Reaper's Fee (6 page)

Nick hated being on a train.

It wasn’t a fear that some folks had of being hitched to a steam engine rolling over two iron bars. It wasn’t a fear of Indians derailing the whole locomotive and sending him to a fiery death. It wasn’t any sort of fear at all. It was more like a vicious annoyance at the entire process.

Sitting upon a bench that rattled beneath him for hours on end, Nick clenched his eyes shut as tightly as he clenched his fists. He knew there was no other way to get from California to the Dakotas with enough time to have a prayer of finding Barrett’s grave ahead of the treasure hunters. If he’d ridden Kazys any farther than the train station, he would be in for the journey that had tested the resolve of so many wagon trains back in the great westward rush.

As much as Nick loved his new homeland, he sometimes cursed it for being so damn big. With that thought, Nick caught himself slipping into the mind-set he’d had when he’d looked at this country
for the first time. The tight confines of the passenger car and the constant motion of everything around him were all too similar to the cramped quarters of the leaky ship that had deposited Nick and his father at Boston Harbor.

As a child, Nick and his parents had taken a boat from the country where he’d been born. So much had happened since then and so much had changed that those days seemed more like a story that someone had once told to him than a memory.

To Nick’s childish eyes, the ship had seemed as big as a town even though he was forced to spend most of his time in a space as big as a box. It was stuffed to bursting with so many bodies that the stench of them still lingered in the back of his nose. Most of those bodies had been alive, but that changed once a sickness swept through the passengers stuffed below the decks. To this day, Nick didn’t know if those passengers were supposed to be on that boat or if they’d been allowed to board thanks to a corrupt captain who’d taken their money and given them rotten rations in return.

In the end, none of that truly mattered. The passengers had gotten sicker as the boat drew closer to the Boston shore. By the time it bumped against Nick’s new homeland, the vessel was lighter thanks to the dozens of bodies that had been dumped overboard.

One of those bodies had belonged to Nick’s
mother. After that, he’d told his father that he never wanted to see an ocean again. Although they’d had their differences over the years, the old man had kept his word and took Nick to grow up in the middle of the New World.

Nick sifted through his memories and tried not to think about the long train ride that was still ahead of him. His mood improved a bit, however, once he discovered the dining car while stretching his legs. When meals weren’t being served, some of the tables were occupied by men who’d set up card games or women who wanted to get away from the occasionally rowdy general population of passengers.

Nick found a slightly more comfortable chair against a window that allowed him to watch the land roll past him in a blur of greens and browns. It was a softer time of day when the sun bathed the terrain in a red glow to make the window seem more like a painting. The easy smile on Nick’s face lasted right up until he opened the window and caught a hot cinder in his eye. Shutting the window angrily, Nick swore he could hear someone laughing at him from one of the other tables.

Taking a moment to figure his distance to the Badlands, Nick toyed with the idea of stopping the train by any means necessary, taking Kazys from the livery car, and riding the rest of the way. The estimate Nick arrived at wasn’t to his liking. The train ride would be long enough. If he rode to the Dakotas the more familiar way, he might as well
let any number of grave robbers take their shot at Barrett’s inheritance.

Nick got up from his chair and walked to the back of the car. The cool wind he felt when stepping between cars only reminded him of being in the saddle when Kazys had built up a full head of steam. When he found the sleeper car, he looked for a conductor.

“How much for a bed?” Nick asked.

The conductor was a happy fellow who walked the row of every car as if he was touring his own Promised Land. “Let me check to see if there are any left,” he said. After flipping through a few pages on his small pad of paper, he tapped it with his finger and chirped, “We’ve got one open. It’s…”

“I’ll take it,” Nick cut in as the conductor was trying to figure out which door to point to.

Nick didn’t care how much he would have to pay for the compartment. When he heard the price, he handed some money over to the conductor and dragged himself through the narrow doorway.

