A Coffin Full Of Dollars (14 page)

"Be careful, though," Shadrach said nastily. "The woman with the whip is a bit larger and more competent than the ones you boast about murdering. If she should fight back, you would have to call for plenty to help to save your worthless skin."

"I've got plenty of help," Apachito said, grinning. He crabbed his way along the ledge until he was over the solid bank, then dropped down. "Come on out, boys."

Every rock mass and heavy tree trunk in the immediate area suddenly disgorged one or more of Apachito's toughs, all with guns drawn and cocked, all leering triumphantly. Lupo, his second in command, tramped up behind the two and snatched their guns.

"So," Apachito said, "if
we
didn't get the money chest, and
you
didn't get it, then who did?"

"We wouldn't have any idea," the hunter said.

"Like hell we wouldn't," Shadrach broke in. "We know exactly who got it. Dandy Deever used that trick coffin of his to steal it right under our noses." From the corner of his mouth he muttered, "Stop looking so damned outraged. If we can't have the money, then I want to make sure that double
-
crossing rat doesn't get to enjoy it. As long as I can't get my hands on Dandy's throat personally, Apachito is the likeliest candidate for that honor."

"When you put it that way," the hunter murmured, "I'm on your side."

Apachito was scowling in thought, scratching his coarse thatch with the muzzle of his pistol. He took Lupo aside for a whispered conference, then turned to his captives.

"Where was the circus going to give its next show after Hangville?"

"Gun City was the plan, but that was before the flood," the hunter said, "and before he got suddenly rich enough to retire. Now it's anybody's guess. He can't put on his star act because his trick coffin is here, and he doesn't have a replacement. Whether or not he can show anywhere will also depend on how much other equipment he could recover after the flood."

Apachito and his second held another, and longer, low
-
voiced discussion.

"Come, come, Shadrach," the hunter murmured under his breath. "Why don't you look happy? Your fondest dreams have come true. You've found Apachito, his gang and his secret headquarters, and unless I'm badly mistaken, the missing wagonload of gold bars will be around here somewhere. You even know what became of the bank's half-million dollars. So why aren't you dancing with delight instead of standing there looking like an undertaker with the pox?"

"You left out the best part," Shadrach said sourly. "It's that I don't have to play wet nurse to you any longer. You can get yourself killed in any stupid way you want to and I'll do my dancing on your grave. From here on, anything that happens to you is all right with me—just so long as it's bad."

The hunter shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid you're just a nasty, miserable old misfit, doomed to go through life unloved and unwanted."

"Oh, shut up," his rival snarled, "and start using that thing your hat sits on to figure some way out of this, or neither of us will have very much life left to go through."

The conference ended with Lupo setting off at a trot
.
Apachito gestured with his pistol.

"Bring these two along, then saddle up and get ready to ride."

"Where we goin', chief?" demanded a small, pallid, hatchet-faced bandit whom the hunter identified as Tug Leeper with a two-thousand-dollar bounty on his narrow head.

"To pick up a half-million dollars," Apachito grinned.

The canyon was roughly in the shape of a letter U, with the tunnel opening at the extreme tip of one arm. The two captives were marched around the base curve of the U, through the edge of a dense woods. They could hear a number of horses snorting and stamping somewhere close by but hidden by the trees.

They emerged from the denser woods into the left-hand arm of the U. Here the ground was more open, the trees further apart, the rockfalls confined mainly to the base of the cliff. Back where the woods began to thin out, a number of log cabins were tucked under the trees.

Close by these were more than a dozen wagons of various sizes and descriptions, together with one stagecoach. Obviously these had been taken in holdups and robberies, probably to haul the loot back to the hideout. One of the wagons, more massively constructed than the rest, still had some kind of load covered by a tarpaulin in the wagon bed. A sign painted on the side read
LUCKY NUGGET MINE.

"I told you so," the hunter murmured from the corner of his mouth. "There's the missing gold wagon and from the look, I'd say the gold is still on board."

Just behind him one of the outlaws snarled, "Cut out the gabbing, you! Apachito'll give you a chance to yell your head off when the time comes."

A well-beaten road ran from the wagon park up the left-hand arm of the U to the end, where it disappeared into a slot just wide enough for wagons to ease through. This was clearly the main entrance and exit, but how its outer opening could have eluded discovery for so long was a baffling mystery.

Apachito led the way to the edge of the woods in front of the cabins and wagon park and called a halt. He stood looking around, scowling fiercely as if something displeased him. Lupo came around from behind the cabins, carrying two sets of jingling handcuffs.

"These are the longest chains I could find, chief."

"No good," Apachito growled. "Around here the trees are either too big or too small."

Lupo leaned close, talking urgently and gesturing toward the wagon park. His words were inaudible to the prisoners, but Apachito finally nodded.

"It might do, at that, if it's stout enough. Come along and we'll find out."

"I don't know what he has in his little mind," Shadrach murmured softly, "but I have a feeling we aren't going to like it one bit."

From just behind them the rasping voice of an outlaw snarled, "One more peep out of either of you and I'll introduce you to something else you won't like."

CHAPTER 17

The prisoners watched, narrowed-eyed, as Apachito and his lieutenant circled the gold wagon, studying it intently. The two rear wheels came in for special concentrated attention.

Apachito shook them, kicked them, tried the iron tires for tightness. He tested each individual spoke for solidity, then he and Lupo together pulled on them with all their might. The stout oak refused to break or even to bend under their combined strength. He nodded with satisfaction.

