The Ghost of Iron Eyes (An Iron Eyes Western Book 8) (14 page)

Their eyes locked like the
antlers of two stags.

‘
Wait,
you old fool. We gotta get the rest of the boys if n we intend
stopping Toke and his kin.’

Jardine bit his lip. He knew
that Cole was right. There was no way that he and his long-time
saddle-partner could hope to take on the Darrow brothers
alone.

‘
OK.
OK. C’mon.’ He snorted.

Both outlaws ran through the
rain towards the brightly lit saloon. The rain was falling harder
now. It stung any exposed flesh like crazed hornets. Cole
tried to shield his
head with one of his large hands.

Hands that were as big as
side plates.

They entered the saloon. The
swing-doors flapped behind them long after they had reached the top
of the wide staircase. They moved along the corridor. There were
three doors to either side of them. Jardine knew that the eight
outlaws were behind the doors to their left.

‘
Get
the hell up, boys!’ Jardine yelled as he used his fist to bang on
the three doors.

‘
Who’s
that?’ Doc Weatherspoon’s distinctive voice called out from the
room at the end of the dimly lit corridor. ‘Is that you,
Henry?’

Jardine heard the bolt being
slid across and waited. Doc opened the door a few inches and pushed
his Colt .45 straight into the troubled face.

‘
Have
you gone plumb loco?’ Weatherspoon asked, lowering the gun and
staring angrily at the soaked Jardine.

‘
Get
Skeet out of his cot, Doc,’ Jardine instructed. ‘Ain’t got time to
explain. Just do it.’

‘
What
for, Henry?’ Weatherspoon grabbed the man’s sleeve before he could
walk to the next room. ‘I ain’t doin’ nothing until you tell
me.’

‘
The
Darrows stole the keys to the bank from me. The bastards are in
there right now,’ Jardine snarled. ‘What you reckon they’re
doing?’

‘
The
cheeky young pups! They’re robbin’ us.’ Weatherspoon turned, walked
across the room and started screaming at his fellow-bandit, Skeet
Bodine.

Luther Cole banged on the
first door as Jardine reached the middle one.

‘
Ain’t
no reply from the Claytons’ room,’ he said. ‘They must be dead
drunk.’

Pop Lomax opened the door of
the room he shared with Bass and Moore and stared at Jardine before
looking along the corridor at Cole.

‘
I
ain’t even sure if n they’re in there, Luther.’

‘
Yeah?’ Cole looked puzzled.

‘
I
could be wrong, but I thought I heard them leaving an hour or so
back. I’m sure I heard someone on the back stairs.’ Lomax
added.

Jardine glanced at
Lomax.

‘
Get
the boys up, Pop. We got trouble.’

Cole stared at Jardine as
the man grabbed hold of the door-handle and turned it
hard.

‘
Locked! Kick it down!’

Cole lifted up his right
boot and kicked at the door. The wood shattered into a million
splinters to reveal the trio of empty cots inside its
interior.

‘
Where
the hell are they?’ Cole asked out loud.

Henry Jardine rubbed his
jawline with his thumb, then started for the staircase. He said
nothing until he reached the long bar counter and a half-full
bottle of rye.

Cole watched his friend take
a long swallow of the whiskey.

‘
You
OK, Henry?’

Jardine rested the bottle back
on the
wet
surface and then checked both his guns in turn.

‘
Looks
like Red, Jonah and Snake have decided to team up with Toke,’
Jardine muttered. ‘Damn it all. Now we have six critters to worry
about, Luther.’

Before Cole could respond,
Pop Weatherspoon led Bodine, Lomax, Bass and Moore down the long
flight of stairs.

‘
What’s so all-fired urgent, Henry?’ Skeet Bodine growled
angrily. ‘I was dreamin’ of a real fancy girl I knew up in
Cheyenne. I was doing OK until you woked me up.’

Jardine pushed himself away
from the bar and gritted his teeth.

‘
Make
sure your guns are loaded, boys. I reckon we’ve got ourselves a
fight on our hands.’

‘
A
fight? Who is we gonna fight?’ Clay Moore yawned.

‘
The
Darrows and the Claytons!’ came the reply. ‘C’mon.’

The seven outlaws made their
way
out on
to the saloon porch and stood staring through the rain at the bank.
Then they heard the sound of horses’ hoofs making their way along
the wet street towards them from the direction of the livery stable
on the outskirts of Diamond City.

‘
Find
cover away from the light!’ Jardine urged his men.

They ran to the end of the
porch and jumped down into the shadows. They crouched with guns
drawn and waited for the riders to come into view.

They did not have to wait
long.

Red Clayton rode between his
cousins as they led three saddled horses and two pack-mules through
the downpour.

The still sleepy Clay Moore
rose up.

‘
It’s
only Red and the boys, Henry.’ He yawned, stepping out into the
light that spilled from the saloon. He started to walk toward the
riders.

‘
You
don’t understand, Clay!’ Jardine called out.

In
one swift action, Rufus ‘Red’ Clayton
drew one of his guns, cocked its hammer and fired. Moore spun on
his heels and fell lifelessly into the wet sand.

Jardine gasped in horror. He
could not believe that men he had ridden with for so long could
suddenly turn on him and the rest of the gang. More shots spewed
from the guns of the horsemen and kept the six men pinned down. The
side of the saloon was torn to shreds.

‘
Stay
down and return fire!’ Jardine instructed. He grabbed Cole’s
shoulder. ‘We have to get behind them.’

Cole nodded and followed him
under the boardwalk. They crawled over the wet sand beneath the
saloon until they reached the rear of the building.