The compartment wasn’t much more than a closet with a view. There was a cot hanging from a wall, a window and a stool. Nick sat down on the cot, pulled the shade over the window and then closed his eyes. He drifted off to sleep eventually, but didn’t get any better of a rest than when he’d dozed off while sitting on one of the benches with the rest of the passengers.

Whatever he’d paid for the room, Nick vowed he wouldn’t pay it again.

Hours dragged into days.

Towns came and went.

The sun made its rounds in the sky.

There were plenty of stops and starts along the way. After a while, Nick stopped keeping track of them, since doing so only reminded him of how much longer he had to be cooped up in that damn crate on wheels. Just because he wasn’t paying complete attention, however, didn’t mean that he hadn’t grown to learn the subtle sounds and feel of the train itself.

When it rattled and squealed this time, Nick knew something was wrong.

He was sitting on the bench that seemed to give him the fewest splinters, his head leaning against the window. As the train shook and the wheels screeched, Nick rubbed his eyes and forced himself to focus upon the window. Unlike the other times when he’d felt the train slow, there wasn’t a station or even a platform in sight.

Cautiously opening the window, Nick looked outside. Since he didn’t have any point of reference, it would have been just as helpful to guess where he was on the map by the position of the clouds in the sky.

“Hey,” Nick said to the conductor who hurried down the aisle. “What’s happening?”

“Just making a stop,” the conductor replied.

“Where are we?”

“Wyoming.”

“Where in Wyoming?” Nick growled.

For the first time since the train had left California, the conductor actually reacted to the gruff tone in Nick’s voice. “Sir, you’ll just have to stay here and be patient. I’m going to find out right now.” With that, the conductor moved along to push his way past the rest of the anxious passengers.

Nick let out an aggravated sigh, but he couldn’t blame the conductor for being terse. Even though he was sure someone in uniform would make some sort of announcement before too long, Nick wasn’t very good at waiting. He also wasn’t inclined to trust men in uniforms.

Nick’s first impulse was to sit back down and try to think of something else while things were straightened out. That kept him appeased for all of three seconds before he was once more shifting and aching to get up.

He couldn’t quite figure out what was bothering him until he took another long, deep breath.

Smoke.

He smelled smoke.

He hadn’t been completely certain at first, but now that he’d pulled in enough of it for the taste to collect at the back of his throat, he would have staked his life on it. Nick went to the window again and looked outside. All he could see was the Wyoming landscape, and that didn’t give him anything to go on. When he opened the window and stuck his head outside to get a look further up the
tracks, the first things he saw were the backs of the heads of all the other people who were doing the same thing.

Even so, all Nick had to do was crane his neck to look upward in order to see the trail of black smoke snaking into the sky.

“God damn,” Nick muttered as he tried to pull his head back into the train without losing an ear.

As he got up from his seat, Nick had to shove his way through a small crowd as more and more passengers struggled to get to a spot where they could get a better view of whatever was holding them up. Nick lost more patience with each step he took. Most of those other passengers seemed to be more concerned with finding another way to trip him up rather than the scent of smoke growing thicker in the air.

By the time he made it to the door leading out of the car, Nick practically exploded through it. Rather than step into the next car, he stepped to the edge of the iron grate separating him from a drop off the train. Nick held onto the grate and leaned out until he was well beyond the row of curious heads poking out from various windows. What he saw was almost enough to make him lose his grip on the rusted iron bar.

There was a fairly good-sized town in the distance, which was swarming with activity. People ran to and fro. Horses bolted in every direction and the sounds of screaming voices could occasionally be heard. All of that sunk into Nick’s
senses while his eyes soaked up the sight of the flames that engulfed an entire section of town.

“Good God,” Nick whispered.

Now that he was outside, the smoke in the air was almost thick enough to choke on. He wondered just how long those flames had been burning. Nick wanted to ask someone what was going on. Part of him even considered hopping off the train while it was stopped so he could go find out.

The longer he watched those flames, the harder it was for him to look away.

