Jake stepped closer to the back window and when he was just six feet away, he stopped. The room was still thick with the smell of recent gunfire, but he knew that no bullets would be heading his way.
He had no idea what had happened, but Dave Forrest was surely dead. So, he released his Colt’s hammer and returned it to its holster. He didn’t call for Joe but pulled a match from his shirt pocket and ripped it across his belt buckle setting it ablaze.
What the light revealed was horrific, but Jake still had a hard time understanding what had happened to Dave. He let the match burn until it was about to singe his fingertips. He blew it out and tossed it aside before walking through the only doorway inside the building. After he stepped onto the dirt floor, he struck another match then spotted Dave’s gear and the firepit. He opened Dave’s saddlebags and found bundles of cash, including the seven hundred dollars he’d given to Dave before he began his useless search for his father. He blew out the match before he hung the saddlebags over his shoulder.
Then he rummaged blindly though one of the panniers until he felt the waxy cylinder of a candle. After lighting the wick, he soon had enough light to return to the other room to try and figure out what had happened.
Before he reached Dave’s body, he spotted the Martini-Henry lying on the floor nearby. But it wasn’t a rifle anymore.
He held the candle in his right hand as he picked up the shattered gun. It looked as if Dave had tried to fire a stick of dynamite rather than a cartridge. He suspected that Dave was about to shoot him and the nearby lightning strike that had made the sorrel toss him to the ground had found its way to the tempting steel of the Martini-Henry’s barrel. He didn’t understand the reaction itself, but the power of the lightening must have damaged the barrel and then set off the powder in the cartridge. Nothing else made any sense.
But after he spent a minute studying the useless rifle, Jake looked down at Dave’s mutilated body and as repulsive as it was, he had to examine the damage to try to understand what had caused such an unusual disfigurement. His head and face were damaged when the rifle exploded, but his chest and upper back were relatively untouched. Below his waist was relatively free of injury, too. But the middle of his body was almost cut in half.
He was still looking down when a drop of hot wax reminded him that he was still holding the candle. So, he let some of the wax drop onto a thick shelf along the wall and then stuck the base of the candle into the wax puddle before it hardened.
Jake then yelled, “It’s safe to come inside, Joe!”
While he waited for Joe, Jake noticed some spent brass scattered about the floor. He stepped to the closest one and picked it up. The bottleneck shape told him that it was meant to be fired by the Martini-Henry. Dave must have had all of the spare cartridges in his jacket pockets when the lightning struck. That massive charge of electricity would have been just as effective as a firing pin for setting off the ammunition. He noticed that Dave wasn’t wearing his gunbelt, or that would have made it even worse, but Dave wouldn’t have cared by then. Dave had been caught by surprise after all, but it was the bolt of lightning that shocked him, quite literally. Jake knew how lucky he had been because if it hadn’t flashed from the sky at that moment, he would have received his own fatal surprise.
Jake wasn’t sure if he was relieved that he wouldn’t have to shoot it out with Dave or angry that the man who’d murdered his parents hadn’t even known what hit him. Jake thought that the punishment was too sudden and too merciful. But there was no denying his frustration of not being able to ask him why he’d killed his parents. Now he’d never have his answer. At least not in this lifetime.
When Joe loudly entered, Jake was startled.
“Holy mother of God!” Joe exclaimed as he looked at the devastation.
Then he asked, “What happened to that feller?”
Jake held out the twisted remains of the Martini-Henry as he said, “I think he was getting ready to shoot me when a lightning bolt struck really close. It must have ripped down the rifle’s barrel and set off the cartridge. But the steel must have been damaged because the barrel exploded into this mess.”
Joe pointed to Dave’s body and asked, “But he looks like a pair of grizzlies were fightin’ over him for supper. Did the lightnin’ do that, too?”
“Not directly. See all the brass lying on the floor? He must have had them in his pockets when the lightning struck. They went off and pretty much blew his gut open.”
Joe pushed his old, saggy wet hat back on his head and said, “Well, I’ll be jiggered! I thought I seen damned near everything, but this is the strangest thing my old eyes ever delivered.”
“I hope I never see anything like this again.”
Joe then asked, “What are you gonna do with him?”
Jake looked down at Dave’s body for a few seconds then replied, “I’m not bringing him back. To be honest, I don’t care what happens to his remains. I’ll make you a deal, Joe.”
Joe rubbed his scruffy, whiskered chin and asked, “What kinda deal?”
“I figure that you’re Woman’s Breast’s mayor and justice of the peace, so I’ll leave