"They will do perfectly, old friend." He turned and motioned to his men. "Bring the two over here and stand them, one facing each wheel."

The two were prodded forward to the gold wagon's wheels and ordered to thrust their arms through the indicated spokes. Apachito snapped handcuffs on the hunter's wrists, locking his arms around three of the heavy spokes, while Lupo did the same with Shadrach. He stepped back, grinning.

"Make yourselves comfortable,
amigos
, but don't waste your energies trying to move the wagon. It required all the strength of a four-horse work team to haul it here and I do not think you can match that."

He chuckled at his own wit and the outlaws guffawed obediently.

"Ha-ha-ha," the hunter said sourly. "The next time you see Dandy Deever, give him a demonstration of your humor and he might give you a job as assistant clown."

"I can be even funnier, as you will see," Apachito said, patting the hunter's back. "Since you first met some of my men, I have had much time to think and I have thought of a great many exciting and amusing things for you. Now, when we return, it will be even better because you and your friend Shadrach will be able to share the fun."

The hunter's head snapped around. "How did you know?"

Apachito chuckled again. "The description and the reputation of the deadly Shadrach have long been as well known to us as yours. Now the name of Apachito will become even more famous as that of the one who destroyed the two most notorious bounty killers in the West."

He turned and gestured and the outlaws followed him around the cabins and back into the woods. Their horses must have been picketed close, because almost immediately the prisoners could hear the slap of heavy saddles on blanketed horseflesh and the usual chorus of profane complaint. "Stand still, damn yuh!" and "Open your goddam mouth for the bit, you jughead!"

The hunter leaned f
a
r over to look past the rear of the wagon to his rival. Shadrach was sitting on the ground, grimly and methodically banging his handcuffs down on the inside of the wheel hub. The hunter sighed.

"You're wasting your time and your energy, old man. I happen to be familiar with these particular cuffs. They're the newest type, specially designed
not
to fly open at a sharp rap, the way the old style ones often would."

"I suppose you've got a bright idea for some better way to get loose," Shadrach snarled.

"I will have," the hunter said brightly. "I'm giving the problem a lot of serious thought, and when I do that something usually comes of it."

Shadrach swore at him.

The outlaws came streaming back out of the woods on their horses. Apachito reined in and grinned down at his prisoners.

"Don't wait up for us or worry if we're late getting back. If we're lucky enough to locate the circus and conclude our business tomorrow morning, we may be back by tomorrow night. But, of course, if Dandy Deever has taken flight or gone into hiding, it might take us weeks to find him and get the chest of money. But you two needn't worry. We're not coming back until we have it."

He gestured and the whole band raced off up the left arm of the U and disappeared into the slot that obviously led to an exit.

"Oh, great," Shadrach said. "Now try and imagine what we
'
ll look and feel like after even a week or ten days handcuffed to these wagon wheels without food or water. Maybe it will spur your self-styled genius to figuring out some means of escape while we still have the strength."

"Oh," the hunter said, "I had that all figured out long ago. I'm just waiting for them to get well out of sound-range before I start the ball rolling."

From the direction of the slot came a muted rumble, like the mutter of distant thunder, followed by minutes of silence, then the rumble again, terminating in a muffled crashing sound.

"I figured that's how it had to be," the hunter said cryptically. "So now we're in business."

"Keep it up," Shadrach said sourly. "I'm beginning to think maybe you weren't fooling when you told about getting thrown off a horse on your head when you were still a brown-pants kid."

The hunter brought his left arm up tight against the wagon spokes, his right hand cupped under the sleeve. He pressed and there was the muted
click
of a spring clip being released. The little double-barreled derringer slid out of the sleeve into his hand.

He said, "Duck down below the wagon bed and stay down until I tell you. Lord knows where these slugs might ricochet if that oak is as hard as it seems."

He cocked the twin hammers and by a mild feat of contortionism got the muzzle of the derringer up close to the middle of one of the wheel spokes encircled by his arms. The little gun
blammed
with a noise all out of proportion to its size. Splinters flew from the spoke but when he hauled the handcuff chain against it hard, it still resisted. The hunter swore.

"Dammit, I don't have many bullets of this caliber and I was hoping one to a spoke would do the trick. Oh, well..."

He fired the other barrel. Again oak splinters flew and this time, when he brought pressure on the damaged spoke, it snapped in two. By pressing his body tight to the wheel, he managed to get two fresh bullets from under the poncho and reload the derringer.

"I've got two of those toys," Shadrach said, "sewn into my coattails, but they're not much help when I can't reach them."

"I'll make it with this," the hunter said. "You'll find plenty of use for yours later."

The second spoke separated after one shot; the third again required two. Then suddenly, except for the handcuffs confining his wrists in front, the hunter was free. He stood up.

"Now, don't go away. A pack like this with a price on their heads can't just ride into town when they need blacksmithing. They'll have their own shop around here somewhere, complete with the tools I'll need to cut you loose and get us both out of these steel bracelets. I'll find them and be right back."

"Don't rush," Shadrach said, yawning. "I'm really quite comfortable here and I didn't have any place of importance to go this afternoon, anyhow."

On his way the hunter detoured to glance into the nearest cabin. He found it to be, as he had suspected, merely a slovenly dormitory, the walls lined with bunk beds in double tiers, the floor littered with dirty clothing. He started to close the door when an obscure impulse made him glance upward. A set of deer antlers were nailed above the door and resting across these was a Winchester rifle. He got it down and levered the chamber open. It was fully loaded, which proved to be fortunate, since a search of the cabin turned up no spare shells.