Алистер Маклин - Breakheart Pass

Calhoun’s eyes widened, his mouth opened perceptibly and his guns momentarily wavered, but his recovery was almost immediate. ‘We’ll soon see about that. Inside.’ He and Benson ushered the other three, at gun-point, into the Commandant’s office.

Colonel Fairchild stared as the door opened. Despite the bound hands, he stumbled shakily to his feet.

‘Marica! Marica! And Colonel Claremont.’ Marica hobbled across the room and threw her arms around him. ‘My dear, my dear. What have they done to you? And what – what in God’s name – why are you here?’

Deakin said to Calhoun: ‘Satisfied?’

‘Well, I guess – but I never heard of no John Deakin.’

Deakin thrust his gun inside his coat, a pacific gesture which helped further reassure the wavering Calhoun.

‘Who do you think took those four hundred rifles from the Winchester armoury?’ He had the ascendancy now and used it with savage authority. ‘God’s sake, man, stop wasting time. Things are bad, terribly bad. Your precious White Hand botched the job. He’s dead. So’s O’Brien. Pearce is hurt, badly. The soldiers have the train and when they get it going again–’

‘White Hand, O’Brien, Pearce–’

Deakin nodded curtly to Benson. ‘Tell him to wait outside.’

‘Outside?’ Calhoun seemed dazed.

‘Out. There’s worse to come – but for your ears only.’

Calhoun nodded mechanically at a bewildered Benson, who left, closing the door behind him.

Calhoun said despairingly: ‘There couldn’t be anything worse–’

‘Yes, there is. This.’ The pistol was back in Deakin’s hand, the muzzle pressing with brutal force against Calhoun’s teeth. Deakin swiftly relieved the stupefied Calhoun of both guns and handed one to Claremont, who lined it up on Calhoun. Deakin produced a knife and sliced the bonds of Colonel Fairchild, who was no less flabbergasted than Calhoun, and laid Calhoun’s other gun on the table beside him. ‘Yours. When you’re fit to use it. How many other men does Calhoun have? Apart from Benson?’

‘Who in God’s name are you? How–’

Deakin grabbed Fairchild’s lapels. ‘How – many – men?’

‘Two. Carmody and Harris, they’re called.’

Deakin wheeled round and dug the muzzle of his Colt violently into Calhoun’s kidneys. Calhoun gasped with pain. Deakin repeated the process. He said, smiling: ‘You have the blood of scores of men on your hands, Calhoun. Please, please believe me that I’m just begging for the excuse to kill you.’ From the expression on Calhoun’s face it was apparent that he believed him totally. ‘Tell Benson that you want him, Carmody and Harris here at once.’

Deakin opened the door slightly and prodded Calhoun towards the opening. Benson was pacing up and down only a few feet away.

Calhoun said hoarsely: ‘Get Carmody and Harris here. And yourself. Now!’

‘What’s up, boss? You look – you look like death.’

‘God’s sake, man, hurry!’

Benson hesitated, then ran across the compound. Deakin closed the door and said to Calhoun: ‘Turn round.’

Calhoun obeyed. Deakin’s reversed gun swung and he caught Calhoun before he toppled to the ground. Marica stared at him in horror.

‘Spare me your goddamned lectures.’ Deakin’s tone was coldly conversational. ‘A minute from now and he would have been as desperate as a cornered rat.’ He turned to Fairchild. ‘How many survivors?’

‘We lost only ten men – and they gave a good account of themselves.’ Fairchild was still trying to massage life back into his hands. ‘The rest were caught in their bunks. Calhoun and his friends – we’d given the damned renegades lodging for the night – overpowered my night guards and let the Indians in. But they’re two miles from here, in an abandoned mine, with Indian guards.’

‘No matter. I don’t need them. I don’t want them. Last thing I want is a pitched battle. How you feeling now?’

‘A great deal better, Mr Deakin. What do you want me to do?’

‘When I give the word, go to the armoury and get me a sackful of blasting powder and fuses. Please be very quick then. Where are your cells?’

