The Walters Brothers

"He's dead. We found the blood."

"You didn't find no body and that's what it'll take before I believe he's dead."

"If he ain't dead he will be soon. We got men combing every inch of this valley. If he's still alive and here we'll find him."

"It's been over a week and we ain't found hide nor hair. If he's still alive, when and if we do find him he won't go easy."

"Ain't that your job? To bring me the body? Maybe you need to work more and stop jawin' so much."

"I just stopped by for more supplies. Don't go gettin' all jumpy Hill, we'll find him."

"See you do!," were his parting words. I eyed the Texan through a crack, marking him. He was tall and blond and had a swagger to his walk. We'd meet before too much longer, I was sure of that.

One thing I didn't worry about was food. I could take anything I wanted from the supply closet but I ate mostly hot meals, waiting until everybody left for the day and helping myself to whatever they cooked. There were a few boys that popped in time to time and they always ate so I figured they'd think they ate the grub. Still, I only did it once a day, grabbing some jerky to chew on if I couldn't get out.

Another four days went by and I was gettin' edgy. Zeke should be along any day now and I didn't want him to wander in to a trap. I heard a commotion the next day and slipped out to taake a peek. They had hold of somebody I couldn't make out until the crowd parted.

Elsa! Damn it straight to hell. I eased the shotgun up. I'd probably get killed but they were not going to harm her. They were laughing while Elsa stood and glowered, her face a mass of briuses. One eye was swelled completely shut but her one green eye blazed with anger. Her auburn hair hung in tangles. I was amazed at how long it was, I'd never seen her without her braid.

"She says she don't know where he is boss. I think she's tellin' the truth. There warn't none of his sign around and they'd been there for a while. Put up a pretty good scrap too. I brought four horses back with empty saddles and another she rode. We got the boy though. I'm sure I hit him, and he went over the cliff. Even if I didn't kill him the fall would."

It was the Texan. His sleeve was bloody and he had claw marks on his face, so Elsa didn't go easy. Hill walked up, yanking her hair until she was face to face. "Where is he, bitch? You tell me and I'll go easy on you. I'll keep you for my private stock and not let them have a turn at you. You'll learn to say "Yessir!" when I snap my fingers. Be real nice and you'll last a good while."

She spat in his face and he slapped her down, yanking her back up. "We're gonna have to work on that attitude. Now, WHERE THE HELL IS HE?"

She grinned. "He's right behind you."

He fell for it like they all did, all looking back at the door. When they turned around she'd fetched the little pepperbox out of her skirt pocket. She shot Hill first, the bullet pulling a furrow across his cheek and clipping an eye. The next shot hit Darby, going through his remaining leg. She lined up on Hill again before a pistol barked. Elsa fell, shot through the head.

I nearly lost it, getting ready to charge them, when I heard Zeke's voice. "Don't do it, boy. They'll kill you and dead men can't extract revenge. Wait 'til I get there." I faded back into the cave shaking with anger and grief. I vowed on Elsa's memory that Mr. Texas was going to reach a bad end.

The rage was all consuming. I'd been running and hiding long enough. Now it was time for war. I went huntin' that night, slipping out of the cave and casting around until I located three of them. They were on a ridge, keeping an eye out for Zeke. Two were asleep while the other stood watch. He must have felt my presence or heard something and I caught him in midturn, sliding that big Bowie in just above his groin and bringing it up until it hit his breastbone. His guts fell on the ground and he screamed.

I figured he'd be busy for a while so I turned to his friends, blowing a ten gauge hole right in the middle of their bedrolls. The guard was sitting spraddlelegged, trying to stuff his guts back inside. I hoped he lived long enough to give them a message. "You tell them this is for Elsa and Gallison and the bill ain't near paid yet. You tell your buddies if they got any sense they need to run. Now!"

I faded back into the brush and waited. Pretty soon four more showed up. I heard the curses and one man puked at the sight of his friend with his guts hangin' out. He wiped his mouth and started rantin'. "I'm gonna kill that bastard. When I get hold of him I'm..."

I guess he had to tell the Devil the rest of what he was goin' to say. They were bunched pretty tight and I emptied the shotgun. Two died instantly, one would soon, but the other wouldn't, if his friends got to him quick enough. My last round hit his shootin' hand, mangling it. He had three fingers left but they were all pointing in different directions and his thumb was layin' in the dirt at his feet. He was holdin' it to stop the bleedin' and screaming his head off. Time to leave.

