Chapter Ten
Ace drove the herd hard without stopping until the sun started to grow tired. He found a decent spot to camp down for the night. The land was changing into good prairie land. Trees were becoming more scarce.
Don’t like settling the herd in the open like this. There’s some small rises off to the west. Not many. Just enough to be trouble. But the herd is tired and the horses are almost baked. It’s been a hot one today. Everybody’s saddle sore, and we still gotta watch the herd through the night.
Clyde settled the two packhorses down. “I’ll fry biscuit patties. Ain’t much in the mood to do anything else.”
“I’ll get some wood,” Finn told Clyde.
Ace had dragged Lyle off his horse and planted him down near the spot Clyde had chosen for the cookfire.
“Hope you all rot,” Lyle hissed. “Won’t even give a fella whiskey for his pain!”
“Don’t have no whiskey,” Clyde told Lyle in a way that made Ace smile some.
Clyde is simpleminded, but he’s a good fella.
Wouldn’t hurt if I tried to be more friendly toward him.
And Finn, for that matter. They ain’t done a thing in the world wrong to me.
Just… hard for me. Lost too many friends during the war.
Hard to make a friend who becomes like a brother and then see him die.
Ace looked at Bonnie. She was tying her horse to a horse line. “We’ll keep our watches strict,” he told everyone. “We’ll?—?”
Before Ace could finish, three shots rang out into the air. He spun around and spotted four riders plunging down off a rise, heading toward the herd. The setting sun made it hard to see who the riders were.
“Carver?” he yelled at Bonnie.
“No!” Bonnie yelled back in a panicked voice. “Roscoe don’t attack out in the open!”
Ace wasn’t sure how Bonnie knew that, but he was sure time would tell. He didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, he drew out his gun as the four riders continued shooting up into the air.
“They’re trying to spook the herd!”
“And doing a good job at it!” Dallas yelled.
The herd started to panic and break apart.
“Get to your horses!” Ace boomed.
Every man ran to their horses. Ace saw Bonnie desperately untie her horse from the horse line and mount up. He wanted to tell her to stay down, but then he saw the four riders break apart like a split rock and head out in different directions to circle the herd, shooting wildly into the air.
Panic continued to spread through the herd like a heavy wave crashing down.
“Herd is panicked awful bad!” Finn yelled with his gun drawn.
Ace struggled to catch sight of the riders. He heard them shooting, but the sun was almost down. He could barely see. If Finn, Clyde, and Dallas rode out into the dark, he might shoot them. “Stay together! We can’t be risking shooting each other!”
It seemed like the riders’ only goal was to spook the herd and break it apart. Ace had seen the same tactic used many times: attack right when the sun is setting, spook the herd, and cause confusion.
Seen my own men shoot each other by mistake.
Whoever the riders were, they’d known just when and how to attack.
“Can’t see ’em!” Finn yelled, turning his horse from side to side as steers ran into him.
Ace kicked Bonnie’s horse. “Herd is stampeding! Move!”
Bonnie’s horse let out a scared whinny and got moving.
The herd was stampeding right toward camp instead of breaking apart.
Ace gave his horse a hard kick and thundered away from the stampede, Bonnie directly in front of him.
He caught up to her, grabbed her horse, and tore off to the side just before the herd could run them down.
Then, a painful cry filled his ears. The herd was running right over Lyle.
No matter. Ace had to save the herd. He heard shooting. A rider was coming up from behind him, chasing the herd forward.
Ace spun on his saddle and fired two bullets at a dark shadow. The bullets made contact, and the rider toppled off his horse and hit the ground so hard, Ace heard bones break.
A bullet whizzed past his ear and nearly struck Bonnie. He spotted another rider charging at him. Before he could get a clear shot, Bonnie fired her saddle rifle. A single bullet struck the rider square in the chest. He landed on the ground next to his dead friend.
The shooting continued as the herd ran off into the night.
“Stay here!” Ace kicked his horse and chased after the herd.
Finn, Clyde, and Dallas were running behind the herd, shooting at the last two riders. The two riders were midway up, shooting back. Ace caught up to them and started shooting.
One of the riders toppled from his saddle, and the last rider tore west and thundered away into the night.
“Get the herd under control!” Ace yelled.
Ace and Dallas managed to get to the front of the herd and start slowing it down while Finn and Clyde kept the middle squeezed in tight.
It took some doing, but the four men finally managed to get the cattle under control and round them up.
By the time they got the herd back to camp, it was past midnight.
Ace found Bonnie sitting in the dark next to Lyle’s mangled body.
“I was afraid y’all weren’t coming back. I was about to ride out and find you.”
He heard fear in Bonnie’s voice—a deep fear that upset him. “Took time to get the herd under control.”
