Bart Seton swiveled his head to look at me with what I could describe only as contempt. “How you have lasted so long is beyond me. Did you think we would just roll over and die?”
With abrupt clarity I saw it alclass="underline" that he was calm for a reason, that the bulges under the blanket were not those of a person, and that I was the world’s worst jackass. I whirled, but I was not quite around when thunder boomed and leaden lightning struck me high in my left arm. The Winchester fell and so did I, to my knees. I did not draw my Remington. Not when I was staring up into the shadowy barrel of another Winchester in the hands of Gertrude Tanner.
“Finish the buzzard off!” Bart Seton urged her.
Gertrude stepped fully into the light, her harpy features aglow with wicked delight. People say I am vicious, but she was every bit as unregenerate, which made it doubly unsettling, her being female and all. Baring her teeth like a she-wolf that had caught a bobcat sniffing about her den, she paid me the supreme insult. “I didn’t think it would be this easy.”
Between the old wound under my collarbone and the new wound in my arm, my left side was worthless. The arm was half numb. I suspected the bone had been shattered. I flexed my fingers, or tried to, and nearly passed out.
“Why you let him spook you is beyond me.” Bart Seton was beside her. Stooping, he relieved me of the Remington. “All the damn running we did, and for what? I could have taken him anytime.”
“Don’t use that tone with me,” Gertrude said. “He’s not to be taken lightly.”
“Sure, sugar, sure.” Sneering at me, Seton hefted my revolver. “You’ll forgive me if I’m not impressed.”
I was unprepared for the blow. He slammed the barrel against my temple and the world faded to black. How long I was out I couldn’t say, but I came to with water falling on my face. Sputtering, I struggled to sit up and managed to rise onto my right elbow.
“That’s enough,” Gertrude said.
Turning the canteen, Bart Seton scowled and said, “You keep spoiling my fun, sugar. I don’t like it when you do that.”
“How many times have I told you not to call me your damned sugar?” Gertrude snapped without taking her eyes off me. “Keep it up and I will be inclined to dispense with your services.” She sidestepped to her saddle and perched on it with one leg bent at the knee on the pommel. “I trust you understand, Mr. Stark, why I do not end your life as quickly as my hired shootist wants.”
I understood, all right. She was so much like me it was spooky. I shifted slightly so I was closer to the fire and slumped as if I was about to collapse. “What will it be? Stake me out on an ant hill?”
Gertrude chortled. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not an Apache. I wouldn’t know where to find one.”
“Let me dish out what he’s got coming,” Bart Seton said. “I promise you, before I’m done he’ll beg us to put him out of his misery.”
“And deprive me of the pleasure of doing it personally?” Gertrude shook her head. “I should say not. Just because I am a woman does not mean I am squeamish.”
The fire was uncomfortably hot. I shifted again, even closer, so that the unlit end of a burning log was almost at my fingertips.
“I will enjoy this immensely,” Gertrude smirked. “You have caused me no end of setbacks. With you out of the way, I am free to lay claim to the silver and live in luxury the rest of my life.”
I had to goad her, so I said, “You can start by rebuilding your house. Or isn’t that good enough? Maybe you want a mansion.”
“Why must I rebuild?”
“Oh. That’s right. You haven’t heard.” It was my turn to smirk at her. “I burned your house down along with the rest of the LT. The stable, the bunkhouse, there isn’t a building left.”
Gertrude surged to her feet. “For your sake I hope you are just trying to make me mad. My house contains everything I hold dear. Heirlooms from my mother and my grandmother. Gifts from my sister. Things I’ve had since I was a child. Things I can never replace.”
“That’s too bad. They’re all ashes.”
Her eyes flashed and she jerked the rifle to her shoulder, then just as quickly lowered it again. “No. I see what you are doing. You want to goad me into getting it over with. But it won’t work. I want you to suffer before you die.”
It was not working. I had to come up with something else. “Like your son suffered? You should have heard him scream and blubber.”
Gertrude took a step toward me. “Have a care, Stark.”
“Or what?” I had pricked her. “You’ll kill me? I’m dead anyway.” I deliberately laughed. “You should have seen Phil when I pried one of his eyeballs out of its socket. He bawled like a baby.”
That did it. Livid with rage, Gertrude advanced, raising the rifle to bash the stock against my skull. “You bastard! You miserable, rotten bastard!”
I gripped the log. As she reared above me, I levered onto my knees and thrust the flaming end in her face. I went for her eyes. She shrieked and frantically backed away, colliding with Bart Seton as he sprang to help her. Locked together, they tripped over their own legs, and fell.
I was in motion before they hit the ground. Vaulting over the fire, I plunged into the tall grass. My left side flared with torment, but I clenched my teeth and bore it. Breaking into a run, I made for Brisco and the mare. In my saddlebags was my short-barreled revolver and other tools of my trade. I might yet prevail.
Boots pounded the ground. I glanced back to find Bart Seton in swift pursuit. I ran faster, my body protesting with more spikes of pain and a fierce hammering in my temples. I had a twenty-yard lead. To him I had to be no more than an inky silhouette in the dark, yet he snapped off a shot that sizzled the air next to my ear. At least part of his reputation was deserved, after all. He would not miss a second time.
I pretended to be shot. Suddenly flinging myself down, I thrashed about, all the while hoping and praying he would not finish me off with a shot to the brain. Nothing happened, and after a minute I stopped and lay still, curled into a ball, my right hand on my right boot. Still shamming, I looked up.
Bart Seton had his Colt trained on my head and the hammer thumbed back. He wanted to squeeze the trigger. He wanted to badly. But he growled, “On your feet! I should bed you down permanent, but she would have a fit.”
“Give me a moment,” I gasped.
“Like hell.” He kicked me in the back.
I winced and nodded. “All right. All right.” Propping my right hand under me, I pushed myself up and sat with my head between my knees, sucking air deep into my lungs. “It hurts,” I said.
Bart Seton laughed. “You’ll hurt a lot worse before we’re done.”
I attempted to stand, then sank back. “I can’t,” I protested. “My legs won’t hold me.”
“You damn well better get up or you can crawl the whole way,” Seton snarled, coming closer.
“I might have to,” I said, and turned as if about to lower myself onto my belly. Instead, I lunged and slashed. The blade caught him right where I wanted it to, at the back of his knee, biting deep. He yelped as his right leg gave out from under him. The Colt went off, but he missed and before he could cock it I sliced him across the hand, opening his knuckles and nearly severing two of his fingers. He couldn’t hold on to the Colt if he wanted to.
Cursing, Seton threw himself at me, but I rolled aside and rose. I cut his left leg at the same spot I had cut his right, then skipped back, unfurling.
Bart Seton was nearly beside himself. He tried to stand and fell, tried to stand again and fell. Dumfounded, he glanced at his legs, then at me. “What have you done?” he bleated.