They formed a constantly moving shape that leaped up and then dropped back down again. The air around the fire wavered as heat billowed out like an extension of the black plumes of smoke. The roar of the flames rubbed against Nick’s ears, mingling with the high pitch of panicked screams.

The door to the next car came open and the conductor stepped through in such a hurry that he didn’t even notice Nick was standing there.

“What’s going on here?” Nick asked.

Jumping at the sound of Nick’s voice, the conductor replied, “Town’s on fire,” and started pulling open the door to the car Nick had just left.

“I can see that. Did we stop to lend a hand?”

The conductor chuckled and leaned over the side to get another look for himself. “Doesn’t look like there’s much we can do about it. We stopped because the tracks are blocked. I didn’t see exactly
what’s blocking us, but I hear it’s quite a mess.” He reached out once more for the door’s handle, paused and looked at Nick again. “I’d like to avoid frightening the passengers any more than necessary. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t…uh…fan the flames, so to speak.”

Recognizing an opportunity when he heard one, Nick asked, “How much longer are we going to be stuck on this train?”

“To be honest, I couldn’t say. I got word that the town’s station isn’t allowing anyone to leave the trains.”

“What?”

“There’s some sort of riot going on.” Squinting at Nick, the conductor added, “Couldn’t you hear the gunshots? I thought that’s why you were out here.”

Ever since the train had first gotten up to full speed, Nick hadn’t been able to hear much of anything else besides the roar of the engine, the grinding of the wheels and the screaming of the kids in the passenger cars. For the sake of this conversation, however, he nodded and said, “Of course I heard them. I’d like to have a look for myself instead of sitting out here and waiting for the bullets to start breaking windows.”

“We might be stuck until they clear the track, but that shouldn’t take too long. At least we have sleeper compartments.”

“You let me and my horse out here and I’d sure appreciate it.”

The conductor blinked once and then said, “I just told you that we’re not letting anyone disembark.”

“Then maybe I should consider it my civic duty to let folks know exactly what’s going on. If they ask my opinion, perhaps I should tell them whatever I may have gathered from talking to you. I’m sure they’d love to get the real story.”

“You do that and I can have you detained,” the conductor said sternly.

Nick dug into his pocket and pulled out a few dollars. Tucking them into the conductor’s pocket, he said, “Then how about you do a favor for someone in a real hurry?”

“Fine,” the conductor snapped. “If you’re some sort of goddamn looter, you’ll be shot on sight anyhow. Head to the livery car and I’ll let you out.”

Nick smiled for the first time since he’d been cooped up in that train. “That was easier than I expected.”

“I’ve got more than enough to do without worrying about some lunatic who wants to make things worse,” the conductor replied as the good humor drifted back into his voice. “You already paid for your ticket, so you can get off whenever you like. Try to keep quiet about this, though.”

“You worried about catching hell from the engineer?” Nick asked.

“No. I’m worried that you might start a rush of more folks wanting to get off this train.”

“Even with the shots and the fire?”

Rolling his eyes and nodding, the conductor said, “You’d be amazed at how stupid folks get when they get scared.”

That drew Nick’s eyes back toward the chaos happening in the town. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“If you don’t make it back before we get moving again, you’re on your own. I can give you a slip so you can catch the next train and that can carry you the rest of the way into Cheyenne. That is where you were headed, right?”

“That’s right.”

“You sure about this, mister? Things look awfully rough out there.”

“I wouldn’t have them any other way.”

The town’s name was Rock Springs. Nick read it on a sign that was still in pristine condition not too far ahead of the train. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw the side of the livery car was already shut tight. There were still plenty of folks sticking their heads out the windows and Nick could only imagine the questions they were throwing at that poor conductor who’d given the okay for Nick to leave.

Kazys must have hated the train ride as much as Nick, because the horse had bounded from the car without even noticing that the ramp hadn’t been lowered. Only the shots, the screams and the roaring fire ahead brought the horse to a stop. Nick tugged on the reins to settle Kazys down a bit, and made a bit more progress by rubbing the horse’s ear.