Clyde lit a match and held it over Lyle’s body. A twisted and mangled form appeared in the dim light.
Ace drew in a deep breath. “We got to take his body in. Can’t bury it.”
“Why not? Ain’t no one gonna miss him,” Finn told Ace.
Finn is right. Lyle was just a drifter. Still, it’s best we take his body in… along with the bodies of the riders we killed.
“Let’s get the dead riders gathered up. Bonnie brought one back already, but there are two more around someplace.”
“I’ll stay here,” Bonnie told Ace. “Be all right if I start a fire?”
“Sure.” Ace nodded his head.
“Good thing I tied up the packhorses.” Clyde handed Bonnie the matches. “Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
Something in Bonnie’s voice wasn’t right. She shot one of the riders dead. Wonder if she’s ever killed before?
“Fellas, mind if I stay here with Bonnie?” Ace asked.
“Me as well. I can’t ride another foot,” Dallas said.
“We’ll get the bodies,” Finn assured Ace. “Come on, Clyde.”
Ace felt a warm spot in his heart for Finn and Clyde. “Thanks, fellas—I mean that. You two rode brave when the herd came under attack.”
Then, Finn said something that Ace could never have expected. “Don’t reckon you expect many fellas understand you. Me and Clyde do. We talk, Ace. We get it. We were in the war, too.”
“Hard to ride close to folks you think you’re gonna lose,” Clyde finished and then walked off to his horse. Finn followed.
Dallas took the matches from Bonnie. “I’ll get the fire going. You go on and talk to Ace.”
“About what?” Bonnie asked. “Killing a man?”
“Suspect you’re upset over something. Can hear it in your voice.”
Ace spoke up. “You had no choice but to kill, Bonnie.”
“Dallas, let’s get a fire going. It’s too dark… I hate the dark.”
A few minutes later, they had a good fire blazing. Ace saw the flames give life and light to Bonnie’s troubled eyes.
She’s scared half to death. She said the riders weren’t part of Carver’s gang, but deep down, I think she believed they were.
“How bad?” he asked Bonnie, knowing she’d understand his question.
“He beats me when I get out of line… don’t let me ride into town.
His hired guns watch me like a hawk when he rides off.
I ain’t ever allowed to leave the house unless he’s around,” Bonnie answered in a broken voice.
“Forced me to ride down to Mexico with him once. I was with him when he stole a full herd. He didn’t ride out into the open…
he ambushed the hands running the herd. Shot every one of them dead. ”
“You thought those riders were with Carver, didn’t you?” Ace asked.
“Not really, but… In my heart, I was afraid I was wrong.” Bonnie’s voice shook. “One of the riders… just saw his shadow, but I thought for sure he was Carver.”
Ace stared into Bonnie’s eyes. She’s been through her own war. I can’t imagine what kind of nightmares haunt her sleep. She knew Carver would come for her. Must have been awful hard for her to risk running again.
“He brought a whore home with him. He was drunk… She said something to upset him. He beat her to death,” Bonnie told Ace and Dallas.
“I heard her screaming from his bedroom, begging for her life. I feared he’d come for me next.
I crawled out of my bedroom window and got to the barn.
One of his men was in the barn. I knocked him cold with a shovel and stole a horse. ”
Ace saw the scene take shape in his mind. No wonder she tried to disguise herself as a man.
“Carver will catch up to us soon or later, Ace,” Dallas told Ace. He found a place to rest his legs. “I can take Bonnie and ride off.”
“No, best if we stay together.”
“Jack can track a feather in the wind,” Dallas warned. “He’s real dangerous. I suspect the riders who attacked the herd didn’t have enough sense to wipe their backsides the right way.”
Dallas sounds worried. Guess he has good reason. He worked for Carver. But I ain’t gonna send him off with Bonnie. They’d be tracked down and killed.
Ace rubbed the back of his neck and then wiped sweat off his forehead. He was plumb worn out. Lyle was dead. Three of the riders were dead. There was no telling where the fourth rider got off to. Could be more out there.
It’s going to be a long night. I don’t think anyone is gonna sleep easy.
“Ace?” Bonnie’s voice cut through the air.
“Yeah?”
“You can’t protect me forever. Maybe it’d be best if I did ride off on my own. I’m just going to cause you trouble—maybe get you killed.”
“You ain’t riding off. Neither are you, Dallas. We’ll work the herd. That’s final.”
But was it? Ace wasn’t sure. He had Finn, Clyde, and Dallas—and Bonnie. Five guns in total… against what? However many guns were riding with Carver, Ace knew they’d been trained to kill.
I don’t care. I ain’t sending Bonnie off to die. The fear and pain in her eyes… no. I’ll die first—and if I do… at least my death will have meaning.