He made a weak attempt to fight off unconsciousness, striving with all his will to stay on his feet and strike back at the man who had struck him, but there was no strength in him. His legs seemed to flow away from under him like water. The ground came up and hit him hard.
He heard a man ask: ‘Did you kill him?’ and thought it was the sheriff.
A man’s voice said: ‘Naw.’
This time the girl didn’t fall on her knees beside him and say pobrecito. Somebody caught him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him into the cabin. Lamplight struck under his eyelids and he winced. Now he seemed to float away.
He could have been out an hour or a minute; he had no idea. When he opened his eyes, there were several men around him. The girl was leaning against the bunk watching him out of her dark eyes.
The man nearest to him was the sheriff. Carlos was there and so was Rich. There were a couple of other men McAllister didn’t know. They were all armed and they all looked as if they didn’t care for him much.
‘He’s awake,’ a man said.
The sheriff turned and his pale eyes fell on McAllister.
‘Throw some water on him and get him on his feet.’
Somebody brought a pitcher of water and emptied it over his face. McAllister spluttered a little and climbed slowly to his feet. He didn’t feel at all good. Then he didn’t expect to.
The sheriff said: ‘Hold him,’ and two men came up on either side of McAllister and took ahold of his arms. Something died inside McAllister – he knew what was coming. He looked past the sheriff and saw the girl’s face. She was worried for him. Which was significant.
The sheriff said: ‘I’m goin’ to give you what you gave me, ten times over. I’m going to do it whenever I feel like it all the time you’re here. I’m goin’ to make you wish you’d never been born. Nobody ever hit me an’ got away with it.’
He doubled his right fist and drew it back for the first blow.
Rich said: ‘You’re goin’ to hurt your hand somethin’ awful, boss.’
The sheriff thought about that and said: ‘You’re right.’ He walked to the bureau and lifted a quirt from its top. He was smiling. He came to McAllister and hit him backhanded with the buttend of the quirt across his face. McAllister tried to get away from the blow, but the two men holding him were strong and he was weak. The sheriff laughed.
‘You got blood all over you,’ he said. ‘You look a mess.’
He hit him again and McAllister gritted his teeth in pain and rage.
But the quirt wasn’t good enough. The sheriff wanted flesh on flesh. He balled his fist again and hit McAllister in the belly, doubling him, then he brought up his knee and smashed it into his face.
The sheriff said: ‘I think he wants to lie down. Put him down, Rich.’
Rich released his grip on McAllister and hit him in the side of the face, knocking him out of the grip of the other man. He staggered across the room, hit the wall and fell. They kicked him two or three times while he lay there. They seemed to like doing it.
The sheriff said: ‘We’ll stop there till he’s stronger. We’ll get some work out of him before we kill him.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Rich said. ‘I’ll gut shoot him and watch him die slow. I ain’t forgot what he done to me.’
McAllister lay there feeling as if an irate mustang had trodden his ribs through; his head felt as if it had exploded and his eyes wouldn’t focus. The nicest thing he could think of to do was lie down and die.
‘Get up,’ the sheriff said. ‘On your feet, McAllister.’
Two men grasped him by his arms and hauled him to his feet. His legs were like water under him. It was as if every limb had been disjointed. When they let him go, he sagged and fell. The sound of him hitting the plank floor was like thunder. It made them laugh. He rolled onto his back and looked up at them, trying to focus and not doing too well.
The sheriff kicked him.
‘On your feet.’
McAllister thought that if they kicked him much more, he would die. So he fought to get to his feet. After a fight, he got onto all fours. The girl’s feet came within sight and he raised his eyes to hers. Did he see pity there? He tried to rise completely and fell to his knees in front of her. She said something harshly in Spanish and spat in his face. That got another laugh. He wiped the spittle from his face with the back of his hand and heaved air into his tortured lungs. Then he started the fight to get up again. When he finally made it and stood there swaying, the sheriff said: ‘Get him to work.’
Rich laughed and said: ‘We won’t get much work from him tonight.’
‘Give him a taste of the whip,’ the sheriff ordered. ‘Nothing like that to bring a man around.’