Fairchild pointed. ‘The corner of the compound there.’

‘The key?’

Fairchild took a key from the board behind his desk and handed it to Deakin, who nodded his thanks, pocketed it and took up a watching post by the window.

He had to watch only for seconds. Benson, Carmody and Harris were crossing the compound at a dead run. At a nod from Deakin, Claremont helped him to drag the prostrate Calhoun into a more or less standing position. As the three running men approached the Commandant’s office the door opened wide and the unconscious form of Calhoun was pushed violently down the steps. The confusion was immediate and complete and the tangled heap of Benson, Carmody and Harris had nothing to offer in the way of resistance when Deakin, gun in hand, appeared in the doorway. Fairchild appeared immediately behind him and ran across to the opposite side of the compound. Deakin followed, leading his horse by one hand while with the other, Colt in hand, he shepherded the other three, now bearing the inert Calhoun, towards the cells. As he turned the key on them, Fairchild appeared from a nearby doorway, carrying what appeared to be a fairly heavy sack. Deakin, on horseback now, snatched up the sack, slung it across the pommel of his saddle and, urging his horse to a gallop, swung left through the main gateway of the compound. Marica, supported by a still shaky Claremont, the blind leading the blind, appeared from the Commandant’s office. Together with Fairchild, they made their best speed towards the gateway.

Deakin pulled up his horse in the concealment of an outcrop of rock that had been blasted to make the approach to the trellis bridge, dismounted, flung the bag over his shoulder and headed for the bridge.

Pearce swung out from the left-hand cab window of the locomotive cab and looked ahead. A wide smile crossed his sadly battered face.

‘We’re there!’ Exultation in his voice. ‘We’re almost there!’

White Hand joined him by the window. The trellis bridge was less than a mile ahead. White Hand smiled and lovingly rubbed the stock of his Winchester repeater.

Deakin, meantime, had just finished wedging two large charges of blasting powder between the wooden piers and buttresses of the trellis bridge, one on either side. He had used scarcely half of the powder Fairchild had given him, but estimated the quantity to be sufficient. He shinned up a wooden buttress, threw the half-empty sack on to the track, then cautiously raised his head; the train was now no more than a quarter of a mile distant. He descended swiftly, ignited the fuses of both charges, then climbed as swiftly back on to the bridge. The train was no more than two hundred yards distant. Deakin shouldered his bag and ran back to the western exit of the bridge.

Pearce and White Hand, leaning out from opposite sides of the footplate, saw the fleeing figure of Deakin just clearing the bridge. Momentarily, the two men in the cab stared at each other, then simultaneously raised their Winchesters. Bullets struck the ground and ricocheted off the rocks near the flying figure of Deakin, but because of the latter’s dodging, twisting run and the most unstable firing platform provided by the swaying locomotive, none came too close. Within seconds Deakin had thrown himself behind the shelter of the outcrop of rock.

‘The bridge!’ Pearce’s voice was almost a scream. ‘The devil’s mined the bridge!’ O’Brien, his face masked in rage and fear, slammed shut the throttle and jammed on the brakes. But the train, though abruptly slowing, was already on the bridge.

Fairchild, Claremont and Marica, now no more than two hundred yards distant, stopped and stared. The train appeared to be almost across the bridge; the locomotive and tender were, in fact, already across the bridge and on solid rock. O’Brien, at the controls, mouthing incomprehensible words, realized that he had made a mistake, possibly even a fatal one, released the brake and opened the throttle to its widest extent. But O’Brien was too late. There came two almost simultaneous white flashes, a double roar that combined into one and the bridge disintegrated and collapsed into the ravine. The three coaches disappeared at once into the depths of the gorge, dragging the still coupled tender and locomotive after them. The tender had already disappeared and the locomotive was fast following them when three figures, all bearing Winchesters, jumped clear from the cab and landed heavily on the solid rock. The locomotive was dragged inexorably over the edge and amid the rending screech of tearing metal and the splintering of heavy baulks of timber, the entire train dropped into the depths.