Blood Gold (10 page)

As Hannah grabbed Jack’s shoulders and cradled him to her chest, Gideon sauntered from them and joined Patrick and Rusty. He looked at each man in turn, noting that they were kneeling side by side, with none of the tension that had festered between them apparent.

‘Are you and Rusty all right?’ he asked Patrick.

Patrick glanced at Rusty, then hung his head a moment.

‘Perhaps,’ he murmured.

‘He can’t be,’ Rusty said. ‘That was a sham
showdown
. I was in no danger.’

‘But you didn’t know,’ Patrick said, meeting Rusty’s gaze for the first time in days without contempt. ‘You were prepared to die. And that means you ain’t no yellow-belly.’

‘Suppose I ain’t,’ Rusty said, his jaw firm. He raised his eyebrows. ‘But I won’t know for sure until I get our gold back.’

‘You mean, until
we
get our gold back.’

For long moments Patrick and Rusty stared at each
other. Then, with the barest of nods passing between them, the two men rolled to their feet and headed across the parade ground towards the powder
magazine
.

Patrick hobbled and Rusty held his shoulder, but the backs of both were straight.

When they reached the magazine, they flanked either side of the doorway then, on the count of three, leapt through the doorway.

Standing ten feet away from Hannah and the
prostrate
Jack, Gideon watched their assault.

Gunfire blasted across the magazine, the small explosions bright in the darkened room. Through the doorway, he saw Armstrong leap to the side and walk straight into a low blast from Patrick that
pole-axed
him instantly.

With his legs set wide, Rusty stood in the centre of the room and blasted at Leland in the doorway to the second room. A returning shot ripped into his arm, but he shrugged it off, then pounded repeated gunfire at Leland.

As Leland plummeted to the ground, Strang ripped lead into Rusty’s chest, spinning him to the ground.

Patrick scurried to Rusty’s side and, kneeling over his body, fired at Strang.

The shot cannoned into the wall and Strang leapt at him. Patrick rocked back on his haunches and fired up at Strang while he was still in the air. The shot blasted through Strang’s neck but even dead, Strang’s momentum carried him on and bundled
Patrick to the ground.

Patrick shrugged out from beneath Strang and leapt to his feet, his gun arcing towards each corner of the room, but moment by moment, the gunfire blasts echoed to nothing and all that remained was the evening calm.

Through the doorway, Gideon watched Patrick holster his gun and hunch over Rusty. Gideon gulped and glanced at Hannah who was matching Patrick’s posture over Jack’s body, but as he watched she pressed her head to Jack’s chest and her body twitched as silent sobs rent through her.

Gideon sighed and stalked across the parade ground and into the powder magazine. In the
doorway
he stood a moment, enjoying the quietness, then checked on Rusty. The shot that had taken Rusty had ripped through his chest and would have killed him in an instant. Then he checked on Patrick, and he wasn’t surprised to find he didn’t have any additional injuries.

He knelt at Patrick’s side.

‘Can you do anything for Rusty?’ Patrick asked.

‘Nope.’

Patrick gulped. ‘He was my friend. He died getting our gold back.’

‘That wasn’t the wound he was trying to heal.’

‘I know.’ Patrick smiled, then patted Rusty’s
shoulder
. ‘And I guess it was the same for me too.’

Gideon joined him and in silence they knelt on either side of Rusty with their heads bowed.

Only when a leg cramp forced Gideon to move did
he slap Patrick’s arm and point into the second room.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Show me this gold that so many men have died over.’

Patrick led Gideon into the second room. The pile of bags Gideon had only seen once before was sitting by the back wall.

‘If Jack hadn’t stolen it from us,’ Patrick said, ‘nobody needed to die.’

‘Perhaps, but I’ve never seen the attraction of gold myself.’

Patrick snorted. ‘You mean you don’t want a share for your help?’

‘Nope. There are more important things in life.’ Gideon frowned and glanced through the doorway into the darkening parade ground beyond. ‘And if you haven’t got those other things, who needs gold?’

