“Get down,” Kirkwood said, grabbing up his shotgun. “Our deal is off.”
“Now wait a minute,” Longarm said, almost pleading. “Megan, they are just horses.”
“They’re a lot more than that to me!”
“Are they worth more than our lives? Than bringing Horace Leach and his ruthless friends to justice? Than avenging the slaughter of Ivan Kane and Hec Ward?”
Megan finally got hold of her senses and said, “No, I guess not.”
“All right then,” Longarm said with genuine relief. “This is done. Let’s stop haggling and go on!”
Kirkwood was petulant, but he very much wanted the sorrels so he drove on. They passed other wagons all morning, and almost all of them knew Kirkwood and hailed him as they passed, heading for Bodie.
“Here comes the stagecoach,” Kirkwood said about noon. He pulled his pocket watch from his vest. “And it’s right on time.”
Kirkwood waved to the coach, and Longarm did too. It passed in a great cloud of dust, and they would have thought no more of it except the thing turned around and quickly overtook them.
“What the hell!” Kirkwood shouted as the stage driver drew up alongside, almost running them off the road.
Longarm had only to look up at the stage driver and the man sitting beside him to understand what had made the stage turn around.
“You sonofabitch!” Wild Bill Riley shouted. “Where the hell is my daughter!”
Megan, upon hearing her father’s voice, popped out from under the hay and cried, “Father!”
When Wild Bill saw the bandage covering Megan’s wounded shoulder, he almost shot Longarm. It took quite some time to calm him down, and he might still have shot Longarm if they hadn’t convinced him that all of their lives were in danger.
“If they’re coming after us, let’s make a stand,” Wild Bill shouted, recklessly waving his gun.
Longarm gave the matter some consideration. He turned to Kirkwood. “I suppose you’ll want to leave.”
“Yep. You’ll all get killed.”
After ten minutes of strenuous debate, Kirkwood was talked into handing over his team of horses and the wagon. He would take the stagecoach back to Bodie, then pick them up in Carson City, where Longarm was to deliver them to a friend.
“Good luck!” he shouted.
As it turned out, they didn’t need luck until they were almost to the Mormon settlement of Genoa. By then, they could almost see the outskirts of Carson City.
“There’s only four of them,” Longarm said, looking back at their pursuers from Bodie. “We can handle that many among ourselves.”
Wild Bill was all for stopping or even turning around and charging the four onrushing riders. Longarm, however, was much more practical. He simply topped a low ridge and then drove down a little ways before setting the brake.
“They can’t see the wagon,” he told Megan and her father. “So we’ll just hike back up to the crest of the hill and catch ‘em by surprise.”
They were waiting and ready when the four hired gunmen from Bodie came thundering up the rise. Longarm jumped up and shouted, “You’re all under arrest!”
The horsemen, caught completely by surprise, drew their guns. Wild Bill emptied his gun first, but because of his eyes, hit nothing. Longarm got three of the riders, the last one nearly running him down.
Megan proved her worth and her marksmanship by emptying a fourth saddle.
“I got ‘em!” Wild Bill whooped as he squinted into the late afternoon sunshine at the riderless horses which had turned and were galloping back toward Bodie. “I got at least three out of the four, didn’t I!”
“Yes,” Longarm said, winking at Megan. “You did.”
“And my girl,” Wild Bill said, “she got the fourth.”
Longarm didn’t hesitate. “That’s right.”
Wild Bill grinned and heaved a sigh of contentment.
“I guess we did it then, huh.”
“We sure did, Father.”
The old tail-twister reloaded and then he squinted at Longarm. “Did you diddle my daughter in Bodie, Marshal?”
“I-“
“If you did, I’m going to shoot your goddamn balls off soon as I get my gun reloaded,” Wild Bill vowed, fumbling at his cartridge belt for reloads.
“He did not,” Megan said, stepping between the two men. “Father, he took very good care of me.”
“He let you get shot!”
“But he also saved my life, and now he’s going to see that Bodie is cleaned up forever.”
