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  Kelson held his eyes, trying to read something there while at the same time seeing if he could wait him out, get him to speak first. The man in black rested the heel of one hand on the pommel of his saddle and leaned forward in a relaxed manner, saying nothing.

  Finally, Kelson peeled back one side of his mouth and said, “You’re a mighty bold one, aren’t you? Riding up here all alone, acting cool as a cucumber.”

  The man gave it a beat before answering. “Appearances can be deceiving.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Kelson wanted to know.

  The man’s shoulders lifted and fell in a faint shrug. “Maybe I’m not quite as cool as I act. Maybe I’m not all that alone.”

  Kelson leaned to one side and craned his neck with a bit of exaggeration to look past the rider. “If you’re thinking you’re not alone, there sure seems to be an awful lot of empty all around you.”

  “Uh-huh. And, except for the young lady, the same could be said for you. But we both know that’s not true, don’t we?”

  “Do we?”

  “Let’s not waste time dancing around it. You really think I’m dumb enough to ride in here, find you waiting in plain sight, and not figure you’ve got gunmen squirreled up in these rocks on all sides?”

  Kelson arched a brow. “But I’m supposed to believe that, if you truly figure that way, you’d still ride up all by yourself?”

  “I don’t recall saying I’m by myself,” the man reminded him. “There are a lot of rocks hereabouts. Surely you don’t claim to have a man behind each and every one of them, do you?”

  “Meaning that you claim to have men squirreled in among them, too?” Kelson emitted a derisive snort. “That’s so ridiculous it’s insulting.”

  The stranger’s eyes turned flinty. “One way to find out. Or we could try to reach some middle ground instead.”

  “Negotiate, you mean?”

  “Isn’t that why you’ve got the girl on display?”

  “Maybe. The rest of the women are inside. But this one, after all, is the daughter of your town marshal. Assuming, that is, you’re from Arapaho Springs or are at least aware of the recent trouble there?”

  “I know about Arapaho Springs, but I’m not connected with the law there. Matter of fact, there is no law there. Not anymore. You and your men saw to that—the marshal’s dead.”

  Millie gasped at the words.

  “Wait a minute,” Kelson was quick to protest. “My man who escaped that recent shoot-out back in the arroyo reported you were being led by a man wearing a badge. How can you claim you’re not connected to the law?”

  The man smiled slyly. “Badges aren’t all that hard to come by. Sometimes they come in handy, sometimes not so much. Turned out not to work so well for the fella your man reported on. But the truth of the matter is that the whole thing with him was a ruse. We thought having somebody out front with a badge might give us a bit of an edge. We didn’t know your men were primed to open fire on the first tin star they came in sight of.”

  Kelson’s patience with this cat-and-mouse banter and the stranger’s seemingly unflappable demeanor was wearing thin. “Just what the hell is it you’re after?” he demanded.

  “One thing. Money. I’m a bounty hunter, and the men I rounded up to ride with me are of a like mind.”

  “And getting back the women is no part of it? They mean nothing to you?”

  “Women have their uses. But they tend to cost money, not make it.” The man’s head moved from side to side. “And there’s no reward that I know of riding on the heads of the ones you have.”

  Kelson’s mouth pulled into a tight, thin line. “Like there are on me and my men. Is that it?”

  There was no reply.

  “And you really think you and these phantom men allegedly riding with you are up to claiming those rewards?” Kelson’s voice was growing strident.

  “I said we’re after money. But it don’t have to come from the rewards. We’re reasonable sorts.” The man inclined his head toward the inward sloping cliffs behind Kelson, where it seemed obvious the cave entrance must be. “I’m guessing that, somewhere in there, you must have a stash accumulated by now that more than equals the amount of the reward money being offered for you.”

  Kelson looked astonished. “And you expect us to part with some of it? To buy you off?”

  “Like I said, we’re reasonable sorts. No need making things harder than they have to be.”

  “You’re not reasonable—you’re insane! One twitch of my hand, I can have you burned out of that saddle before your heart beats one more time. Don’t you realize that?”

