The Wrath of Iron Eyes (An Iron Eyes Western #5) (7 page)

Smith walked away from the law
officer, picked up his glass and downed the remainder of its
contents. He shuddered, then turned his head and
stared at
Hardin.

‘
What do you
mean?’

‘
Iron Eyes!’The sheriff
said the name and smiled.

‘
That filthy bounty hunter?
What about him?’ the banker poured himself another glass of the
costly spirit. ‘Do you think that he’s behind this? Has Iron Eyes
taken my daughter?’

Tom Hardin swallowed his brandy and placed
his glass on the silver tray. He toyed with the crystal
decanter.

‘
Iron Eyes has nothing to
do with kidnapping Rosie, Jed. I’d bet my pension on that. But I
got me an inkling that he could track down the bastards who did,
wherever they’re hiding.’

For the first time since he had read the
note, Smith actually felt hope creeping back into his life
again.

‘
Would he?’

‘
I reckon so,
Jed.’

‘But why would this Iron Eyes
even want to help?’ Jed Smith’s face suddenly began to show signs
that he felt there just might be a chance of his
seeing his
beautiful daughter again.

‘
Because Iron Eyes told me
that Rosie was the first gal to look at him without showing her
disgust.’ Hardin poured himself another brandy and swirled the
liquid around in the glass thoughtfully.

Smith looked hard at the lawman. ‘Doesn’t he
know?’

Hardin looked up into Smith’s face. Their
eyes met.

‘
Nope. He had no idea that
she’s blind, Jed. What stranger would? I didn’t have the heart to
tell him. When you look like Iron Eyes does, I reckon no female
looks at you for very long. Rosie did because she could not see his
scarred face.’

Smith lowered his head.

‘
Where is he?’

‘
He told me that he was
headed for Sanora.’ Hardin finished his brandy and headed for the
office door. With his hand on its handle, he paused and
turned.

‘
Where you going,
Tom?’

‘
Sanora!’

The hideout of the ruthless Malverez and his
men was a mere two miles downstream of the border-crossing along
the river. A series of caves lined the tree-covered banks of the
river until the fast-flowing water fell from a high cliff a hundred
feet into a deep lake. The trail stopped at the top of the
waterfall and only a narrow path led down to the place where the
bandits hid.

The four-horse team had been left at the top
of the waterfall, together with their half-dozen mounts, whilst the
bandits carried their latest prize down through the undergrowth to
the place that resounded with the sound of crashing water.

This was a place that had
remained hidden from the eyes of most men since time had begun.
Only nomadic Indians
had ever set eyes upon its grandeur until the
ruthless bandits had accidentally discovered it when looking for a
place that offered them a safe haven from all those who hunted
them.

For three years it had served its purpose
well.

At the foot of the high waterfall, hidden
behind the never-ending flow of cascading water, the largest of the
caves lay totally obscured. This was where the bandits had
stockpiled their fortune for the day when they would divide it up
and finally ride off to their separate futures.

It was a day that would never come. For men
such as these had long since sacrificed their futures for the gold
and silver coins their past had accumulated.

There was always just one more job.

Rosie Smith was still alive when they
dragged the velvet drapes from her sweat-soaked body. She lay
helpless, tied like a spring calf waiting to be branded on the
floor of the cave.

She would have already suffered
the
same
fate as so many of their other victims, would have been killed by
now, if not for the fact that she had golden hair. To the
hot-blooded Mexicans who were starved of female company in their
remote hideout, this rare quality was the one thing that had kept
Rosie Smith alive long enough to reach this unholy
place.

The bandits had already mentally raped their
beautiful hostage countless times before they reached the cave.
Each would have done so by now if it had not been for their fear of
the man who had long ago proved his ability to control them.

Malverez wanted her more than any of
them.

Each of the bandits knew that he, as always,
would get the first taste of this tender girl. He would be the
first to take his pleasure and they would have to be satisfied with
whatever scraps were left.

Malverez produced a long
stiletto and cut the now-dried rawhide bonds
from her wrists and ankles.
Blood trickled from where the rawhide had tightened around her soft
pale flesh. She could hardly move after being hogtied for so long.
Gradually she managed to straighten out on the ground as every
sinew in her body screamed in pain.

‘We should draw lots to see who
gets her first,
amigo,
one of the bandits suggested.

‘
I think not, Carlos.’ The
bandit leader untied the blindfold and removed it from Rosie’s
eyes, then he pulled the gag from her mouth.

Their female hostage panted heavily as the
fresh air rushed into her lungs. She remained on the ground at
Malverez’s feet, listening to the men walking around her. For the
first time since she had been abducted, she was terrified.

‘
Where am I?’ she gasped
innocently. ‘What’s happening?’

‘
What a sweet voice,’ said
the bandit who answered to the name of Jose.

‘
Like an angel,’ another
added.

‘
It is a pity that she has
to die, Malverez,’ observed the bandit with the festering
bullet-hole in his hand.

Malverez lifted her blonde hair and felt its
softness between his fingertips. It was like the finest of
silks.

They had never had such a trophy before and
he knew it.

‘You are right,
amigos,’
Malverez said.
‘This one is very special.’

One of the other bandits moved closer to
their thoughtful leader. He had never seen him so preoccupied
before.

‘
What are you
thinking?’

Malverez looked at the man and touched his
cheek with the razor-sharp knife-blade.

‘I am thinking that this is one
female I do not want to share,
amigo.’
Malverez narrowed his eyes and stared at
the five brooding men. ‘I am thinking that she would make a good
slave for me.’

The sound of the other men
filled the
cave. They all wanted her but were now being told that she
was his alone. Only killing Malverez would allow them to share this
female, they all thought.

