The Spurs of Iron Eyes (Iron Eyes Western #3) (14 page)

‘
Say
that again.’

Clearing his throat, Bass
began to speak.

‘
Iron
Eyes didn’t really leave town like I said.’

Panic traced its way across
Tyler
’s face
as he heard the words dripping off the sheriff’s tongue.

‘
I
told you that man hunter wouldn’t just up and leave town, Frank.
He’s out there someplace waiting for us.’

‘
Easy.’ Lewis stepped back to the window and looked around
the shade once more as his mind raced. Was the old man
bluffing?

‘
Let’s
ride, Frank,’ Tyler said, as sweat began pouring off his
face.

‘
No.
Let me figure this.’ Lewis grabbed Bass’s hair and dragged the
lawman’s head back as far as it would go. Tou got five seconds to
tell us the truth or I’m gonna let Ben blow your brains out,
Sheriff

Bass felt his neck muscles
being torn as he finally swallowed deeply and began
spluttering.

‘Okay.
I lied. Iron Eyes did ride south. He
ain’t in town.’

Releasing his grip, Frank Lewis
smiled as he
looked into his partner’s eyes and winked. The gun barrel
came down hard across the top of the sheriff’s skull causing him to
slump in his chair. ‘Come on, Ben. We got a bank to
rob.’

The look of shock on Frank
Lewis
’s face
was only matched by the horror carved into the sweating features of
his partner, Ben Tyler. The door to the Rio Vista Bank was locked
and bolted when the two outlaws turned its brass handle. It had
only just turned two on the hot sunny afternoon, and the wall
shingle proclaimed its hours of business were from 10 a.m. - 3
p.m.

‘
Something’s wrong, Frank,’ Tyler snapped, the palm of his
hand rested upon his gun grip.

Lewis strode along the
boardwalk and tried to see into the bank. The green shades were
down and there was no sound emanating from its interior.

‘
What
time is it?’

‘It
ain’t three,’ Tyler snapped
angrily.

‘It
ain’t Sunday either, Ben.’ Lewis
wiped the perspiration from his brow with his jacket
sleeve.

Then, as they began to walk
toward the narrow alleyway which ran up beside the length of the
building, they saw a terrifying vision which made their blood turn
to ice within their veins.

The grim-faced bounty
hunter sat astride one horse whilst the body of Manillo lay
lifelessly over the saddle of another. Both animals showed the
visible signs of the mayhem they had endured, but nothing compared
to Iron Eyes. He was covered in the blood of others as well as his
own. He had pulled the reins of his mount to a halt in the centre
of the wide street and just sat motionless watching the two men
outside the bank.

‘
Iron
Eyes!’ Lewis exclaimed, as he gripped the shoulder of his terrified
partner.

‘
Look
at him. He’s half dead,’ Tyler noted.

‘
Even
half dead, he’s twice as dangerous as any other living man, Ben,’
Lewis whispered, as they edged along the boardwalk away from the
bank in the direction of the hotel.

Dropping the tethers to the
pack horse, Iron Eyes jabbed his bloodstained spurs into the horse
beneath him and steered it along slowly after them.

‘
He’s
still coming, Frank.’

Both men began to increase
their pace as they
tried to reach their horses tied to the hitching rail. Only
as they moved off the boardwalk and stretched for the leather reins
wrapped around the pole, did the chilling voice echo out from the
mounted Iron Eyes.

‘
Touch
them saddle horns and I’ll kill you.’

The two outlaws skidded to
a halt beside the two mounts before turning. When they found
themselves facing the approaching rider, their mouths went
dry.

Iron Eyes had just returned
from a battle and it showed. He had left dead bandits in the
distant Mexican village who looked in better shape than he did.
Dried blood covered his face and clothing. His coat had been torn
to ribbons on his back and yet he still lived. Throwing his long
right leg over the neck of his mount, he slid to the ground. A
small cloud of dust rose from the impact of his mule-ear boots.
Then he began walking.

For the first time in his
life, Frank Lewis felt fear in his soul as he stared at the ghastly
sight pacing unsteadily toward him. He had never witnessed a man
walking so obviously injured. Yet Iron Eyes was walking straight at
them.

Tyler tried to find words which
might halt the man
’s determined approach, but there were no words. His throat
hurt as it tightened like a noose around his vocal
cords.

