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.

I turned back to the miners and they were all looking mighty peaked. I pointed at two. “You two! Go back in there and drag that asshole out.”

They could tell I was serious so they went back in, coming out a few minutes later with a man danglin’ between them. I knew him instantly. He was one of the orginal bunch with Hill and Darby.

He was holding his gut and crying in pain. “I need a doctor! You have to help me! I had nothin’ to do with the killin’ that went on here.”

I looked at him noting the empty gunbelt. It was mounted with little silver stars. The last time I saw it Eion was wearin’ it, along with the two Peacemakers we’d taken from the first bunch that tried to attack us. “Gal, the last time I saw that holster was around you Pa’s waist. You want to hang him?”

Gal tried to grin but it looked more like a wolf snarl. “No. We hang him and he dies quick. We’ll let the bullet kill him. He might last a day or more, hurtin something fierce.”

The man started beggin’ and Zeke started to say something, thought better of it, and shrugged. We tied his hands and feet and when he cried for water we set him up about ten feet from the stream and left him. If he wanted water he could crawl for it. Gal and three hands stayed behind while we marched the miners back to the tents they had been stayin’ in.

They held them back while three of our men emptied the tents, throwing everything they found on a couple of blankets. Then we made them empty their pockets and strip down to their longjohns. It was a pretty dejected bunch when we were done.

“Who’s the foreman? Lie or refuse to answer and I’ll go down the line killin’ you one at a time until somebody tells me.”

The youngest miner was at the front of the line and knew he’d be first to go and fingered the man immediately. I had him pulled forward.

“You knew it was a claim jump, right? You knew your bosses were gonna kill us and take the gold. What did they promise you?”

He was pretty stubborn, but when he saw us heatin’ up the knife with the eye that wasn’t swole shut he started talking. “Darby said he’d give us triple wages and we wouldn’t have to fight anybody. All we had to do was mine.”

I sighed, holding up the red hot blade. “It didn’t bother you they were going to kill peaceful, upstanding people that were just trying to have a better life?”

“I tried not to think about it.”

“Well I want you to think about it a lot, Murphy. Good people died while you and your men stood by and did nothing. I figure by the time you’ve walked back to civilization you’ll start to understand the error of your ways. Had they paid you anything yet?”

“No, we just kept account. It waren’t like we could go to town or nothin’ and it’d be a bigger poke when we did. What do you mean by walkin’ back? It’s over three weeks by horse to the nearest settlement. It would take twice that long to walk. You wouldn’t do that to a feller, now would you?”

“I’m sendin’ you off on foot, unarmed, and I’ll have to think about giving you any food. I think the long walk, for those who make it anyway, will be good for your souls. You can do a lot of soul searchin’ when the scenery goes by real slow. Mybe you’ll come to understand the error of your ways and that if you’re engaged in anything illegal it always comes back to you.”