Iron Eyes, no. 1 (10 page)

The
hacienda
was its usual brightly lit self. That was the only thing that
seemed normal on this night.

This was an
evening filled with worry and concern.

Dwan José Valdez had not trusted either of the strange men
his
vaqueros
had
brought to him at gunpoint a few hours earlier. It was strange for
this most generous of men to distrust anyone, but the Hardy
brothers just brought out the worst in the elderly
gentleman.

He had supplied
them with food and with wine, but not with the things that he
normally provided. These were men that did not seem worthy of his
trust. Therefore he did not give them any

The
vaqueros
had removed all the Hardy brothers’ weapons before bringing
them into the
hacienda
courtyard.

Valdez had
ordered them not to be left unguarded. He had more on his mind than
two stray drifters. His thoughts were with the tall, shadowlike
Iron Eyes.

Tom and Whit
were treated well. The brothers had their horses groomed, watered
and fed by Valdez’s stable hands.

Supplies were
given to them freely before Dwan José Valdez came to the small tack
room where they were being kept.

‘
You are free to go on your way,’ Valdez started to tell the
two rough riders, ‘as long as you leave my property and head back
across the border.’

Tom gazed up at the old man, who was flanked by his heavily
armed
vaqueros
.
‘You ordering us out of Mexico?’

‘
I am.’ Valdez’s eyes narrowed.

‘
What the hell for?’ Tom felt insulted.

‘
Because we have enough filth in our country without stealing
more from yours.’ The elderly man was in no mood to argue with
anyone.

‘
Can he kick us out of Mexico, Tom?’ Whit Hardy was still
enjoying the free wine that had been provided by their
host.

‘
I can do anything I want,’ Valdez interrupted.

‘
Guess we are leaving,’ Tom shrugged.

‘
We have seen to your horses. They are fresh now, and able to
carry you back home.’ Valdez turned to leave the tack room, when he
was stopped by a question that struck him unexpectedly.

‘
You heard of a critter named Iron Eyes?’ Tom Hardy
asked.

Valdez kept his back to the men. ‘I think you will leave
my
hacienda
very
quickly.’

‘
How come, old-timer?’ Tom stood and smiled at the back of his
host.

Dwan José
turned. ‘Otherwise my men will shoot you and bury you out in the
sand for the ants to eat.’

Whit jumped to
his feet and grabbed his older brother’s arm in terror.

‘
What’s wrong, boy?’ Tom asked.

‘
Shut the hell up, Tom. These folks ain’t civilized like
us.’

Tom shook his
head at the floor.

‘
You still scared of ants, Whit?’ he sighed.

The Snake had
no idea of what lay in waiting for him as he headed drunkenly back
to his shack and the awaiting Maria.

Pushing his way
through the bandits and the females, the man with the golden tooth
began to stagger as he walked. Pausing for only a brief moment to
finish off yet another black glass bottle of wine, he burped before
proceeding.

As he entered
the dark room, he closed the door behind him. He felt around for
the shelf where he kept his matches and found them. Striking a
match, he touched the naked wick of his lantern and watched as the
glowing filled every corner of the shack.

Speaking his
drunken words of passion he headed for the corner where she huddled
under the stinking blanket.

As his soiled
hands pulled the blanket off her, his bloated face suddenly went
very pale.

The sight that
met his puffy eyes made him reel back in a mixture of shock and
fear. He had heard of a man who fitted this gringo’s
description.

‘
Howdy, Snake,’ Iron Eyes grinned, as he held a Navy Colt on
the bandit leader. Maria Valdez hid herself behind the seated
bounty-hunter.

The Snake
dropped the blanket and tried to speak without success. His throat
was dry from shock.

Iron Eyes got
to his feet, and hauled the shaking Maria up after him. She stayed
behind her tall saviour, unable or unwilling to face the man known
as the Snake.

‘
You look pretty shook up, Snake.’

‘
You are Iron Eyes,’ the bandit muttered.

‘
You know of me?’ Iron Eyes poked the man in his ample belly
with the barrel of his pistol. ‘I’m flattered.’

‘
You will die this night,
Senor
Iron Eyes,’ the Snake snarled at the
bounty-hunter.

‘
Possibly.’ Iron Eyes felt it was a pretty good bet that this
was one game he would not win.

‘
Why you do this?’ The Snake was defiant as he swelled up his
chest, trying to scare the man who knew no fear.

‘
Do what?’

‘
Come here?’

‘
I got a couple of very good reasons,’ Iron Eyes replied, with
a sound in his voice that came from somewhere low in his
soul.

‘
I heard that you were smart, but to come here is very stupid.’
The Snake was trying to stand his ground, and Iron Eyes admired
that.

‘
I like being stupid, Snake,’ Iron Eyes growled. ‘It makes
killing rats like you more fun.’

‘
I think you will not get out of my camp alive.’

The Snake
indicated to the door. ‘I have many men and they are all very good
with their guns.

We had to kill twenty
vaqueros
to capture Valdez’s daughter.’