Somebody pushed him toward the door, he took one pace and started to go down. He grasped the jamb of the door, his grip failed and he went down again. The sheriff laid the quirt across him and he struggled to rise again.
I’ll kill him, McAllister promised himself. Before I’m done, I’ll put a bullet between his eyes.
He crawled outside and made the fight to his feet again. The cool night air hit him and it was as sweet as wine. There were men all around him, a hand or a gun nudged him forward; he walked on legs that threatened to fold at any minute toward the dim light at the mouth of the mine-shaft. He fell twice on the way and twice they kicked him to his feet again.
As they approached the mine shaft a group of men in chains were bringing out another truck-load of ore. Their dim pale faces were turned toward him in dull curiosity. He tried to give them a nonchalant wave and a grin, but his face was frozen and his arm hung like lead at his side.
They entered the tunnel and started along it. He tripped on the track, reeled blindly against the side of the tunnel, the whip bit at him, he felt it cut the flesh of his face. Hate and pain were mixed in a kind of crazy fury within him. Then the light was bright and hurting his eyes. They halted and he heard the sheriff say: ‘Here’s a friend of yours come to join you, Spur.’
He heard an exclamation, chains clinked and a man stood before him.
That was old Sam, all right. Through mashed lips, he said: ‘Howdy, Sam.’
Sam seemed to be trying to say something he couldn’t get out.
The sheriff said: ‘Get some irons on this man and get him to work. An’ see he Goddamn works. Sweat him.’
An armed guard came and caught Sam by the arm, whirling him away and telling him to get on with his work. Sam went without a curse or a backward glance.
McAllister thought: They knocked the sand out of Sam. When I knew him he’d of kicked that sonovabitch’s teeth in.
They brought some rattling chains and fastened them to McAllister’s wrists and ankles. He fought them feebly and to no purpose. He was knocked down and kicked to his feet again. Numbed, he moved to obey the orders they gave him. He joined Sam, a shovel in his hands and as he heaved a load of ore into a waiting truck, his ribs felt as if they were driving through his lungs. He wondered then if he was going to die.
He didn’t know how long he worked there beside a Sam who was silent except for some soft curses and a groan or two, but after a while he must have passed out. The ground came up and hit him and he came to with Sam forcing some tepid water between his lips. The sheriff was no longer there, but the guards were and they didn’t allow any coddling. Sam was whipped away from McAllister and the big man was kicked to his feet again. Sam said something about if he went on like this he’d die, but the guards laughed. Who cared? There were plenty more where he came from and he had aroused the particular dislike of the sheriff.
So they went back to working again and the minutes dragged into hours. One of the workers dropped unconscious and, as kicking would not revive him, he was dragged out into the night and left there. When around dawn the prisoners were marched away from the face down the tunnel, the man was still lying there at the mouth of the cave. McAllister thought he looked dead.
Sam at his side said: ‘Another chore for us. Diggin’ his grave.’
They were marched into the center of the basin and halted. Each man lay down on the ground. McAllister dropped where he was. His sweat-soaked body shivered in the cold dawn air. He didn’t care. He didn’t speak, but in seconds had dropped into a deep sleep, the only cure, as he knew that would be offered to his battered body.
He awoke to find the sun high overhead. His tongue seemed to fill his mouth and his head ached unbearably. When he moved he found that his body was terribly stiff, but the stiffness was nothing beside the pain of his injuries. He looked around him. Some half-dozen men were scattered about on the hard and dusty ground, all asleep, some of them stirring restlessly and groaning. Sam lay on his back with his mouth open. He was snoring noisily. McAllister realised that none of them were going to be offered any shelter from the sun. He would have given a hundred dollars for a single drink of water.
He looked beyond the men and saw the guard in the shade of the cabin roof, sitting at his ease, smoking.
Each sleeping man had a canteen slung over his shoulder. For a while, McAllister toyed with the idea of asking Sam for a drink, but he couldn’t bring himself to wake the man. Instead, he set about making an inventory of his injuries.
