deputies straggled in, only four of them now.
That meant that four men had been lost in this attack. Four lives lost, more than likely, just so Joshua Shade could have his evil life snuffed out at the end of a hangrope in one place and not another. That knowledge put a bitter taste in the mouths of both Matt and Sam.
Sam slid down from the mule and retrieved the reins that had fallen earlier. He wrapped them around the brake lever while Thorpe was climbing down from the seat.
“I have to check on the prisoner,” Thorpe said. He started toward the rear of the wagon, digging for the key to the padlock that held the door closed.
Matt had been reloading his Colts, the first thing he did after any fracas. He snapped the cylinder closed on the second Colt and filled both hands. Pointing the irons at the door, he told Thorpe, “I’ll cover you, Marshal.”
“Shade, if you’re anywhere near that door, stand away from it!” Thorpe bellowed. “If you try anything, we’ll shoot to kill!”
He unlocked the padlock, pulled it loose, and stepped back as he raised the shotgun. The door swung open, revealing Joshua Shade huddled at the far end of the wagon bed. For a second, Matt thought the outlaw chief was dead, but then Shade raised his head and glared at them. His eyes were like some crazed animal’s.
“Loco as ever,” Matt said.
Thorpe gestured with the Greener’s twin barrels. “Stand up, Shade. Were you hit during all that shooting?”
“The Lord’s hand was upon me,” Shade said as he climbed to his feet. He couldn’t stand upright in the wagon, but he was able to get up far enough that it was obvious he wasn’t hurt. “He shielded me from harm.”
“If you had somebody lookin’ out for you, it was more likely the Devil,” Matt said.
“All right, I’m satisfied,” Thorpe told the prisoner. “You can sit down again.”
He closed the door and snapped the lock back into place.
Then he turned and looked at the surviving deputies, who were keeping watch in case Shade’s gang returned.
“Are the others dead?” Thorpe asked.
One of the men nodded with a stricken expression on his face. “I’m afraid so, Marshal. We checked their bodies to make sure.”
“Except for that Winslow fella,” another man added. “We didn’t find him, and I see now he ain’t on the wagon either.”
“He fell off,” Thorpe said. “You can look again while you’re rounding up the horses and loading the dead men on them.”
“You’re takin’ the bodies with you?” Matt asked.
“I’m not going to leave them for the damn coyotes, if that’s what you mean,” Thorpe snapped. “They were good men, and they died in service to the law. I’ll see to it that they’re laid to rest properly.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Marshal,” Sam said. “Matt and I will help.”
“That is, if you’ll let us go with you the rest of the way to Pancake Flats,” Matt added.
“I’ve lost half my men and it’s likely those outlaws will come back,” Thorpe said. “So I don’t really have any choice but to allow you and Two Wolves to come along, do I, Bodine?”
Matt grinned at Sam. “Always nice to be wanted, ain’t it?”
Chapter 24
“What the hell happened?” Jeffries demanded. “You outnumbered them three to one!”
Garth fought down the impulse to pull his gun and blow a hole in the arrogant son of a bitch. “Those two hombres off to the east were Bodine and Two Wolves!” he said, although he didn’t think he owed any explanations to Jeffries. “They killed Larkin and Glenister and then hit us from the flank. I never saw anybody who could shoot like those two!”
“How many men did we lose?”
“Ten,” Garth answered bleakly. That was more than a third of the gang. “We still outnumber ’em by quite a bit, though. We’ll just regroup and go after Joshua again.”
The members of the gang were riding slowly south, following the wagon. They had picked up Jeffries and the woman and the kid, then started on the trail again.
The woman still rode double with Jeffries, holding the kid in her arms. She spoke up now, asking, “Mr. Garth, did…did you see what happened to Isaac?”
“Your husband?” Garth shook his head. “I don’t have no idea, ma’am. The dust was too thick to see much. For all I know, he’s still drivin’ that wagon with the marshal.”
“He…he didn’t do what you told him to do?”
Jeffries said, “Evidently not, or Joshua would be free now.”
“Last I saw, the marshal was still fine,” Garth confirmed.
“Good,” the woman said with a note of defiance in her voice. “I’m glad he didn’t help you. I knew he couldn’t kill a man in cold blood.”
Garth reined in and turned to frown at her. “Ma’am, you
