Showdown With Fear (10 page)

‘Fellers... hey! There’s Chaps here... near dead. Got a message for McVie!’

John and Barero rode out to where Chaps, now exhausted, lay. He was drenched with water, and then asked what the message was.

‘That McVie? Right... well... Mullen says he’ll see you... alone... in Red Ridge tomorrow.’

McVie’s heart jumped with the excitement of it. He knew full well that this was a sick joke. He brought to mind that day, when he was supposed to meet the fool man to man. As if! The romantic fool read too many cheap novels and had actually wanted to meet him man to man... and it had ruined a good sheriff. Well, this time it was going to take his life away as well.

John McVie had a massive bunch of men behind him, an arsenal of weapons, and plenty of time. Mullen had none of these. Not even another over-idealistic lawman. It was going to be easy pickings. And a real pleasure.

Chapter 8

People didn’t worry that the chapel was not really that safe. Minister Witte had gathered the relatives of the dead in that fateful posse in his beloved new chapel, and he was trying to reassure them about a blissful world they were all bound for. He noted that Helen Lane was absent, but then her family had always been highly questionable freethinkers, and her father was the most rebellious man he had ever met.

‘Good people, the Lord would wish you to know that he has a place reserved for those who believe in him, and all our beloved deceased were believers. Although I’m not too sure about the Mullen gentleman...’

‘He just believed in Bourbon,’ someone called out.

Helen was listening, however, standing with Harry Boak out on the porch, and they could hear everything through the half-built wooden wall. Harry gave her a comforting tweak with his hand, and she looked up to him. ‘Harry, I can’t believe they’ve all gone... so many young men!’

‘Right, I know. And I thank the Lord he favoured me with giving me back my son. But see, we gotta do something. The people are praying for the army to arrive, but I can’t see it happening!’

‘Yes. We need to do
something
.’

‘I’ve arranged for the best fighters to meet me in an hour at the end of town... we’re building a barricade.’

‘Fine. I’m here... I’m armed, and I’ll come with you, Harry. Anything I can do...’

‘See you there in an hour. I’m checking on my boy.’

Helen walked and thought. She tried to think of something that would be useful. It was clear that the whole town was frightened. She thought of what Dan would do if he were here. All around her people were rushing about, hastily buying in stores and bolting doors. Some were booking places on the stage out of town. Men were gathering on corners, checking guns and talking big - mostly old men. She had never seen so much grey hair out in the open, away from the card games and the accounts books.

It was as she saw someone nailing wood across his shop windows that the idea came to her. Her father always nailed wood like this when there was a storm due. In fact, it was a simple plan, involving her father and all the help he could give. She ran to the south end of the main street. Harry was there, and a few men. They were waiting for the rest to arrive. But two wagons had been overturned and several large barrels rolled into place. Planks were being put across these, and women were helping by carrying out any household furniture that would plug a hole.

‘I want a solid barrier... it won’t stop ‘em altogether, but it’ll slow ‘em down and we can see our targets,’ Harry said.

‘Harry... can I talk to you please? I have an idea.’ Helen took him on one side.

‘If it’s an idea about finding a cannon or two, I’m all ears... shoot!’

‘Well Harry... we don’t
all
need to fight them!’

‘No, but I got thirty-two good men here, and you, girl. We have a fightin’ chance. I mean how many men they got?’

‘Harry, never mind that, I’m trying to tell you my idea. Now, pa’s place is a fair size. He’s got barns and out-houses and there’s enough to room, oh, all the women and children in this little town, I’d say!’

His look gave away his sheer surprise. ‘You mean, ship ‘em all out there?’

‘Sure. Now... get them out there now... that way we have no repetition of the last time the McVies came... blasting in all directions, gunning down anybody in their way.’

‘It’s crazy, but I like it.’

Harry shouted at the men to call a town meeting in the chapel, and in half an hour it was organised. After some short debate, people were persuaded of the good sense in this arrangement, and Joe Wright was put in charge of transport, as he owned two wagons and four buggies. The only problem was that Helen had not told her father, so she rode out to see him and prepare.

‘We ain’t got much time, missy!’ said Harry as he cracked her horse’s quarters.