The flesh on his right temple had been split open by a boot–toe; the sheriff’s quirt had split his lip and torn one cheek. The blood was dry on his skin. His right arm was badly bruised where he had been kicked and seemed to have turned black from shoulder to wrist. All his ribs felt as if they had been caved in, but when he carefully examined them he found, much to his surprise, that none of them were broken. That was something of a relief. His left knee which had received several kicks was badly swollen. His pants were torn on his right thigh and beneath the tear the flesh showed that it had been lacerated. He reckoned he’d live, though for some time living was going to be a painful experience.
This wasn’t the time, he told himself, to dwell on the things that were against him. He had to find the things that were for him. He had to find a way out of here. Getting away was going to be the most difficult thing he had ever faced. There were the chains to start with. The steel collars around his legs and ankles had already worked some unpleasant looking sores where they had rubbed on the flesh. Before they had fastened his ankles, the guards had removed his boots. A man couldn’t get far without boots in this country.
But he and Sam would get away, of that he was sure. But how?
He ranged his eyes around the basin, noting once again the high steep walls. High on one of them, he could see a guard with a rifle. He didn’t doubt that the man was not only watching the prisoners, but was keeping an eye peeled for Indians. That might be one of the reasons why the sheriff used prisoners to work the gold in this country. He would need all the men who he could muster to fight Indians. The sheriff had it all worked out. While the Indian scare was on, white men in large numbers would not be coming into this country. The mere presence of the armed men in this place would keep the Indians on tenterhooks.
Sam woke.
He looked at McAllister as if he were surprised to see him. There was a sort of dazed look in his eyes.
‘Rem.’
‘Can you spare a man a drink.’ Without a word, Sam unslung the canteen and handed it to McAllister. ‘How long does this have to last?’
‘Water’s precious here. Once a day. Twice if you’re lucky.’
McAllister took one mouthful, put the stopper back and handed the canteen to his friend. He left the tepid water in his mouth for several minutes and slowly swallowed it. He could have drunk the Pecos dry.
They talked. McAllister told Sam what had happened to him since he had received Sam’s letter in El Paso. Sam told his story. He had written to McAllister because he had located silver in the hills. No, not here; about five miles to the east. While prospecting through the hills he had stumbled on this place by accident. Rawley and his men had come on him and taken him. Rawley? McAllister asked. Who was he? That was the sheriff’s name. Sam didn’t have any idea how long this mine had been here, but he reckoned it had been opened up after the Gato scare was at its height. He’d heard that a prospector had found it and had gone to Rawley for a stake. Rawley had killed him and moved in with his associates.
‘What I can’t make out,’ McAllister said, ‘is how he gets away with it. They must know down in Euly this is goin’ on.’
‘Not a whisper so far. At least that’s the way it seems. They’ve made no more than one shipment of gold. They took a pack train right through the sierra into New Mexico and claimed they’d found the gold in New Mexico. They’re gettin’ ready for one more shipment, so I’ve heard.’
‘Then what happens?’
‘They kill us all.’
The words hung between them in the silence. It didn’t seem possible, but McAllister didn’t doubt that it was true. He had experienced Rawley at work.
‘The girl,’ he said. ‘When I saw her in the cage I thought she was one of us.’
‘That’s Carlita. She’s my girl.’
McAllister didn’t know what to say. He had seen the girl with the sheriff. She had spit in his face.
‘You know she’s here?’ he asked.
Sam said: ‘Sure. She sent word by a cousin of hers, she’d come.’ McAllister looked away and Sam added: ‘I know what you’re thinkin’. You’re wrong. When we go out of here, she comes with us.’
McAllister didn’t argue, but he had other ideas.
He said instead: ‘I have a horse not far off. He’s tied. If we don’t get away soon, maybe he’ll get himself free and head for water. We need a horse.’
Sam said: ‘Rem, you’re ail beat up. I ain’t no stronger’n a dogie. We couldn’t run a mile.’
‘What the hell’s gotten into you, man?’ McAllister demanded. ‘I didn’t never hear you talk this way before.’
Sam said: ‘Maybe I’ve been hit once too much.’
‘Sam,’ McAllister said, ‘I come all this way for you an’ I ain’t goin’ without you. Git that into your fool head.’
There was a hopeless look on Sam’s face.
‘It sounds wonderful,’ he said. ‘I dream of havin’ a gun and shootin’ my way outa here. I see Rawley’s face in front of me and I empty a gun into it.’
