“Do you think we killed anybody?” Charles asked. No one had left their post.
“I know we put some out of action,” Smoke said. “How hard they’re hit I don’t know. Good shooting, Carol.”
“Thank you. Now if you all will excuse me, I have to throw up.” She beat it to the bushes behind the camp.
“Natural reaction,” Smoke said, punching out empties and reloading his six-guns. “I think I did the same thing first time I killed a man, back in ’65 it was. In Kansas, I believe. I was about thirteen or fourteen. Bunch of Pawnees jumped us. Me, my dad, and an old mountain man called Preacher. If I didn’t upchuck, I damn sure wanted to. Nothing to be ashamed of.”
“You think they’ll be back this night, Smoke?” Blanche asked.
“It wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Let’s get out of here and get out of America while we still can,” Hans urged.
“Shut up, Hans,” Gunter told him.
“No. No, I won’t shut up,” the man said. “I’ll have my say and you all can be damned! We’re not that far from a port in San Francisco. We can board ship and take the long way back. By that time most of the outcry will be over. What we’re doing now is foolish. We won’t be extradited out of Germany. So we take a few jokes at our expense; we’re all grown people. We can endure that. Isn’t that better than facing western justice ? All I’m asking is that you give it some thought.”
“What about the men?” Maria asked.
“Pay them off as agreed and let them go. They certainly aren’t going to talk about this. They’d be putting a noose around their necks.”
“Has the thought occurred to you, Hans,” Marlene said, “that the men might not let us go?”
Hans looked startled. “What do you mean?”
“She means, Hans,” von Hausen said, “that we have as much to lose as the men, and the men aren’t going to just let us ride out of here and get away. If there is punishment to be had, it will be shared equally.”
“The Americans have a phrase for it,” Andrea said. “It’s called being between a rock and a hard place.”
Gunter laughed at that.
Hans shook his head. “There has to be a way out of this for us.”
Von Hausen looked hard at the man he used to call his friend. If Hans kept this up, he thought, he knew of one way out for Hans Brodermann. He met the eyes of the others and knew they felt the same about it.
“Every other person try to catch some rest for a couple of hours,” Smoke passed the word up and down the line. “If you feel yourself nodding off, wake up the person next to you. We’ve got to stay alert.” He walked back to the coals—all that was left of the fire—and poured a cup of coffee. It was still hot and tasted good.
Smoke knelt by the fading coals and drank his coffee. Those below them had to try again this night. Time was not on the side of Baron von Hausen and those with him.
The defenders had scored two hits so far. But Smoke didn’t think they were killing hits. That light load Carol was using would kill, but it would have to be at fairly close range. More than likely, the man she shot was very uncomfortable, but still able to fight, unless she blinded him. In that case, Smoke felt certain von Hausen would finish him off—or one of those cold-hearted women with him.
Smoke tossed the coffee dregs to the ground, and walked back to the ramparts, rifle in hand. He stopped by Walt’s position. “Anything moving down there?”
“Nothin’ that I can see,” the old gunslinger said. “And my eyes is about the only thing I got left that’s workin’ worth a damn.”
“According to Angel, your gunhand still knows what to do.”
“Hell, that comes natural to us, Smoke. You know that as well as me.”
“I know it isn’t a blessing.”
“You shore got that right.”
“What will they do next?” Smoke muttered. Walt didn’t reply because he felt Smoke didn’t expect any. “I don’t think they have dynamite. Even if they did they have no way of delivering it up here. They might try to make bows and arrows and shoot fire up here. But they couldn’t hit the tents using any bow that hasn’t been cured out. And even if they did burn the tents, we won’t be hurt.”
“This was a good move on our part, I’m thinkin’,” Walt said. “If we can hold out, we’ll make it. Them down yonder knows they’re runnin’ out of time.”
“And they just might get careless.”
“ ’Xactly.”
“I got an idea,” Smoke said. He explained it to Walt and to Gilbert, who had walked over.
“Let’s try it,” Gilbert said.
“You men down below!” Smoke shouted. “This is Smoke Jensen. Can you hear me?”
After a moment, a voice shouted, “Yeah, Jensen. We can hear you. What do you want?”
“I want you to listen to me. And when I’m finished, give some thoughts to my words. OK?”
“Let ’er bump, Jensen.”
“That’s John T. Matthey,” Walt said.
“He’s good,” Smoke said. “I’ve heard a lot of talk about him.”