*

Her father was only too glad for something to happen. He put down his book and checked the larder. ‘Hope they’re bringing some victuals. We got three ton o’preserves and sugared fruit... but good solid meat is not too handy. Tell ‘em to bring steers... food on the hoof, see?’

‘Pa... they are not stupid.... they will do. We got twenty wagons.’

It was only a few miles, but to the older folk of Red Ridge, that short trip brought back memories of their arrival, coming to a place so far west it left the plains behind, and the main wagon routes. They had come on here because it was there to be taken, dirt cheap, restless natives and all. But this evacuation meant all the things they had done before, only this time in miniature. It meant packing, but in a rush; and it meant gathering all the food they could carry, and using any box or bag that would hold food, clothes and valuables.

The strange wagon train rolled out of town, presenting an odd sight to the occasional rider approaching town. It consisted of hosts of children on foot, old women sitting amid heaps of clothes and water-barrels, and young women or middle-aged wives at the reins. A few grandfathers with rifles rode at the tailboards and the teenagers, armed and trusted, were the defence.

They all smiled at Mr. Lane as he waved them welcome, and the bedding down took a long time, with frequent stops for eating and singing. Most kids were heard to comment that this was the first vacation they ever had, and they didn’t want to go home again.

But beneath the good feelings and the sharing in the face of adversity, there was a deep fear. Most of the adults could recall that day when the McVies came to town. It was like thunder on a peaceful summer’s day. The guns and shouting had put shivers of apprehension into all their hearts, and at the end of the horrific day, there were bodies in the street, and no law to help. They knew that this time also, there was no law. They wondered what they would return to. Would it be ruins? Black smoke and death?

Helen finally, at the end of a long day, rode back to town after seeing the last wagon rattle in. She took it steadily, feeling tired. She was no fool. She knew perfectly well that there were no real fighters in the group defending the town, and that the men on their way were all professional killers. Of course, they might not come, but that was a long shot. Everybody knew that when the cat’s away... well, it was just too tempting. The pickings too obvious and easy.

Helen thought about Dan; what he had meant to her. She remembered him talking to her about novels. He used to read adventures and even poetry. He liked the theatre. She brought to mind the time she had gone to Golden Halls with Ned Pearce, all dressed up in her best black and finest lace, Ned in his suit and with his hair greased and parted like a bank manager. It had been some unusually serious story about the War of Independence. Ned hated a costume drama and was restless, but she had seen Dan Mullen right at the back, on the end of a row, trying to be anonymous, but heads turned and people made disapproving sounds. He had walked out before the interval. Helen had given him a smile that night, she recalled that with some comfort.

Now where was he? It seemed that life was so unreal. She did not want to believe all this that was happening. The night was quite cool and the air was invigorating. It made her feel alive, sensuously alive. Nature had a way of reminding you that there was a struggle for life most times, but that there were moments like this when you just gave yourself to experience, to smells and sounds and the whole darned picture.

As she cantered into town, though, she was brought back to reality with a shudder. There was a commotion at the barrier. Surely there was no trouble? There were no sounds of gunfire. As she came closer, she saw, in the light of the lamps the men around Harry had carried or placed at the ends of the barrier, a crowd bending down, as if watching something in the dirt. When someone looked up and saw her, saying, ‘Miss Helen’s come back!’ she dismounted, tethered her horse and walked to the crowd. Harry Boak said, ‘Er... Helen... we got a surprise for you, sweetie!’ He held up a lantern above some heads. Two men took their hats off. She made that out. It was only when she got within ten feet or so that she saw their faces. She felt such a shock that she wanted to just let her legs go slack and fall to the ground, but ghosts confronted her, the spirits of Dan Mullen and Ned Pearce.

It was pure instinct, that was the only explanation, but after glancing from one to the other, she ran to Dan Mullen without a thought for the man who was thought to be her husband-to-be. She grasped him and held him close to her, sobbing with happiness, her head nestling in his broad chest.

‘Dan.... oh, my Dan! I thought... we all thought you were dead.’

Ned Pearce walked into the shadows, stepping towards the barricade. He coughed, said hello to Helen, and then she ran across to him too.

‘Helen.....I ain’t gonna ask you that question now. I guess we both know the answer.’

