That thought flashed through Matt’s brain in the same instant that the man in the blue uniform glanced up, saw him standing there, and started clawing a pistol from behind his belt.
“Bodine!” the man exclaimed involuntarily.
Knowing now that the “conductor” had to be one of the outlaws, Matt snapped the rifle down and fired from the hip. The man dropped into an even lower crouch, though, and the .44-40 round spanked off the tender’s rear wall. The phony conductor fired, spraying slugs across the passenger car platform and forcing Matt to dive back through the open door behind him.
Lying in the aisle, Matt tried to draw a bead with the rifle again, but before he could do so, the outlaw finally succeeded in yanking loose the pin that coupled the cars together. He darted back around onto the walkway that led to the engine as a gap suddenly opened up between the tender and the first passenger car.
Matt knew he had only seconds to act. Abandoning the Winchester because a rifle really wasn’t much good in a close-quarters fight, he scrambled to his feet and lunged out onto the platform. Without hesitating, he leaped into the air, throwing himself toward the tender with all the strength at his command.
If he failed in this desperate move, he would fall onto the roadbed, where the rest of the cars would run over him as their momentum kept them rolling forward.
One foot smacked down on the tender’s tiny rear platform. Matt grabbed for one of the iron hand-holds fastened to the wall of the car. His fingers slipped a little and he started to go backward, but then his grip tightened and he was able to pull himself upright. He leaned against the back of the tender, breathing heavily.
After a moment, he turned around, pressed his back against the rear of the tender, and pulled his right-hand gun so he could reload it. He looked back along the tracks and saw the rest of the cars beginning to slow down even more as their momentum wore off.
Unfortunately, he also saw the rest of Shade’s gang, half a dozen men, galloping after the locomotive and tender.
And now he was their target, he realized as powder smoke spurted from gun muzzles and bullets began to splatter against the metal wall behind him.
Maggie realized that the train was slowing down. She didn’t know what else was going on, but she knew they had left the water stop behind them. Where was Shade? Had his men freed him?
Shame burned inside her. She had tried to kill Matt Bodine. She never would have believed that she could take a human life, especially the life of someone who had never done her any harm. The thought sickened her, and she was glad Bodine had knocked the rifle upward as she pulled the trigger.
Now she ignored the chaos and confusion inside the car and ran toward the exit, intending to see if she could tell what was going on. She stepped out onto the platform as the train slowed even more.
But not
The outlaws on horseback were giving chase and firing at a man who crouched on the narrow platform at the back of the tender. She recognized him as Matt Bodine.
She watched in horror, figuring that Bodine would be riddled with bullets at any moment. He ducked around the rear corner of the car onto the walkway that led up the right side of the tender toward the locomotive. That didn’t offer him any protection, though.
But then he began climbing, using the grab irons bolted to the side of the car as ladder rungs. As Maggie watched, Bodine reached the top and flung himself over, dropping onto the coal in the tender.
She didn’t see what happened after that, because the cars that had been cut loose ground to a halt and Maggie heard the pounding of more hoofbeats. She looked frantically toward the rear of the train, wondering what awful thing was going to happen next.
Instead she saw a miracle.
She saw her husband and son.
More men were galloping alongside the tracks, and riding double with one of them was Ike. He had Caleb clutched tightly to him with one arm while he hung on with the other. He yelled, “Maggie! Maggie!”
A bearded man who seemed to be leading the newcomers reined to a halt beside the platform where Maggie stood and called, “Ma’am, do you know where Joshua Shade is?”
Maggie waved toward the locomotive and tender. “I think he must be up there in the engine!” That was just a guess on her part, but she didn’t see any other reason why the outlaws would have cut those cars loose from the rest of the train.
The man nodded and spurred his horse into a run again. The men with him had halted for a moment, too, and Ike seized that opportunity to slide down from the horse he had been riding. Now he came toward the platform in a stumbling run, still crying, “Maggie! Maggie!”
Heedless of her own safety, she leaped to the ground and ran to meet him. They flung their arms around each other and held on for dear life, as if they would never let go.
“Are…are you all right?” she sobbed.
“I am now,” Ike insisted.
“And Caleb?”
“He’s fine.”
“Oh, thank God! Thank God!” It was all Maggie could say as she stood there hugging her husband and son and shook with the sobs of relief that went through her. Finally, she was able to ask, “Who…who were those men with you?”
He shook his head, which now had a crude bandage wrapped around it. “I don’t know, but they’ve been looking for Shade and his gang. I think they must be lawmen of some sort.”