‘
I want her,’ one of them
shouted.

‘
We all want her,’ another
agreed.

Malverez listened to their voices and sat
down on a wooden box filled with gold coins from previous ransoms.
He lifted the knife and pointed it at his men with one hand as he
stroked her hair with the other.

‘Until I grow bored with her,
she is mine alone,
amigos’

The men all ranted and raved at the seated
bandit. They were angry.

‘Silence,
amigos,’
Malverez ordered
loudly.

For the first time since the gang of bandits
had first ridden together, the other men did not listen to
Malverez.

Train-robber Black Ben Tucker had seen many
things in his long eventful life but nothing that could have
prepared him for the sight of the hideous Iron Eyes. Even
unconscious the infamous bounty hunter looked far more terrifying
than most men when they were wide awake. Yet even though Tucker had
never set eyes upon the strange scarred face of Iron Eyes before,
he somehow had a feeling that he ought to recognize him.

After Iron Eyes had collapsed at the feet of
the outlaw, Tucker had carried him through the cantina and into the
room he had paid handsomely to rent. For such a tall man, Iron Eyes
seemed to weigh very little.

Exactly why the train-robber
had shown so much compassion to the man who was known throughout
the West as
a living ghost and a deadly killer, even Tucker could not
understand. Maybe it was because Black Ben did not know who the
emaciated creature he was helping was. Yet those who knew the
outlaw well would have bet their last dollar against Tucker’s
helping anyone who required his assistance.

That was the way he was.

A man who dared to face his demons whenever
they raised their heads. He assessed everyone by his own values;
this had backfired several times in the past.

Iron Eyes required help, it was as simple as
that. Tucker had pulled the blood-filled boot from the bounty
hunter’s left leg, then sent for the nearest thing that Sanora had
to a real doctor.

The lay doctor had cut deeply
into the gruesome wound and drained the poisonous pus from the
infected area. Then the old man used everything he had inside his
battered medical bag in order to save the life of Iron Eyes.
For
more
than five hours he and Tucker battled with the delirious bounty
hunter who thrashed out at the monsters who invaded his feverish
mind. Five solid hours that took them into the middle of the night
and beyond.

The sweat-soaked Iron Eyes screamed as the
deadly venom flowed through his veins and blurred his usually keen
mind. He had never ridden this trail before and there was a terror
within the soul of the hunter of outlaws that chilled the two men
who had willingly chosen to remain at his bedside.

These were not the screams of a normal man
but the ravings of a tortured being. Neither the elderly doctor or
the fugitive had ever heard anything like it.

They had held Iron Eyes down when he
valiantly fought against the monsters who rose from deep down
inside the depths of his soul, trying to destroy what remained of
his emaciated being.

Iron Eyes had been wounded many
times and lost more than his fair share
of blood over the countless years
since he had become a bounty hunter, but he had never before had
the venom of the serpent inside him.

The elderly doctor had forced various
medicinal powders down Iron Eyes’ throat in an attempt to break the
fever and stop the poison from destroying what was left of the
incoherent man.

It was nearly midnight when the eyes of the
hunter opened and he could at last see clearly again.

Iron Eyes gripped with his long thin bony
fingers at the arms of the two men who were seated on either side
of the cot. His chest heaved as he began to focus on the ceiling
above him.

‘
What the hell is going
on?’ Iron Eyes screamed at the candlelit air and sat bolt
upright.

‘
You OK, mister?’ Black Ben
Tucker asked the soaked bounty hunter.

Iron Eyes stared around the room in terror.
He could not recall even reaching this place, let alone know who
these two men were.

‘
What’s happening, dammit?
And who in tarnation are you varmints?’

Tucker rested a hand on the shoulder of Iron
Eyes and tried to calm him down. The fever had broken but the man
himself was now terrified and dangerous. The bounty hunter searched
vainly for his Navy Colts and seemed terrified that his hands could
not locate them.

‘
My guns! Where are my
guns?’

‘
Easy, mister.’ Black Ben
Tucker handed the man a glass of water and watched as it was
drained. He then mopped the man’s wet brow as he fought to rise to
his feet. ‘You’ve been hurt real bad.’

‘
What?’ Iron Eyes looked
into the train robber’s face and then at the concerned Mexican
medical man. ‘Hurt? I don’t understand. I can’t remember being
hurt.’

Tucker felt as if he had a puma
by the tail as he fought with the confused Iron Eyes. Finally he
had to let go of the thin shoulders and watch as the
weakened
man
rose to his feet and staggered across the small room. The exhausted
bounty hunter rested his elbows on the sill of the small window and
stared out at the darkness.

‘
It’s night! How long have
I been here?’

‘
You had a poisoned leg
wound, mister,’ Tucker informed Iron Eyes. ‘The doc here cut out
the poison and cleaned up the wound. He saved your
life.’

‘
My work here is done,
senor.’ The doctor gathered all his instruments together and
dropped them into his bag and then accepted the handful of silver
coins that the train-robber forced upon him. Tucker watched as the
old man left the room, then turned his attention back to the tall
man who was now swaying and looking down at his leg.

‘
I remember now,’ Iron Eyes
muttered quietly. ‘Damn Apache scouting party. They attacked me and
I got hit by a poison arrow!’

‘That explains a lot.’ Tucker
lit a cigar and walked to the side of the bounty
hunter. He inhaled
deeply and then gave the cigar to the weary man. Iron Eyes accepted
it and placed it in his own mouth. He drew in as much smoke as he
could and then waited for it to ease his nerves.

‘
I thought that I’d managed
to burn the poison out,’ Iron Eyes mumbled.