happened.
The young one died so quickly that he took his surprised face into the afterlife.
The silent horseman caught his round in the stomach and crumpled over the back of his horse while letting out a slow, pained groan.
The bald horseman had reflexively hunkered down low and therefore positioned himself so his arm and ribs absorbed most of the impact of his bullet. Even so, he was in a world of hurt.
Nick raised his gun arm so he could aim more carefully. “You should have left when I gave you the chance,” he said as he rode Kazys closer to the other three horses.
Gritting his teeth, the bald horseman fired a shot that was quick but not even close to accurate. He straightened up so he could take better aim, which also presented a much bigger target.
Nick put a round straight through the gunman’s heart and then fired again to knock him off his horse.
The gunman landed with a heavy thud, which forced his last breath out in a powerful gasp.
On his way over to meet Joseph, Nick used his last round to put the gut-shot horseman out of his misery.
Joseph had his gun in hand and at the ready when he finally rode to a stop in front of Nick. His horse fidgeted nervously and looked as if it might give in to a shaking fit at any moment.
Nick sat in his saddle, calmly replacing the spent shells in his gun’s cylinder.
Finally Joseph holstered his gun and took a breath. “Well.” He sighed. “That turned out better than I expected.”
Nick laughed once and holstered the Schofield.
THIRTY-TWO
The Busted Wheel ranch was an impressive spread by anyone’s assessment. It was situated on a portion of land close to the size of Joseph’s property, but had almost double the number of buildings at its center. Nick and Joseph rode straight over the fence at the property line and stormed through the open terrain as if they were trying to wake the dead.
Finally, the two of them came to a stop and waited. After a few minutes, they still couldn’t see any sign that they’d been spotted.
“This makes me sick,” Joseph said as he shook his head. “Any man who’d let someone get this far into his property without getting a look at him deserves to be robbed.”
Nick shrugged and stood up in his stirrups so he could get a better look around. The night was clear enough for him to see fairly well in every direction. “I guess Dutch must have gotten someone on the inside of this place just like he did with yours. We haven’t passed a single steer, though, so the herd’s probably not even here. They must be after a hell of a lot of gold.” Fixing his eyes upon a spot in the distance, Nick lowered himself back onto the saddle. “Well, it looks like we’re not as alone as we thought.”
Joseph eventually spotted the same rider Nick had seen. After a few seconds, he said, “Looks like there’s only one.”
The rider came to a stop several yards from Nick and Joseph. He tipped back his hat and propped a shotgun on his hip so it couldn’t be missed. “You two lost?” he shouted.
“No sir,” Nick replied. “We’re looking for the Busted Wheel ranch.”
“You found it.”
“Good. I need to speak to the owner.”
“You found him, too.”
“I’m Nick Graves and this here’s Joseph Van Meter. Can we have a word with you?”
The longer the rider stayed quiet, the more Nick thought he and Joseph were going to be turned away. After a while, Nick even began to wonder if he might have to deal with the business end of the shotgun in the rancher’s hand. Finally, he lowered the shotgun into a pouch on the side of his saddle.
“Follow me,” the rider said.
Before Nick or Joseph could respond, the rider had turned around and headed deeper into the property.
The owner of the ranch was in his late fifties and had a head full of thick, silver hair. His large, friendly eyes were set closely together over a bulbous nose. He rode straight to the middle of the property, where most of the buildings were clustered together like a small village.
One of the larger buildings was a wide, flat-roofed house with a porch that spanned the entire front. Climbing down from his saddle, the owner waved for Nick and Joseph to tie their horses to the same post where he’d tied his own. Once both men had complied, he walked up the two steps leading to the porch.
“You said your names were Nick Graves and Joseph Vandemere?” the silver-haired man asked.
“Van Meter,” Joseph corrected.
“Right,” the man replied, tapping his ear. “These don’t work like they used to. I’m Brad Hofferman. Pleased to meet ya both.”
Nick shook Hofferman’s hand, but climbed only one of the two porch steps. “Good to meet you, too, sir. We really need to have a word with you.”
“Talk away. Sorry about the reception. I don’t usually meet guests with a shotgun, you know.”
The front door to the house swung open and a slender lady stepped out. Her smile was bright and her dark hair was streaked with some gray. Glancing back and forth from Brad to the other two men, she asked, “What’s all the commotion out here? It’s past midnight.”
“I know,” Hofferman said with a crinkled smile, “but I heard the dogs barking, so I went out to have a look- see. Found these two out skulking around in the dark.”
“Do you know them?”
“That’s Nick and that’s Joseph. I was just about to ask if they’re hungry.”
“We didn’t come for food,” Nick said. “We need to warn you about—”
“Nobody asked if you came for food,” Brad scolded good-naturedly. “I asked if you were hungry.”
Nick looked over his shoulder at Joseph and got a roll of the eyes in response. Seeing that both Brad and the woman were waiting expectantly, he said, “You might have some company soon and they won’t want food. They’ll want to rob you blind.”
Brad’s eyes widened. “What makes you think something like that?”
“Because we just drove most of them off,” Joseph snapped. “Not that there’s anything stopping them if they did decide to turn around and ride through here. Don’t you have any men riding your perimeter?”
“Not when there’s nothing to steal. The herd’s already up to Kansas by now and the boys won’t be back with the money anytime soon. Most of the ranch hands that did stay behind took work moving steers for some other fella. Me and the missus here were just enjoying the quiet.”
“I might know where those cattle came from,” Joseph said bitterly. “Do you have anything else of value here? Anything at all?”
Brad scowled a bit, but still couldn’t get himself to look too threatening. “Why would you want to know something like that?”
“We crossed paths with some men who were known to raid spreads like this one here. We know for a fact they’ve had their eyes set on this place.”
Shrugging, Brad said, “There’s always someone out to take what you’ve got. I’ve learned that ever since I started running my own outfit.”
“So does anyone want some pie?” the lady asked. “I baked it fresh this morning.”
“I want some,” came a little voice from inside the house.
The lady stepped to one side and allowed a little girl with bright blonde pigtails to step into the doorway. She couldn’t have been more than six years old and was rubbing her eyes sleepily.
“This is our little granddaughter Sandy,” the lady said. “She’s waiting for her daddy to come back home with the rest of the boys, isn’t she?”
The girl nodded and clung to her grandmother’s dress.
For a few seconds, Joseph couldn’t take his eyes off that little girl’s face. When he saw her shrug away from