I caught another couple coming towards the shooting. I had no sympathic at all. As soon as they got close enough that I was sure I couldn't miss I cut them in two, emptying the shotgun. Literally. I tied the top halves to the saddle of the horse I hadn't killed and slapped him on the rump. He'd amble on home and I wondered how they'd like what they found. Satisfied I'd stirred the hornet's nest enough I slipped back into the cave.

Chapter 16

It was a mighty pissed off bunch in the cave the next morning. Mr. Texas wasn't smiling. "This has got a bad feel to it, boss. You've lost twenty two men so far, all killed by Brad Walters, an old man, a kid, and a girl. What you think would happen if the whole Walters clan showed up?"

Bart Hill was consumed with rage. He was blind in his left eye, his partner had lost a leg and might lose another if infection got into his wound. Two of his best men were down. One had a hand missing, the other eight broken ribs. This mine better be as good as they say. It wouldn't give him an eye back or fix his ruined face, but people can forget a lot when money gets in their eyes. He could give a shit whether Darby lived or died. It was an association of convenience and he was getting downright inconveinent. He'd figure a way to get rid of him later. Right now he needed what few guns he had left and all his miners.

"We got 'em all but Walters. He's out there alone. We'll get him before his brother gets here."

Texas had his doubts. Walters was proving to be one hard sonofabitch to kill. He was thinkin' about cuttin' his losses and just driftin' off when two riders came in.

"Riders comin!"

"Good. Now we can end this. Check your guns boys. It's time to get rich."

"Uh, boss, there's a lot of riders comin'. Four or five wagons at the cutoff, with at least thirty outriders, and twenty Calvarymen."

Hill cursed inwardly. You could do a lot with a gun, but one thing you couldn't was mess with the military. Kill a trooper and they'd send a thousand men and turn over every rock in the West until they found you.

"Go get the miners. Make sure they're heeled. If push comes to shove we'll need them. You be sure and tell them that if we go down they're next. Walters won't give a damn whether you pulled a trigger or not."

I skinned back into the cave, stopping to get the three remaining sticks of dynamite, setting them with a short fuse, about thirty seconds by my calculation. I ran along the ridge as fast as I could go, stopping just above the mine entrance. I was wheezing like mad, cursing myself for being in such bad shape. Then again, you get chased, miss a lot of meals, get shot more than once, and see if you felt up to running hard.

I'd taken the time to rig the dynamite into bombs, a sack of shells around each one. I had no idea if they would go off when the stick blew, but even unfired it would be a chunk of metal coming in fast.

They were yellin' at the miners, telling them to hurry up and make sure they grabbed their weapons. The first were just coming out when I tossed the dynamite. I mistimed by about three seconds and instead of going off in front of the mine it hit the ground before exploding. The bullets, most of them anyway, did fire, slinging lead in all directions. Two riders and their horses went down and there were a couple of screams from the mine.

I yelled out. "I got a bunch more of these and I'm dug in pretty good. You boys stick your nose out of that mine and I'll blow it off, you hear me?"

There was a bunch of cussin' so I waited until it died down and tossed the second and third stick. There were a couple of yells and then it went quiet. I think I made believers out of them.

I scooted back to the cave as fast as I could, arriving just in time to watch as Zeke and his riders lined up in front of the cave. Hill had sand, I'll give him that. He grinned and asked why they were trespassing on private property.

"Last I heard, me and my brother had legal claim to this valley and all the gold in it. Where is Brad?" Zeke was smiling but it wasn't reaching his eyes.

"Yeah, about that. He sold this place to us saying he was sole owner. You could ask him I suppose, if you could find him. Last I saw of him he was headed for parts unknown with a gal and her kin."

"That a fact?"

"Gospel truth."

They didn't know it but I had stepped out of the cave right behind them. I was ragged, rail thin, with a six week old beard and hair in tangles. My hat was long gone. Zeke saw me and his eyes widened slightly before he grinned. I grinned back, right after I threw the hammer back on my shotgun. Texas looked behind and almost fainted.

"That ain't necessarily how it happened brother. These assholes tried to jump the claim. They killed Eion, Elsa, and I don't know what happened to Gal. They put up a good showin' though. A lot of them lost their lives before they got them."

