Authors: I. J. Parnham
‘Take the men out of the cage two at a time,’ Hiram Deeds ordered. ‘Each group gets three minutes.’
Nathaniel had been trying to let the gathering darkness and the steady motion of the cage rock him into sleep, but it had only lulled him into a forlorn torpor. Now that they had stopped he sat hunched in the far corner of the mobile cage, watching Marshal Kurt McLynn and most of the guards disperse to take up widespread defensive positions before Hiram unlocked the cage.
Ten prisoners were in the cage, chained and attached to the bars in pairs, and his fellow captives on the two-day journey to Bear Creek all had the same blank-eyed stare as he had as they awaited the inevitable.
Nathaniel sat beside a sour-faced Mitch Cartwright, the prisoner who had handed out the knives and who had been one of the few men to get out of the quarry before being brought down.
Eight of the captives were men sentenced to the
gallows for their part in the breakout, including Turner Jackson, who sat at the opposite end of the cage to Nathaniel.
One of the few pleasures left to Nathaniel was to catch Turner’s eye occasionally and snarl, letting him know that his duplicity had earned him nothing but the worst possible fate. So when Turner had been freed from the bars and had happened to glance at him before standing, Nathaniel glared back and bared his teeth, making Turner turn away.
Turner had the dubious honour of being
manacled
to Javier Rodriguez, who, under the traditional prison hierarchy, was treated with some deference by the other prisoners. Hiram mockingly picked up on that deference and gave a short bow as Javier stepped down from the cage.
Nobody paid deference to the only other prisoner not to have been sentenced because of the breakout. This sombre man was tall and painfully thin, and had features so gaunt they were almost skull-like. He was known only as The Preacher. He sat opposite Javier, his hands raised as high as he could get them and his head lowered while he muttered to himself,
presumably
in prayer.
What his crimes were Nathaniel didn’t know, but the fight to avoid sitting beside him when they’d been loaded into the cage suggested that, to have worried these men, it had to have been something terrible.
When Turner and Javier had taken care of their absolutions, this being the only chance they’d get
before being settled down for the night, the next two prisoners made their way out.
Mitch and Nathaniel would be the next to leave, so Nathaniel stretched his cramped limbs while looking around. They’d been riding along the rim of Devil’s Canyon and had stopped so close to the edge he could see down into the canyon to the winding blue ribbon that was the river at the bottom.
He stared at the water, enjoying what would
probably
be one of his last pleasant sights, until his turn came. Then, with an uncomfortable rattling of chains as he and Mitch tried to establish a walking rhythm, they headed down the cage, but Nathaniel stopped beside Turner.
‘As long as they string you up first and I get to see your lying body,’ Nathaniel said, ‘I’ll die a happy man.’
Turner didn’t meet his eye as he squirmed
uncomfortably
on the base of the cage. Nathaniel resisted the urge to kick him, reckoning he might get a better chance to work off his anger on him later, then he left the cage.
‘Bushes over there,’ Hiram said, pointing, ‘and be quick.’
Nathaniel and Mitch made their way over, but Mitch dawdled, making every pace a fight.
‘Get into step,’ Nathaniel said.
‘Ain’t got nothing in step with you,’ Mitch
grumbled
.
Nathaniel sighed. ‘You don’t believe those rumours Turner started that it’s my fault it all went
wrong, do you?’
‘Sure do. Turner told us everything. How you sold us out to Hiram Deeds. How you sounded the alarm. How you killed Ramsey when he tried to stop you.’ Nathaniel shook his head. ‘That’s not the way it was. Turner was the one who …’
Nathaniel saw the scepticism in Mitch’s eyes, so he gave up attempting to explain himself. Once rumours became widespread they were accepted as fact and nobody would listen to the truth. Not that it mattered this close to the gallows.
He turned away from Mitch, aiming to drop his pants first, but then a whipping blow to the side of his head with the loop of chain that connected them sent him face first into the dirt.