“It’s all right, boy,” Nick said. “I ain’t out of my mind. When you see this much hell in front of you, it’s always better to be on the move instead of cooped up in a goddamn box.”

Kazys let out a gruff breath and shook his head.

“Or, maybe I am a little out of my head,” Nick added. “Either way, at least we’re off that train.”

When he closed his eyes, Nick actually felt his nerves settle. The sounds drifting from Rock Springs weren’t exactly comforting, but they beat the hell out of rattling around with the rest of the passengers like a bunch of moths knocking against the inside of a crate.

When he opened his eyes, Nick focused on bits and pieces of the chaotic picture in front of him. In the old days, Nick hadn’t been too interested in fires that he hadn’t started. After spending some time living in a town rather than robbing it, Nick knew that every spare hand could be put to good use in a situation like this. Considering the shots that he heard crackling through the air, Nick figured he could be of some use in other aspects as well.

Just as he was about to snap his reins, Nick heard a shot come from somewhere a hell of a lot closer than the town. In fact, the sound of the shot was accompanied by the whistle of a bullet whipping past his head. Nick reflexively hunkered down and snapped Kazys’s reins to get the horse moving.

“That’s right!” someone shouted from not too far away. “You better keep runnin,’ you Chink bastard!”

Another shot was fired at Nick’s back as he touched his heels to Kazys’s sides and rode back
toward the tracks. Now that he was moving along the tracks, Nick got a much better view of what had brought the locomotive to a stop. A wrecked wagon with only two wheels lay piled upon the tracks. The front end of that wagon was wedged into the ground and there were several other piles of broken planks and lumber around the wreck.

Nick’s attention was quickly diverted to the men who were circling the wreck. A few of those men were on foot and running back to the train. Another three were on horseback and they seemed to be defending the obstruction. Every one of those riders held guns and one of them had taken a shot at Nick.

The first man to get close to Nick wasn’t one of the armed riders. He ran toward the train, waving his arms, wearing a dirty pair of coveralls and a filthy bandanna wrapped around his neck. “Get the hell away from there!” he shouted. “Those men are crazy!”

Nick rode around so that he was between the man in the coveralls and the ones doing the shooting. After drawing his pistol, Nick took a few shots at the men on horseback. That scattered them just long enough for Nick to rein Kazys to a stop and offer his hand to the man in the coveralls.

“You trying to get back to that train?” Nick asked.

The man took Nick’s hand and climbed onto Kazys’s back behind him. “Hell yes. I’m the engineer. Them others and I were just trying to see
about clearing that track.” He winced as Nick fired a few more shots to keep the other horsemen at bay. “They’ll be killed if they don’t get back.”

“I’ve got you with me, so you’re heading back first,” Nick said as he pointed Kazys toward the train and snapped his reins. “I’ll see what I can do for the rest after that.”

“Better be quick. There’s plenty more of them crazy bastards around here.”

Nick had plenty of questions by the time they reached the train, but the engineer climbed down from the saddle and scrambled up into his spot behind the train’s controls. Nick lost sight of him, but figured he was as safe as he could be, wrapped up in all that iron. Turning Kazys back around, Nick got the horse moving toward the wreck.

Two of the other horsemen were now riding straight toward Nick. Between them, there was another man dressed in a similar fashion as the engineer. The other man in coveralls ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Since he knew all of those gunmen’s horses could run a lot faster than a fellow in coveralls, Nick charged straight toward the other two.

Bullets hissed through the air as the two men on horseback fired at Nick again and again.

Nick kept his head down and his gun ready, but didn’t pull his trigger. Although the bullets around him were getting closer, they were still far enough off the mark for him to remain confident. Once he had a clean shot, Nick lifted his gun and fired as if
he was simply pointing to the spot where he wanted the bullet to go.