  “Truth to tell, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about that ever since I rode up here. But here’s something you need to realize. Not to brag, but I’m pretty fast with this pair of six-guns I’m packing. Now that you’ve let me in close enough, you go ahead with that twitch you’re threatening to make and I guarantee I’ll plant a slug from one or both of them in you before I hit the ground.”

  Kelson’s mouth hung open, the sheer audacity of this man in black leaving him speechless.

  The stranger picked that moment to straighten up in his saddle and leisurely lift his hand off the pommel.

  Eight seconds after that innocent-seeming movement, which was in fact a prearranged signal, all hell broke loose.

  Chapter 42

  Two near-simultaneous explosions, one on either side of the oval clearing, suddenly ripped apart the morning. The twin blasts, occurring high in the ragged rocks bracketing the clearing, sent clouds of black smoke and dust boiling upward and outward. Chunks of debris were hurled in every direction. The ground trembled as a great, rumbling growl filled the air and rolled across the landscape.

  Barely had the initial concussions begun to ebb when two more blasts went off, also in the high rocks though about a dozen yards closer to where the slanted cliffs hovered above the cave entrance. More smoke and dust and flying debris resulted, accompanied by another ear-pounding roar of sound.

  The Legion men hiding in the rocks were mercilessly battered. The ones unfortunate enough to be caught in closest proximity to the blasts became broken, twisted forms hurtling through the air. Others were crushed by large, loosened rocks tumbling down on them while still others were merely knocked flat by the force of the explosions. Only a lucky few escaped unscathed.

  In the area directly in front of the cave entrance, a startled Sam Kelson shot to his feet and attempted to back away so frantically that he stumbled over the very boulder he’d been sitting on and fell to the ground. Millie, still attached by the leather thong, was dragged roughly after him.

  As for Luke, since his signal was what triggered the blasts, he thought he was sufficiently braced for what would result. But it turned out he was unprepared on two counts. One, the way his horse panicked and reared up in fright, and two, the fist-sized chunk of rock the second explosion sent spinning wildly through the air to deliver a glancing blow to the back of his head. He was pitched from his saddle and sent sprawling to the ground, stunned and with most of the wind knocked out of him. It left him temporarily immobile yet with a vague, murky awareness of the events unfolding around him.

  Of the ten men Kelson had sent into the high rocks to trap the posse, only four were left undamaged and still able to function. And in the immediate aftermath of the explosions, even they were disoriented and uncertain as how to respond.

  “Back to the safety of the cave!” somebody shouted.

  “No! Our fight is here,” argued No Nation Smith.

  “Fight against who?” he was asked.

  The answer to that came a moment later. From their own concealment at the far end of the oval clearing, Burnett and Russell had thrown their short-fused sticks of dynamite at randomly selected spots along the high rocks in hopes of flushing out the raiders they suspected were hiding there. With more than half of the outlaws eliminated in the process, the plan had succeeded better than expected.

  As far as what the
remaining skunks’ next move should be, the marshal and the former law clerk were quick to give them a hint. They followed their dynamite blasts by opening up with rifle blasts aimed at finishing off the indecisive and newly exposed men. As a result, one more raider bit the dust before the rest again scrambled to fresh cover and began returning fire.

  In a matter of scant minutes, the scene had transformed from one of outward peace and quiet, disturbed only by the low, moaning wind, to an explosion-ripped hellbox and a pocket of screaming, ricocheting lead.

  As his men exchanged bullets with the invaders on the far end of the clearing, Kelson scrambled to his feet. Running bent forward while dragging Millie viciously after him, he turned and raced for the mouth of the cave. He ducked behind a corner of the slanted cliff without a single slug sent in his direction.

  At the last second, before he and his captive plunged into the cave’s narrow entrance, an anguished wail somehow seemed to slice through the chatter of gunfire and reach their ears. “Millleeee!”

  A moment after that they were wrapped in a thick, sound-muffling cocoon of rock and the wail was gone.

