Chapter
6
Conrad waited while the men walked off
and vanished into the darkness. They were no longer trying to be
quiet, so he was able to hear their footsteps. A few minutes later,
the swift rataplan of hoofbeats drifted to his ears as the avenging
angels rode away from the mesa.
He waited until he couldn’t hear the
horses at all, then waited some more. Finally satisfied the gunmen
were gone, he stood up, made his way to the ledge, and started
down.
As he climbed he thought about what to
do next. He and Arturo had several canteens full of water, as well
as a small barrel of it stowed in the back of the buggy, but it was
a long, dry stretch across that part of Utah. Conrad had planned to
take advantage of the water stops along the railroad.
He’d just learned some of their
enemies would be waiting for them at Navajo Wash, so that was out.
And so were the tanks at Frenchman’s Flat, wherever that was. Maybe
Selena would know of another place they could replenish their water
supply.
When he reached the bottom of the
trail, he turned in the direction of the rocks, but had taken only
a couple steps before he heard an all-too-familiar sound behind
him—the ugly, metallic ratcheting of a gun being
cocked.
A hard voice immediately followed.
“Don’t move, mister. It’ll be easier on me keeping you alive, but
I’ll shoot you if I have to.”
Conrad froze. He recognized the voice.
“Kiley.”
“You know me?”
“Only by what Leatherwood called you.
I thought you went to Navajo Wash.”
“I know what you thought,” Kiley said
with a note of boastful pride. “I told the other men with me to go
on, that I’d catch up to them at the wash, then doubled back here
on foot. I spotted that little ledge when we were here earlier.
Jackson never noticed it, but I thought at least one of you might
be on top of the mesa. Looks like I was right. I would have gone
up, but I heard you coming down and decided to wait and get the
drop on you.”
“You want all the credit for bringing
back the girl, don’t you? You’re trying to impress Father Agony so
he’ll make you the top man in his gang.”
Conrad heard the sharp, angry hiss of
breath between Kiley’s teeth. “Don’t you disrespect Elder Hissop by
using that awful name for him. You shouldn’t refer to the avenging
angels as a gang, either. We’re doing the Lord’s
work.”
“By killing?”
“If that’s what it takes. Now tell me,
are the other two still up there?”
“I’m not telling you
anything.”
“Then you’re a fool. I’ll put a bullet
in your knee so you can’t run and you’ll hurt so bad you’ll tell me
anything I want to know. Or you can cooperate, and once I have the
girl, I’ll let you and your friend go.”
Normally Conrad wouldn’t have believed
a promise like that. He didn’t know Mormons well enough to be sure
what they might do, however. Maybe Kiley was telling the
truth.
It didn’t really matter. Conrad wasn’t
going to turn Selena over to him. No matter how Agonistes Hissop’s
other wives felt about it, Selena regarded marriage to the elder as
being locked away in prison, and Conrad wasn’t going to condemn her
to that.
His mind raced furiously. His options
were limited. In the bad light he might be able to throw himself to
the side, whirl around, and drill Kiley with a round from the
Winchester before the man could shoot him. But Kiley would get at
least one shot off, and the sound of the blasts would travel a long
way over the desert. Leatherwood and the rest of the avenging
angels would hear them and likely come galloping back.
He decided for the moment the best
thing to do was stall and wait for an opportunity. “All right,” he
said with a defeated sigh. “They’re waiting up there while I check
things out down here. You can go up and see for
yourself.”
“And turn my back on you?” Kiley
laughed. “I don’t think so. You go up the trail
first.”
Conrad didn’t know Kiley, but the
gunman didn’t know him, either. He had no idea Conrad Browning
would never give in so easily.
“All right,” he said as he started
toward the ledge, dropping the Winchester. “Just be careful with
that gun. I don’t want you shooting me accidentally.”
“If I shoot you, it won’t be by
accident.”
