Chapter 16

As it turned out, Cowboy’s brothers had anticipated things and were already seated at the table in the office car when the others came in. Malik, seeing them, said, “Ah, good, you’re already here.”

Sage said, “It’ll only be barely twenty minutes to Micah Spring, the speed we travel. We figured plans need to be made. Juniper and I have been talking some things out.”

Cowboy came in, and Healy followed a half-minute later. There were two short blasts from the Mogul’s whistle. Everyone found a place at the table as the train began to move. Two blasts were heard from the northbound’s locomotive as they were passing it.

Malik looked at the two younger Tsosies and asked, “So, what did you figure?”

Juniper replied, “We thought there’d be several possibilities, some hardly likely, like them walking away. Knowing Doyle, we figure most likely would be someone bringing him a wagon. He’ll have near a three-hour start on us, by the time we get there.”

Sage took over the narrative. “Next most likely, we figure, would be everyone on horseback. They could easier travel cross-country that way. We’re not even sure it might even be the better choice. It would depend on water and supplies. But, if someone brings him the horses, they could have brought the rest.”

Cowboy and Malik exchanged a look. Cowboy asked him, “You thinking Coates?”

Malik replied, “Or maybe his local manager.” He turned back to Cowboy’s brothers.

“Anything else?”

“Just various combinations, including the possibility of finding the women healthy, or injured, or even dead, there at Micah Spring. Them bein’ Injured would slow us up the most, but leavin’ ‘em behind would seem to be Doyle’s last choice, nor his partner’s.”

Lonegan said, “Yeah, good thinkin’, fellas. Emil?”

“It makes me think we need to be ready for about anything, even taking gunfire.”

Cowboy said, “Maybe we should take the horses off a mile or so before we get there.”

Malik looked at him, nodding. “Maybe we’ve been too predictable. Doyle’s been depending on that, it seems. I wonder if he’s even aware of that?”

“What, that we’re predictable?” Juniper asked.

“No. That he depends on us being predictable. He may be as unconscious of his own mode of operating as we have been of ours.”

“Well, he’d know we were up to somethin’ if the train stopped a mile short of Micah,” Sage said.

“Aye, but the train doesn’t have to stop, laddie. For our purposes, only the stock car needs to stop, don’t you know,” Healy said.

Malik said, “Oh, so just cut the stock car loose, stop it by applying the hand brake. Yeah, that might work.”

Lonegan said, “That’s a mighty big show to put on for someone not even likely to be there.”

“You’re right, Connor, but this guy has been out-thinking us for well over a year. We need to take the initiative away from him, somehow.”

“So you think he might really be waitin’ to ambush us? That seems pretty far-fetched. He needs to be runnin’.”

Cowboy demurred. “Maybe not, Connor. I’m not saying I disagree, but there is a certain sense to it. Doyle would expect us to be vulnerable there, shoveling coal, saddling horses. Maybe he’s even using that coal as bait. And he doesn’t have to kill everyone, just put a few key people out of commission, say you, me, and Shadow.”

“Or,” Malik said, “he could take some as hostages to make the rest of us disarm. He could take all the horses, or just kill them, shoot the boiler full of holes, leave us there.”

Juniper added, “It seems that he expected a posse to meet hum at Junction City, if not sooner.”

Lonegan speculated, “You know, it would be a good way to isolate us and end our pursuit, so he could get away with the women. He’d know that, as a mounted posse, we’d just keep chasin’ ‘im. And a three-hour start isn’t that much, in these parts.”

Malik said, “Fergus, how is the track laid out, oh, say for three miles either side of that siding?”

“Well, boyo, from the north, it comes on pretty straight, with a minor downgrade, maybe one in five hundred, for maybe five or six miles. No, it’s closer to six, it is. But there’s a big curve starts about a half mile after the tracks cross the spring run, which is only a culvert, don’t you know. Lots a’ trees along the run, they block the view ‘round that curve, they do, an’ there’s a hill to go around, which is why there’s a curve to begin with.”

The men were silent for a few moments, then Malik leaned forward. “He’s likely figured we’d strip the coal from that gondola. What if we’d decided to bypass the Micah coal in favor of the emergency supplies farther along? What if we just went right past that siding? Then we could drop both cars a mile farther on, let the engine and caboose go ahead to paint the sky with smoke, showing we left the area.”

Cowboy said, “Don’t forget, if we fooled him on our actual location, he won’t be expecting us for another hour.”

Lonegan asked, “How would you see that fitting in?”

“No idea. Just throwin’ it in.”

“Well,” Malik said, “let’s put ourselves in Doyle’s shoes. He’s been able to anticipate us all along, so let’s say he even suspects we’re hiding our location and he’s not entirely surprised when the special comes on this soon. But, does he know we have horses?”

Cowboy was shaking his head. “No, we can’t shortchange him like that. He’d figure us to cover that possibility. For that matter...,” He turned to the conductor. “Fergus, d’you reckon mention of our horse car went out on the wire this mornin’, maybe in relation to the special’s consist?”

Healy stuck his hand in his coat pocket and brought out a jumble of several papers. He glanced at each scrap came to hand, finally pulling out a message form from near the bottom of the small pile. “Aye, an’ ‘tis listed in the orders for the special, don’t you know.”

“No matter, then,” Malik said. “Fergus, tell me this: What will be our speed as we pass that siding? Would we slow down, normally?”

“Aye, an’ a bit, fast as we’re goin’. What do you have in mind, laddie?”

“Me and Cowboy dropping off, crossing under the tracks in that culvert, sneaking up the spring run. Meanwhile, Connor, Sage, and Juniper come in on horses, careful-like, to draw fire, so Cowboy and I can spot their locations, come up on their flank or rear.”

“Well, not bein’ a routine train, an’ far from that we be, we’d have to exercise some caution about the switches, but, if they’re right, we’d not be slowin’ enough for a safe dismount, an’ that’s for certain.”

“Which way are they usually aligned?”

“Routine orders, on this branch, are to leave the switches turned for the usual needs, so they should be turned for a water stop at that sidin’, an’ that means we be slowin’ down enough, near stoppin’, for a brakeman to throw ‘em and return ‘em to normal after we pass. She’ll be movin’ a little faster than’s safe at the culvert, an’ you’d have to time yourself, ‘cause you’d be visible from under the cars, if someone be watchin’. You’ll need to stay next to the trucks and get down off the ballast quick as a wink. For that matter, boyo, you’ll have to be clingin’ to the outside ladder long before we reach the switches, as someone outside, on a car’s platform, would draw attention, don’t you know.”