build a spur that’d link up to Carson City. Said layin’ track through the pass and Diablo Canyon ’stead of blasting through the mountains would save millions. Offered Blackwood a fortune if he’d make us leave.’
Suddenly it all made sense to Gabriel. Reece was motivated by greed; he was looking to line his pockets, not help the citizens of Old Calico.
Gabriel thought a moment and then had an idea. ‘What if the SP agreed to pay you instead of Blackwood – would you’n your people move out then?’
‘Why would they wanna do a fool thing like that?’
‘’Cause you threaten to dynamite the pass if they don’t. Wouldn’t take much – few sticks planted in the right places an’ there’d be a landslide that’d take ’em months to blast through. Once you tell ’em that, they’ll beg you to take their money.’
He expected Remus to jump at the offer. Instead, the huge man laughed in his face. ‘You must think I’m a damn’ fool, mister.’
‘Pa’s right,’ Mitch said. ‘Railroads don’t pay folks like us to do anythin’. They don’t have to. They know they can run roughshod over us an’ we can’t do nothin’ about it.’
Gabriel ignored him. ‘You didn’t answer my question,’ he said to Remus.
‘It ain’t worth answerin’. Now, hit that saddle an’ ride outta here.
‘Not till I see the woman and girl,’ Gabriel said.
Remus hesitated, saw something in the gunfighter’s ice-blue eyes that changed his mind, and turned to his son.
‘Bring ’em out, boy.’
Gabriel waited until Mitch hurried into the shack then said quietly: ‘For a while there, Utley, you had me fooled.’
‘Keep talkin’.’
‘You’re no better’n Blackwood.’
‘Watch your mouth, mister.’
‘This hate you got for him – it’s not about bein’ forced off your land or protectin’ your people or gettin’ proper schoolin’ for your young’uns—’
‘No? Then what is it about?’
‘Windmills,’ said Gabriel.
Remus scowled, confused. ‘Windmills?’
‘Pride. Provin’ a point. Slayin’ dragons—’ Gabriel broke off as Mitch reappeared with Ingrid and Raven.
Both looked happily astonished to see him. Raven gave a little gasp of joy and ran and hugged him.
‘I knew you’d come for us,’ she said. ‘I just knew it!’
Gabriel fondly tousled her hair and smiled at Ingrid.
‘You all right?’
‘Fine,’ she said. She stepped into his extended arm and let him hold her.
‘Time’s up,’ Remus told Gabriel. ‘You’ve seen ’em. Now get on your horse an’ go tell Blackwood to ride on in. I’m waitin’ for him.’ He turned to Mitch. ‘Take ’em inside, boy.’
Gabriel’s gun leaped into his hand and pointed at Remus.
The huge man didn’t flinch. Instead he whistled and instantly a dozen men with rifles jumped up from behind the rocks around them.
‘Your call,’ he told Gabriel.
‘You’n your boy’ll die before I do.’
‘So will they,’ Remus said, meaning Ingrid and Raven.
Gabriel played his last ace. ‘I’m stayin’ here with ’em.’
‘Not till you hand over your iron.’
Gabriel spun the Colt on his trigger finger and handed it, butt first, to Utley.
Remus tossed the gun to Mitch. ‘Take ’em inside an’ make sure they don’t go nowhere.’
‘But Pa, I wanna fight with you.’
Remus cuffed him. ‘Do as I say, boy.’
Mitch glared sullenly at him. ‘What if you don’t win, Pa? What if Blackwood kills you ’stead of the other way ’round?’
‘Day that happens,’ Remus said, ‘you’re gonna have to learn to make decisions on your own. Now get inside!’
He waited until Mitch led Gabriel and the women into the shack; then he told his men to mount up. As they ran to the corral, he signaled to the others hiding in the mine entrances and yelled for them to come on down!
The hate that had been burning in his belly for years was finally about to be satisfied.