Free Last Train to Bannock [Clayburn 02] by Marvin H. Albert Page B

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        He looked again at Haycox. "Good enough?"
        Haycox shrugged a thin shoulder. "Not too bad. Sure it's the best you can do?" He stood up with a swift, uncoiling motion, his hands poised over the butts of the two guns strapped low to his thighs. "You looked a little slow to me. Try again."
        Roud hesitated, then slipped the Colt back in his holster. "Okay." He spread his feet, eyes focusing on one of the two pieces of rock, his compact figure hunching for a fast draw. Then he made his move, faster than the last time.
        Both of Haycox's hands moved at the same time. His guns seemed to spring into them. They roared simultaneously, before Roud's gun was even clear of its holster.
        The two rock fragments smashed into bits.
        Without bothering to look at Roud, Haycox turned to Clayburn. "Maybe you'd care to try it?"
        "What for?" Clayburn asked in a bored voice.
        "I'd like to know just how good you are."
        Clayburn showed his teeth in a kind of a smile. "Then we'd both know, wouldn't we?" He shook his head. "Nope. It's a waste of scarce ammunition."
        The gunman's thin face tightened. "If you're expecting trouble from Adler, some target practice for everybody wouldn't be a bad idea."
        Clayburn stood up, dusting his hands on his thighs. "Anybody that needs target practice at this point, doesn't have enough time left to learn."
        He motioned to Roud and sauntered off to check the corralling of the horses and mules.
        Cora Sorel rose to her feet beside Haycox. "You two certainly don't seem to get along very well."
        He turned on her angrily. "And you and him seem to get along too damn well."
        Amusement quirked her lips. "Jealous?"
        His empty eyes fastened on her face. "You know how you acted with me in Parrish," he said tightly. "Not like that time in Butte when you wouldn't let me get near you. That's why I came along on this stupid job. And you know it."
        Cora patted his cheek softly. "I know."
        "If I thought you were just stringing me along for the use of my guns… making me wait for something that's not going to be…"
        She smiled at him. "Simmer down, honey. You'll find out if I meant it or not, when we get to Bannock."
        The promise he thought he saw in her eyes mollified Haycox. But not entirely.
        
***
        
        An hour after dawn the next day the wagon train came to the sand-dune barrier stretching from horizon to horizon across their path. Clayburn was there waiting for them, having set out before dawn to hunt the best way across. He stood by his big sorrel horse between two dunes that rose like brownish waves more than six feet above his head, their crests rippling in the steadily moaning wind.
        The brim of his hat was tugged well down over eyes narrowed to slits, and he'd tied a bandana across the lower part of his face to keep the flying sand out of his nostrils and mouth. As the others neared the undulating dunes and felt the stinging lash of the wind-whipped grains of sand, they followed his example.
        He gathered the men and stated the situation flatly. "There's no easy way across. So we'll try it where it's narrowest, which is right here. It's about a two-mile haul. Some spots have been blown almost clear. But there're longish stretches where it's pretty deep that'll take some doing. Let's get started by double-teaming the first four wagons."
        Because the chuck wagon was much lighter than the freight wagons, he'd decided on testing the route across by taking it through first. While the teamsters unhitched the mule teams from the last four freight wagons and joined them to the teams of the first four, the chuck wagon got rolling. Roud had taken over the driver's seat. Clayburn and the powerful Kosta went on foot, leading the first of the team horses and pulling them along when they hit the sand drifts between the