‘
You
boys ready to die?’ Iron Eyes asked, as he stopped twenty paces
from them and parted his long coat to reveal the pair of Navy Colt
gun grips poking out from his belt.

‘
We
never robbed the bank, Iron Eyes. The damn bank is locked up
tighter than—’

‘
No
matter.’ Iron Eyes interrupted Frank Lewis’s sentence firmly and he
ran his bony fingers through his long black hair which was matted
with the dried blood of an earlier encounter.

The two outlaws did not know
what to do for the best as they watched the bloodied features of
the bounty hunter staring at them. There seemed no life in the
infamous eyes. He just stared like the Grim Reaper at his
victims.

‘
Why
kill us when we never robbed the bank?’ Lewis shouted
fearfully.

Iron Eyes pulled the pair
of crumpled Wanted posters from his deep left-hand coat pocket and
tossed them onto the ground between them and spat.

‘
Dead
or alive.’

The figure of Sheriff Bass
came staggering out of his office holding his head. The sight
before his blurred eyes froze him to the spot. Iron Eyes looked at
the injured lawman and nodded.

‘
You
look like hell, Bass.’

Bass leaned on a porch upright
and wondered if the bounty hunter had any idea of how
he
looked.

There was an eerie silence
which drifted along the hot street like a phantom.

‘
Go
for your guns, boys,’ Iron Eyes ordered.

Tyler was first to drag his
Smith & Wesson from its holster as his partner drew his own
pistol at his side. Faster than the blink of an eye, the pair of
Navy Colts were in the bony hands and firing.

Lewis felt the bullet
tearing through his right arm causing him to drop his weapon. A
split second later Tyler felt half the gun hand being torn off his
wrist. Then Iron Eyes lowered his guns and watched as the two men
scrambled into their saddles and rode away in a cloud of
dust.

Before Iron Eyes had
reached the lawman, Father Jose had arrived on the
scene.

‘You okay,
Bass?’ Iron Eyes asked. He
noticed lace curtain drapes moving at dozens of windows around
them.

‘
Got
me a headache,’ Bass responded, feeling the arms of the priest
helping him back inside his office.

Iron Eyes pushed his two
matched pistols back into his belt and followed the two men into
the dark interior.

‘I see you killed the bandit
leader, my son,’ Father Jose noted.

‘
Yep.’
Iron Eyes began flicking through the wanted posters looking to see
if Manillo’s image was worth anything in American money.

‘
How
come you let them varmints get away, Iron Eyes?’ Bass asked the
tall man who hovered over his desk like a vulture.

Iron Eyes moved to the
doorway again and paused.

‘
It’ll
be easy enough to track them down. They’re bleeding like stuck
pigs, old man.’ Iron Eyes grinned through his injuries at the
sheriff.

Father Jose moved to the
side of the bounty hunter quietly.

‘
I
found your money hidden under the altar of my chapel, my
son.’

Iron Eyes walked across to
the waiting horse and stepped into the stirrup before gathering up
the long leather tethers to the pack horse with the dead bandit
tied to its back.

‘I
ain’t got time to talk, Jose. I got
to catch me a couple of outlaws and claim the bounty before old
Manillo here gets too ripe.’

‘
But
what about your money, Iron Eyes?’ Father Jose repeated.

There was a half smile upon the
bloodstained face of the bounty hunter as he showed the
small
little
leather pouch given to him by Pablo.

‘
This
is my money, Jose.’

‘I
do not understand, my
son.’

‘
If
you’ve found a lot of money under your altar, maybe you oughta help
folks like old Pablo who need some new milk cows and the like.’ The
bounty hunter put a cigar in his mouth and lit it before spurring
his horse and moving away dragging the pack horse in
tow.

‘
But
why did you leave your money in the chapel, my son?’

Father Jose
’s question went unanswered as
the ghost-like figure of Iron Eyes rode out of Rio Vista, slowly
tracking the trail of blood left by Frank Lewis and Ben Tyler. The
priest stood in the centre of the street watching the unmistakable
mane of black hair flapping like the wings of an eagle in search of
its prey, until it eventually disappeared.

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Other Titles in the Series:

1.IRON EYES

2. IRON EYES THE AVENGER