Robert Parker - Blue-Eyed Devil

Laurel nodded. Her face was pale and very tight. She swallowed hard. And her movements were stiff.

“Ain’t gonna let them near you,” Virgil said.

Laurel nodded stiffly.

“Somehow they get in here,” Virgil said quietly to Allie, “you know what to do.”

Allie nodded.

“How many will come?” she said.

“Pony says between fifteen and twenty.”

“And there’s only four of you,” Allie said.

“More like three and a half,” Virgil said. “Pony said he won’t shoot no Indians.”

“How can you stop them?” Allie said.

Virgil smiled faintly.

“We shoot very good,” he said.

He was wearing his Colt, and a second one stuck in his belt. He carried a Winchester and two bandoliers of.45 ammo. The ammo fit the Winchester and both Colts. I had two Colts and the eight-gauge, and ammo. Chauncey wore a two-holster gun belt with matching ivory-handled Colts. There were bullets in the loops on the gun belt. He had a Winchester, too, and extra ammo in a pigskin satchel.

“Pony’s coming,” I said.

“How fast?”

“Easy trot,” I said.

Virgil nodded toward the door, and Teagarden and I started out.

“We’ll be back for you,” Virgil said to the women.

Allie looked nearly as pale as Laurel did.

“Can’t you stay with us?”

“Don’t want to draw fire or attention,” Virgil said. “We’ll be back.”

“I pray that you are,” she said.

Laurel stood stone still and watched us as we started out the door.

“Lock it behind us,” Virgil said.

“Come back for us,” Allie said.

Her voice sounded scratchy.

“Always have,” Virgil said.

WE WERE STANDING in the empty street when Pony arrived. Most of the town still believed that Callico’s heroic posse would banish the red heathen. But they were staying inside anyway.

“Maybe forty minutes,” Pony said as he slid off his horse. “Kha-to-nay, and eighteen warrior.”

Virgil nodded.

“Callico on the other side of the river?”

Pony nodded.

“Three warrior with Winchesters on this side,” Pony said.

“Only way to get across would be to put the whole posse into the ford at once,” I said.

“Lose half of them,” Chauncey said. “If you do.”

“Callico won’t have much luck getting them to take that kind of casualties,” I said.

“’Specially now that they ain’t drunk,” Chauncey said.

Virgil was looking at the street.

“Where they gonna come in?” he said to Pony.

“Kah-to-nay ride straight in down Main Street. Make him feel good. He think no guns here.”

“Damn near right,” Virgil said. “You sure ’bout this?”

“What Pony would do,” he said.

Virgil nodded.

“Everett, take that fucking siege gun up onto the second-floor balcony above the bank,” he said.

“Teagarden,” Virgil said. “In the hayloft over the livery stable. Try to seem like several people.”

“I always seem like several people,” Teagarden said.

“You gonna fight?” Virgil said to Pony.

“Not kill Chiricahua,” Pony said. “Where Chiquita?”

“In the Boston House,” Virgil said. “Upstairs front. With Allie.”

Pony nodded.

“Not draw attention,” he said.

Virgil nodded.

“You and me,” he said. “Front of the pool room across the street. Behind the water trough.”

He looked at all of us.

“Let them come in. I’ll stop them here, between Everett and Teagarden. Wait for me to shoot.”

Teagarden and I both nodded and headed off for where Virgil had told us to be. Chauncey Teagarden had probably been brought to town to kill Virgil Cole. And might still be planning to try. But right now he obeyed Virgil’s orders without question, just like everybody always did.

I set up behind the railing of the upstairs porch, made sure all the weapons were loaded, laid a bandolier of ammunition out on the floor, and waited.

THEY CAME single-file straight down Main Street, with space between them so that each target was single. Kha-to-nay was first. There were vertical white lines painted beside each eye, and his chin was painted black. He was bare-chested, riding a tall bay horse marked with similar war paint. There was a big bowie knife on his belt and a Winchester resting across his saddle in front of him. I could almost hear the collective gasp of the old people, women, and children peering out of their civilized houses at these other people.

He looked carefully left and right as he came. It was probably the way Caesar had looked, riding into a conquered city. He saw me, and pointed at me. They kept coming. I counted them as they came. Ten men, plus Kah-to-nay. Either Pony was mistaken or there were eight missing. Pony was rarely mistaken. When the column was halfway past me, Virgil stepped out from the pool room and walked slowly to the middle of the street. He would have seen the number. He would know there were eight fighters missing.

“Virgil Cole,” Kah-to-nay said. “Why are you not out across the river with the other fools?”

His English was flawless, except that it was too precise, like something carefully learned.

“Speaking English now,” Virgil said.

“I am here to burn your town to the ground,” he said. “I will take some women, probably, and kill everyone else. Therefore it is appropriate to speak the language of the Blue-Eyed Devil.”

“But first you want to brag about it,” Virgil said.

Again Kah-to-nay shook his head sharply.

“My brother who calls himself Pony Flores says you are his friend. My brother is no longer Chiricahua, but he is my brother. You may ride away, before we begin.”

I was shocked. “You may ride away”? Virgil Cole?

“Pony is my friend,” Virgil said. “And because you are his brother I will make you the same offer.”

Kah-to-nay stared at Virgil for a time.

“I will try not to kill you,” Kah-to-nay said.

“And me you,” Virgil said.

“But if I must,” Kah-to-nay said, “I hope you find that it is a good day to die.”

“I s’pect they’re all about the same,” Virgil said. Without raising his voice, and looking straight at Kah-to-nay, Virgil said, “Anybody see the other eight Indians?”

“Four of them.” Chauncey Teagarden’s voice came from the stable. “Livery corral behind me. One street over.”

“Other four are probably one street over the other way,” Virgil mused.

Kah-to-nay turned his head and spoke to his warriors in Apache. Then silence.

Kah-to-nay looked back up at where I was, and over at where Teagarden was.

“How many are you?” he said.

“Enough,” Virgil said.

Kah-to-nay raised his voice slightly and said something in Apache. From the pool room, Pony answered.

Then Kah-to-nay began to back his horse slowly away from Virgil. Suddenly he put his head back and screamed. It was a shocking sound in the twisting silence, a sound from another word. He kicked his horse forward and drove him straight at Virgil. Just before he reached him he yanked the horse right and drove the horse down the alley past the Boston House. His warriors came behind him, running straight at Virgil and turning just as they reached him, half going left. Half going right. Virgil stood motionless as they ran at him.

As soon as the Indians disappeared down the side street, a wisp of smoke began to rise on the left, from behind the buildings facing Main Street. Then smoke came from the right. I could smell the coal oil.

In the center of the empty street Virgil put his hands above his head and gestured for us to join him. The balloon was up.