“He went ahead to make sure the others made it to the fort without getting lost, which is exactly what I intend on doing with you fellas.”
“What took you so long in getting here?” the other man asked as he craned his neck to look around. “And where’s Bertram?”
“Bertram and Eddie already left. They told me to give them a little distance so they can scout ahead to make sure that posse isn’t setting up an ambush.”
“How long are we supposed to wait?”
Nick let out a strained laugh. “If you want to keep busy, you can ride on ahead and chew Bertram’s ear about it. He told me to give him a head start and that’s what I intend on doing. You’ve dealt with him a hell of a lot more than I have, so you must know what to say to make sure he doesn’t shoot you like he did those others I heard about.”
There were no others and Nick wasn’t even certain that the man he was speaking to hadn’t grown up with Bertram. He could just feel the anxiousness among all the other men, who reeked of inexperience. But Nick’s gamble paid off: The grousing horseman nodded and shut up. By the looks of them, the others were new to the gang. They waited for Nick to give the command to start moving.
Hoping that Joseph had had enough of a lead, Nick flicked his reins and announced, “I guess we should set out. We’re headed northeast for about five or six miles. Our associates should have already led the men from the other camp by now, so we’ll have cover once we get there.”
“How big’s this posse supposed to be?” one of the other men asked.
Nick shrugged and looked around. To his delight, almost all of the men were staring back expectantly, doing their damndest not to look nervous. “Hard to say. Could be five…could be a dozen.”
“What the hell are we waiting for? Let’s get moving.”
“I’m with you,” Nick said. “If Bertram sees any lawmen headed toward us, we’ll hear the shots.”
“You’ll hear shots all right,” said the horseman who’d appointed himself the spokesman for the group. “I’ll be shooting those assholes right out of their saddles!”
That got the rest of the men worked up into a hollering mob. Nick pointed Kazys northeast and snapped the reins. Although he was wincing on the outside, he couldn’t have been happier on the inside. Riding with a vigilante group had taught him plenty about using a mob to his advantage. Nick figured he could work with this one just fine.
Joseph was so anxious that he almost forgot to whistle the signal when he approached the first camp. He remembered real quickly when he saw at least five rifle barrels gleaming in the dim moonlight. The horsemen kept their guns where they could get to them in a pinch even after Joseph gave the signal.
“Where’s the other one?” someone asked.
Joseph’s voice was tense, but that worked in his favor as he quickly recited what Nick had told him to say. “Bertram wanted to ride ahead to the fort to make sure it was clear. We’re to follow right behind him.”
The man who’d asked the question had a long face and a mustache that hung down past his chin. His eyes were narrowed as if they were constantly fighting the sun’s glare. “I been around these parts for a while and I never seen no fort.”
One of the other riders was younger and looked about ready to start running if his horse didn’t get moving soon enough. “I seen a lynch mob ride from out of nowhere once and they blasted the hell outta a gang of horse thieves! They come from the south just like he says.”
Joseph nodded. “The fort’s five or six miles to the southeast. Anyone that would rather take their chances on their own can do what they like. Bertram told me to bring you men to the new camp and that’s what I aim to do. If you stay behind, I suggest you keep on riding and forget about any sort of job.”
As Joseph was starting to ride away, he heard something that he hadn’t been expecting.
“To hell with this,” the young horseman said. “That lynch mob hung those men from a pole and left ’em there for days with piss stains on their pants for the world to see. I ain’t getting strung up like that.” With that, the young man lowered his head and steered his horse away from the rest so quickly he almost twisted the poor animal’s neck.
“You damn coward!” the man with the long face said. “What the hell did you expect you was gonna do to earn yer pay?”
Despite the harsh words pouring from the older horseman’s mouth, a few of the younger ones followed the kid, who had yet to look back. That only left four men with Joseph.
“Are you men with me?” Joseph asked.
“Yer damn right.”
“There may be some trouble along the—”
“If there is,” the horseman interrupted, “we ain’t a bunch of snot-nosed kids, and we can prove that to Mister Bertram.”
When Joseph looked around at the other men, he saw intense faces and angry eyes. The anxiousness hanging in the air over the men’s heads reminded Joseph of a herd working itself up into a stampede. “All right then. We’ve wasted more than enough time already.”
“Lead the way.”
Joseph snapped his reins and got his horse moving, quickening the pace until all five horses were charging into the shadows. He shook his head in amazement. “This might actually work,” he thought.
Kazys chomped at the bit to run faster. It seemed the horse could sense what was coming as surely as if Nick had whispered it into his ear. All nine men riding with him were anxious as well, but they were more than happy to let Nick stay up front and lead the way. In fact, when he looked over his shoulder to check on them, it seemed he’d lost a few along the way. Nick grinned and faced front. He was surprised that some of those kids hadn’t ducked out sooner.
After riding a few miles, Nick strained his eyes toward the northwest. The shadows were thick, but the stars and moon allowed him to make out shapes from a fairly good distance. Just when he was starting to worry about Joseph being found out and overtaken by the men in the first camp, Nick spotted a few shapes moving at a quick pace. Nick kept a close eye on the figures until he was certain they were headed for the spot that he and Joseph had agreed upon. A little bit longer, and Nick was able to make out the rough shapes of men on horseback.
Nick breathed in to steady himself and then turned around in his saddle.
“Looks like we might have some trouble!” Joseph shouted to the men following behind him.
The horseman with the long face trotted up next to him and asked, “Where?”
Joseph pointed to the south at the shapes he’d spotted a minute ago.
The rider twisted and looked in that direction. Soon, his eyes were able to pick out the same shapes that Joseph had been searching for the entire ride. “Holy shit! Is that the posse?”
“It’s not anyone I know,” Joseph said. “The other camp’s been cleared out already. Besides, the fort is to the southeast. Those men are riding in the opposite direction.”
“They sure are. They’re headed straight for us!”
Two of the other men joined them. “What’re you talking about?” one of them asked.
“Someone’s riding straight at us,” Long Face said.
“It’s got to be that posse,” Joseph added. “They must have been on their way to the fort when they heard us coming.”
“Or they’ve already been there,” one of the others offered.
“Wherever they’ve been, they’re headed this way now!” Joseph shouted. “And it looks like they’ve already got their guns drawn.”
“How the hell can you see that?” Long Face asked. “I’m lucky I don’t steer my horse into a goddamn hole.”
“I ride this stretch of land all the time. I know a damn posse when I see one, and I know what a gun looks like. Can’t you see them?”
“Jesus Christ. I see ’em, all right!”
Nick drew his gun and held it pointed upward. His throat was straining after getting the others riled up so far, but he wasn’t about to let up now. “Posse’s riding straight for us! Get ready!” he shouted.
While most of the men drew their guns and held them at the ready, a few of them glanced back and forth as if they didn’t know what to do. Nick sized them up in an instant, guessing they would either bolt now or after the