‘
I heard it was eight
vaqueros,
Snake,’ Iron Eyes corrected the bandit. Sand your
men are pretty damn drunk.’

‘
Maybe it was eight.’ The Snake raised his eyebrows. ‘But you
still have not explained why you come here to certain
death.’

The
bounty-hunter pushed the bandit leader down on to a chair, and
rammed the gun into his mouth.

‘
This answer your question?’ Iron Eyes asked, as he reached
down and pulled out a long stiletto from the inside of his
boot.

As the Snake
was about to nod he felt something. Something that he had never
experienced before. Something being pushed into his guts and forced
up into his heart. Before he was able to work out that it was the
blade of Iron Eyes’ stiletto, his depraved life ceased with a loud,
gushing sound. The face suddenly went blank as it sucked on to the
barrel of the pistol.

Iron Eyes
pulled his gun barrel out of the lifeless mouth and wiped the spit
and dribble off on to his shirt.

Then, putting
the long barrel of his Navy Colt into his belt, he tugged hard to
remove the knife from the Snake’s torso. Blood squirted over the
floor and Iron Eyes’ boots. Both he and the silent Maria watched as
the body slid off the hard chair and on to the shack floor.

The
bounty-hunter watched the dead man for several seconds before he
felt a hand on his shoulder.

‘
Who are you?’ Maria whispered.

‘
They call me Iron Eyes, Miss,’ Iron Eyes replied, as he went
down on one knee and poked the still-bloody blade into the open
mouth of the Snake.

There was a
cracking sound before the bounty-hunter’s fingers retrieved
something covered in blood. Wiping it on the bandit’s clothing, he
showed the small object to the young female.

It was the gold
tooth.

‘
What do you want with that?’ she gasped in horror.

‘
Trophy for your pop,’ he replied, getting back to his
feet.

Maria Valdez
spat on the dead man, before kicking him with all the rage she had
been withholding for ten long days. Her prayers had been answered,
but she was still in the dirty shack and a long way from freedom
and safety. Could this man who had killed the Snake so easily,
really get her out of this evil place?

She watched as
he moved to the door and peered through the ill-fitting frame. The
rain had eased up, but the revelry remained almost as frantic as
before.

‘
Now what?’ Maria asked in his ear.

‘
I’m thinking.’

The
vaqueros
pointed the way back to the Rio Grande and then rode away,
leaving Whit and Tom Hardy alone in their saddles under the black,
stormy sky Lightning flashes lit up the distant mountains and
spooked their mounts.

‘
Well?’ Tom Hardy sat leaning on his horse’s neck.

‘
We gonna go back to Texas?’ Whit asked, trying to see in the
dark evening gloom.

‘
What the hell for?’ Tom sniffed. ‘We came to do a job and we
is gonna do it.’

Whit reached
into his saddle-bags and withdrew a bottle of wine, pulling the
cork out with his teeth. ‘You are still crazy.’

Tom felt angry.
‘I wanna avenge Dan’s murder, boy.’

‘
Then I gotta say
adios,
Tom.’ Whit swigged at his bottle, and gulped down
the bitter-sweet fluid.

‘
Get killed on your own if you like. I am getting as far away
from here as this nag will take me.’

Tom rounded his
horse to be face on with his younger brother.

There was a
long silence between the two men as they stared at one another in
the darkness. A partial moon and a few stars were all that lit up
the scene. It was enough.

‘
What about heading north?’ Tom suggested
reluctantly.

‘
We could go straight.’ Whit grinned as he offered what was
left of his bottle to his sibling.

‘
Pigs might fly.’ Tom grabbed the bottle and downed what was
left of the wine, before tossing the bottle away.

The two men
steered their horses north at a pace that was slow enough to
guarantee an easy, painless ride.

Neither man believed the other that their business with Iron
Eyes was truly finished. They just rode away from the
vaqueros
and Dwan José
Valdez.

They had plenty
of time.

Iron Eyes had
managed to get the weak, beaten Maria Valdez out of the filthy
shack, leaving the very dead Snake behind and picking up his
Winchester. He checked that the repeating carbine was still
operational before donning his long heavy coat once more. His icy
glare froze the situation before them. There were just too many
people around that damn campfire. Tapping her small shoulder,
exposed by the tear across her dress where it had been torn from
her body by the evil bandit, Iron Eyes moved his head in a gesture
that told her to follow him. It was a long way around the back of
the shacks to the corral, but it was a journey that they both had
to endure.

As she followed
the silent man she wondered who or what he was, to risk his life
for a total stranger. His lank, wet hair covered his face most of
the time, as he moved holding his rifle firmly across him, ready to
use it at a split-second’s notice.

Briefly, he had
thought that they might retrace his route into the camp, but the
rain still fell and the mountain slopes that surrounded the canyon
were running with fresh rain-water and impossible to climb.

Iron Eyes knew
that they had but one chance, and that was to get to the
horses.