‘Yes, Ned. Yes.... I’m sorry... but you see...’

Harry Boak cut off her full answer. He was aware that there was a dying woman on the floor and a young man who had collapsed after managing to get this far.

‘Get the doc.... my God, they just come into town, just as you rode in Helen.... ghosts out of the night, I swear!’

Pete and Sara were taken to beds and care. The old doctor got to work, worried about the girl, but using all his experience. Pete could only keep asking if she was all right. Dan and Helen stayed with them for a while, until finally they both slept, drugged into a forced rest.

‘Food tomorrow to build up some strength, that’s what we need - and some prayer,’ the doctor said, wrapping clothes around poor Sara. Dan and Ned went back to the barricade, to find out what defence plans were being made. Dan also put them out of any doubts they might have had about whether McVie was coming.

‘Sure.... I invited him!’

‘You did WHAT?’ Harry asked, contorting his face in mock pain.

‘I invited the bastard... I got a score to settle... I said just him and me, just like before, but you all know, and he knows, that this time I got help, right?’

Ned Pearce stood out in the light and looked at the desperate, anxious faces of the mostly middle-aged and very tame men stood around.

‘Look, Dan Mullen...he’s got a star in his pocket, belonged to Jack Savory, and once belonged to himself. I would like him to put that badge on. How d’ye feel about that folks?’

It didn’t take long for them to realise that here was a leader, and if he was a coward and a drunk, well at least he could fire a gun. They shouted their support.

‘I’ll put it on only if... if... you let me take command here.’

There was a restless silence. Harry Boak spoke for them, sensing their mistrust. ‘Ah, now, Dan - see, I have belief in you, cos I
feel
that you are right for this, but this town’s gotten a bad sense about you, friend. These men all consider you to be inept... erm, in a word, unsuitable.’

Ned Pearce could not accept this. ‘Now you listen to me. I been ridin’ with this man for several days now, and let me tell you, I’ve seen a feller who can ride, shoot, track, think and listen. He knows hosses like I know bags of meal! This man is a natural lawman, and if anyone deserves to lead us out of this mess, it’s him.... and by the way, I’m speaking as the man who’s just lost his girl to Mullen, chew on that one! I’m givin’ you all a fair, unprejudiced view. I seen him shoot.’

‘Yeah... but have you seen him drink?’ A voice shouted.

‘’No. I never seen him with a bottle or a glass to his lips. Swear to God.’

Helen couldn’t keep quiet. She was now feeling disgusted with the weak-livered men around her. She felt the anger rise in her as she rounded on them. ‘You make me sick! You call yourself civilised men! You have seen this man run, sweat, work on his fitness as a lawman, even in rejection. You have seen him walk past the saloon to go to a chair on Joe Wright’s porch and
read
- get that? Dan Mullen has more strength of mind than all of you put together. You deserve to go under if you won’t trust this man!’

Harry Boak led them in a unanimous cry of, ‘Yes.... take it, take it!’

Dan Mullen looked to both Helen and Ned Pearce. He shook hands with Ned and publicly thanked him. ‘You ain’t a bad sidekick... for a shopkeeper. You’ll do for me, any time I need a deputy.’

Dan had no idea what he had done, but the chorus cried out again. ‘Yes... yes sheriff, you gotta deputise the man.... Deputy Pearce!’

Dan took out the star. It had been rubbing at his leg all the journey, like an irritation, keeping the thought of it in his mind with every rhythm of his horse’s movement. He slid the pin into his shirt and the men applauded. Then he put an arm out to Pearce.

‘Ned Pearce, I hereby swear you in as acting deputy sheriff of this town until such time as the current emergency is over. Do you accept?’

‘If you teach me to shoot straight, I will!’

The remark changed the atmosphere from tension to just a hint of relaxed assuredness, and when Dan bellowed out his first order, they felt that they had picked a likely contender for leader.

‘I want two men on that roof... Mr.Simon’s roof, lookin’ east...now!’

Helen brought coffee for the two lawmen and fired questions at them. Dan sat back, resting against a water-butt, and put his hand on the star. ‘I’m gonna earn this now, Helen. I’ve got some settlin’ up to do.... and we’ll take these desperadoes on...they’ll know they bin in a scrap, win or lose!’