The violent storm began to ease the closer Uriah Moon got to Bray’s cattle spread yet neither he nor the terrified Kodiak Kane ahead of him slowed their pace. Both men were desperate to reach the ranch for very different reasons.
Moon could tell that Kane was at least a half mile ahead of the thoroughbred beneath him. As he urged the muscular mount to find even more speed he noticed Kane gallop beneath the massive sign with Bray’s name emblazoned upon it. The bearded vigilante narrowed his eyes and drove his spurs into the flanks of the thundering animal.
He had the scent of his chosen prey in his flared nostrils.
Morgan Bray had heard the frantic calls of his top henchman as he neared the large house and was standing on the porch watching the hefty rider as he dragged his reins up to his chest and stopped the lathered up horse.
‘What’s wrong?’ Bray growled at Kane as the large man dropped from his saddle and ran to the side of the man who truly believed that he was above the law and beyond its reach.
Kane looped his reins over a hitching rail close to the frontage of the house and staggered breathlessly to the side of his employer.
‘Everything is wrong, boss.’ He gasped.
Bray frowned as he watched Kane straighten up beside him.
‘What do you mean?’ he raised his voice. ‘What could have gone wrong? I sent you to town on a simple mission. All you had to do was kill Uriah Moon. There were enough of you.’
‘Who the hell is that Uriah Moon anyway?’ Kane gasped as he shook spent bullets from his six-shooter and then began to reload the weapon. ‘That guy ain’t like anyone I’ve ever tangled with before.’
‘With Cooper and Leroy, there were five of you,’ Bray said bluntly. ‘Five against one are pretty good odds.’
‘Them hired guns you brought here from Mission Wells were dead before me and the boys even got to town,’ Kane rasped as he fearfully glanced over his shoulder at the gate. ‘That Moon critter had killed them before we even met him.’
‘Where’s Keno and Hooper?’ Bray asked.
‘They’re dead too.’ Kane snapped his gun chamber and cocked the weapons hammer. ‘Just like Leroy and Cooper.’
Every story that Morgan Bray had heard about the strange vigilante flooded into his mind as Kane’s words sank into his mind.
‘Moon killed them all?’ he stammered as he and his last remaining henchman heard the sound of an approaching horse nearing the ranch. ‘Are you certain?’
Kane rubbed his mouth along his sleeve.
‘Yep. They’re all lying in the mud back in Apache Springs, boss.’ He said. ‘I had to hightail it before he added me to his tally. That varmint just ain’t like regular folks. I never seen anyone like him before.’
Bray turned toward the sound of the approaching horse.
‘Is that him?’ he asked. ‘Did you lead Uriah Moon here?’
Kane nodded firmly. ‘That varmint followed me. What else could I do? I figured that we could use your cowboys to help hold him off.’
‘My cowboys are off checking on the herd, Kodiak,’ Morgan Bray felt his heart start pounding violently inside his chest as he turned his rotund frame and led the henchman into his home. ‘The storm was so bad that I thought they’d best make sure none of our steers got into trouble.’
‘So there’s just you and me?’ Kane asked as he locked the large door and strode across the large room to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a glass of Bray’s liquor.
Morgan Bray moved to his desk set close to a large window and opened its top draw and pulled out his own Colt .45 and a box of shells. As he fumbled to open the box, he saw the rider enter the courtyard. At first he remained calm but then as the entire area was illuminated by erupting lightning, he saw the man who was dismounting the high shouldered horse.
There was no mistaking Uriah Moon for anyone else.
His long white hair and his tethered down beard were unique to the vigilante. Moon tied his mounts long leathers to a porch upright close to the bunk house and then pulled his rifle off his gun grip and cranked it.
Bray dropped the box of ammunition as he stared open mouthed at the vigilante in horror. Moon started to stride toward the ranch house.
‘Them bullets ain’t gonna be much use on the floor, boss,’ Kane stated as he downed his drink and moved to Bray’s side. He stared into the face of the wealthy man and then turned his head and looked out of the window. ‘Oh my god.’
‘That’s Moon,’ Bray said as he held his six-gun in his shaking hand and pointed it at the window. ‘He’s come to kill me. You gotta kill him first, Kodiak.’
‘That’s easier said than done, boss,’ Kane rubbed his rugged features with his hand. He watched as Uriah Moon neared the house holding his Winchester in his hands.
Bray backed away from the window. ‘I’ll pay you a thousand dollars if you kill him, Kodiak.’
Kane raised his eyebrows. ‘A thousand bucks?’