  Out front of the cave, where he still lay sprawled, fighting to suck some air back into his lungs and at the same time clear away the thick wool of near unconsciousness filling his head, Luke heard the wailing voice, too. He recognized it as that of Tom Burnett, venting his agony at the sight of his daughter—so close and yet so far and being so abusively treated. Luke felt the man’s pain and at the same time, even in his mind-blurred condition, felt a pang of shame for having misled the girl about her father’s death.

  Closest to the cave, and to Kelson and Millie, Luke had to move, had to do something! Yet he was unable. A raspy, rattling noise in his chest told him he was finally managing to pull in some breath but that was little solace when the rest of him still wasn’t working.

  No matter the growing frustration it caused to rage inside his muddled mind, what Luke was missing was the fact that his motionlessness probably saved his life. While the raiders up in the rocks continued to trade lead with Burnett and Russell, none paid any attention to Luke. They took him for already being dead.

  Even Ben Craddock thought so. He suddenly came bursting out of the rocks off to one side and made a dash for the slanting cliffs and the cave opening beyond. Had he thought for a second that Luke was still alive, he surely would have taken time to spend a bullet to confirm it. As it was, he barely glanced at the fallen bounty hunter, instead focusing solely on reaching the thick-walled safety of the cave.

  Chapter 43

  Midway through the narrow passage that opened to the cave proper, Kelson encountered Old Man Crowley guarding the way. He gripped a Henry repeating rifle in his gnarled hands. Close at his side, leaning against a vertical support timber, was a double-barreled shotgun and a fully loaded Winchester. The oldster was physically unable to ride out on raids and the like, but when it came to defending home ground, there were few in the gang more tenacious or dependable.

  “Sounded like things went bad out there,” he said as Kelson reached him.

  “Couldn’t have gone much worse,” Kelson affirmed. “The jinx is on us bad, just like I feared. I think it’s all over. What Stringer mistook for a posse turned out to be a pack of ruthless bounty hunters. The tricky bastards made a play like they wanted to deal then started flinging around some dynamite they showed up with. Tore hell out of our boys.”

  “Sounds like they’re still making a fight of it, though,” Crowley said.

  “Those who are left. But that’s precious few,” Kelson told him.

  “I could take up a position out at the front of this passage and lend a hand to our boys.”

  “No,” Kelson was quick to say. “I can’t afford to have you picked off by a lucky shot or a freak ricochet. You hold the line right here.”

  “So what’s our play, then?”

  Kelson’s expression turned hard as the stone walls around him. “We fall back on the emergency plan I put in place right at the beginning. While I make some final preparations inside, you stay on guard here. In case any of our boys make it this far, cover them so they can make it through. Anybody else tries to poke their head in, you know what to do.”

  “I can hold this passage till Hell freezes over.”

  “I know you can—and would, if asked,” Kelson said earnestly. “But we’re not going to take it that far. Give me a chance to do what I need to and then, once enough time has passed so we can be sure no more of our boys are going to make it, I’ll come back and help you trip the dropfall. That will buy us all the rest of the time we’ll need.”

  * * *

  Millie was vaguely listening to the exchange between Kelson and Old Man Crowley. She should have been paying closer attention, especially after Kelson said he thought it was “all over.” Coming on the heels of the chaos that had erupted outside, that should have stirred renewed hope for an opening to make good the escape she’d so long sought.

  But she was struggling hard with the concept of hope. Only minutes ago, all hope inside her had been pretty effectively crushed when the bounty hunter Luke Jensen—the man she’d at one point harbored romantic fantasies over and then had dared hope might be in on an attempted rescue of her and the other women—coldly disclaimed any such interest after first delivering the news that her father was dead.

  Yet after the explosions had gone off, the shooting had broken out, and Kelson was dragging her back into the cave, she’d heard what sounded like a voice calling her name. And she could have sworn it was the voice of her father. But how could that be? Had the bounty hunter lied? If so, for what purpose? Was she hallucinating—her mind playing cruel tricks as a result of her desperation and despair?