McAllister laughed.
‘That bastard’s mine,’ he said and meant it.
Sam wasn’t paying him any attention. He was looking north toward the larger of the two cabins. The girl stood at the door, her wide skirt moving in the light breeze. She looked toward them.
‘Good girl,’ he said softly. ‘I even thought about marryin’ her.’
‘A Mex?’
‘Look who’s talkin’.’
McAllister took a good look at Sam and couldn’t believe that this was the same man he had ridden with. He looked as if he hadn’t eaten a good meal in months. His ribs showed through and his skin was burned almost black. His fair beard hung ragged from his jaw and in his eyes was a faraway dazed look. When he remembered the things he had seen Sam do, it didn’t seem possible. Well, he thought, he must get out of here before they did the same thing to him. If they could do it to a man like Sam they could do it to him. He had always rated Sam as his superior. He could ride, fight, drink and womanize like no man he had ever known. And now he was reduced to this – a shadow.
A man shouted. McAllister turned his head. The guard to the south was on his feet, shouting and gesticulating.
Sam said: ‘Waterin’ time. They water us like hosses, then they give us what they laughin’ly call bait.’
He called to the others. Some raised their heads and McAllister thought he had never seen men more hopeless. None of their eyes showed the slightest hope. Slowly, they heaved themselves to their feet. All except one man. He was a puny-looking Anglo, his flesh burned and purple from the sun.
Sam went and shook him.
‘Billy, rise an’ shine, boy.’
The man didn’t move.
Sam lifted an eyelid with a thumb and turned to the others.
‘Another hole to dig,’ he said. The other men received the information without emotion. They started to straggle across the basin, their chains clinking. McAllister brought up the rear of the ragged and bent-backed column. The guard was bellowing for them to hurry it up.
McAllister never learned where the water came from. It was there in the shade of the hut in large Mexican pitchers. The idea was for the prisoners to fill their canteens and fill themselves with as much water as they could hold. This might have to last them for some time, as Sam explained. A man never knew when he would get it next. The trouble was, when a man filled himself to capacity with water, he was too full to eat the slop that was offered him afterward. The guards liked this. It saved food. McAllister reasoned that a man should do his best. And he didn’t possess a canteen; he had left his on his horse. So he was going to fill up and then eat as much as he could. He had to get strong and he had to do it quickly.
The men lifted the pitchers, carefully pouring water into their canteens under the watchful eye of the guard, who cursed them every now and then for spilling it. When it came to McAllister’s turn at a pitcher, it was all he could do to lift it while he drank. He drank his fill, pouring water into him until he thought it would run out of his ears. He drank till he was ready to vomit water. Then, exhausted by his efforts, he lowered the great pitcher to the ground.
A Mexican, with chains only on his ankles, came out of the cabin carrying a bowl of food. As soon as it was placed on the ground, the prisoners fell on it like ravenous wolves. McAllister didn’t know the rules of the place and arrived at the bowl too late. By what he could see the food was old goat meat that had swum in cold and fatty liquid.
He turned to the guard.
‘How about me?’ he asked.
‘You unlucky?’ the guard threw back his head and laughed. The Mexican who had brought the food out, grinned. McAllister picked up the bowl and threw it at the Mexican. He would have liked to throw it at the guard, but he had a feeling he would have been shot if he did. The Mexican screamed and jumped around in fury. The guard laughed again. The other prisoners turned on McAllister. Even Sam was mad.
‘You shouldn’t of done that, Rem,’ he said. He was shaking. He looked at the damp ground where the remainder of the meal was and looked like he could have wept. McAllister felt a little ashamed of himself. He reckoned he’d have to alter his character while he was here.
He turned to the guard, a brutal-looking man that Rawley must have scraped up drunk from some saloon.
‘If I don’t eat, I can’t work,’ he said.
‘Don’t you fool yourse’f,’ the man growled. ‘We’ll make you work.’
Sam came and shoved a piece of goat meat into McAllister’s hand. McAllister looked at his friend and knew this was the greatest sacrifice a man could make. He thrust it back.
