Dakota Skies Read online

  I had one moment to turn and nod my thanks to Brian. Then I returned my attention to the thug with the shotgun, hurling him back toward a roughly made cot where he landed in a sprawl. I could barely speak as I asked Regina, ‘Did they touch you?’

  ‘No,’ the little blond girl told me as she continued to cling to her brother. ‘They knew that if they did, they would have to deal with Brian.’

  She was defiant and angry. I was only vaguely disappointed, as a man who has seen his thunder stolen from him always feels. There was no time for these petty thoughts, however.

  ‘Where’s Della?’ I asked.

  ‘Make him tell you,’ she said, waving a hand at the rough-looking man on the cot.

  ‘No one told me,’ he said, rubbing his chin with the back of his wrist. ‘They just took off, leaving us to watch the little girl.’

  ‘DeFord, you mean?’

  ‘Who else?’ The gunhand turned his head and spat blood onto the floor.

  ‘They had me in the back room,’ Regina said, ‘but I heard a part of it. The man – DeFord – said that if the gold had been deposited, they wouldn’t hurt Della. Or me.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Adair said in confusion.

  I thought I did. ‘Steubenville, that’s where they’ve gone isn’t it?’ I asked the thug on the cot. He didn’t answer which was as good as an affirmative response. Sullenly he turned his eyes down. Brian still looked puzzled. I illuminated him.

  ‘Della is a clever woman. She, herself, doesn’t know where the gold is, but telling that story to DeFord would only bring disbelief. Then he would try to beat it out of her – and out of Regina, assuming that her sister might know.’

  ‘How does that take her to Steubenville?’ Adair asked. He was as angry and frustrated as when I had first met him.

  ‘Knowing Della, she would be quick to come up with an explanation,’ I believed. ‘She must have told DeFord that she had arranged to have the gold shipped to Steubenville in a Wells Fargo strongbox. It makes sense, don’t you see? She’d explain to DeFord that people in Deadwood knew that she was selling the Eagle’s Lair and didn’t want to risk transporting it herself.

  ‘Then,’ I speculated, ‘she would have made up some story about having McCulloch – anybody – making arrangements with the stage company to have the gold shipped to Steubenville, since everyone also knew that was where she was planning to settle.’

  ‘It makes sense,’ Brian said slowly.

  ‘Of course it does.’ If, unlike me, no one knew that Della had not had the time to make those sorts of arrangements on the night we pulled out of Deadwood.

  ‘What will she try to do now?’ Regina wondered, her eyes wide.

  ‘Bluff as long as she can. She’s probably near to panic. She can’t even try to draw attention to herself in Steubenville for fear they will harm you, Regina. You were the hostage, after all.’

  Brian was nodding silently. His eyes met mine. ‘So what do we do now, Miles?’

  ‘Get to Steubenville as quickly as possible.’

  ‘On one horse?’

  ‘There were two men here,’ I pointed out. ‘They have horses picketed out somewhere.’ I turned my attention back to the bearded man. ‘You want to tell us where, or do you want to join your friend there in Hades?’

  The man’s uncertainty was short-lived. Maybe I didn’t have a killing look about me, but there was no mistaking the savage glint in the eyes of Brian Adair. The outlaw looked once at his dead friend and told us what we wanted to know, ‘Over behind the broke-down building next door. Mister, could you leave me one of the ponies?’

  ‘Not likely.’

  ‘DeFord will kill me,’ he said, burying his bearded face in his thick hands.

  ‘I wouldn’t worry about him,’ Brian Adair said coldly. ‘DeFord won’t be coming back.’

  The sun was still only a flat-topped, streaked ball of crimson peering over the far Rocky Mountains when we hit the long trail toward Steubenville. We flogged our horses with our reins, believing that with or without the Conestoga wagon DeFord would be traveling at an easy pace with no sense of urgency, not knowing that there was anyone trailing behind. We would catch up before long.

  I don’t know what the others were thinking, but my thoughts were only with Della, that calm, brave lady who had worked her life to gain some small amount of wealth that she could share with her brother and sister – and they had effectually turned their backs on her, scorned her for her way of life.