  Millie didn’t know what to think.

  But she kept hearing that voice call her name. She felt certain it had been the voice of her father. But was her certainty genuine . . . or did it merely come from wanting it to be real, to continue having a reason for futile hope?

  * * *

  Craddock made it to Crowley in the entrance passage.

  The first thing out of the old man’s mouth was, “Are there any more behind you? Any of the rest going to make it?”

  Craddock shook his head. Breathing hard, he said, “I don’t know. Everything went a little crazy after they started throwin’ around dynamite. My assigned position was fairly close to the cave entrance, partly to cover Kelson. When I saw him fade back in here, I thought it looked like a smart move, so I followed him the first chance I got.”

  “Kelson thinks the jinx is on us,” Crowley said glumly. “He figures the whole thing is falling apart.”

  “Kinda hard to argue that notion the way things stand,” Craddock said. “Those bounty hunters are really tearin’ us up out there. There’s only a couple of the others left—leastways only a couple of in any condition to make a fight of it. One of ’em is Smith, though, and he made it clear he’s gonna fight clean to the end.”

  The wrinkles in Crowley’s brow puckered deeper. “I ain’t ever had much like for Injuns. But that ’breed Smith, he’s something else. If the redskins woulda had more like him to go nose to nose against the cavalry in times past, things mighta turned out different around these parts.”

  “The thing I’m interested in seeing turn out different,” Craddock said anxiously, “is this fix we’re in the middle of. What does Kelson intend to do about it?”

  “He’s got a plan. Don’t you worry,” the old man told him. “Go ahead on in. You’ll see. There’ll be a part for each of us to play. Right now, mine is to hold here and cover any of our boys trying to get through—and make sure any undesirables don’t.”

  Half a minute later, Craddock emerged from the narrow passage and stepped into the heart of the cave. Seeing the place so empty bought on an eerie feeling. Always before when he’d been present, it had been teeming with activity and other Legion members. Only if he strained hard was he able to hear the faint crack of the gunfire outside.<
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  His gaze cut to the stockade. The women were still there, forlorn faces looking out at him. But Millie’s wasn’t among them. Next his eyes went to the log strongbox near the middle of the room. It appeared undisturbed, the chains and padlock intact.

  It took him a minute to spot Kelson. A sound, like a choked sob, drew his attention to one of the side chambers. It was the one where Elmer Pride had been placed to recover from his wounds. As Craddock looked around, he saw Kelson backing out from the chamber very slowly. His gaze stayed locked on the space he was exiting, his expression one of deep anguish. Still tethered to him, Millie had no choice but to move along with him, her own expression impassive, her movements slow and listless.

  Craddock walked over to them.

  Kelson stopped backing up. He stood very still, seeming not to notice Craddock right away. When he did, he turned his head and regarded him with a flat, blank stare. “You.”

  Craddock thought the word sounded almost like an accusation. “That’s right. I was able to follow you in here to safety. Things were going pretty bad out there in the rocks.”

  Kelson’s eyes flared. “That’s because the jinx is on us. Everything is falling apart! I started to feel it last night. Then, this morning, when that patrol got ambushed and Wymer was killed, there wasn’t much doubt. Now, on top of everything else, Elmer is gone, too.”

  “Pride is dead?”

  “That’s right,” Kelson said, a distinct sadness weighing down his words. “It’s all over. I fear the bright-burning flame that was the Legion of Fire is all but flickered out. And at the hands of a bunch of bounty-hunting rabble, no less. I never would have thought it possible!”

  “I don’t know about the rest of that bunch he put together,” Craddock said, “but the leader, the fella dressed all in black you were palaverin’ with before the explosions, he ain’t exactly rabble. His name’s Luke Jensen and he’s got a rep for bein’ one of the best bounty men in the business. I thought we left him pickin’ out lead and slappin’ down flames back in Arapaho Springs. If I’d had any idea he was part of the so-called posse that hit Wymer’s group this morning, I would have warned you right up front not to take him too lightly.”