Iron Eyes led Duke Hanney back across the windswept town until he reached the telegraph office. Rain had started to fall as the rods of golden lightning drew closer to the border town. Iron Eyes stepped up on to the boardwalk and stared at the store frontage. The door had been kicked off its hinges by Brook Payne and his cohorts as soon as the outlaws had arrived in Rio Concho. The bounty hunter entered the office and stared at the damaged equipment. He picked up an oil-lamp and lit its wick. As the room suddenly brightened, he turned to the bearded man.
‘Did they kill the telegraph worker, old-timer?’ he asked in a low growl.
Hanney rested his shotgun down on a chair.
‘Nope. They sure scared the critter though. Toby Gunn went running when them outlaws showed up.’
Iron Eyes leant over and pulled the desk upright, then ran his bony fingers through his wet matted hair.
‘Is he still in Rio Concho?’
‘Yep. He’s still in town. Toby’s bin holed up in the back of the cafe for weeks. I never seen a man so plumb rattled before.’ Hanney sighed heavily.
‘Get him,’ Iron Eyes snapped.
Hanney nodded and picked up his heavy shotgun again.
‘Why? This stuffs wrecked, boy.’
‘It can be fixed by someone who knows how it works, Hanney,’ Iron Eyes said. ‘Get him here and tell him that he’ll not be harmed by anybody. I need these wires fixed so I can get my bounty money authorized. This town also needs the law to come and sort a few things out.’
Hanney made as though to leave, then paused and tapped the bounty hunter’s arm. Iron Eyes glanced at the livery man.
‘Something eatin’ at ya, old-timer?’
‘Yep. I’m thinkin’ about them six riders we spotted out there on the desert a few minutes back, Iron Eyes. They’ll be here in less than a hour. A lot faster if they spur them horses.’
Iron Eyes exhaled heavily and rested his hip on the edge of the desk. He looked down at the floor thoughtfully.
‘I’m troubled by them riders too,’ he admitted. ‘I saw their rifles and bullet belts in the lightning flashes. They ain’t nothin’ but trouble. No peaceful hombres carry that amount of weaponry.’
‘More outlaws?’
Iron Eyes nodded.
‘Reckon so.’
‘Ya look worried,’ Hanney said.
‘I am a mite troubled, old-timer.’ Iron Eyes stood and led the livery man to the gaping hole in the wall where the door had once been. ‘I’m running low on bullets for my Navy Colts. Ya know anywhere in this town where they might have a couple of boxes of .36s?’
‘The hardware store could have some,’ Hanney said.
‘Check after ya get the telegraph operator.’ Iron Eyes watched the livery man as he made his way down the boardwalk into the shadows. He then strode to the edge of the porch and looked out at the desert.
Iron Eyes could still see the six riders as the sky erupted in bright electrical flashes. They were still approaching Rio Concho.
The bounty hunter pushed his hands into his deep trail coat-pockets and felt the remaining score of bullets. He knew that if these riders started a new battle, he needed more .36s. A lot more.
‘Who are you?’ he muttered.
~*~
Snake Adams raised a hand and slowed his skittish mount. The five riders behind him eased back on their reins. The six horses stopped in a line less than a mile from Rio Concho. Even through the driving rain they could see the bright lights of the small border town ahead of them. Yet Adams sensed that there was something wrong. The storm was becoming more and more violent and making the horses increasingly nervous. The outlaw leader steadied his mount, pulled the brim of his hat down against the rain and focused hard.
‘What’s wrong, Snake?’ Kyle Parker asked. ‘How come you stopped? We’re almost there.’
Adams was silent. He just kept looking at the town.
Brewster eased his horse closer to the brooding horseman.
‘What ya seen, Snake? Trouble?’
Ferdy Mayne leaned on his saddle horn and watched the rain flowing off the brim of his hat over his horse’s neck.
‘That town looks dead apart from them streetlights.’
Adams looked at Mayne.
‘That’s right, Ferdy. It does look dead, don’t it? Where are all the people?’
‘Is that why we stopped?’ Coop Starr asked.
The outlaw leader sighed heavily. His eyes darted from one shaft of lightning to another.
‘That town is real quiet,’ he said again. ‘Too quiet.’
‘Maybe they all hit the hay early in these parts, Snake,’ Lynch suggested.
‘Half the folks living there are Mexican, Ben,’ Adams reminded him. ‘Them critters only come to life during the night. They sleep most of the day.’
‘Could be the storm,’ Brewster suggested.
Adams nodded.
‘Ya could be right, One Ear.’
Brewster smiled. It was the first time in years that Snake Adams had agreed with anything he said.
‘How come we’re headed there, Snake?’ Lynch asked. ‘Of all the towns in the West, how come we’re headed to Rio Concho?’
Snake Adams held on to his reins firmly with both his gloved hands.
‘OK. OK. I’ll tell ya. The envelope in my shirt is real valuable, like I said before. A man by the name of Jackson Wylie from Boston is waiting there for us. He was the man who told me of the plan them Eastern dudes had cooked up. The paper in my shirt is some kinda deed. It’s the deed to mineral rights for the whole territory.’
‘Mineral rights?’ Starr repeated. ‘Did ya say mineral rights, Snake? What are they?’
‘Hell, I don’t know. Oil or coal or something,’ Adams guessed. ‘All I know for sure is that whoever has this deed owns it. It was being sent from one rich dude to another. They have some kinda company that wants to mine the minerals in these parts.’
‘What’s this Jackson Wylie character gotta do with this?’ Lynch asked.
‘He has a company that wants to get the better of the other dudes,’ Adams replied. ‘Wylie is willing to pay us a lot of money for this document, no questions asked. All we have to do is exchange it for a couple of big bags of fresh minted golden double eagles.’
‘You said something before about the treasury, Snake,’ Parker added.
Adams nodded.
‘That’s right, Kyle. That was one of the varmints we killed back at Waco. The government got a sniff of these companies making a lotta money out of this deal. They were trying to get a chunk of tax from them.’
‘Jackson Wylie?’ Brewster said the name.
‘That’s right, One Ear.’ Adams nodded.
‘Sounds like a Southern gentleman,’ Brewster said.
Adams shook his head.
‘He ain’t from the South and he ain’t a gentleman. He’s an eastern back-stabber. Rich though. Mighty rich.’
‘If all we gotta do is exchange that document for gold, why ain’t we riding, Snake?’ Mayne asked.
‘Where ya meant to meet up with him?’ Starr asked.
‘The Avalon Hotel!’ Adams nodded. ‘I hear it’s the finest hotel in the territory.’
‘Sounds good.’ Lynch grinned. ‘I could use a soft bed for a change.’
‘Ya right, Ben. Let’s ride!’ Snake Adams yelled and slapped his reins on the neck of his mount. The horse broke into a gallop in the direction of the town.
The six horsemen spurred and thundered through the raging storm toward Rio Concho.