The lead from Nick’s modified Schofield clipped one of the horseman’s elbows, spinning his entire body around as if an unseen claw had taken a swipe at him. Between the bullet and the movement of his own horse, it was less than a second before the gunman lost his balance completely and dropped to the ground. He landed with a thump, tried to get up and then flopped down again, letting out a pained groan.

Flipping the reins to his gun hand so he could pull them to the right, Nick rode around the man in coveralls and offered his left arm. The man grabbed onto his arm and held on so tightly that Nick thought it might get pulled from its socket. Some pain flared in Nick’s shoulder but ended as soon as the man hauled himself up onto the saddle.

“Go!” the man shouted as he lay awkwardly across Kazys’s rump.

“You all right back there?” Nick asked.

“Just go!”

Nick fired a shot at the other rider, who’d turned away from him as soon as his partner had been dropped.

Once he was within a yard or two of the train, Nick came to a stop and let the man slide off of Kazys’s backside. “How many more of you are out there?” Nick asked.

“Just one,” he replied after seeing the engineer
climb down from his cabin. “If he ain’t already dead.”

That was all Nick needed to hear. He turned Kazys around, snapped the reins and got the horse moving toward the wreck. This time, however, he couldn’t see the other horseman or the other member of the train’s crew. Nick held his gun at the ready as he pulled back on the reins to keep Kazys from charging straight into an ambush.

When he saw something big moving around behind the wreck, Nick reflexively fired a shot at it. He pulled his aim slightly to one side, which caused a chunk of wood fly into the air. That was enough to force the horseman out from where he’d been hiding. Just then, the third horseman swung around the other side of the wreck while firing his gun at a short fellow wearing work pants and a dirty shirt.

Nick fired to scare the rider away from the remaining member of the train’s crew, but all he did was catch the rider’s attention.

The rider fired a quick shot at Nick, shouting, “Go to hell with the rest of yer Chink friends!”

Although the rider was a god-awful shot, Nick wasn’t about to stand by until he got lucky. He shifted his aim, pulled his trigger and felt the modified Schofield buck against his palm. Nick’s shot caught the rider in the chest and knocked him straight back and off his horse as if he’d been kicked by a mule.

Seeing that was more than enough to send the
other rider in the opposite direction. As he dug his heels into his horse’s sides, the rider shouted, “You’re dead, asshole! You and all those goddamn Chinks are dead!”

Nick rode up to the man in the work clothes and offered his hand. This time, he was able to get the man somewhat situated on Kazys’s back rather than draping him over the horse like a sack of flour. “Are you hurt?” Nick asked.

“My arm’s shot, but I’ll be all right. Just get me out of here.”

Nick wasn’t about to argue. He brought the man back to the train. The other two were there waiting for him, so Nick asked, “What was all that about?”

“We were just going to see about clearing the track,” the engineer replied. “The three of us headed out there to have a look when them sons of bitches rode up and fired at us.”

“Why’d they do that?”

“I don’t know. What I do know is that I ain’t about to sit here any longer than I have to. I’ll drive straight through that mess rather than stay put and get shot at.”

Nick glanced around and said, “Looks like they’re gone for now, but I wouldn’t count on them staying away for long. I’ll see what I can do about that mess.”

“You already done plenty, mister,” the conductor said as the other two men nodded in agreement.

“Well, I’m not done yet. Neither are you men. I’ll need at least one of you to come along with me. My guess is you’re the man I’m after,” Nick said while nodding to the second man he’d brought to the train. “You don’t look wounded.”

“I ain’t,” the man replied. “At least, not yet.”

Nick had already replaced the spent shells in his Schofield with fresh ones from his gun belt. “Good. I’ll try to keep it that way. Come on.”

Even though he didn’t seem too excited by the prospect of heading back out there, the worker nodded and climbed onto Kazys’s back behind Nick.

“What’s your name?” Nick asked.

“Earl.”

“Hang on, Earl. I didn’t save your life just to toss it away again.”

“I sure hope not.”

