There's Always a Trail (1984) (2 page)

He moved toward the lighted door and stopped' as Mari a framed herself there. Her breath caught, but she made n o other sound. "Who are you?" she demanded. Maria, Hand y saw, was not easily flustered.

"A driftin' cowhand who smelled fresh coffee and though t we might talk a little."

"We've nothing to talk about. Now rattle your hocks ou t of here before my man comes back."

"You mean Buck... or Salter?
"

The beautiful eyes became less beautiful, but very col d and wary. "You'd better leave while you're able. If Buc k should come back --"

Maria, he said, you re a beautiful woman. You re als o a very smart one. ~ the time they've split that money s o was the way she would be. He had no intention of usin g any kind of a gun unless it was forced on him. The mone y meant a lot to Bailey. to say nothing of the others, and h e meant to get it hack if he could. As for a piece of Bailey'
s ranch, that was a dream and no more than a dream. Whe n Bailey discovered he was Sonora Hack he would have n o further use for him. He certainly would not want him as a partner. Yet one thing he had established: Maria eithe r had the money or knew where it was.

He looked
down at her. "Maria, you don't think I'
d trust you, do you?
You an' me, we ride the same trail. W
e both want money, and a lot of it. You don't trust me, and I d on't trust you, but if' we work together we both stand t o win."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Get the money now. Split in two halves. I'
ll take mine , and then you call Buck Bodd and teI l him there's a man i n your house. When he comes I'll be waiting."

He could almost feel her thoughts. How could she loser s If she stayed with them her part of the split would be a thousand dollars or less. Go his way and she could kee p half, and she could find a way to get his half also.

If the worst happened, and Hack was killed, there wa s every chance Buck or some of his men would also b e killed. Either way, her share would be larger.

Suddenly a new thought came to him. "What abou t Salter?
Does he cut into this'"

She shrugged. "He was a fool! He agreed to run off wit h the money if somebody took care of Leeds. Wing Math y and Carrero did that. When Salter got to where he was t o meet me, Buck was waiting for him.
I t was a smooth job."

He stared at her from the shadows. Smooth, all right , and deadly, as ruthless and deadly as she herself.

"Good! Let's split the money now."

An instant she hesitated, then crossing the room sh e slipped back a portion of the base panel and got out a sack.

"There it is, all of it."

A hinge creaked behind them and a cool young voic e said, "I'll take that!"

Ann Bailey!

Sonora felt a shock of cold go through him. This was th e end. Nobody would never believe he intended to get th e money and return it.

She stepped into the room, her gun held steady, "Oh , you're contemptible! You promise to get our money back , and then you're here with this, this awful woman' Yo u were planning to kill all those men! I heard it! I hear d every word!"

Maria's eyes flashed at him. "I'll live to see you die , Sonora Hack!"

"Hacky" Ann's eyes flashed at him. "
You?
"

"That's right, and, although you'll never believe it, I i ntended to get that money back to you. I had first to fin d out where it was."

He could almost feel Maria's hatred. He saw Ann's lef t hand grasp the sack, saw her start backing toward th e door. At that instant there was a heavy step on the fron t porch and a loud voice boomed out, "
Maria?
Where ar e you'? The boys are comin' over!"

Ann stepped out the back door as the voice sounded , and in the startled instant of surprise at the voice, Mari a grabbed for the shotgun.

Sonora hit the back door running ; the shotgun bellowed , but he was outside and to the left, wheeling around th e house with but one thought, to get out of range of th e shotgun. Ann had vanished as if she were a ghost. H
e vaulted the front fence just as three men stepped down off '
t he boardwalk in front of the saloon. His horse was a bloc k away in the livery stable, saddled, 'fortunately.

Once he was on the buckskin... but Ann?
What o f Ann?

Behind him Rodd was shouting, and he saw the thre e outlaws start to run down the street toward him.' He dov e for an opening between two houses, heard a gun bar k behind him, charged around the end of the house, and ra n full-tilt into a woodpile and sprawled over it to the ground!

Scrambling to his feet, his hands stinging with pai n from the gravel, beyond the woodpile, he grabbed for hi s guns. He still had them.

A running man rounded a corner and he snapped a sho t from the hip. It was a near miss, and the man yelped wit h surprise and fired in return. Sonora ducked into a crouc h and ran, running from one building to another.

At least he was keeping them occupied, and he hope d Ann was getting away with the money. Where had sh e gotten to so quickly? And how had she gotten there in th e first place?
She must have followed him! Then she ha d never trusted him at all; but then, why should she?

His breath coming in racking gasps , he made the las t building and rounded the corner. Behind him there wa s running and yelling. He flattened against the building a t the corner. A man was standing in front of the liver y stable, staring up the street to see what was happening.

A half-block up the street Gan Carrero, gun in hand , was surveying the street.

"Hsst!" Hack hissed.

The livery man turned his head sharply toward th e sound. "Get that saddled buckskin out, pronto! Just tur n him loose!"

The man ducked inside, and Sonora heard somebod y blundering through the brush behind the building wher e he stood. Stepping into the street, he whistled shrilly fo r his horse.

Carrero wheeled and his gun came up, and Sonor a fired. The outlaw stepped back. Sonora fired again, an d Carrero fell to his face as the buckskin lunged from th e stable, stirrups flopping.

Sonora hit the saddle on the fly, and the buckskin lef t town on a dead run. A bullet whistled by; another smacke d viciously into some obstruction on his right. The buckski n was out and running now, and how that buckskin loved it!

Yet this was but the beginning; swinging into an open i ng under some cottonwoods, he began to circle back.

What had become of Ann'? They would want their mone y back, and they would want Ann dead, for she now knew o f their guilt.

