Shadow Peak by Matt Cole

Author:Matt Cole
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780719821516
Publisher: Robert Hale

CHAPTER 11

Guns blazed behind as the three fugitives ran their mounts on into the thickening gloom of the afternoon.

They cast frequent glances behind for the first mile or so, then they were well past the last houses and the town dropped swiftly from sight. The girl had taken the lead and McCarty and Reason followed without question, but when they were into the foothills and it was almost full dark, she reined down and waited for them to draw alongside.

Annie was dressed for the cold in a fur jacket, lined jodhpurs, gloves, woollen muffler and a close-fitting fur hat, which covered her flaxen hair, and had flaps to protect her ears. Even in this emergency, Reason thought, she made a fine-looking picture sitting the prancing, snorting mount.

‘Do you think they are coming after us?’ she panted.

‘Hell, most likely they will,’ said Reason. ‘That big hombre with the smashed face was yelling at the others to get horses when we cleared that lane.’

‘What’re your plans, Annie?’ McCarty asked, turning to the girl. Then, as Reason, too, instinctively looked towards the girl, the deputy whipped out his Colt and pointed it at him. ‘I’ll take that six-gun now, Conant!’

The drifter was caught off-guard and he cursed himself for falling for the lawman’s trick, but made no effort to unbuckle his gun belt. He folded his hands on the saddle horn and looked into Cooper McCarty’s face with narrowed eyes.

‘You want it, you take it, Deputy,’ Reason challenged.

The girl was alarmed, as she glanced from one to the other. ‘What is this? We don’t have time for this sort of thing, Coop!’

‘’Course we don’t,’ Reason agreed. ‘That mob will be along directly and all our running will have been for nothing if we don’t get moving.’

‘No!’ Cooper McCarty said stubbornly. ‘I let you out to save your neck, but that don’t mean you get your gun back. You got a good chance of bein’ innocent, but we’ll let the US Marshal in Blall City decide that, I reckon.’

‘You blamed fool!’ Reason Conant told him crisply. ‘If I hadn’t grabbed my gun and that Greener, we would both be dead men by now. You would have been blown apart or swinging from a cottonwood right alongside me.’

‘That’s as maybe, but I wanted to try to get you out of town without bloodshed and you downed several of them miners and townsmen,’ McCarty noted.

Reason snorted. ‘They were gonna lynch me, goddamn it! What would you expect me to do?’

‘You should’ve gotten that rear door open, like I said, while I held them off …’

Suddenly, Reason kicked his heels into his mount and the startled animal emitted a shrill whinny and leapt forward. It slammed into the deputy’s mount and McCarty grabbed for the saddle horn while Reason ducked and reached for the deputy’s six-gun. However, it exploded in a wild shot before he could close his hand around it. He cursed and drew his own Colt, clipping McCarty lightly on the head with the barrel.

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