‘I ain’t hungry,’ he said. ‘I’m sick to my stomach.’
‘Go ahead,’ Sam said, eyeing the meat.
‘Naw. Christ, it’d be a waste. I wouldn’t keep it down.’ He offered it again. Sam snatched it and wolfed it down in one. McAllister turned away. The sight made him want to weep.
Next, they went and collected the dead man in the center of the basin and carried him to a spot on the east side of the place. The guard shouted for a comrade and another armed man came and escorted four of the prisoners to the corpse that lay at the tunnel. Sam and McAllister were among these. They toiled in the broiling sun, carrying the dead man by his arms and legs across the cauldron of the basin. They would have rested several times, but the guard wouldn’t allow that, but drove them on with blows and curses. When they reached what McAllister could see was a graveyard, they joined the others with pick and shovel. While they wielded these tools, the armed guard stood well back from them. The man had probably learned the lesson the hard way.
By the time the two graves were dug, the dead men tumbled unceremoniously into them and the holes filled in, every man there was in a state of exhaustion. Most of them lay down on the ground, but the guard threatened them and one or two staggered to their feet. When the rest didn’t obey him, he fired a couple of shots into the dust near them and they slowly stood up. He marched them back to the cabin with the tools. Every step they took was a misery as the leg-irons rubbed on their sores. One or two of the men bent double while they walked to hold up the chains and minimize the agony of the chafing. McAllister’s feet were tender and the hot dust burned their soles.
A shout came from across the basin. Men were filing out of the tunnel, slowly and wearily. As he watched, McAllister saw a man go down and get kicked to his feet by the guards.
Tonight, he thought. Tonight I have to get out of here and Sam comes with me.
He looked at his friend ahead of him in the column, lurching like a drunken man, Sam who had walked straight and ridden tall in the saddle.
They reached the tunnel-mouth and went sun-blinded into the gloom. Twice McAllister stumbled into the wall on bends, once he stumbled over Sam in front of him and they both went down. The guard behind them shouted at them and slammed a rifle butt into McAllister’s back.
Then they were at the gold face and picking up their tools. They toiled like old sick men for an hour, two guards demanding they increase their speed, until Rawley appeared with Rich. McAllister leaned weakly against the face and looked at the man, well-fed and plump, bright–eyed and alert and he never knew when he had hated a man more.
The sheriff inspected the face and declared that it was time for blasting. He detailed McAllister to use the sledge-hammer and Sam to hold the drill, then showed them where he wanted the drill holes. As McAllister picked up the sledge, the man stepped back out of reach.
It was hell knocking those holes in the granite-hard wall. McAllister thought he would never last out, but he did. He was surprised to find that he had worked out much of the stiffness of his body. It was still sore, but he was moving with greater ease. When the holes were to Rawley’s liking, a man came with the explosive and the holes were plugged. The prisoners were driven out into the open. Clear of the tunnel mouth, several men at once slumped to the ground and fell asleep. When the explosive blew, Rawley and Rich went in to look at the result. The sheriff seemed satisfied when he came out and gave the guards orders to get the men to work. He shouted for his horse. A Mexican came running and the sheriff stepped into the saddle. McAllister then saw several other mounted men. The sheriff’s escort through the Indian country.
A hand touched his arm.
It was Sam.
Watching the guards, Sam said in a whisper, scarcely moving his lips: ‘This is our chance. Rawley’s goin’. Tonight.’
McAllister couldn’t hide his astonishment. He saw himself trying to escape with a man almost too weak to stand.
‘You mean it, Sam? You think –?’
‘Watch me. Take your lead from me.’
The guards were getting them on their feet; Rawley was cantering across the basin with his cohorts. The prisoners shuffled clanking their chains into the tunnel and then they were at their painful toil again, clearing the rubble from the explosions. As the trucks were rolled out the mills started up, crashing out their message of riches to the hills.
The minutes marched slowly into hours; they seemed to toil through an eternity of time in the dim lamplight of the mine, sweating, fighting the terrible weariness of their pain-wracked bodies, lashed or kicked if they rested too long. McAllister watched Sam when he was able, trying to assess his friend’s strength and could only come to the opinion that the man was so weak that he wouldn’t have got a mile if he had managed to escape. Sam must have been unaware of this – he had sounded so confident when he had spoken about getting away.