  I watched Regina’s slender back as she rode ahead on one of our newly-acquired mounts – a thick-chested blue roan. I had come to feel that there was something deep and fine in her heart, but I could not open her up to find it … and it might have been merely the romantic fantasizing of a lonely man.

  Brian Adair was even more of a puzzle. He was a coward, yet he had acted with bravery back at the outpost.

  Were the two of them more intent on Della’s little fortune than anything else? I hated to think so.

  We slowed the horses as the morning sun turned yellow and shrank in the long silver-blue sky. I could feel Dodger faltering beneath me. I patted his neck. I had never abused him and he had the will always to give me all he had. I muttered an apology. Understanding, or not, he twitched his white ear in my direction.

  I don’t know if the others had seen them or not, but innate caution had prompted me always to watch the backtrail. There were two men on horseback behind us on the silver-frosted grass of the long plains: far distant, quietly menacing silhouettes. I was pretty sure I recognized them even at that distance. I did not know if they would bother me or harm Regina.

  But I knew, given the chance, that Barry and Lazarus would certainly kill Brian Adair.

  That seemed to be their mission in life now, to track down all of those men who had betrayed them or abused them in Andersonville Prison. DeFord was also on their killing list. I wondered how many others they might have shot down – perhaps men trying to rebuild their lives, men who had only been caught up in the shifting tides of war, pawns in the barbarities of the great upheaval. Only Barry and Lazarus knew that, of course. A second, quite dreadful thought occurred to me: were there others like them roaming the West. Fifty, a hundred seeking redress from their long ago enemies, real or supposed?

  I slowed Dodger a little more. He was beginning to tire badly. Ahead now, like a squat collection of insects I could see a settlement. We were nearing Steubenville.

  The land here began to rise slightly and fold up upon itself so that we began to pass through modestly formed hills. The oaks and the scattered sycamore trees also became more abundant. The grass, I noticed, was no longer simply buffalo grass, but thickened by blue gramma, much better fodder for livestock. A tiny rill glinted in the morning sunlight, showing silver. I could see why Steubenville – unlike some of the other settlements we had seen recently – had drawn pioneers to it.

  I turned in the saddle, glancing back. The rising ground had become a vista of concealment for our trackers. They had vanished from my line of sight.

  Now wearing two revolvers taken from the badmen, I felt more secure, but only a little. We had two men ahead of us in Steubenville – Brian had said that there were four attackers in DeFord’s party, and we had accounted for only two of them so far. Behind us were another two men, and from what I had seen of them they were no less violent in their zealousness than DeFord was in his greed.

  Barry and Lazarus might or might not kill me. They would certainly try to execute both Brian and DeFord. I was in the middle of it all now, and I did not like it.

  ‘Here we are!’ I heard Brian call out, and glancing up I could see that we were nearly into Steubenville.

  ‘Hold up!’ I called to him.

  Regina looked angrily at me across her shoulder. ‘They have my sister! There’s no time to waste.’

  ‘We don’t know where they are,’ I said, taking hold of her roan’s bridle. I thought for a moment that she would strike at my face, but she held ba
ck. Brian circled uncertainly on his little gray pony before pulling up beside me. I told him, ‘Nothing at all will happen until the Wells Fargo office opens and they discover that Della has been running a bluff. I don’t know what time that will be, but the sun’s just barely risen. We have time to formulate a plan, Brian. It’s better than just rushing into town and starting a shooting war.’

  The former soldier nodded his understanding. Impatient as we all were to rescue Della from the outlaws, riding headlong into the main street of Steubenville while the town still slept made no sense.

  ‘What do you propose?’ the one-armed man asked me. He was quite calm now. Even Regina, after her burst of impatience seemed to understand the need for calm. Our horses stood together, nudging one another’s heads.

  ‘The place to take them is outside the Wells Fargo office, before they can enter the building and Della’s bluff must run out. We have to locate it first, leave our horses hidden away. A stable, if we can find one. Regina can stay there until … until it’s over.’

  ‘I can fight,’ Regina said gamely.