Whether they
would be able to ride out of the hell-hole without being killed was
doubtful. Yet it was his only plan, and he could not see any other
option open to them.

She followed
the tall, thin, ghostlike creature as he silently moved behind the
small wooden dwellings. She had never been so tired as she was at
this moment.

The days of
being abused and kept a prisoner had taken their toll upon her
frail, bruised body.

Sensing that
she was weaker than he had at first thought, Iron Eyes stopped and
returned to her. He put an arm under her shoulder and lifted her
off her feet, then continued with her hanging off him.

She was lighter
than he had at first thought.

There seemed to
be no excess flesh upon her entire body. He wondered if she were
like himself; one of those people who seldom ate and seemed able to
exist upon fresh air and liquor. Then he remembered who she was and
what her pedigree was.

Iron Eyes had
never been so close to a real lady before, and felt angry that she
was hurt.

She had been
starved and beaten by the Snake for ten days, and in the heat of
the shack, in the blistering Mexican climate, she had just sweated
off all her body fat.

Maria felt as
if she were floating as they moved to the edge of the last shack
before stopping. Her eyes stared at the side of his face, and
wondered why he was so cold..It was a scarred face, which had seen
many battles.

Iron Eyes put a
thin finger to her lips as if ordering her to remain silent. She
watched as he strained to hear every sound that came from the
surrounding area. He sniffed the cool breeze as if he could detect
things by their sheer scent alone.

Iron Eyes was a
hunter.

He knew things
that most men never learn. He did not have to rely upon what his
incredible vision could see. He used all his senses. It was said of
Iron Eyes that he had the ability to smell danger. It might have
just been a legend, but he was almost that good at what he did.

The rain
continued to fall as they waited at the edge of the last shack. He
held her up with one arm as his hand gripped the trigger of his
Winchester in the other.

Maria was
getting concerned as he released his grip on her and gently rested
her against the wooden wall. He put his finger to his own lips and
sank down in a crouching position.

She watched as
the rain beat off his head, sending his long, limp hair hanging
like damp string over his face. Yet his face remained frozen as he
concentrated upon something.

Maria wondered
how he could let the rain hit his eyes without ever blinking. Then
she became aware of what he had been expecting.

A drunken
bandit staggered around the corner into the black shadows, stood
with his sombrero over his eyes and pulled down the front of his
loose pants to get rid of some of the wine he had been consuming.
The man was totally unaware of either Maria or Iron Eyes’
proximity.

Iron Eyes moved
like a wild puma at the man, bringing him down quickly and silently
The rifle butt was used and then the stiletto. The tall
bounty-hunter dragged the body through the mud before dumping it
behind the shack.

Maria watched
as he returned to her side as if nothing had happened. This was a
man who killed without any guilt. It was a natural reflex to Iron
Eyes. However much it frightened her she owed her life to him.
Loyalty and trust now consumed her, taking away some of the
heartbreak that the Snake had inflicted upon her body and soul
during the past ten days.

‘
Can we get out of this place?’ she whispered softly. ‘Can we
ever escape?’

His grey eyes
seemed to radiate as he looked down at her for a brief moment. ‘We
just might.’

Then he
concentrated upon the small structure to the side of the crudely
constructed corral, and pointed at it.

‘
Any idea what they got in there?’

She shook her
head. ‘I do not know.’

He slid his arm
under her shoulder once more, lifted her off the ground and ran
across to the fence rails that held the horses back. They both
clambered through the poles and moved to the small, three-sided
building. It was a dark place, filled with saddles and bridles. At
the far end two boxes were stacked, one on top of another.

Iron Eyes moved
quickly and used his knife to prise off the nailed-down lid of the
top box. Maria Valdez watched in confusion as he removed the top
box and then opened the bottom box.

‘
What is it?’ she asked, as her attention was drawn to the fire
and the dancing people a hundred yards away.

‘
Dynamite and fuses,’ he replied, filling one of his coat
pockets with the deadly sticks of explosives and the other with the
fuses.

As he moved
toward her she stepped nervously back, as if afraid that they would
both be blown up.

‘
It’s safe,’ he said, bluntly pushing her down on to a small
stool to rest, whilst he grabbed two saddles and bridles off the
large stack.

‘
What are you going to do?’ she asked, feeling even weaker than
earlier.

Iron Eyes had
no time to answer. He busied himself with two of the less timid
horses, saddling them for their escape. The man who looked closer
to death than any other human being she had ever encountered led
the creatures to the front rail and tied their reins firmly He had
hatched a crude plan that had all the elements required for
success, yet was unlikely to work given their situation.

For the first
time, Iron Eyes stopped and leaned over her and talked straight and
true.

He had to give
her information about what he was going to attempt. She had her
part to play, although he doubted that she could play any part at
all given her state.

Slowly he spoke
to her as the rain beat down upon his long hair. Maria Valdez was
using every ounce of her inner strength to listen and remember his
instructions.

All she could
think about was the long fuses that were sticking out from his coat
pocket and the steam that was rising from him.