down. 'Stay here,' he told Jerry. He left the office and walked up to a group of businessmen. 'You're all deputized,' he informed them. 'Your job is to stay at the jail and guard the prisoners. You will prevent a lynching. Is that understood?'
It was, and the men agreed, although quite reluctantly.
'Fine. Get over to the jail and relieve Jerry. Tell him I need him out here, now. Move!'
Jerry joined him in the street and Frank said, 'Let's get a tally of the dead and wounded. You start that while I find Jenkins and see how hard the bank was hit.'
'Will do, Frank.'
Men were shooting badly injured horses, putting them out of their misery.
'They didn't get away with a nickel,' Jenkins told Frank. 'We recovered every dollar. How many dead do we have?'
'I don't know yet. Jerry's checking on that now. But it's going to be high.'
'Mrs. Browning?'
'Doc Bracken said she was still alive, but unconscious. She's hard hit.'
'Was it the Pine and Vanbergen gangs that hit us, Frank?'
'Yes. Selected members. The rest of the gang was scheduled to pull something else.'
'For God's sake, what? And where?'
'The one doing all the talking didn't know. Or said he didn't'
'You believe him?'
'He's pretty damned scared, Mayor. There's a chance he's telling the truth.'
A citizen ran up to the men, nearly out of breath. 'We've got over twenty dead so far. Mayor, Marshal,' he gasped. 'About that many wounded.'
'Dear God!' Mayor Jenkins breathed. 'How many of the wounded are critical?'
'Near'bouts all of them.'
'All right, mister. Thanks,' Frank told him. 'Go sit down over yonder and catch your breath.'
'No time,' the citizen said. 'One of the dynamite charges was tossed into Miss Rosie's place up on the hill. Some of her girls is still buried under the rubble. Maybe eight or ten of them. And Miss Rosie's missin', too.'
'My wife's been griping and raising hell about that whorehouse for months,' Jenkins said. 'She wanted it gone, but not this way.'
Frank swung into the saddle of the first horse he came to and rode up to Rosie's House of Delights, or what was left of the place, picking his way around the blocked road. There were dead and badly injured soiled doves on both sides and in front of the ruined old two-story home. There were plenty of men helping to search for and dig out those trapped, so Frank rode on.
No one had thought to look for dead or wounded at the small mining claims that dotted the area around the town, and Frank had a hunch that had also been part of the gang's plan. Many of the men working the smaller mines had found pockets of gold, and did not trust the bank to hold it for them. They kept it in hidden places around their shacks. Ned Pine and Vic Vanbergen would have had spies working the town, buying drinks for thirsty miners, and would know some of the claims that were producing.
Frank's worst hunch paid off. The roar of the Gatling guns, the booming of the dynamite, and the screaming of the wounded had managed to cover the sound of the attack on a number of the small mines ... and the attacks had been especially vicious. There were dead men and women nearly everywhere Frank looked.
Frank found one dazed but unhurt young man. 'You have a horse, boy?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Get on it and ride into town. Tell my deputy what's happened up here.' Frank stared at the confused- looking teenager. 'Do you understand what I just told you?'
The young man blinked a couple of times. 'Ah ... yes, sir.'
'Move, boy!'
Frank did what he could for the wounded and waited for help from the town to arrive.
Soon Jerry rode up with about a dozen men, and for a moment they sat their horses and stared in disbelief at the carnage.
'A couple of you check out those mines up ahead for dead and wounded,' Frank said. 'Rest of you get down and help me identify these bodies.'
'The telegraph is out, too, Frank,' Jerry told him. 'I guess the gangs pulled down the wires just as they were hitting the town.'
'It was sure a well-thought-out plan, Jer, no doubt about that.'
'They didn't care who they killed. I've never seen anything so vicious.'
'The death count still rising?'
'Yes. By the minute, it seems like. A lot of women and kids were killed.' Jerry shook his head. 'Most of the stores on Main Street were damaged. Several of them will be closed for a long time while repairs are made.'
'Some of them probably won't ever reopen. God!' Frank exclaimed. 'Look at the bodies.'
