Iron Eyes Must Die by Rory Black Page B

the remaining score of bullets. He
knew that if these riders started a new battle, he needed more
.36s. A lot more.
    ‘ Who
are you?’ he muttered.
    ~*~
    Snake Adams raised a hand and
slowed his skittish mount. The five riders behind him eased back on
their reins. The six horses stopped in a line less than a mile from
Rio Concho. Even through the driving rain they could see the bright lights
of the small border town ahead of them. Yet Adams sensed that there
was something wrong. The storm was becoming more and more violent
and making the horses increasingly nervous. The outlaw leader
steadied his mount, pulled the brim of his hat down against the
rain and focused hard.
    ‘ What’s wrong, Snake?’ Kyle Parker asked. ‘How come you
stopped? We’re almost there.’
    Adams was silent. He just kept looking at the
town.
    Brewster eased his horse closer to the
brooding horseman.
    ‘ What
ya seen, Snake? Trouble?’
    Ferdy Mayne leaned on his
saddle horn and watched the rain flowing off the brim of his hat
over his horse ’s neck.
    ‘ That
town looks dead apart from them streetlights.’
    Adams looked at Mayne.
    ‘ That’s right, Ferdy. It does look dead, don’t it? Where are
all the people?’
    ‘ Is
that why we stopped?’ Coop Starr asked.
    The outlaw leader sighed heavily. His eyes
darted from one shaft of lightning to another.
    ‘ That
town is real quiet,’ he said again. ‘Too quiet.’
    ‘ Maybe
they all hit the hay early in these parts, Snake,’ Lynch
suggested.
    ‘ Half
the folks living there are Mexican, Ben,’ Adams reminded him. ‘Them
critters only come to life during the night. They sleep most of the
day.’
    ‘ Could
be the storm,’ Brewster suggested.
    Adams nodded.
    ‘ Ya
could be right, One Ear.’
    Brewster smiled. It was the first time in
years that Snake Adams had agreed with anything he said.
    ‘ How
come we’re headed there, Snake?’ Lynch asked. ‘Of all the towns in
the West, how come we’re headed to Rio Concho?’
    Snake Adams held on to his reins firmly with
both his gloved hands.
    ‘ OK.
OK. I’ll tell ya. The envelope in my shirt is real valuable, like I
said before. A man by the name of Jackson Wylie from Boston is
waiting there for us. He was the man who told me of the plan them
Eastern dudes had cooked up. The paper in my shirt is some kinda
deed. It’s the deed to mineral rights for the whole
territory.’
    ‘ Mineral rights?’ Starr repeated. ‘Did ya say mineral
rights, Snake? What are they?’
    ‘ Hell,
I don’t know. Oil or coal or something,’ Adams guessed. ‘All I know
for sure is that whoever has this deed owns it. It was being sent
from one rich dude to another. They have some kinda company that
wants to mine the minerals in these parts.’
    ‘ What’s this Jackson Wylie character gotta do with this?’
Lynch asked.
    ‘ He
has a company that wants to get the better of the other dudes,’
Adams replied. ‘Wylie is willing to pay us a lot of money for this
document, no questions asked. All we have to do is exchange it for
a couple of big bags of fresh minted golden double
eagles.’
    ‘ You
said something before about the treasury, Snake,’ Parker
added.
    Adams nodded.
    ‘ That’s right, Kyle. That was one of the varmints we killed
back at Waco. The government got a sniff of these companies making
a lotta money out of this deal. They were trying to get a chunk of
tax from them.’
    ‘ Jackson Wylie?’ Brewster said the name.
    ‘ That’s right, One Ear.’ Adams nodded.
    ‘ Sounds like a Southern gentleman,’ Brewster
said.
    Adams shook his head.
    ‘ He
ain’t from the South and he ain’t a gentleman. He’s an eastern
back-stabber. Rich though. Mighty rich.’
    ‘ If
all we gotta do is exchange that document for gold, why ain’t we
riding, Snake?’ Mayne asked.
    ‘ Where
ya meant to meet up with him?’ Starr asked.
    ‘ The
Avalon Hotel!’ Adams nodded. ‘I hear it’s the finest hotel in the
territory.’
    ‘ Sounds good.’