Free Bloody Trail by Ford Fargo Page A

off anytime they like, but if
we try and leave this oversized ditch they’ll drill us all, easy.
Well, if we’re gonna die anyway, I’m gonna die shootin’. With any
luck at all, I’ll take a few of those bastards with me.”
    “ Don’t be givin’ up quite yet,
Jimmy,” Bill advised. “Give me a minute or two to look around.
There might be a way out of this fix.”
    “ Don’t see how,” Robert Gallagher
retorted. He was braced against the sandy bank, holding his .44
Smith and Wesson American revolver. He thumbed back its hammer and
pulled the trigger. One of Danby’s men stumbled out of the scrub,
doubled over, his hands pressed to his gut. He staggered for
several feet, then spun to the dirt. He lay moaning in
pain.
    “ Gallagher?” Charley
exclaimed.
    “ Saw that hombre slippin’ through
the brush, tryin’ to sneak up on us, so I plugged him,” Gallagher
answered, matter-of-factly.
    “ Yeah, but you nailed dead center
him from this distance—with a six-gun.”
    Robert shrugged.
    “ Like Bill, I’ve practiced some,
too.”
    “ I reckon,” Charley said. “Bill,
you really think we can shoot our way out of here?”
    “ I think there’s a chance, yeah,”
Bill answered. “This gully runs down to the creek where those men
are holed up. I figure I can use it to reach the creek, then cross
it and get behind ‘em. That should catch them by surprise. When I
start shootin’ at their backs, it’ll give you fellers a chance to
get outta this spot, mebbe gun down a few of those hombres. With
luck, Satterlee will figure out what I’m up to, and he’ll make a
break for it too. I’ll just need you to draw their fire until I
make it across the creek.”
    “ Torrance, that’s plain suicide,”
Derrick objected. “You’ll be cut down before you get halfway
across.”
    “ Mebbe, mebbe not,” Bill answered.
“I only need a few minutes.”
    “ There’s gotta be another way,”
Jimmy said. “Why don’t you—”
    He was interrupted by a shout coming from the
ridge sheltering Satterlee and the others.
    “ You men out there,” Mack Haskins
screamed. “You the ones who shot my boys, and took my
wife?”
    There was a moment of silence, then a shouted
response.
    “ Yeah, I reckon we did. Surprised
you lived long enough to follow us.”
    “ You got my Mary there, send her
back!”
    “ Sorry, can’t do that. We’ve got
plans for her. Don’t worry about her bein’ killed, though. Once
we’re done with her, she’ll make a fine squaw for some Indian
buck.”
    “ You stinkin’, murderin’ sons of
bitches!”
    Satterlee lunged for Haskins, too late, as the
infuriated, crazed rancher ran up the ridge and into the
open.
    “ I’ll kill every one
of—”
    At least fifteen bullets tore into Haskins,
slamming him backward. His body lay quivering, his blood soaking
into the parched earth.
    “ They got another one of us,”
Gallagher said.
    “ And they’ll get all of us if we
just sit here waitin’,” Bill answered. “Unless one of you can come
up with a better plan, I’m headed across that creek. Appreciate
your coverin’ me.”
    “ Torrance, listen to me for just
one minute,” Derrick urged. “See that side branch over
there?”
    “ Yeah. What of it? It don’t lead
anywhere.”
    “ No, it doesn’t,” Derrick
conceded. “But I can ride along inside it while you head for the
crick, and lay down better coverin’ fire than just standin’ here.
Maybe with their attention on me and the rest of us, you’ll get
clean across without bein’ spotted.”
    “ That makes sense, Bill,” Charley
agreed. “I say let Derrick give it a try. Rest of us’ll cover you
both from here.”
    “ All right,” Bill answered. “Sure
wish there was a way we could take a prisoner or two, though.
That’d give us the chance to question ‘em, mebbe find out exactly
where Danby holes up in the Territories. I’d be willin’ to bet my
hat that’s not his entire bunch we’re facin’. I’m certain he