“Here!” Kingsley shouted angrily as he made a grab for the papers and envelopes. “What are you doing?”
“I’m takin’ a piss out the door,” Hayes answered, laughing.
“I have to have this mail sorted by the time we reach Sentinel,” Kingsley said. “I can’t do it with all the wind coming through. Close the door.”
“All right, all right, hold your horses,” Hayes said. “Soon as I shake the lily a bit, I’ll close the door.”
Matt watched and listened to the exchange between the two men. Matt could smell the smoke that drifted in from the engine, and one gleaming ember even landed on the table of the mail cabinet that was in front of Kingsley.
Agitatedly, Kingsley stamped out the glowing ember. “You’re going to set us on fire,” he complained.
Hayes slid the door shut. “Damn, Kingsley, if you ain’t like some old woman,” he said. “You ain’t done nothin’ but bitch since we left Purgatory.”
“I’m not just a passenger on the train, you know. I have work to do,” Kingsley said.
“Well, go on, I ain’t stoppin’ you,” Hayes said.
Hayes moved back up to the front of the car, where Matt was sitting on the floor, with his back against the wall.
“Hey, Jensen,” Hayes said. “You ever seen a man get hung?”
“Yes,” Matt said.
“Yeah, I have, too,” Hayes said. “It sure is fun to watch. It ain’t pretty, what with the man getting’ hisself hung havin’ his face go all purple, and his eyes buggin’ out like they do.” Hayes laughed, then slapped himself on the knee. “No, sir, it ain’t pretty, but, damn, it’s fun to watch.”
“I don’t enjoy them as much as you do,” Matt said.
“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll enjoy this one more, seein’ as you’re goin’ to be the star,” Hayes said. “Just think, you’ll be standin’ up there on the gallows with ever’one lookin’ right at you while the hangman puts his noose around your neck.”
Hayes made a motion with his hand, as if putting on a noose.
“Then, next thing you know, why, they’ll open that trapdoor under you and you’ll fall through. Skkkkkttttt!” He made the sound with his throat, then he jerked his head to one side, opened his eyes wide, and stuck out his tongue, as if he had just been executed.
Hayes laughed out loud. “Hey, what do you think? Pretty good, wasn’t it?”
At that moment, the train wheels rolled over the junction of two tracks, and the clacking sound was much louder than normal.
“What was that?” Hayes asked, startled by the change in sound.
“It was nothing,” Kingsley said. “Haven’t you ever been on a train before?”
“Yeah, sure,” Hayes said. “But I don’t think I ever been on one as loud as this one.”
“It’s no louder than normal,” Kingsley said, not looking up from his task of sorting letters.
The sun was a bright red disc just resting on the western horizon. Bands of red and purple laced across the sky as Cletus Odom stood in the middle of the tracks, looking back toward the east. The twin ribbons of steel glinted in the setting sun…shining red until they disappeared into the gathering dusk to the east.
“See anything yet?” one of the men behind him called.
“Not yet.”
“Maybe we’ve already missed it.”
“We haven’t missed it,” Odom said. He turned back toward the three men who were bending over the tracks. “How’s it coming?” he asked.
“We’ve pulled out a couple of the spikes,” Bates replied. “But they’re damn hard to remove.”
“They’re supposed to be hard to get out. But all you have to do is pull enough of ’em to be able to push the rail out a few inches.”
“You sure that’ll stop the train?” Bates asked.
“You ever seen a train run on dirt?”
“No.”
“Well, if you push that rail out, the only place the train can go is dirt. Yeah, I’m sure this’ll stop it.”
“Señor, how much money is on the train?” Paco asked.
“How much you got now?” Odom replied.
“Maybe I have one dollar,” Paco answered.
“Then it doesn’t really matter how much money the train is carryin’, does it? Whatever it is, it’ll be more’n you got. Schuler?” Odom called.
“Yeah?” Schuler answered.
“If we have to blow the safe, are you going to be able to handle it? Or are you drunk?”
“I can do the job,” Schuler insisted.
“You damn well better be able to do the job.”
They heard a whistle in the distance.
“Hurry it up!” Odom said, and he came over to join them as, working quickly, they pulled up two more spikes.
“Bates, you’re the biggest one here,” Odom said. “Pick up the sledgehammer and hit the rail here a couple of times—just enough to push it out.”
Bates grabbed the hammer and hit it. The rail popped out. He was about to hit it a second time when Odom stopped him.
“That’s far enough,” he said. “Hurry, get the tools out of the way and get down out of sight.”
It was less than two minutes after the men put the tools away when they first saw the train. It was approaching at about twenty miles per hour, a respectable enough speed, though the vastness of the desert made it appear as if the train was going much slower. Against the great panorama of the desert the train seemed puny, and even the smoke that poured from its stack made but a tiny scar against the orange vault of the sky at sunset.
They could hear the train quite easily now, the sound of its puffing engine carrying to them across the wide, flat ground the way sound travels across water. As the engine approached, it gave some perspective as to how large the desert really was, for the train that had appeared so tiny before was now a behemoth, blocking out the sky.
“Get ready, boys,” Odom said. “It’s nearly here.”
“Say, how long before we reach the next town anyways?” Hayes asked. “What I need to do is, I need to get off this train and get me a beer. And maybe a bottle of whiskey, too.”
“No alcoholic spirits are allowed in the express car,” Kingsley said.
“Yeah? So what are you going to do about it? Go to the law? I’m the law!” Hayes said with a cackling laugh.
“No, I’m not going to the law. If you want to drink I can’t stop you,” Kingsley said. “But I can report you to the railroad.”
“Yeah? And what will the railroad do? Tell me I’m a bad boy?” Hayes laughed out loud.
“Well, for one thing, they will see to it that you can’t ride the train anymore.”
“And that’s supposed to mean something to me?” Hayes asked.
“It means that you’d better not consider going anywhere you can’t walk or ride a horse,” Kingsley said.
Matt laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” Hayes asked.
“Seems to me like Mr. Kingsley has the upper hand,” Matt said.
“Yeah?” Hayes replied. Stepping over to Matt, Hayes suddenly slapped Matt in the face. “There ain’t nothin’ you can do about that, seein’ as you’re all chained up like you are.” Hayes slapped Matt a second time. “Tell me, Mr. Killer, who has the upper hand now?” he asked, laughing.
Hayes was standing over Matt with his legs spread, looking down at Matt, who was still on the floor.
Matt smiled up at him.
“What are you smiling at, you son of a bitch?” Hayes asked.
“I’m about to show you who has the upper hand,” Matt said. He kicked upward, and the toe of his boot caught Hayes in his most sensitive area.
“Ooof,” Hayes said with an expulsion of breath and a gasp of surprise. He bent over double from the pain.
It was at that exact point in time that the engine ran across the place where the rail had been compromised. For a moment the train continued on, as if nothing had happened.
“What the hell?” Bates asked in confusion where the outlaws were hiding. “Nothin’ happened! The train didn’t stop!”
“Just wait,” Odom said.
Less than a second later, they saw the engine quiver, then drop down on one side. The engine continued forward, but now one side was producing thrust, while the other had lost its purchase. The driver wheels, in the dirt now, continued to churn full speed, and they began throwing up a huge rooster tail of sand. There was a loud, screeching sound, as first the engine, then the tender, then the express car tumbled over on their sides. The following cars were dragged along the track with a horrendous screech of metal and then the cacophony of breaking glass and collapsing wood as they began breaking apart and falling in upon themselves.