“We may, and we may not,” Kyle said.
“Well, you’ll want to greet Doc, won’t you? I mean, he’s been gone for the better part of a month,” Boomer said. Then, seeing the way the two were looking at each other, he stopped in mid-sentence. “Uh—’course if you’re not there to meet him, it won’t really matter none. I’ll bring Doc down for a drink if he wants one.”
“You do that, Boomer,” Sally said. “And tell Fred that anything you and Doc drink tonight will be on me.”
“Well, Miss Sally, that’s just real nice of you now,” Boomer said, beaming at the offer.
As the train to Yuma hurtled across the desert, Deputy Hayes walked over to the door of the express car and slid it open. When he did so, the wind caused several papers to fly around inside the car.
“Here!” Kingsley shouted angrily as he made a grab for the papers and envelopes. “What are you doing?”
“I’m takin’ a piss out the door,” Hayes answered, laughing.
“I have to have this mail sorted by the time we reach Sentinel,” Kingsley said. “I can’t do it with all the wind coming through. Close the door.”
“All right, all right, hold your horses,” Hayes said. “Soon as I shake the lily a bit, I’ll close the door.”
Matt watched and listened to the exchange between the two men. Matt could smell the smoke that drifted in from the engine, and one gleaming ember even landed on the table of the mail cabinet that was in front of Kingsley.
Agitatedly, Kingsley stamped out the glowing ember. “You’re going to set us on fire,” he complained.
Hayes slid the door shut. “Damn, Kingsley, if you ain’t like some old woman,” he said. “You ain’t done nothin’ but bitch since we left Purgatory.”
“I’m not just a passenger on the train, you know. I have work to do,” Kingsley said.
“Well, go on, I ain’t stoppin’ you,” Hayes said.
Hayes moved back up to the front of the car, where Matt was sitting on the floor, with his back against the wall.
“Hey, Jensen,” Hayes said. “You ever seen a man get hung?”
“Yes,” Matt said.
“Yeah, I have, too,” Hayes said. “It sure is fun to watch. It ain’t pretty, what with the man getting’ hisself hung havin’ his face go all purple, and his eyes buggin’ out like they do.” Hayes laughed, then slapped himself on the knee. “No, sir, it ain’t pretty, but, damn, it’s fun to watch.”
“I don’t enjoy them as much as you do,” Matt said.
“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll enjoy this one more, seein’ as you’re goin’ to be the star,” Hayes said. “Just think, you’ll be standin’ up there on the gallows with ever’one lookin’ right at you while the hangman puts his noose around your neck.”
Hayes made a motion with his hand, as if putting on a noose.
“Then, next thing you know, why, they’ll open that trapdoor under you and you’ll fall through. Skkkkkttttt!” He made the sound with his throat, then he jerked his head to one side, opened his eyes wide, and stuck out his tongue, as if he had just been executed.
Hayes laughed out loud. “Hey, what do you think? Pretty good, wasn’t it?”
At that moment, the train wheels rolled over the junction of two tracks, and the clacking sound was much louder than normal.
“What was that?” Hayes asked, startled by the change in sound.
“It was nothing,” Kingsley said. “Haven’t you ever been on a train before?”
“Yeah, sure,” Hayes said. “But I don’t think I ever been on one as loud as this one.”
“It’s no louder than normal,” Kingsley said, not looking up from his task of sorting letters.
The sun was a bright red disc just resting on the western horizon. Bands of red and purple laced across the sky as Cletus Odom stood in the middle of the tracks, looking back toward the east. The twin ribbons of steel glinted in the setting sun…shining red until they disappeared into the gathering dusk to the east.
“See anything yet?” one of the men behind him called.
“Not yet.”
“Maybe we’ve already missed it.”
“We haven’t missed it,” Odom said. He turned back toward the three men who were bending over the tracks. “How’s it coming?” he asked.
“We’ve pulled out a couple of the spikes,” Bates replied. “But they’re damn hard to remove.”
“They’re supposed to be hard to get out. But all you have to do is pull enough of ’em to be able to push the rail out a few inches.”
“You sure that’ll stop the train?” Bates asked.
“You ever seen a train run on dirt?”
“No.”
“Well, if you push that rail out, the only place the train can go is dirt. Yeah, I’m sure this’ll stop it.”
“Senor, how much money is on the train?” Paco asked.