Nick barely had to shake the reins to get Kazys moving again. Between the shooting and all the people climbing on and off of him, the horse was more than a little anxious. Using that in his favor, Nick got over to the wreck and circled it a few times in a matter of seconds.

From what he could see, the wagon’s rear wheels were mostly intact. The garbage piled up around the wagon made it look a whole lot worse than it was, but the front axle was most definitely beyond repair.

“Clear away that wood,” Nick said as he climbed down from the saddle.

Earl dropped down beside him and immediately got to work. “That’s what I was doing when those assholes showed up shooting the hell out of this place.”

“Then go ahead and commence. I think I can move this wagon a bit.”

“It won’t have to be more than maybe five feet or so,” Earl said as he picked up another large hunk of wood and tossed it away from the tracks. “As long as the wagon’s wheels are clear, the train should be able to push the rest of it aside.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Nick led Kazys around to the back of the wagon and then took the rope that was hanging from his saddle. He looped one end of the rope several times around the saddle horn and then dropped to one knee so he could tie the other end around the wagon’s rear axle. Even though his knots were strong and Kazys had pulled loads a lot bigger than this one, Nick still wasn’t happy with the sight in front of him.

“You think that’ll work?” Earl asked as he tossed away the last large piece of lumber and brushed himself off.

Nick shook his head. “I don’t know, but we’ll need to do more than stand here thinking about it.”

Just then, Nick spotted what could have been the armed horsemen riding around for another attack. One of them was slumped in his saddle as if he’d taken a hard fall, and the other was anxiously
pointing toward the wrecked wagon. Unfortunately, there were more horsemen gathering around those other two.

“If we’re gonna get this done, we need to do it quick,” Nick said.

Earl ran around to the front of the wagon. “Come on over here,” he said as he lowered himself to get his shoulder beneath one end of the singletree, the pivoting crosspiece to which the tracings of a harness would normally fasten. “The two of us should be able to get this thing rolling.”

Even as Nick positioned himself, he had his doubts about lifting all that weight. Then again, the wagon didn’t look half as imposing without so much extra lumber piled around it. By the time he got his shoulder in place and his feet planted, Nick realized that the wagon was about the same size as the one he’d left with Catherine.

“On three,” Earl said. “One…two…”

“Wait a minute,” Nick interrupted. Before Earl could ask about the delay, Nick drew his gun and fired a few rounds at the horsemen.

There were half a dozen of them gathered not too far away and they scattered as hot lead was sent flying in their direction.

“All right,” Nick said as he got his shoulder back into place. “Three!”

With that, both men began straightening their legs while letting out a long, strained breath.

Nick could feel his muscles burning under his
skin as if every last one of them had been doused in kerosene and put to a match. He kept the pain going, however, by forcing his legs to straighten even more as he fought to lift his part of the wagon.

Beside Nick, Earl lowered his head and raised the singletree just enough to cause the wheel on his side to budge. “Come on!” he shouted. “Just a bit more.”

Knowing that he’d only have to start all over again if he gave up now, Nick gritted his teeth and raised his side some more. Fortunately for him and all of his muscles, Nick now had his side of the wagon as high off the ground as Earl’s. Nick lifted his chin and let out a gruff holler toward the back.

Kazys responded to Nick’s voice and immediately started moving in the direction he’d been pointed. As soon as the horse took up the slack in the rope tied to his saddle horn, Kazys dug his hooves into the dirt and pulled even harder.

With the combined efforts of one horse and two men, the wagon groaned and rumbled away from the tracks. Nick could feel his knees aching with every shuffling fraction of a step he took. Earl didn’t seem to be doing much better, but he struggled through until the wagon had rolled another couple of feet.

“That should be…good enough,” Earl said.

Just to be safe, Nick kept pushing for a bit longer. “All right,” he said. “Lower it.”

Both men stopped and eased the wagon down again. As soon as he was free from under the splintered wood, Nick ran around to let Kazys know he could stop pulling. Nick untied the rope from the saddle horn and tossed it away. By this time, the nearby horsemen had begun firing at him.