Dark Territory by Terrence McCauley

Author:Terrence McCauley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2019-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Billy rode ahead to secure provisions from the train’s cook while Lagrange rode toward Mackey on a brown Appaloosa. Despite his city clothes, he seemed to handle the big horse with ease. “Two rode out and five came back. I take it two of them are your outriders and the man in the middle is your prisoner.”

“Says his name is Joe Wilson,” Mackey said. “The rest of his crew is dead. We’ll pick them up when the train gets closer to the damaged rail and the crew repairs the damage.”

“How much damage is there?”

“A section of track and all the ties,” Mackey said. “Doesn’t look like they burned anything, so the engineer and some volunteers should be able to get us back on track in a few hours. We’ll be late into Olivette, but I can’t remember the last time anyone was in a hurry to get there.”

“I’ll leave it to you to break the bad news to the conductor,” Lagrange said. “I don’t think the man likes me very much, and the feeling is mutual. I’ll be glad to take the prisoner off your hands while you and your friends get cleaned up.”

Mackey was a bit surprised. “And here I was thinking you’d be upset that we didn’t ask you to ride out with us.”

“I know my skills and you don’t,” Lagrange said. “It only makes sense you’d want to face the robbers with men you knew and trusted. I would have felt exactly the same way.”

His opinion of Lagrange improved all the time. He called back to the Boudreauxs. “This man’s name is Robert Lagrange. He’s from the Pinkertons. He’ll take the prisoner back to the train while you boys clean up. There’s a cabin for you boys all to yourselves. You should be pretty comfortable.”

“What about you, Aaron?” Hank called out. “You sleeping with the horses?”

He tipped his hat to Lagrange as the Pinkerton man took the reins of Wilson’s horse and led prisoner and mount ahead of them. He crossed the tracks in front of the engine and rode past the passenger cars with Wilson in tow.

It was hard for him to believe that everything had ended that quickly, but it had. “Me? I’ll clean up later. For now, I’m going for my coffee.”

But the screams from the train that cut through the morning air told him the coffee would have to wait.

He brought Adair into a full gallop with the Boudreaux twins right behind him.

Mackey brought her up short in front of the first car behind the tender car. He slid off the saddle and threw up the reins to Billy, who had ridden back to meet them. His Sharps was already in his hand. “Want me to go in with you?”

“No. I need the three of you to stay out here until I see what happened.”

Mackey climbed up to the first car and went inside. He kept his hand close to the Peacemaker without actually drawing it. No sense in scaring people until he knew exactly what he was up against.

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