Bart Hill finally glanced back and paled. No! He was supposed to be dead or gone!

Now he was standing between them and shelter, a big shotgun pointed right at him. In front of him was his very pissed looking brother, twenty Calvarymen, and an assortment of hands, all holding weapons at the ready. He blanched when he saw four of the group were women and they all held shotguns and wore pistols on their hips.

He tried to grin. "Maybe I made a mistake here. That don't look anywhere near like the feller that sold us this claim."

"You made your first mistake the day you took this trail, Hill. I don't intend to shoot you if it makes any difference. I intend to hang every one of you. That's what you do to murderers and thieves ain't it? And I intend to personally put the noose around the neck of Mr. Texas here. He was the one who shot Elsa. In the head. She was dead before she hit the ground."

I paused for a minute. "Or you can take your chances and raise those weapons. That would be a lot quicker for ever'body. Either way this is your last day on earth."

The Calvary hadn't raised their weapons but held them in their hands. All the other riders had theirs leveled right at Hill and his bunch. Hill was almost blind with fury. The biggest score ever and now it was dust. By God, he'd not go down without taking a few with him!

He reached for his gun but never made it. Something grabbed his arm and tugged. He looked down to see the end of a bullwhip wrapped around his arm, following it back to a grinning woman just as the pain hit.

I laughed when I recognized Emily and her daughters, laughed even harder when she spoke. "I'm kind of partial to these boys. They were good friends to me in a time of need and business partners as well. I am not predisposed to view you kindly if you hurt one of them. Now stay still!"

She yanked the whip and it came off his arm, leaving bloody gouges around his wrist. She grinned at me. "I am most pleased to see you Bradley Walters."

I grinned back. "I forgot how good you are with that whip Miss Emily. The feeling is mutual. Right now you look just like an angel."

She grinned bigger, lost in a memory. None of the guns had wavered and now the troopers had their own pistols out. Their Captain spoke. "Boys, this seems to be a civil matter. This man has all the neccesary paperwork to prove this valley and the claim belongs to him and his brother. May I see yours?"

"Our what?"

"Your paperwork sir. If you have a bill of sale as you say you do I wish to see it."

Hill squirmed. No such paperwork existed. "Uh, I don't know exactly where it is. I'd have to look."

The Captian grinned. "If you'll tell us where you think it is, I'll have my troopers look for it. Let me tell you what I think. I think you jumped this claim and killed those people. I also think that it was all for nothing. Now unless you drag us into it the Government will consider this a private matter. If Mr. Walters wants to haul you to the territorial capitol to face charges he can. Otherwise it can be handled on site. Understand?"

Hill realized he had just been handed a death sentence for him and his men. This time no one stopped them when they reached and when the powdersmoke cleared most were on the ground. Hill was still alive, as was Mr. Texas and Darby. I had stepped to the side so my friends and family would not get any stray buckshot and fired three times, killing four. Maybe half a dozen were still standing with their hands in the air.

The Captain took his troopers and withdrew. He was only there as a favor to a well connected patron of their territorial governor. The well connected individual was sitting on a ridge, watching as events unfolded. After the shooting was over he and his fellows rode down.

"Mr. Walters, it seems your slight problem had been cleared up. As soon as my engineers can look over the mine we can sign the contracts."

"Best give us a day, sir. We have a few odds and ends to clean up."

The man smiled grimly. This was not the first claim jump gone wrong he'd witnessed. "Finish your business Mr. Walters. Another day or so won't make the gold wander off. Come to us when you're finished."

Zeke explained who they were after they rode off. They were part of the group that wanted to partner with us. He'd negotiated a pretty good deal all things considered. They would do all the work and we'd get 50% of the gold. They would get the rest. Operating expenses were all on them. It would be a good deal for everyone concerned.

We had a couple of things to clear up before the deal went through. First we hanged everyone at the cave. Hill was crying and begging when we threw him on a horse but it did him no good. Texas was an asshole but he had sand. He grinned at me, asking if he could write a letter before he swung. We gave him a pencil and paper and he wrote a letter to his mother.

"I ain't in no position to ask but will you send my saddlebags back home? The money in there didn't come from any of your gold so I'd take it kindly if you let her have that too. It might make her think a little better of me, if she ever thinks of me at all."