There came a time when the guards gave half the men a rest while the remainder worked on. Of the three guards, one was escorting a small party with a tip-truck outside. One was watching the resting men, while the third kept his eyes on the men shovelling the ore into an empty truck.
Sam said softly: ‘Now’s the time.’
McAllister glanced at him in alarm. He couldn’t mean it. Sam couldn’t expect to jump an armed guard in his weak state. But he took a close look at Sam’s face in the lamplight and he saw an iron determination there that he hadn’t seen before. Maybe … he didn’t know. But what he did know was that if Sam was going to make a try, he, McAllister, would have to go along with him.
Sam said: ‘The other boys know what to do. Follow my lead.’
So Sam had set this up. McAllister felt his aching muscles brace. The guard nearest him was lighting a smoke. Sam picked up a piece of ore, drew a deep breath and threw it with all his strength. Even as he threw, McAllister had launched himself forward. He heard the ore strike the man in the face. A fraction of a second later, his right shoulder crashed into the man’s legs and the fellow hit the side of the mine as if he had been pole-axed. As he picked himself up from the ground, McAllister saw Sam scoop up the rifle. He whirled. The other guard was floundering on the ground with a couple of prisoners striking him with their shovels.
McAllister jumped forward and snatched up this man’s rifle. A Mexican grabbed his revolver. McAllister stuffed his pockets with ammunition from the fallen guard and then inspected the two fallen men closely. The man who had been hit with the shovels was dead; the man whom Sam had felled was still breathing. He tore this fellow’s shirt to shreds, bound his wrists and stuffed some cloth into his mouth. Then, with his bandanna, he tightly bound the man’s feet after he had removed the boots. They looked about his size. With a peggin string he tied them together and slung them around his neck.
‘Start work, boys,’ Sam said.
They obeyed him without a word. Sam took off the dead man’s boots. McAllister found that he was shaking violently.
He heard a sound: the rumbling of iron wheels on rail. The voice of the returning guard boomed down the tunnel. Understanding what needed to be done, he and Sam took up their positions on either side of the mouth of the tunnel. The other prisoners did not give them a glance.
The others seemed to take an age returning. McAllister hoped to God that they could down this third guard without a shot being fired. One shot and they would have the whole hornet’s nest about their heads. The rumbling wheels came closer. They could hear the clinking of the chains. The guard was bellowing for them to get a move on.
The truck with the prisoners pushing it passed the waiting men. They halted and looked neither to right nor left. McAllister raised the rifle. The guard walked into the lamplight.
He and Sam struck together. The man didn’t stand a chance. He fell where he stood, dropping like a stone. In a second, men pounced on him wordlessly – boots, hats, weapons were purloined. Then they stood panting, unable to believe that so far they had been successful.
One of the Mexicans said: ‘Por Dios.’
Suddenly thirsty, they started sipping water from their canteens.
In Spanish, Sam said: ‘Go quietly to the mouth of the tunnel and wait. My friend and I will go fetch the keys.’
One of the prisoners wished for God to go with him.
McAllister and Sam started along the tunnel. When they reached the mouth, Sam stopped and said: ‘This is the worst part. I don’t know how many men are in the cabin.’
McAllister said: ‘Let’s go see.’
They went on.
They had to walk with enormous care, stooping to hold their leg irons with their left hands to stop the chains rattling, their rifles gripped in their right hands.
Halfway to the cabin, a voice sang out to their right: ‘Who’s this?’
They stopped.
‘Aw, no,’ Sam whispered.
‘Two prisoners,’ McAllister called.
‘Where the hell do you think you’re goin’?’
McAllister swallowed hard and said: ‘The guard told us to go to the cabin. Rich wants us.’
The man came toward them, saying: ‘Nobody ain’t allowed to walk around with no guard.’ McAllister reckoned another half-dozen paces and the man would see they carried rifles. He dropped his leg-irons and took a grip on the rifle with both hands.
The man realised something was wrong at once. He stopped and gave a high-pitched sound of alarm, snapping up his rifle.