The two outlaws emerged into
the driving rain with their guns primed for action. They ran along
the dark alleyways until they reached the rear of the
bank.

The sound of gunfire was
deafening from the main street and drew Jardine and Cole like
magnets. No sooner had
they reached the street than they too became
targets for the Claytons’ and Billow’s bullets.

Red-hot tapers of lethal
lead cut through the driving rain and destroyed the side of the
bank wall. Jardine knelt and fanned the hammer of his
gun.

He took great pleasure when
he saw not only Snake Billow, but Jonah Clayton punched off their
saddles by the sheer force of his deadly accurate
bullets.

Jardine threw himself back
when he realized his gun was empty. He spotted Red Clayton whipping
his mount furiously.

‘
We
better get out of here, Luther!’ Jardine said as he holstered his
smoking weapon and drew its twin from his left holster.

As he rose to his feet, his
eyes saw his partner lying with his back against the bank wall. It
was impossible to tell how many of the bullets had hit Cole in the
chest. But even the rain could not wash away
the volume of blood that still
poured out of the bald man.

Jardine felt as if he had
been kicked by a mule. He hit the wall hard enough to shatter his
nose and bust one of his eyebrows. A fraction of a second later he
heard the gunshot.

The outlaw fell on to his
lifeless friend as pain ripped through his shoulder. He tried to
move his right arm but it was broken.

He turned and used his thumb to
pull back the hammer of the gun in his left hand. Then another
bullet from Red Clayton
’s gun entered his right thigh.

Jardine fired and watched
his bullet hit Clayton in the chest. The outlaw dragged his reins
back and fell forward over the head of his mount.

Clayton landed less than ten
feet from Jardine.

Both outlaws raised their
guns and fired.

Both were dead shots. Both
lifeless men slid sideways into the wet sand.

Saul Bass and the wounded Pop
Lomax used the nervous horses in the
middle of the street as cover. They
grabbed the reins of two of the saddle-horses and made their way
towards the bank. Doc Weatherspoon and Skeet Bodine had the same
goal but made their way along the boardwalks. They were using the
shadows for protection.

The eyes of the four outlaws
were glued to the large open front door of the bank. Yellow
oil-lamplight twisted out on to the street as rain continued to
pour down from the heavens.

Weatherspoon paused outside the
barber shop and cranked the Winchester trigger guard. Bodine moved
to the older man
’s shoulder with his smoking Remingtons still aimed at
hip-level at the bank.

‘
Ya
reckon that they’re still in there, Doc?’

‘
They
ought to be, Skeet,’ Weatherspoon answered. He watched Bass and
Lomax ducking into the telegraph office opposite him. ‘Where’s
Henry and Luther gone?’

‘
Just
keep your mind on Toke and his brothers, Doc,’ Bodine said. He
stepped closer to the alleyway that separated the barber shop from
the bank. He looked around the corner and saw the three bodies.
‘Damn!’

‘
What
you seen, Skeet?’

‘
Luther and Henry are dead, old-timer,’ Bodine
replied.

Before Weatherspoon could
utter another word, the door of the bank was abruptly kicked open
and the three Darrow brothers came out shooting.

As always, the trio of
outlaws used their deadly skills to fire their weaponry in all
directions at once. It was if they were joined together. Thunder
exploded above Diamond City as bolts of lightning sought out and
found the bell in the church-tower a few hundred yards away. The
sound of the bell echoed above the gunfire.

Bullets shattered the window
of the telegraph office and Pop Lomax fell backwards. Saul Bass
fared little better when he moved to the window and blasted both
his guns at the Darrows.

He saw Fern Darrow stagger
as one of his bullets caught the youngest of the brothers in the
left foot. Then Jade Darrow fired his last bullet and caught Bass
in the throat. Blood exploded from above the bandanna.

Doc Weatherspoon used his rifle
but was no match for the men he aimed at. They had already filled
him with lead before he had managed to crank the
rifle
’s
mechanism for the third time. The old outlaw buckled and
fell.

Skeet Bodine turned on his
heels and ran up the dark alley.

Toke Darrow shook the empty
cartridges from his guns and then reloaded. He turned to
Jade.

‘
Get
them pack-horses loaded up with our money.’

‘
What
about Fern?’ Jade asked. ‘His foot is shot off.’

Toke Darrow stared down the
alley and then at his brothers again.

‘
Put
him on a horse, then get our money loaded. I’m gonna kill Bodine
and then we ride.’

‘
Let’s
light out now!’ Jade Darrow shouted. It was a futile suggestion.
Toke had already disappeared into the dark alley with his guns
cocked and ready.

Skeet Bodine had lived by
the gun and now he knew that he would almost certainly die by it.
The narrow alley that led behind the row of buildings was dark, yet
the terrified outlaw knew that the man behind him would never quit
until he had killed him as he had done with so many others that had
stood in his way.

Bodine stopped and leaned
against a tall fence and tried to hear the footsteps of his pursuer
above the incessant noise of the rain that clattered off the wooden
structures all around him.

Thunder still rumbled as the
storm headed towards the open range far to the south of Diamond
City, but it was the lightning that flashed across the low clouds
that
bedeviled Bodine.

Every time the sky lit up,
it gave Darrow a target.

He was that
target.

A bullet came from out of the
darkness and punched a hole in the wooden fencing beside the
outlaw. The smell of burning splinters filled
Bodine
’s
nostrils as he squeezed his triggers and then started to run
again.

More shots rang out around
the alley.

The muffled sound of the man
behind him kept Bodine moving through the unfamiliar maze of
buildings. He tried one locked door after another in a vain attempt
to find refuge from the eldest and most deadly of the
Darrows.