I just nodded as they hoisted him on his horse. He looked me in the eye. "I knew I should have cut and run when I got that bad feelin'." I thought about poor choices as I slapped his horse with my hat and it trotted off, leaving him swinging.

Darby begged and cried but got nowhere fast. We had him on the horse, two men holding him on because of the missing leg, when a thought hit me. "You got any more brothers?"

"No. I'm the last of my line."

"Good. The line ends right here, right now. Tell your Pa and brother I said hello Darby." We left them all swinging and rode up to the mine.

Chapter 17

We eased around the corner in case the miners had gotten brave. Shocked doesn't come close to what I felt when Gal rose up from behind a rock. We looked at each other and grinned saying the same thing to each other. "I thought you was dead!"

When he went over the cliff he dropped eight feet onto a ledge, knocked cold on the rocks. It took him ten hours to wake up. It took him another day to figure out how to get off the ledge. Finally he took his gunbelt and jumped, flipping it over the base of a little windblown pine that was a lot stouter than it looked. Once he got on top of that all he had to do was flop back onto the ridge. He hit one of the drops we'd set up, getting some much needed food and a fresh set of weapons, hoping to find Elsa.

He worked his way towards the mine and was settled in watching when I dropped the dynamite. It took the miners about an hour to poke their heads out and when Gal shot one off they scurried back.

Gal was bruised up, with torn clothes and a scraggly beard. I didn't look much better. He looked at me with hope in his eyes. "Elsa?"

I hung my head and he knew instantly. "Sorry, Gal. She was a scrapper though and went out fighting to the end."

His eyes dimmed and then blazed. "Let's go get them sombitches!"

"Already done. If I had known you were still alive, I'd have waited and let you hang the one that shot her. He died dancing on the end of a rope as they all did. All that's left are the miners."

He was still processing everything when I called out. "Hello the mine! Hill's dead. Darby's dead. All the rest, every lowlife sonofabitch in the lot, is dead. Most of them hung. Now if it was up to me I'd blow the entrance and ride away. But then we'd just have to dig it out again and the thought of havin' to move all your rotten, stinkin' corpses don't appeal to me. So take your chances and come out unarmed or come out heeled. If any of you fought against me or helped kill my friends you're dead. The rest we'll probably let go. Your choice but in about five minutes we're going to start pouring fire into the entrance. I know for a fact the walls are mostly rock, so they'll be a lot of riccochets. That's a pretty ugly way to die but it don't matter much to me. You got four minutes left."

We could hear them jawin' and three minutes later three rifles and about half a dozen pistols got tossed out of the mine. "We're comin' out with our hands up! Don't shoot!"

Thirteen men came out hands held high. I singled one out. "Any more? If I find out you're lyin' I'll hang the whole bunch."

He shakily admitted there were three more inside. I thought about it for about thirty seconds and started shooting into the mine. Gal joined me and soon our whole group was pouring lead into the entrance. We heard a man scream and another yellin' for us to stop, they were coming out. I knew them immediately, I'd had one in the sights of my Winchester about three weeks ago. The only reason he was still livin' was because the group was just too large to take on by myself.

I asked the two standin' in front of me where their friend was. "Inside, gutshot. He ain't got long, mister."

"Too bad for him. Gal, these two are part of the bunch that was huntin' you and Elsa. I watched them a few times through my spyglass. There was either too many of them or to far away to get a shot but here they are. You want a little justice?"

"I don't know how to make a hangman's knot."

One of the riders with my brother spoke up. "I'll do it. Watch me kid, this might come in handy sometime down the line."

Gal watched and asked questions as the noose being made. Then he did the second one himself, picking a big oak and tossing the ropes over a couple of strong limbs. The miners started to beg.

"Now hold on here! I just rode along to get out of workin' in the mine. I never shot nobody!"

I looked him in the eyes 'til they dropped. "You never shot anybody because you're a terrible shot. You were in a pack that chased me twice and you were shootin' your rifle like everybody else."

We hoisted them up and Gal never gave them a chance at any last words. "Burn in hell!" he cried as he slapped the horses on the rump. One took off at a full gallop and damned near snatched the man's head off. The other just kind of trotted forward and left the second man swingin', feet kicking the air.