Coltaine's Revenge by Scott Connor

Author:Scott Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Culbin Press
Published: 2023-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“I reckon we’ve thrown them off,” Lewis said.

“Don’t look so pleased,” Cameron said. “It’s your fault they were chasing after us in the first place.”

Lewis left Ingersoll on lookout and faced Cameron. “I got us out of there, so quit complaining.”

“But we weren’t in no danger. We rode into town to ask if anyone had seen Thomas and found you running for your life.”

“Now they think we’re with you so we’re in the same trouble as you are,” Harlan grumbled. “And we’ll never find out if Thomas passed through Liberty.”

The two brothers set their hands on their hips. Lewis didn’t reply immediately, wondering if he should waste his time answering their complaints when they clearly didn’t want to hear his explanation of what had happened.

The last few hours had been fraught. After they’d fled the town, the seven men who had followed them had been dogged in their pursuit. After an hour they had searched for somewhere to hole up.

They had passed close to Randall’s End and Lewis had remembered a place he’d seen on his previous visit. So he’d directed them to a gully that had steep sides and an entrance that was so narrow it wasn’t visible from the plains unless you paid careful attention.

The gully had boulder-strewn gashes on either side to hide in and they had chosen a barely accessible one high on the left-hand side, holing up about twenty feet from the top. This position gave them a good view of the plains and Lewis had hoped their pursuers would ride on by. This relative safety hadn’t cheered his brothers.

“Have you two finished?” Lewis asked. He received snarled grunts that suggested they could carry on complaining until sundown. Lewis sighed. “If it’ll calm you down, I asked about Thomas in the saloon, but mentioning him got everyone trigger-happy.”

“So you reckon he paid them to attack us?” Cameron asked.

“That’s my guess.”

“Or maybe they hated your company as much as we do,” Harlan said.

“You won’t have to suffer that for long. When we’ve thrown Norton’s men off, I’ll leave.” Lewis turned to the gully, wondering which route would be the easiest to traverse. “In fact I’ll take my chances now.”

Lewis moved to climb up the twenty feet of sharply angled rock aiming to reach the top of the gully and lead his horse out that way, but Cameron stepped to the side and stood in his way.

“You’re not going nowhere until you tell us why you decided to go after Thomas.”

“Would you believe me if I said I’m all cut up about Jesse?”

“Nope.”

“Then I won’t bother answering.”

Lewis moved to head off, but this time Ingersoll raised a hand, halting him.

“You’ll answer his question,” he said. “Then you’ll stay with us so I can make sure you don’t shoot up any more towns.”

“Hey, I don’t want him riding with us,” Harlan said before Lewis could reply.

Cameron grunted the same sentiment making Ingersoll sigh. Then Ingersoll moved away from keeping lookout to face them. He shook his head at each man in turn.

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