Patrick sneered. ‘When you haven’t got the other things, gold compensates you.’

Gideon tipped back his hat, but the events of the last hour had blasted all enthusiasm for an argument from him and instead he dragged a blanket into the centre of the room, then deposited a bag on it.

One-handed, while still clutching his chest with the other hand, Patrick joined him in dragging the bags from the wall.

When the bags were in a pile, Gideon sat against the wall and watched Patrick check that all the gold was there.

Patrick grunted his acceptance of his bag count and pulled up the corners of the blanket, ready to
bundle the bags together, but then with his brow furrowed, he lowered the blanket and hefted a bag.

‘Wait a minute,’ he murmured.

‘What’s wrong?’ Gideon asked, rolling to his feet.

Patrick tossed the bag from hand to hand.

‘This just doesn’t feel right.’

He threw the bag to the ground and with a clawing finger, ripped it open. He peered inside, then stalked into the doorway where the early evening glow just provided enough light to see by. With his brow furrowed, he poured the contents on to the ground.

A pile of light dust grew.

‘Whoa,’ Gideon shouted. ‘That’s a bit reckless after all your trouble.’

‘Don’t worry yourself,’ Patrick grunted, rolling back from the bag to deliver a swiping kick to the dust pile. ‘This ain’t gold dust. It’s just dirt.’

Patrick dashed to the centre of the room and ripped open another bag, then another. He poured both bags on to the floor. In a frenzy he kicked and hefted bags, hurling them in all directions, kicking and tearing at the cloth until he flopped down to sit on the accumulated pile of dirt, clutching his ribs.

‘All dirt,’ Gideon whispered, unable to stop a smile twitching his lips.

‘All dirt,’ Patrick grunted. He glanced at Rusty’s body with something more than just loss etched into his face.

Then Gideon and Patrick shared a long stare.

Gideon was the first one to wince. With his arms wheeling for more speed, he dashed into the parade
ground, Patrick hobbling along behind.

In the parade ground, Jack’s body lay on its own.

‘Hannah!’ Gideon screamed, but his cry echoed to nothing across the parade ground.

Gideon dashed to the officers’ quarters, then round the powder magazine, but long before he’d checked all the buildings, he knew that she’d gone.

When Gideon had completed a circuit of the fort, Patrick still stood outside the powder magazine. He’d dragged Rusty’s body outside and stood over it with his head bowed.

Gideon joined him. ‘Seems like she didn’t need my help, after all.’

Patrick nodded. ‘She was just a whore and she took the best price one ever got.’

‘Her name is Hannah,’ Gideon muttered, then sighed. ‘But she can’t have got too far if you want to go after her.’

Patrick tipped back his hat and raised his head.

‘I don’t. You were right. She’s welcome to the gold. Sometimes you just have to settle for what you’ve got.’

‘You letting her steal your gold?’

‘Rusty and me got some of it back. It ain’t enough to make me rich. But it’s like you said, if you got
somebody in your life, who needs gold? And I got a family to go back to.’

‘You got it right there, Patrick.’

‘Besides, I got a feeling she was the most
formidable
foe in this fort and I don’t fancy my chances against her.’ Patrick winked, then turned and bent over Rusty’s body. ‘Now leave me. I have a friend to bury.’

Without complaint, Gideon left Patrick, but he still wandered around the fort, confirming that he was unable to help any of Jack’s men or Salvador’s followers.

Despite his joking promise to Salvador that he was accompanying him merely to bury the bodies, he only dragged them all into the powder magazine. By the time he’d moved the last body, the last sliver of brighter sky was coating the western horizon and Patrick had already plodded from the fort with Rusty dangling over his horse.

One last time Gideon glanced around the deserted compound, then headed for the stable and mounted his horse. With his head bowed, he rode through the gate and away from Fort Clemency.

Once he was on the open trail, he headed east towards a town called Destitution and a saloon called the Belle Starr.

He’d ridden for two miles when, at the crest of the first large hill, he narrowed his eyes and slowed his horse.

