Free Iron Eyes Must Die by Rory Black Page A

listened to the
sounds of those who still hunted him in the streets of Rio Concho
drifting on the warm afternoon air.
    ‘ Ya
got got any whiskey in that cabin of yours, Hanney?’ He
asked.
    ‘ Yep!
I also got vittles. I could rustle ya up a dandy meal if n you’d
like?’
    ‘ The
whiskey will do just fine!’ Iron Eyes followed the older man
through the stable towards the rear door. ‘But when the sun sets,
I’m headed back to the sheriff’s office! I like to know who I’m
killin’, Hanney!’
    Both men ran across the open ground to the
small cabin.

Chapter Eleven
    Marshal Casey Layne stood beside his
drinking mount and stared at the terrified face of Herb Snape.
Steam slowly hissed from unseen valves along the length of the
engine. The mighty locomotive had not been an easy catch, but the
lawmen had somehow managed to halt it before the engineer had
reached the steep gradient that led between the tall red mesas.
    ‘ I’d leave them outlaws
be if I was you, Marshal,’ Snape advised.
    ‘ How
many of them were there exactly?’ Layne asked. He watched his
deputies gathering the extra canteens from the senior
conductor.
    ‘ I
think there were seven, Marshal,’ Snape replied. ‘But I might be
wrong. I was plumb scared. Too scared to count. We all thought that
they was gonna shoot us.’
    Layne rubbed his chin.
    ‘ You’re a lucky bunch. Snake Adams usually kills all
witnesses to his crimes.’
    ‘ They
made me leave the baggage car back there.’ Snape indicated with a
nod of his wet brow.
    ‘ Anyone in it?’
    ‘ The
guard.’ Snape gulped. ‘We heard a real loud explosion a few minutes
after we left there. It shook everything for miles.’
    ‘ Reckon that guard is dead meat,’ Donner said
bluntly.
    ‘ So
old Snake Adams was after something in the baggage car, huh?’ Layne
said. ‘Was you carrying bullion or something valuable back there,
friend?’
    Snape shook his head.
    ‘ I
don’t think so. We had no strongbox aboard.’
    ‘ Odd.
Why would Snake waste his time if there was nothing valuable in
that car?’ The marshal was puzzled. ‘It don’t add up,
boys.’
    ‘ Maybe
he made a mistake, Marshal,’ Walker offered.
    Layne glanced at the deputy.
    ‘ He
don’t make that kinda mistake, Josh.’
    ‘ Maybe
they held up the wrong train,’ Donner suggested. ‘They all look the
same, don’t they?’
    Layne shook his head.
    ‘ If
Snake Adams held up this train, you can bet the farm that this is
exactly the train he intended to rob. Adams never made a mistake in
his worthless life. Nope, this was the train he intended to rob.
There must have bin something in that car he wanted. Something he
had to have.’
    ‘ We
was carrying a mail-bag.’ Snape said.
    ‘ That
could be it.’ The marshal sighed. ‘A parcel or a letter with
something in it that was worth risking holding up a train for.
Whatever it was, it was important.’
    The engineer mopped his sweating brow with an
oily rag and shook his head.
    ‘ I’m
getting too old to be held up like this, Marshal. This is the third
time since Easter.’
    ‘ Which
way were they headed, do ya figure?’ Josh Walker asked. He hung the
canteens on the saddle horns of the three mounts.
    Snape pointed along the tracks.
    ‘ They
was down near the canyon trail when we headed out.’
    ‘ How
far is it to the canyon exactly?’ Layne asked, turning to look
along the gleaming steel tracks.
    ‘ Five
or ten miles, I guess,’ the engineer answered. He was getting more
and more flustered. ‘I’m not sure, Marshal. I ain’t never measured
it. I just got this old loco moving as fast as I could when that
Snake critter told me we could go. I wasn’t hanging around for him
to change his mind.’
    ‘ A
train hold-up, Marshal.’ Donner nodded. He picked his hat up off
the dusty ground when his horse had finished drinking from its
bowl. ‘I figured that was what them varmints was gonna
do.’
    ‘ Yeah?’ Walker grinned.
    ‘ Sure
I did, Josh.’
    Layne gave