doing it.
That gave them a little time, Matt thought, to figure out what they were going to do—but they couldn’t afford to waste any time either.
As he swung around the corner of the depot and headed for the platform steps, he came to a sudden stop as he almost ran into someone leaving. A grin creased Matt’s face as he recognized Jessica Devlin.
“Well, good evening again, Miss Devlin,” he said. “Checking to see when the trains are gonna be runnin’ again?”
“That…that’s right,” she replied with a nod. “Is that why you’re here, Mr. Bodine?”
“Yep. You probably heard around town that some fellas and I are waitin’ to catch the westbound. We’re helpin’ out a federal marshal who’s got a prisoner to deliver to Yuma Prison.”
Matt didn’t see any harm in telling her the truth. It was common knowledge around Pancake Flats anyway.
“Yes, I’ve heard,” Jessica said. “Some sort of outlaw, isn’t he?”
“The worst sort,” Matt said, his expression growing solemn. “He’s a loco killer, a pure-dee hydrophobia skunk. And his gang is just as bad.”
“I…I wouldn’t want to cross paths with them then.”
“No, ma’am, you sure wouldn’t.”
Matt tugged on the brim of his hat and stepped around her. “I’ll be seeing you,” he said as he started toward the steps again. He had to get on with the errand that had brought him here.
He couldn’t help but glance at Jessica Devlin again, though. She definitely had a troubled look about her, and he wanted to do something to give her a hand if he could.
Unfortunately, he and Sam already had too much on their plates to be taking on any more problems. Matt hoped that whatever was bothering Jessica Devlin, she could figure it out for herself.
“Good news, Mr. Bodine,” Harry, the clerk, said before Matt could even ask. “I just got a wire saying that the repair work on the trestle is finished. The trains will be running again first thing in the morning. I expect the westbound to come through here at eight thirty. That’s even earlier than I’d hoped for.”
“Thanks,” Matt said with a nod. Harry didn’t know it, but eight thirty in the morning was going to be too late. “I’ve got another question.”
“Of course.”
“How far is it to the nearest flag stop west of here?”
Harry frowned. “Why do you want to know that?”
Matt hesitated. Harry seemed like a law-abiding gent, but evidently he hadn’t heard about the price the outlaws had put on the heads of the men holding Joshua Shade prisoner.
“Marshal Thorpe wanted to know. In fact, he wants a map of all the stops between here and Yuma, if you’ve got one.”
Harry’s frown deepened. “I do, but it’s the property of the Southern Pacific Railroad.”
“I’ll see that you get it back,” Matt promised. He didn’t know if he’d be able to keep that promise or not, but at least he’d try.
After a moment, the clerk shrugged. “All right, here.” He reached under the ticket counter and brought out a folded map. “You can let the marshal look at it. I’ll need it back before you leave town, though.”
“Sure,” Matt said as he took the map. This was working out even better than he had hoped.
He said so long to Harry and hurried back toward the livery stable. As he glanced up the street, he saw light spilling out of the saloon and heard loud voices drifting through the evening air from that direction. The mob was forming inside, and soon would spill out into the street like the light from the saloon’s lamps. Their goal would be the livery stable, where they hoped to collect that thousand-dollar bounty and Matt Bodine’s blood to boot.
Matt hoped that Sam had come up with something that would work, because he was sure as hell drawing a blank.
Chapter 31
By the time Matt got back to the stable with the good news about the trestle and the railroad map, Sam had had an idea. Matt spread out the map first, though, and the rest of them gathered around to look.
“There’s a water stop twenty miles west of here,” Matt said, pointing to it on the map. “That’s even better than a flag stop, because there’s no chance the engineer will miss it.”
“I’m starting to think this might work,” Thorpe said. “But how do we get Shade out of here?”
“He’ll go on horseback—” Sam began.
“He’ll have to be tied up mighty damn tight,” Thorpe said, breaking in.
Sam nodded. “That goes without saying, Marshal. And he’ll have you and Everett guarding him.”
“What about us?” Matt asked. “And what about that distraction you were talkin’ about?”
Sam smiled. “That’s going to be our job.”
“Let me guess,” Matt said. “It means we’ll be the ones gettin’ shot at, right?”