He walked the horse through the cottonwoods and u p the slope toward a cut into the country beyond. Th e chaparral was thick, but there were plenty of openings , and he wove his way through. When he reached the cu t he looked back. The lights of the town were plain, but h e could see nothing else. Pursuit would be out there in th e darkness, three deadly men and a woman, armed an d prepared to kill.

Where boas Ann? Scowling into the night, he tried t o imagine what she would do, and how she would return t o Pagosa. She knew the country much better than he fo r this was her home. Certainly, she would not keep to th e trail, and if she had been shrewd enough to follow him sh e would be shrewd enough to think out an escape.

Yet behind her would be Buck Rodd, Shorty Hazel, an d Wing Mathy.
They would follow her, not him.
She no t only had the money, but her word could hang them.

Skirting. a
blur ; Hack rode down through a clump o f Joshua trees where the cut was narrow. Due to the dip i n the ground he would probably be unseen, so, dismount i ng, he knelt close to the earth and struck a match. H
e found no recent tracks.

Mounting, he started on through the cut. She shoul d have a good start. His gunfight had delayed pursuit enoug h to give her a couple of miles start, which she could use t o advantage. Her horse was probably a good one, and sh e would keep moving. Yet, her horse had been ridden th e twenty miles from Pagosa, and perhaps the distance fro m her ranch to town.

Her pursuers would be on fresh horses, and woul d know the country as well as she.

The trail dipped and followed the bank of a small stream , which must be the same that flowed near Pagosa, and if s o might offer an easy approach to the town. He again checke d the trail for tracks.

Hoof prints! A horse had passed this way, perhaps withi n the last few minutes, for even as the match flared he saw a tiny bit of sand fall into one of the tracks.

A red-hot iron seemed to slash across his arm and , dropping the match, he dove off ' the trail, hearing a har d spang of a high -powered rifle.

He swung into the saddle, feeling the warm wetness o f blood on his arm; yet he did not seem to have been badl y hit, because his fingers were still working. Turning off th e trail, he wove through the brush, keeping under cover.

Pulling up for a moment, he felt carefully with the finger s of his other hand. The skin was only broken. With hi s bandana he made a crude bandage to stop the flow o f blood, which was slight in any case.

He was
through in this country. Ann would escape now , and would return to tell them what she had heard. Sh e would also tell them he was Sonora-Hack; and they woul d discover he had only recently been freed from prison. Hi s chance of settling down in Pagosa and making a place fo r himself would be finished. Well, it had been a wild idea a t best.

Remembering the conversation, he felt himself flushin g to think that she would believe he was that kind of man.

That
he would plot with such a woman the cold-bloode d murder of her confederates.

In sullen despair he told himself to keep on riding. H
e was finished here.

As if impelled by the thought, the buckskin starte d walking up the long roll of the pinon-tufted mountainside , and Sonora let him go. The buckskin quickened its pac e and Hack, from old habit, slid his gun from its holster an d removed the shells fired back at Hondo, then reloaded th e pistol.

The buckskin, he realized, had found a trail, and now , of its own volition, was traveling et an easy canter.

Buck Rodd would not give up easily. That was mor e money than he was apt to see in a long time, and even i f he had so wished, Maria would not permit it. He woul d follow Ann back to her ranch or to Pagosa.

Who in Pagosa could stand against him' Or the thre e together'?

At this hour, there would be no one. Alerted, the y might get men together to greet them, but now ther e would be no time for that. All three were men wit h notches on their guns, men willing and ready to kill.

That was their problem. He had made his bid an d messed up. He should never have tried to get the mone y from Maria, yet he had been so close!

Killing had been no part of his plan. He had hoped t o get the money back, leave Maria tied up, and return t o Pagosa.

Remembering Ann's flashing eyes and vitriolic tongue , he grinned despite himself. She was a terror, that one.

The man who got her would have his work cut out fo r him.

The thought of her belonging to some other man was a burr under the saddle-blanket of his thoughts. And he di d not like to ride away leaving her with the opinion of hi m she now had. It would be an ugly picture.

With neither conscience nor the memories of a red h aired girl to afflict him, the buckskin cantered briskl y along the trail, making good time. Hack rode along wit h the unconscious ease of a man long accustomed to th e saddle, deep in his own thoughts. It was not until ther e was a sudden flash of light in the corner of his eyes that h e came to with a start.

He was on the edge of Pagosa! The buckskin had ver y naturally headed for the stable where he had been takin g it easy these past few days.

Realization hit him with a rush of horses' hoofs, and h e saw three horsemen come charging up to a fourth. A gir l screamed and a man opened the door of a house. A rifl e shot rang out, and a harsh voice ordered, "Get back i n there or I'll kill you ! This is none of your affair!"

Another voice said, Get the sack, Shorty.

What about the girl?
Do we take her along> "Hell, no! She'd be nothing but trouble. We'll fin d plenty of women below the border! We'll just leave he r lay, to teach them a lesson!"

The buckskin felt the unexpected stab of the spurs an d hit the trail running.

"Hey!" a voice yelled. "Look out!"

A gun roared almost in his face, a black body loome d before him, and he fired. A lance of flame leaped at hi m and he was in the midst of a wild tangle of plunging horse s and shouting, swearing men. He caught a glimpse of Ann , hat gone, hair flying in the wind, breaking from the crow d and leaping her horse for the shelter of the buildings.

A head loomed near him and he slashed at it with hi s six-gun, seeing the man fall; then his horse swung around , and he was knocked from his horse but hit the groun d staggering.

A big man rushed at him and he had just time to stead y himself. He . T
hrew a hard punch into a corded belly , ripped up and uppercut, and then, from behind him a s the man staggered, he heard somebody yell, "Look out , Rodd! Let me have him!"