Silver Gulch Feud by Scott Connor

Author:Scott Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Culbin Press
Published: 2020-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

LEE AND CARTER RODE down the darkening trail from the trading post to the Marriott ranch. They were just below the brow of a hill, when from ahead, gunshots blasted and echoed. They then rode in silence over the hill.

The Marriott ranch appeared ahead. The ranch house windows were open and harsh light from within burned down on the sparse scrub. Lee led as they cantered down the trail to the ranch gates.

In the light from the house, their horses would be visible to anyone in the house, but from here they could make a quick escape. Keeping as close to each outhouse as possible, they edged toward the house in a semicircle.

They stayed in the shadows as they shuffled past a stable, a barn and two derelict buildings to reach the side of the house. Lee leaned around the corner. Several windows were broken, with one destroyed, the frame lying in shredded lengths of wood on the porch.

Conversation drifted from the windows. The voices were low and determined. Then a scream tore through the muttering, echoing in Lee’s mind and chilling his blood. He started, stumbling back against the wall, and Carter jumped, too.

To return his heartbeat to a normal rhythm, Lee took deep breaths, but another scream pierced the night. It sounded animal. Lee had heard people in pain before, fallen planks having crushed them, but these screams were stronger than he’d heard before.

“Stay here,” Lee said, and patted Carter’s shoulder.

He took a last deep breath and kneeled. With deliberate care to avoid the shards of broken glass, he crawled around the side of the house and on to the porch to lie beneath the first window.

Someone spoke inside. From the volume of the voice, Lee guessed it was Abe.

“I can’t read this word,” Abe said. “This isn’t good enough. Write the next copy correctly or this will be a long night.”

Lee raised his head. Inside, bullet-ridden bodies hammered at his attention and blotted out everything else. He counted three spread over a table, a chair and by the window. In a chair thrust behind a desk, one man sat, hunched and facing the back wall. Elliott loomed over him, gripping his shoulders.

Spread around them, five other men leaned around the desk and the back wall, grinning; most were men who had been fighting in the shack just a few short hours ago. With his back to Lee and partly hiding the man at the desk, Abe slammed his hands on his hips and grunted an order.

Another scream pierced the night. Lee ducked. For five heartbeats he lay on the porch. He heard no more, so he raised his head. Inside, Abe had moved aside and the man at the desk had turned from the back wall.

The man held a knife and slowly he drew it across his own bared chest. Blood welled around the wound and dribbled over the man’s hand. Lee winced and crawled from the window to join Carter.

“What’s happening?” Carter asked.

Brightness streamed into the night from the window, creating an elongated rectangle of harsh light on the ground.

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