R. Trembly - Madigan

With a sigh of relief, Madigan leaned back against a rock. His wound had gotten worse and the pain was fierce, yet he felt good at his accomplishment. Now to gather his breath and get after O’Neill, but first there was one more thing he had to do.

In less than half an hour, Madigan had set the packs of explosives just inside the tunnel mouth and had lit the fuses after first firing a couple of rounds into the darkness to be sure the outlaws were well back. It wasn’t so much that he wanted them safe from the explosion as much as he didn’t want to get a bullet in his back while he was leaving.

He knew the tunnel walls were fairly smooth for several hundred yards inside and his bullets would ricochet everywhere. Only an idiot would be foolhardy enough to stick around with lead bouncing all over the place.

He’d given himself enough fuse to get back up on the rim to safety before the charge went off. Madigan’s timing was perfect. Just as he got back in position beside LaRue, the whole thing blew with an ear-splitting roar that shook the ground like an earthquake.

When the smoke and dust cleared, they could see that the tunnel was sealed at this end for all eternity. This done, Madigan was now free to find O’Neill. He only prayed Lewana was still alive.

After lighting the fuse, Shorty and the others headed out of the tunnel at a run. Not having any experience with blasting powder, Shorty wanted to put as much ground between himself and the bomb. After crossing over the ledge that bypassed the tilting slab of stone, Mila motioned for the party to take a rest among a jumble of boulders. It was here Shorty got an idea.

When O’Neill and his men came out, they too would have to use the ledge over the tilt stone. At that time they would be very susceptible to an ambush. And if Shorty had his way, he would make sure they got one. Quickly outlining his plan to Mila and the rest, he sat down with them to wait. It was after the first explosion that they heard someone coming.

“Looks like we have company,” Shorty said quietly. “Now, everybody get ready. When they hit the ledge, we can pick them off one by one if they want to make a fight of it. Then again, if they’ll give up and drop their guns, that’s all right with me. We’ll take O’Neill back for trial and you and your people can have the rest. I’m sure you’ll want an accounting from them for your people they killed.”

Mila had a strain to her voice when she spoke. “If they have harmed Lewana in any way, we will make them pay very slowly for their evil!”

No one needed to tell Shorty what pay slowly meant. Mila’s people were descended from the Aztecs, and they knew how to make an enemy suffer for his sins.

As the bobbing torch came closer, Shorty was able to see only two people, the unmistakable form of Harry O’Neill, and the slim figure of Lewana.

“What do we do now?” Mila whispered in the darkness.

“We wait and see. If O’Neill drops his guard, we nail him to the wall, but only if we are sure Lewana will be safe. If not, we let them pass and hope Madigan can catch O’Neill before he hurts her.”

“I don’t like letting him get away, but we may have no choice.”

“May be the only chance Lewana has. O’Neill will want to put as much ground between him and Madigan as he can, as fast as he can.”

He might kill Lewana first,” worried Mila.

Shorty took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. “I doubt it. O’Neill wants the gold mighty bad. Anybody else would have used Lewana as a trade. Not O’Neill. He wants both. Now he has her and he won’t rest until he has the gold too. Madigan knows that and he’ll stop O’Neill one way or another. You can bet on it.”

When they reached the ledge, O’Neill placed his torch in a crack in the rock and ordered Lewana to light another, all the time keeping a gun pressed at her back. Then he forced her to carry the second torch while they crossed the ledge. “Just in case you drop the light,” he had told her, “I don’t want to be left in the dark.”

Never once did he let the cocked gun move away from her body, leaving Shorty not the slightest chance of a shot at O’Neill without risking Lewana’s life. In quiet frustration, he was left with no choice but to let O’Neill slip on by. But for those that followed, it would be another story.

Now that there were no longer any hostages to get in the way, they would be waiting for the rest of the outlaws and Shorty was determined to let no one else escape.

“When they come, I’ll confront them at the ledge. Those that want to surrender can. Those that want to make a fight of it. . well, I’ll be ready,” Shorty said dryly.

It felt good to have the buckskin under him again. When Madigan got to the outside entrance to the tunnel, it was plain to see by the tracks that O’Neill was gone. There in the dust was the imprint of his heavy boot, beside it the small moccasin tracks of a girl. Madigan was surprised to find no sign of Shorty and Mila.

There was no time to lose. He would worry about them later after he caught up with O’Neill. Anything could happen out here in the high desert country. O’Neill was a desperate and crafty man, and he wouldn’t leave any more of a trail than a mountain lion over rock. The slightest breeze would erase all traces of his passing, leaving Madigan with only a guess as to where O’Neill went, and taking away all hope for Lewana’s safety at the same time.

Judging from the sign, O’Neill was in a bug hurry to get away. He was taking long strides, half dragging Lewana after him. Every once in a while he stopped, probably to get a better hold on the girl, then off he went again, still dragging her.

A short distance more and Madigan came to a place where horses were tied. The tracks on the ground showed where two horses were led away from the rest. He couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked as though O’Neill had stopped and possibly tied Lewana’s hands before they mounted up and rode off. The memory came back to Madigan of how the outlaws had tied Lewana’s and Mila’s hands before, and a rage started up within him again.

He’d ridden an hour when he heard the sound of a rider approaching from back down the trail. Madigan reined the buckskin up a dry creek bed where he could see without being seen. It was Shorty.

“Hold up down there!” Madigan yelled as Shorty came into view.

Shorty brought his horse to a halt and waited for Madigan to ride up beside him. “The others won’t be bothering anybody again,” he said grimly.

“How’s that?”

“We waited for them to gain the ledge over the tilt stone after letting O’Neill go by. No way of stopping him without hurting Lewana. When they were all on the ledge, I ordered them to throw down their guns. They answered with a shower of lead instead. Lucky to get under cover before I was killed!

“I was getting ready to pick a few of them off when all of a sudden I hear this ear-rending commotion coming from the area of the tilt stone. Next thing I know, the tilt stone along with the ledge the men were on dropped out of sight. Seems the Indians had the whole thing rigged in case they needed it in an emergency. There wasn’t one chance in a million any of ‘em survived.”

“The Indians won that battle for us. Now it is up to you and me to get Lewana back if we can.

“By the way, LaRue said he’d try to catch up with us as soon as he can. Mila asked him to blow the outside entrance to the tunnel up so it can’t be used again. I’d have done it, but just blowing that boulder out of the way scared the stuffings out of me. Of course, the snake didn’t help either!”

“What snake?” Madigan asked.

“I’d just gotten the charge in place when this big snake comes. .”