A bullet from Lambert Kane sliced through Casings’ side; another shot from Spiller grazed the side of his head. Seeing Casings in trouble, the Giant let out a loud bellow and slapped his rifle barrel to the rump of Casings’ horse. The animal bolted sidelong and cried out just as a bullet from Penta’s gun hit its neck. The wounded animal spun and raced back along the trail, Casings, badly wounded himself, barely hanging in his saddle.
The Giant charged forward into the gunmen, still bellowing, drawing a big saddle Colt and firing it as he kept swinging his rifle barrel like a club. Bullets struck his shoulder, his chest and sides like angry hornets. Grolin leaped from the wagon to keep from getting his head bashed in.
“Somebody kill him!” he shouted.
Another shot hit the Giant as he rolled from his saddle onto the wagon bed. His rifle flew from his hand. Bobby Kane reached out to shoot him, but a backhanded slap from the Giant’s big, powerful hand sent him flying high into the air and left him lying limp in the trail.
Lambert Kane fired three wild shots at the Giant from less than ten feet, but none of the bullets hit him. From horseback, at close range, Spiller and Penta both fired repeatedly. But only one bullet hit the Giant; the rest sliced past his head and whistled away into the night.
Without Bobby Kane at the reins, the wagon started rolling forward, the spooked horses wanting out of there.
“Somebody, please kill him!” Grolin shouted, his voice turning shrill, seeing the wagon start to pick up speed.
Another hard, open-handed slap sent Lambert Kane flying from the wagon. He slammed backward against a large pine and hung there, ten feet off the ground. A stub from a broken branch stuck from the center of Lambert’s bloody chest. He bucked and coughed and convulsed, then turned limp and silent.
“Damn it! Get the wagon!” shouted Grolin, seeing the load of gold start to bounce and fishtail on the rocky trail.
Spiller and Penta gave chase as the Giant lost his footing and fell from the back of the wagon. He tumbled along the trail, finally coming to a stop, and lay there limp and silent. Grolin ran to where his horse stood watching nervously. He swung up into his saddle and raced along the dark trail in the stir of dust and looming gun smoke.
Galloping ferociously, he heard the sound of horses crying out in terror as wagon, horses and all swung out over the trail and tumbled down the steep hillside. At a clearing along the edge of the trail, he saw the black silhouettes of Penta and Spiller and their horses against the purple sky.
“What a lousy damn mess,” Spiller said as Grolin slid his horse to a halt and jumped down from his saddle beside him.
They watched as the two wagon horses came climbing up, broken rigging, wagon tongue and the front boards of the wagon hanging between them. They snorted and whinnied low, still shaken from their ordeal.
“Grab your saddlebags!” Grolin said to Penta and Spiller. “We’re not leaving here without this damn gold!”
At the depot, Sergeant Goodrich and Rochenbach stepped down from their horses beside Captain Boone, Corporal Rourke and the other three soldiers.
The captain struck a match and checked the time on a gold pocket watch.
“I have to admit, we made much better time following this trail of yours than we would have following the rails,” he said to Rochenbach. He looked Rock up and down curiously. Turning to Goodrich, he said, “Sergeant, take the men and reconnoiter these rail cars. I’ll guard Mr. Smith.”
“Yes, sir, Captain,” said the sergeant. He turned to the corporal and the troopers and said, “You heard the captain. Secure your mounts and follow me.”
When the soldiers were out of hearing range, Captain Boone turned back to Rock.
“I can’t help wondering, what exactly is your game, Mr. Smith?”
“My game?” said Rochenbach. “My game was not wanting to get a bullet in my head, remember?”
The captain smiled and looked around at the Treasury car, the freight car and the mail car sitting behind the stolen engine. Goodrich and two soldiers stepped up into the engine. Corporal Rourke and the other two walked into the empty Treasury car.
“Yes, but I have a nagging feeling there is more to you than that,” he said. “There’s something out of the ordinary about you.”
“I suppose I could say the same about you and your men, Captain,” Rochenbach replied. “Soldiers out of uniform, guarding a rail shipment that ordinarily has two civilian guards, at the most?”
Boone ignored his words. “I find it entirely too fortuitous that you should come along at just the right moment, leading a string of horses that you obviously know are stolen.” He studied Rock’s eyes closely. “And you lead them right down off the safe trail you were on and onto the rails, knowing full well my men and I would be walking those rails in pursuit.”
“So… what is it you’re getting at, Captain?” Rochenbach asked, playing dumb.
The captain lowered his voice and said, “When I received a dispatch on this mission, I was told there may be a government operative secreted among these perpetrators. I believe you are that government operative, Mr. Smith.”
Rochenbach stalled for a moment, knowing that once his cover was blown, it was blown forever. All the work and time he’d put into establishing himself in the world of the lawless would be washed away.
“And if I am that man?” he asked warily.
“If you were that man, then of course you would be free to go. I would thank you for your help in bringing us our horses and let you ride away.”
Rochenbach weighed his answer. What outlaw would turn down an opportunity to walk away?
“All right,” he said as if letting go of a tightly held secret, “you found me out, Captain. I am that man.”
“I knew it,” said Captain Boone.
“So,” said Rochenbach, half turning toward his horse, “if we’re all through here, I’ll just get out of your way and—”
“Hold it, Mr. Smith!” said Boone. His right hand rested on the butt of a holstered Army Colt. “I was also told that this operative would give me a four-number identification code that only he would know.”
Rochenbach stared at him, his hand on his saddle horn, ready to swing up onto his horse.
“I—I forgot the numbers,” he said. “But I’ll have them sent to you as soon as—”
“As you were!” said Boone, cutting him off. His Colt streaked up from the holster behind his riding duster, pointed and cocked at Rochenbach. “Take your hand away from that saddle horn, Smith, before I put a bullet through it.”
Rochenbach drew his hand away slowly and held both hands chest high.
“You made the offer, Captain,” he said. “Can’t blame a man for trying.”
“Indeed…,” said the captain, still studying him, now with a curious and puzzled look on his face. “I’m not sure if what you just did was meant to persuade me that you are that man, or to convince me that you’re not.”
Rock stared at him.
“That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself, Captain,” he said. “Whoever you decide I am. For now it’s safe to say we’re both on the same trail.”
Boone stared at him for a moment, then nodded his head as if in agreement. He holstered his Colt and let his riding duster fall closed.
“Do not try me again, Smith,” he said with resolve.
Chapter 21
Dawn wreathed the eastern horizon as the Stillwater Giant awoke cheek-down in a wide pool of thickening blood. He pulled himself hand over hand from the blood and up the side of a large rock standing beside the trail—the rock he had landed against headfirst when he fell from the runaway wagon. His huge head pounded like a bass drum.