“How much you got now?” Odom replied.
“Maybe I have one dollar,” Paco answered.
“Then it doesn’t really matter how much money the train is carryin’, does it? Whatever it is, it’ll be more’n you got. Schuler?” Odom called.
“Yeah?” Schuler answered.
“If we have to blow the safe, are you going to be able to handle it? Or are you drunk?”
“I can do the job,” Schuler insisted.
“You damn well better be able to do the job.”
They heard a whistle in the distance.
“Hurry it up!” Odom said, and he came over to join them as, working quickly, they pulled up two more spikes.
“Bates, you’re the biggest one here,” Odom said. “Pick up the sledgehammer and hit the rail here a couple of times—just enough to push it out.”
Bates grabbed the hammer and hit it. The rail popped out. He was about to hit it a second time when Odom stopped him.
“That’s far enough,” he said. “Hurry, get the tools out of the way and get down out of sight.”
It was less than two minutes after the men put the tools away when they first saw the train. It was approaching at about twenty miles per hour, a respectable enough speed, though the vastness of the desert made it appear as if the train was going much slower. Against the great panorama of the desert the train seemed puny, and even the smoke that poured from its stack made but a tiny scar against the orange vault of the sky at sunset.
They could hear the train quite easily now, the sound of its puffing engine carrying to them across the wide, flat ground the way sound travels across water. As the engine approached, it gave some perspective as to how large the desert really was, for the train that had appeared so tiny before was now a behemoth, blocking out the sky.
“Get ready, boys,” Odom said. “It’s nearly here.”
“Say, how long before we reach the next town anyways?” Hayes asked. “What I need to do is, I need to get off this train and get me a beer. And maybe a bottle of whiskey, too.”
“No alcoholic spirits are allowed in the express car,” Kingsley said.
“Yeah? So what are you going to do about it? Go to the law? I’m the law!” Hayes said with a cackling laugh.
“No, I’m not going to the law. If you want to drink I can’t stop you,” Kingsley said. “But I can report you to the railroad.”
“Yeah? And what will the railroad do? Tell me I’m a bad boy?” Hayes laughed out loud.
“Well, for one thing, they will see to it that you can’t ride the train anymore.”
“And that’s supposed to mean something to me?” Hayes asked.
“It means that you’d better not consider going anywhere you can’t walk or ride a horse,” Kingsley said.
Matt laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” Hayes asked.
“Seems to me like Mr. Kingsley has the upper hand,” Matt said.
“Yeah?” Hayes replied. Stepping over to Matt, Hayes suddenly slapped Matt in the face. “There ain’t nothin’ you can do about that, seein’ as you’re all chained up like you are.” Hayes slapped Matt a second time. “Tell me, Mr. Killer, who has the upper hand now?” he asked, laughing.
Hayes was standing over Matt with his legs spread, looking down at Matt, who was still on the floor.
Matt smiled up at him.
“What are you smiling at, you son of a bitch?” Hayes asked.
“I’m about to show you who has the upper hand,” Matt said. He kicked upward, and the toe of his boot caught Hayes in his most sensitive area.
“Ooof,” Hayes said with an expulsion of breath and a gasp of surprise. He bent over double from the pain.
It was at that exact point in time that the engine ran across the place where the rail had been compromised. For a moment the train continued on, as if nothing had happened.
“What the hell?” Bates asked in confusion where the outlaws were hiding. “Nothin’ happened! The train didn’t stop!”
“Just wait,” Odom said.
Less than a second later, they saw the engine quiver, then drop down on one side. The engine continued forward, but now one side was producing thrust, while the other had lost its purchase. The driver wheels, in the dirt now, continued to churn full speed, and they began throwing up a huge rooster tail of sand. There was a loud, screeching sound, as first the engine, then the tender, then the express car tumbled over on their sides. The following cars were dragged along the track with a horrendous screech of metal and then the cacophony of breaking glass and collapsing wood as they began breaking apart and falling in upon themselves.
The boiler of the engine suddenly exploded with the roar of a hundred thunderclaps. Huge pieces of heavy metal, set into motion by the explosion, were hurled high into the sky, before tumbling back down to land several