McAllister and Sam levered and fired as one man and the fellow was blasted backward. They both moved quickly now without stopping to see what damage they had done. Turning, ignoring the noise they made, they ran as fast as their chains would allow toward the cabin. They hadn’t taken a half-dozen paces when the door of the cabin slammed open and a man stood there silhouetted against the lamplight within. They both halted and raised their weapons, but before they could shoot a shot came from within the cabin and the man staggered forward. The next moment, they were stepping across his body and were inside the cabin. The girl, Carlita, stood there with a smoking revolver in her hand. She looked scared as a rabbit, but at the sight of Sam, she brightened.
Sam said: ‘I told you, Rem.’
The girl flew to him and he put an arm around her.
McAllister said: ‘Where’re the keys? We have to move fast.’ Already he could hear shouts of alarm in the basin. It sounded as if the prisoners in the mouth of the tunnel had opened up with their two revolvers.
The girl had the keys in her hand. McAllister snatched them from her and bent to free Sam. He managed the leg-irons all right, then ran into trouble with the manacles.
‘Hurry it up,’ Sam said through his teeth, sweating.
‘The Goddamn key’s jammed.’
There was a rattle of rifle fire out in the basin. A horse ran through the night. A bullet tore through the oiled-cloth of the window and smacked into the opposite wall.
The key turned and Sam’s hands were free. McAllister handed the key to the girl, she dropped to one knee and started to free his ankles. Sam, his rifle in his hands, threw himself down in the open doorway and lined his rifle up with some hurrying dark figures out in the basin. But he didn’t know who they were and couldn’t shoot. The gunfire out there rose to a crescendo.
Sam called back: ‘They’re cutting down on the boys in the tunnel.’
McAllister’s ankles were free. The girl started on his wrists. More lead smacked into the little building. Sam started firing. That drew more fire down on the cabin and the air seemed alive with flying lead. McAllister’s hands were free. He snatched up his rifle and said to the girl: ‘Where’s my gun?’
The girl reached it from the top of a bureau and handed it to him. He shoved it under his belt and felt better for having it again. He blew out the light. The girl went and lay down on the floor by Sam. McAllister ripped the cloth over a window with the rifle muzzle and stared out into the night. He didn’t see how they could get the keys to the men in the tunnel.
His eyes were getting used to the dark now and he could see a little more. Figures seemed to be flitting out there on the flat. He thought he saw men starting to run for the cabin from the tunnel. The rifles out there went crazy, a man screamed, several seemed to fall.
Sam said: ‘Rem, we’ll be lucky if we git outa this alive.’
‘You’re right,’ McAllister said and started firing.
The girl said: ‘I have horses waiting. We must go now.’
‘How about the boys in the tunnel?’ Sam asked.
McAllister hated himself as he said: ‘We couldn’t get through that fire. Where’re the horses, Carlita?’
‘To the north. Back of this cabin.’
He asked: ‘What’ll Rawley do to the others if they don’t get away?’
Sam answered: ‘He won’t kill ’em till he’s used them all he wants.’
‘We must go now. See, they are coming closer.’
It was true. The men out there were getting close under cover of the mills. They had plenty of ammunition to burn and they were pouring a heavy fire into the cabin.
Sam said: ‘We ain’t goin’ to do anybody any good stayin’ here. Let’s go, Rem.’
McAllister said: ‘You an’ the girl go out the rear window. I’ll keep their heads down a while.’
Sam protested, but McAllister swore at him and they both went to the rear window. McAllister saw a dark figure running and snapped a shot at it, but he didn’t know if he scored a hit. He heard Sam ripping open the oiled cloth. A moment later, he heard Sam call: ‘Come ahead, Rem.’
He gave the attackers one last shot and ran across the darkened room toward the window. Throwing a leg over the sill, he jumped into the darkness and hit ground. Vaguely, he could make out Sam and the girl heading out into the darkness, he set out after them. In a minute, he was staggering into brush and fending it off. Ahead of him a horse whinnied. Then there were three horses in the dimness and they were untying them and vaulting onto their backs. The animals played up a bit and it wasn’t easy to stay on their backs without a saddle, but they made out and a moment later were sending them at a crazy run into the darkness.