  ‘I won’t have it,’ I answered. I still could not make out this little blond girl. She had grown feisty again, and I half believed that she would fight it out if it came to that.

  ‘You know that I can shoot,’ she said sharply. ‘If you won’t let me walk up to the express office, at least let me have one of your guns. I’ll take the Sharps,’ she declared.

  I still didn’t like it, but as she had pointed out, I was now carrying two Colts and Henry Coughlin’s .45-70 Sharps. If I needed that much firepower, I had no chance anyway. I nodded and dutifully unsheathed the long rifle, handing it to her.

  ‘Keep an eye out for the wagon,’ I told them. ‘It won’t be easy to hide. It may be that they’re holding Della in it.’

  I didn’t tell them that that was where the gold was hidden. I still wasn’t totally sure of Brian’s motives – nor of Regina’s, I thought grimly as we started on. Could their purpose be mercenary? My idea concerning the wagon was that if worse came to worst I would give up the gold to DeFord for Della’s safety. She, herself, probably would have not wished me to, but Della was my friend, a lady I would do anything for. I wandered through these uncertain thoughts as we started our mounts on again, down the gently sloping knolls toward Steubenville.

  ‘Anything else on your mind, Miles?’ Brian Adair asked as Regina pulled briefly ahead of us, her blue roan’s hoofs singing through the long grass. ‘Something you’re not telling me?’

  ‘Yes,’ I answered softly. ‘I’m afraid so. You will have to watch your back at all times … because they are back there, and they want your hide.’

  He smiled lopsidedly and replied, ‘I know that. I saw them a few miles back.’ There was a resoluteness in his voice that had not been there a few hours earlier. Perhaps it was thoughts of his sister, perhaps the realization that eventually comes to every man – that he could not live forever no matter how he tried to protect himself in this dangerous world.

  ‘What’s a damned arm worth anyway?’ he murmured, looking back toward the north where the two vultures ranged.

  NINE

  Steubenville was a pleasant area, gently-sculptured land studded with scattered oaks and in one far valley a small growth of Douglas fir trees. The sun had risen clear and pretty, yet there seemed to be a pall across the land. I wondered if this was only something I was carrying in my mind, fearful of the gunsmoke to come and the danger to the two women I cared about most in the world – the one who trusted me as a friend and her younger sister who looked at me as she’d look at a cowflop in her flower garden.

  ‘There’s a stable,’ I told Brian in a low voice. The town had not yet awakened, and I wished to make no unnecessary sounds to announce our presence. Of the covered wagon, I had seen nothing, nor had the others. ‘Let’s approach it from the back. Get off the main street.’

  Of a freight office I had also seen nothing, but if we could find a stableman around the premises, he was certain to know where it was.

  ‘Have you seen them?’ Brian asked in a quiet voice, and I shook my head. Regina glanced at us closely, not knowing about the danger from Barry and Lazarus trailing behind. Was it time to tell her? Probably not. They were not savages like DeFord, simply men focused on their single killing objective.

  ‘What are you two keeping from me?’ she asked in that hot little way she had. Neither of us answered. Why heap more concerns upon her? She was brave and resolute. But there were signs that it was all getting to be more than she could take. When she swung down from the blue roan her legs were trembling. She flared a look at me as if daring me to comment. She stood there sturdily with the rifle in her hands as I entered the shadows of the stable to look for a man to care for the horses.

  The man I found was drunk, stupid and ugly. He had a strip of thin graying hair on his head and jug-handle ears, a surly expression and broken teeth. None of that mattered to me; we are all only what we can be. What I needed to know most was where the Wells Fargo office was and when it opened. He told me.

  I still had a pair of silver dollars in my pocket, and he was happy to accept one. He suddenly seemed less surly, and of course now knew how to come by his morning ‘wake-up’ drink of whiskey.

  ‘Half a block,’ I said to Brian, pointing in the direction the stablehand had indicated.

  ‘I still want to go,’ Regina said with sharp petulance.

  ‘You still can’t,’ I said firmly and Brian backed me up.

  ‘No, Regina,’ her brother said. ‘I won’t have it. Della’s in a lot of trouble. I don’t wish to have to worry about you as well.’

