toward the other two.
Bullets hissed through the air as the two men on horseback fired at Nick again and again.
Nick kept his head down and his gun ready, but didn’t pull his trigger. Although the bullets around him were getting closer, they were still far enough off the mark for him to remain confident. Once he had a clean shot, Nick lifted his gun and fired as if he was simply pointing to the spot where he wanted the bullet to go.
The lead from Nick’s modified Schofield clipped one of the horseman’s elbows, spinning his entire body around as if an unseen claw had taken a swipe at him. Between the bullet and the movement of his own horse, it was less than a second before the gunman lost his balance completely and dropped to the ground. He landed with a thump, tried to get up and then flopped down again, letting out a pained groan.
Flipping the reins to his gun hand so he could pull them to the right, Nick rode around the man in coveralls and offered his left arm. The man grabbed onto his arm and held on so tightly that Nick thought it might get pulled from its socket. Some pain flared in Nick’s shoulder but ended as soon as the man hauled himself up onto the saddle.
“Go!” the man shouted as he lay awkwardly across Kazys’s rump.
“You all right back there?” Nick asked.
“Just go!”
Nick fired a shot at the other rider, who’d turned away from him as soon as his partner had been dropped.
Once he was within a yard or two of the train, Nick came to a stop and let the man slide off of Kazys’s backside. “How many more of you are out there?” Nick asked.
“Just one,” he replied after seeing the engineer climb down from his cabin. “If he ain’t already dead.”
That was all Nick needed to hear. He turned Kazys around, snapped the reins and got the horse moving toward the wreck. This time, however, he couldn’t see the other horseman or the other member of the train’s crew. Nick held his gun at the ready as he pulled back on the reins to keep Kazys from charging straight into an ambush.
When he saw something big moving around behind the wreck, Nick reflexively fired a shot at it. He pulled his aim slightly to one side, which caused a chunk of wood fly into the air. That was enough to force the horseman out from where he’d been hiding. Just then, the third horseman swung around the other side of the wreck while firing his gun at a short fellow wearing work pants and a dirty shirt.
Nick fired to scare the rider away from the remaining member of the train’s crew, but all he did was catch the rider’s attention.
The rider fired a quick shot at Nick, shouting, “Go to hell with the rest of yer Chink friends!”
Although the rider was a god-awful shot, Nick wasn’t about to stand by until he got lucky. He shifted his aim, pulled his trigger and felt the modified Schofield buck against his palm. Nick’s shot caught the rider in the chest and knocked him straight back and off his horse as if he’d been kicked by a mule.
Seeing that was more than enough to send the other rider in the opposite direction. As he dug his heels into his horse’s sides, the rider shouted, “You’re dead, asshole! You and all those goddamn Chinks are dead!”
Nick rode up to the man in the work clothes and offered his hand. This time, he was able to get the man somewhat situated on Kazys’s back rather than draping him over the horse like a sack of flour. “Are you hurt?” Nick asked.
“My arm’s shot, but I’ll be all right. Just get me out of here.”
Nick wasn’t about to argue. He brought the man back to the train. The other two were there waiting for him, so Nick asked, “What was all that about?”
“We were just going to see about clearing the track,” the engineer replied. “The three of us headed out there to have a look when them sons of bitches rode up and fired at us.”
“Why’d they do that?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is that I ain’t about to sit here any longer than I have to. I’ll drive straight through that mess rather than stay put and get shot at.”
Nick glanced around and said, “Looks like they’re gone for now, but I wouldn’t count on them staying away for long. I’ll see what I can do about that mess.”
“You already done plenty, mister,” the conductor said as the other two men nodded in agreement.
“Well, I’m not done yet. Neither are you men. I’ll need at least one of you to come along with me. My guess is you’re the man I’m after,” Nick said while nodding to the second man he’d brought to the train. “You don’t look wounded.”
“I ain’t,” the man replied. “At least, not yet.”
Nick had already replaced the spent shells in his Schofield with fresh ones from his gun belt. “Good. I’ll try to keep it that way. Come on.”
Even though he didn’t seem too excited by the prospect of heading back out there, the worker nodded and climbed onto Kazys’s back behind Nick.
“What’s your name?” Nick asked.
“Earl.”
“Hang on, Earl. I didn’t save your life just to toss it away again.”
“I sure hope not.”
Nick barely had to shake the reins to get Kazys moving again. Between the shooting and all the people climbing on and off of him, the horse was more than a little anxious. Using that in his favor, Nick got over to the wreck and circled it a few times in a matter of seconds.
From what he could see, the wagon’s rear wheels were mostly intact. The garbage piled up around the wagon made it look a whole lot worse than it was, but the front axle was most definitely beyond repair.
“Clear away that wood,” Nick said as he climbed down from the saddle.
Earl dropped down beside him and immediately got to work. “That’s what I was doing when those assholes showed up shooting the hell out of this place.”
“Then go ahead and commence. I think I can move this wagon a bit.”
“It won’t have to be more than maybe five feet or so,” Earl said as he picked up another large hunk of wood and tossed it away from the tracks. “As long as the wagon’s wheels are clear, the train should be able to push the rest of it aside.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Nick led Kazys around to the back of the wagon and then took the rope that was hanging from his saddle. He looped one end of the rope several times around the saddle horn and then dropped to one knee so he could tie the other end around the wagon’s rear axle. Even though his knots were strong and Kazys had pulled loads a lot bigger than this one, Nick still wasn’t happy with the sight in front of him.
“You think that’ll work?” Earl asked as he tossed away the last large piece of lumber and brushed himself off.
Nick shook his head. “I don’t know, but we’ll need to do more than stand here thinking about it.”
Just then, Nick spotted what could have been the armed horsemen riding around for another attack. One of them was slumped in his saddle as if he’d taken a hard fall, and the other was anxiously pointing toward the wrecked wagon. Unfortunately, there were more horsemen gathering around those other two.
“If we’re gonna get this done, we need to do it quick,” Nick said.
Earl ran around to the front of the wagon. “Come on over here,” he said as he lowered himself to get his shoulder beneath one end of the singletree, the pivoting crosspiece to which the tracings of a harness would normally fasten. “The two of us should be able to get this thing rolling.”
Even as Nick positioned himself, he had his doubts about lifting all that weight. Then again, the wagon didn’t look half as imposing without so much extra lumber piled around it. By the time he got his shoulder in place and his feet planted, Nick realized that the wagon was about the same size as the one he’d left with Catherine.
“On three,” Earl said. “One…two…”
“Wait a minute,” Nick interrupted. Before Earl could ask about the delay, Nick drew his gun and fired a few rounds at the horsemen.
There were half a dozen of them gathered not too far away and they scattered as hot lead was sent flying in their direction.
“All right,” Nick said as he got his shoulder back into place. “Three!”