A rider sat astride the trail on the next hill, the form silhouetted against the night sky.

Gideon narrowed his eyes, but it was too dark to see anything other than the slightness of the form. Still, a smile spread.

It had to be Hannah.

But he continued at the same sedate pace as before. Closer to, he saw the pile of empty bags she’d dropped on the trail and atop them rested a mound. In the dark the mound was colourless, but as far as Gideon was concerned, it was clearly gold-dust.

Gideon pointedly kept his gaze from the mound and stared at Hannah.

‘I thought you’d headed west?’ he asked as he drew his horse to a halt.

Hannah shrugged. ‘I got to thinking about what you said.’

‘Any particular part? I said plenty to you over the last few days.’

‘Pretty much all of it.’

Gideon nodded and glanced down at the mound.

‘But you stole the gold.’

‘I did. It took some effort, but I’ve become skilled at squirrelling away money and hiding it in places nobody can find.’

‘Suppose you have.’ The mound again drew Gideon’s gaze. A breeze rustled the top. A flurry of dust spiralled away. ‘But keeping it in the open like that isn’t sensible.’

‘It isn’t.’ She glanced around at the surrounding hills, their outlines etching the night sky. ‘But I figured the dust came from the mountains. It can return there in its own time.’

Gideon tipped back his hat and blew out his cheeks.

‘You don’t want it?’

‘Nope. The things you’ll let people do to you for money have ruled my life. I don’t want to be that person any more.’

Gideon looked down at the mound again, then tore his gaze away.

‘If you don’t want it, I ought to tell Patrick.’

‘Will it make him any happier?’

‘Perhaps not.’ Gideon sighed. ‘But if you don’t want the gold, what do you want?’

Hannah smiled, her teeth bright in the dark.

‘I enjoyed helping Patrick to mend.’

For the first time, Gideon let himself smile.

‘I can help you develop that skill.’

‘I hoped you might.’ Hannah turned her horse from the mound and pointed east. ‘Come on, before that gold changes my mind.’

She turned her horse and trotted down the slope.

Gideon hurried after her.

‘You’ll make a fine carer,’ he said when he drew alongside. ‘You won’t regret this. Destitution is a poor excuse for a town, but I’m sure that …’

She turned in the saddle and smiled. ‘I reckon that Black Rock might be a better place to start afresh. Neither of us needs to return to the Belle Starr.’

‘But I was returning …’ Gideon contemplated Hannah’s welcoming smile. ‘Black Rock it is.’

With that, Gideon rode in contented silence, but
at the next hillock, a breeze rustled through his hair and he glanced over his shoulder.

The mound was disintegrating. The dust swirled into the air, with the starlight rippling through it. Inch by inch, the gold returned to its home.

Gideon gritted his teeth and tore his gaze away.

Hannah chuckled. ‘Stop looking over your
shoulder
and look forward, then this will be a whole lot easier.’

‘Yeah. But I can’t help thinking that we’ll have to survive until we get started in Black Rock. And that might take some time.’

Hannah licked her lips, but then threw back her head and ripped out a peel of laughter.

‘Don’t worry. It’ll be an adventure.’

Gideon nodded and took a deep breath.

‘On this adventure, do you think we will ever … that we will …’

Hannah turned to face him. ‘Can’t think that far ahead. For now, I just want to learn some new skills in a new town.’

‘I understand.’

She fluffed her hair. ‘And you might have
competition
in such a fine town. I might catch the eye of a prosperous gambler.’

‘You might.’ Gideon sighed. ‘But whatever you decide, I’ll still be there for you.’

‘I know,’ Hannah whispered.

Gideon smiled. One last time he slowed his horse and glanced over his shoulder.

The mound on the previous hillock was now only
half its former size.

Although the dust sparkled in the starlight, Gideon was surprised that it still resembled the dirt Hannah had planted in Patrick’s bags.

He shrugged and hurried after Hannah.

Ambush in Dust Creek

Silver Gulch Feud