“Maybe…maybe as soon as I tell them what they want to know.”
From behind him, Garth said, “Be a good idea if you went ahead and did that, pilgrim.”
Ike hated to let go of Maggie, so he kept his arm around her shoulders as he turned to face Garth again. “They had their trial this afternoon, just like you thought they would.”
Garth nodded and said, “With so many people in town today, I figured that must be what was goin’ on. How’d it come out?”
“You know what the verdict was. Guilty.”
Garth nodded again. “Yeah, that ain’t no surprise. What are they gonna do with the boss? They don’t have no gallows built yet.”
“That’s because they’re not going to hang him there in Arrowhead,” Ike said. “A deputy U.S. marshal showed up just as the trial was over with a court order that gave him custody of Shade.”
“You call him Rev’rend Shade,” Gonzalez ordered, emphasizing the command with a snarl.
“Reverend Shade.” Ike nodded, although referring to that bloodthirsty monster as a man of God rubbed him the wrong way. Ike had never been a particularly religious fella, but he believed in the Lord and knew that Joshua Shade wasn’t doing His work, regardless of what the crazy owlhoot claimed.
“Go on,” Garth urged. “What’s this U.S. marshal gonna do with the boss?”
Ike thought the outlaw sounded a little worried now, as if he didn’t like the idea of clashing with a federal lawman.
“He’s going to take Reverend Shade to Yuma Prison. The hanging will take place there.”
“Yuma! Hell, that’s clear across the territory! Why in blazes would the law want to take him all the way over there to hang him?”
Ike shook his head. “I don’t have any idea. From the gossip I heard about what went on in the courtroom, Marshal Thorpe doesn’t know either. All he knows is that he’s got his orders, and he intends to carry them out.”
“Thorpe, eh?” Jeffries said. “So that’s the fella’s name?”
“Yeah. Asa Thorpe.”
Garth looked around at the other bandits. “Anybody heard of this fella Thorpe before?”
“I have,” one of the outlaws said. “He’s supposed to be a pretty tough hombre.”
“But he’s just one man!” Gonzalez said. “We can take the rev’rend away from him, no trouble!”
Garth rubbed his jaw. “I don’t know Thorpe, but he’d be a damned fool to try to take the boss all the way across the territory by himself. I’m surprised he don’t have a cavalry patrol with him, or a posse of deputies.”
“I heard he’s going to deputize some men and take them with him,” Ike said.
“What about Bodine and Two Wolves?” Jeffries asked.
Garth nodded. “Yeah, those two are supposed to be hell on wheels, and they’re the ones who captured Joshua in the first place. Are they goin’ along?”
Ike shook his head again. “No, Marshal Thorpe didn’t want them going. From what I heard, he thinks they’re gunfighters and doesn’t want them along.”
Jeffries snorted contemptuously. “There’s your answer, Garth. This so-called marshal
“Maybe, maybe not. But he’d be smarter to take those two hellions with him. We’ll take advantage of the fact that he ain’t.”
Ike saw Garth studying him. He didn’t like the look on the outlaw’s face, what he could see of it in the fading light, and he tightened his arm around Maggie’s shoulders. Now that he had accomplished their bidding, were they going to kill him and his family?
“Listen, I’ve done what you asked,” he said quickly. “I found out everything there was to find out. You promised you’d let us go if I helped you.”
An evil, leering smile spread over Gonzalez’s face, and cold steel whispered against leather as he began to draw the big knife at his hip. Maggie sobbed and shuddered against Ike’s side.
He would fight, he told himself, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good. In the end, these bastards would do whatever they wanted to.
“Put that pigsticker away, Gonzalez,” Garth snapped.
“But the gringo’s right,” the Mexican protested. “We don’t need ’em no more.”
“I’ll decide what we need and what we don’t need, and I reckon the pilgrim here can still be of some use to us.”
Sensing how close he and his wife and son had just come to death, Ike said, “Whatever it is you want from me, I’ll do it. I swear.”
Garth turned his head toward the other outlaws and said, “Somebody get the pilgrim a six-shooter.”
“Wait a minute,” Jeffries said. “You’re going to give him a gun?”
“That’s right. He can’t volunteer to go along with that U.S. marshal unless he’s armed, now can he?”
Ike stared at the man in disbelief. “You…you want me to go along as one of the deputies?”
“That’s right,” Garth said. “That way, when the time comes for us to make our move, we’ll have you right there