Bray nodded as he reached the fireplace with his .45 still clutched in his hand. ‘More if you like. Kill him. Just kill him.’
Kane moved quickly across the floor to the side of the trembling rancher. He grabbed Bray’s shoulders and shook him until their eyes met.
‘Cash money?’ he probed.
‘Yep,’ Bray agreed and pulled his billfold from his pocket and handed it to the hired gun. ‘Take it. There’s more than a thousand dollars in there. Keep it all. Just kill that bastard before he kills me.’
‘Why does Moon want to kill you, boss?’ Kane asked as he removed every single bill from the wallet and pushed them into his pants pocket. ‘I don’t understand any of this.’
There was a pause before Bray lowered his head and started to explain his version of the truth. It was not the truth as anyone else would have seen it.
‘I just made a mistake a few years back,’ Bray said as his eyes were fixed on the window awaiting the arrival of Moon. ‘A few folks got killed, that’s all. It wasn’t even my fault but Uriah Moon thought it was. He’s been hunting me down relentlessly since then. He’s loco, I tell you. It was a simple mistake and I wasn’t even to blame. Honest. That’s the truth.’
Kodiak Kane had known Morgan Bray far too long for him to believe a single word of this explanation. He knew that Bray would repeat the same lie over and over until even he believed it.
Kane patted the pocket full of money he had just been given and shrugged. That was the only truth he believed in. He swung on his heels and started to approach the large window again.
‘I wonder where that Moon critter is right now.’ He mumbled as he neared it with his guns cocked and ready for action.
Suddenly a thousand shards of glass exploded into the heart of the room as the vigilante crashed through its fragile surface and landed less than ten feet away from the startled Kane.
For a few lingering moments both Moon and Kane just stared at one another. The vigilante held his cocked rifle and watched the dumbfounded henchman holding his guns in his massive hands.
‘Kill him, Kodiak,’ Morgan Bray screamed from the other side of the room. ‘Kill him, you numbskull.’
It was as though Kane had suddenly been awoken from a deep sleep. He raised both his guns and aimed their barrels at the vigilante.
That was his last mistake.
Uriah Moon pulled on his rifle’s trigger. The Winchester blasted a plume of crimson death into the large man sending Kane hurtling across the floor tiles. A trail of gore marked his route as the bearded vigilante stared up at the man he had sought for so long.
‘Morgan Bray,’ Moon drawled and started toward the figure holding the gun in his hand. ‘I got your name from Charlie Erle just before I killed him.’
Bray’s face paled.
‘I never heard of a Charlie Erle.’ He lied.
Uriah Moon stopped twenty feet away from a man he regarded as the most dangerous of his breed. A man who had spent his entire life buying whatever he desired and killing those who objected to selling to him.
‘I got a feeling that you’ve never heard of Judge Jubilee either, Bray.’ Moon said as he cranked the mechanism of his rifle sending a casing hurtling across the large room.
Morgan Bray raised his .45 and aimed at the bearded avenger.
‘You should have killed me when you had the chance, Moon,’ he snarled as his face twitched with excitement. ‘Now I’m gonna have to kill you instead. I normally got folks who do this kinda thing for me but you’ve killed them all I hear. So I guess that I gotta do it myself.’
Uriah Moon nodded as his eyes surveyed the creature before him. A sickening creature who had no right to even exist in his opinion.
‘Your gun ain’t even loaded, Bray.’ Moon announced.
The startled Bray glanced down at the .45 in his hand as a massive bolt of deadly lead shot from Moon’s rifle barrel and carved a path through his fat belly and exited from his back.
Morgan Bray dropped to his knees and stared at the six-shooter in his weakening grip. He squeezed its trigger and sent a bullet into the floor as his watery eyes glanced up at the wide shouldered Moon.
‘You lied.’ He stated as blood trickled from the corners of his mouth.
Uriah Moon nodded and cocked his Winchester again. He then quickly pressed the cold steel against Bray’s temple and fired another shot into the devilish rancher. He watched impassively as Morgan Bray rolled lifelessly over on to his side and lay at the vigilante’s feet.
‘Yep, I lied,’ Moon said as he turned and started walking back to the shattered window. ‘I do that a lot when some bastard got a gun trained on my innards.’
Moon walked through the rain back to the high shouldered thoroughbred and pulled its long leathers free of the porch upright.
Moon mounted in one easy action and gathered up its reins.
He turned the horse, tapped his spurs and allowed the animal to head on back to Apache Springs. There was only one thing on his mind as he gathered pace.
Uriah Moon wanted another cup of coffee.
Coming soon—
Uriah Moon 2: Vigilante Vendetta!