  Reluctandy, but with what seemed to be a whisper of relief, Regina nodded and agreed. Brian and I started away. To my surprise, Regina grabbed my jacket sleeve and whispered fiercely into my ear:

  ‘Take care of him, Miles Donovan. Take care of both of them!’ She paused, turned from me and added, in the smallest of voices, ‘And take care of yourself.’

  The last time I saw Regina she was perched on a nail barrel, the Sharps rifle across her knees, watching the stablehand hurriedly unsaddle and curry the ponies – presumably so he could make it to the door of the saloon as soon as it was swung open. There was concern in her eyes, but I judged it to be for Brian and Della and not for me. Our friendship had not progressed far enough for me to believe that she cared if I lived or died, so long as I did my job.

  ‘Let’s find out first what time the freight office opens,’ I suggested to Brian as we walked the main street in the chill of morning. I had asked the stablehand, but he had never had dealings with them and did not know.

  The streets of Steubenville were deadly silent which did not surprise me. The tradespeople were still rising. The drinkers and gamblers, the night-people, were exhausted and sound asleep. The small ranchers and dirt farmers would be hard at it in their fields or on the range. It not being the weekend, there was no influx of shoppers.

  We passed a small round man in a neat town suit and Brian stopped him to ask for the time. Glancing at his gold watch he told us, 6:45.

  The little man glanced at us curiously as we continued on our way past several closed shops, a saddlery, a dry goods store, our boots clicking on the planks of the boardwalk. I had my hat low against the morning glare of the sun. Brian seemed oblivious to it.

  ‘Did you see them?’ he asked, as we passed between two rows of buildings. I only nodded.

  Two men sat their horses in a crossing alley. Barry and Lazarus. I could imagine what their conversation was at that moment.

  We eventually found the Wells Fargo office. On its plate-glass window, the office hours were painted in gilt. ‘7 a.m. to 5 p.m. except by appointment.’

  That didn’t give us long to make preparations, since if my logic was correct, Tom DeFord and his fellow bandit would be escorting Della to the freight office the moment it opened, eager for the gold shipment they expected to be waiting for them. And what of Della? She would be ter
rified by now, having played her last card, not having any way of knowing that Brian and I were there.

  What of the gold itself? Where was the Conestoga wagon? Had the fools burned it? It was still in my mind to give up the money if there was no other way to save Della’s life, but I seemed to have lost that option.

  ‘What are you thinking about, Miles?’ Brian Adair asked me as we slipped into a narrow alley to pause in its cool shade while the sun rose higher. A scrawny, yellow alley-dog scooted away at our appearance. I leaned my back against the plank wall of the Wells Fargo office.

  ‘About the value of gold. How worthless it really is,’ I told him.

  ‘Not so dissimilar from my own thoughts,’ Brian replied, tilting back his hat. ‘I was pleased to find that Della had a few dollars saved. Hell of a time a one-armed man has finding honest work. But the gold doesn’t mean anything now – except that Della will have something when she needs it.’ He half-smiled at me. ‘To tell you the truth, Miles, I thought at first that you were playing this game for the sake of her little fortune.’

  ‘I know that,’ I said, yawning despite myself. The yellow dog had returned to look at us, cock its head and bolt again.

  Brian went on. ‘Then I saw the way they were looking at you when you didn’t know they were looking. I could see the admiration there, and I knew.’

  ‘The way they were looking at me?’ I said in surprise.

  ‘Sure,’ Brian said. He grinned for the first time since I had known him. ‘Both of them, Miles. They both care for you.’

  Well, that was news to me. Della and I had always been good friends, but if Regina cared about me much she was most secretive about it. We heard a small click and the opening of a door on rusty hinges. Our eyes flickered that way.

  ‘Sounds like the Wells Fargo man is opening up,’ Brian Adair said. ‘How do we play it?’

  ‘When they show up,’ I told him, ‘I’ll brace down Tom DeFord. Watch my back. Lazarus and Barry are out there.’

  ‘They’re my problem.’

  ‘We’re in this together now, Brian.’