Conrad stepped onto the ledge. He kept
his hands in plain sight so Kiley wouldn’t get nervous and
trigger-happy. In some places the path was so steep and rough he
had to rest his left hand on the mesa wall to steady himself. He
heard Kiley breathing hard a few steps behind him.
If he climbed all the way to the top
Kiley would realize Arturo and Selena weren’t there. He would be in
the same position he’d been in when Kiley first got the drop on
him. Conrad needed to turn the tables on the gunman.
Recognizing the spot where he’d almost
lost his balance Conrad stepped over the rock in the trail.
Planting his foot, he kicked back. His boot heel hit the rock and
sent it rolling down the trail right under Kiley’s
feet.
The gunman let out a startled yell. As
Conrad swung around, he saw that dodging the rock had caused Kiley
to lose his balance and fling out both arms to catch himself, which
meant the gun in his hand wasn’t pointed at Conrad
anymore.
Lunging at the man Conrad reached out
to close his hand over the revolver’s cylinder so the hammer would
strike the web of flesh between his thumb and forefinger rather
than the bullet in the chamber. In the same movement he swung a
hard punch at Kiley’s head, intending to knock Kiley off the ledge
and send him plummeting to the hard ground forty feet below. At the
very least, a fall like that would injure the gunman enough to
render him harmless for a while.
Kiley jerked his head aside as the
glancing blow scraped over his ear. Trying to wrestle his revolver
out of Conrad’s grip he lowered his shoulder and bulled into him,
slamming him against the mesa’s sandstone wall.
Neither man said anything as they
struggled on the narrow ledge. Kiley got a hand on Conrad’s throat
and forced him toward the edge. Conrad planted his feet and jabbed
a punch into Kiley’s midsection. The thought crossed Conrad’s mind
that they might both topple off the ledge and fall to their
deaths.
He grabbed hold of Kiley’s duster and
pulled himself closer. His knee came up, aimed at the gunman’s
groin. Kiley twisted aside and took the blow on his thigh. He
tightened his grip on Conrad’s throat and drove Conrad’s head
against the rock with stunning force that made skyrockets explode
inside his skull.
As he fought to hold on to
consciousness, Conrad threw his strength into another heave on the
revolver and finally ripped it free of Kiley’s grasp. Slashing at
the gunman’s head he felt the butt thud heavily against Kiley’s
temple. Kiley groaned in pain and his grip on Conrad’s throat
loosened. Conrad took the advantage and knocked Kiley’s hand away
from him. For a split second, neither of them had hold of the
other.
Conrad pressed his back against the
mesa and lifted his right foot in a kick that landed in Kiley’s
belly. Kiley bent over and stumbled back a step, his right foot
sliding off the edge of the trail. He yelled and flung his hands
out toward the wall in a frantic scrabble for a grip that would
save him, but there was nothing there. His arms windmilled futilely
as he pitched to the side, away from the mesa. Then he was gone,
falling through the darkness as a scream ripped from his
throat.
That scream lasted only a second
before an ugly thud abruptly silenced it. Conrad stood with his
back against the wall, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his
breath. His head was still spinning from being rammed against the
rock.
After a few moments, he felt steady
enough to straighten and look over the trail’s edge. He saw a dark,
unmoving shape sprawled on the ground.
With Kiley’s unfired gun in his hand,
he went back down the trail, moving as quickly as he dared. When he
reached the bottom, he kept the revolver leveled at Kiley’s
motionless form. As he approached he saw a spreading pool of black
under the gunman’s head. Kiley must have landed on a rock that
split his skull wide open, Conrad thought.
He risked checking for a pulse and
found none. Kiley was dead. He would do no more avenging for Elder
Agonistes Hissop.
Conrad straightened from that grim
task and tucked Kiley’s gun behind his belt. Sooner or later the
two men on their way to Navajo Wash would wonder why Kiley hadn’t
caught up with them.
That meant he had a chance to surprise
them, Conrad realized. He had to find Kiley’s horse. The animal
couldn’t be too far away. He stripped the duster off the dead man,
picked up Kiley’s hat, and then headed off into the
darkness.