A mixture of his fall and the shared manacles dragged Mitch down on top of him. He tried to buck him away but Mitch had a tight grip on the chain and he dragged it round Nathaniel’s neck, then drew back, choking him.
Nathaniel threw his hands to his neck and grabbed the cold metal, but he couldn’t tear it away from his neck to let him breathe. So he lunged for Mitch’s hands, but the man’s bunched fists were like iron.
Slowly Mitch twisted the chain, tightening it even more.
Motes of light and darkness flitted across Nathaniel’s vision as he fought for the air he
couldn’t
gulp in. Then footfalls approached, followed by a thud. Mitch’s hold slipped away, letting Nathaniel
roll on to his side, gasping.
Then the guards beat Mitch and they even landed a few blows on Nathaniel for good measure. Afterwards they pulled both men to their feet and dragged them back to the cage.
‘Nobody gets out now,’ Hiram said. ‘You’ll all just have to stink up the cage.’
‘Hey,’ Mitch whined when they reached the door. ‘I don’t want to spend the rest of my life chained to this double-crosser.’
The guard ignored him and moved to push him into the cage, but Hiram stopped him with a raised hand.
‘Wait,’ he said. ‘We don’t want no trouble tonight. Chain him to someone else.’
‘Who?’ the guard asked. ‘Nobody wants to sit beside the man who got them all put in there.’
As Hiram considered the prisoners, Turner muttered that Mitch was right about Nathaniel being a double-crosser and this encouraged most of the men to grunt that they didn’t want to be chained to him either.
Hiram’s gaze stopped when it reached the last man in the cage. He smiled.
‘Teach him a lesson for selling everyone out,’ he said. ‘Manacle him to The Preacher.’
‘Obliged,’ Mitch shouted, and the order gathered grunts of approval from the other prisoners.
‘And then I want no more trouble from in here,’ Hiram snapped, pointing at each prisoner in turn. ‘I’ve brought dynamite along. At the first sign of
trouble I’ll blow you all to hell.’
In short order they removed Nathaniel’s manacles and transferred him to sit beside The Preacher. His new companion didn’t stop his steady muttering to himself, leaving Nathaniel to wonder why this was such a punishment.
Once he was sitting, Turner caught his eye from the other side of the cage.
‘If Mitch can’t get you,’ he said, ‘at least I can get to watch you enjoying your time with The Preacher.’
‘He ain’t so bad after suffering Mitch’s company,’ Nathaniel said, ‘and your lies.’
‘You’ll have changed your mind by morning.’ Turner laughed. ‘Provided The Preacher doesn’t eat you in the night.’
‘I reckon this is the best position,’ Marshal Kurt McLynn said, looking over Shackleton Frost’s
shoulder
at the cage 400 yards ahead of and below them.
Shackleton drew back from the edge of the ridge and shook his head.
‘I don’t agree,’ he said. ‘We should be nearer to the cage and you need other men scouting around.’
Kurt laughed when he noted Shackleton’s grim expression.
‘Still questioning my orders, I see. Will you stop whining if Pablo Rodriguez does show and I bring him to justice?’
‘Nope. I don’t care about him. I guard prisoners and all I care about is discharging my duty.’
‘
My
duty,’ Kurt said. ‘
Your
duty is to do what I say,
without questioning me.’
‘Yes,
sir
,’ Shackleton snapped. ‘And what are my orders now, sir?’
Kurt stared at Shackleton for several seconds to ensure he knew he’d noticed his sarcasm, then he gestured down the ridge.
‘Demonstrate that local knowledge you’re so proud of. Decide on the direction Pablo is most likely to come from, then lie in wait for him. If you guess right, capture him and hold him until I arrive.’
Shackleton nodded, then turned to go, but he’d had to swallow a lot of pride over the last few days to stay involved with this mission and the urge to speak his mind became too great. He turned back.
‘Before I go, I’ll say this – you’re a fool.’ This act of open defiance made the rest of Kurt’s men look up in shock. ‘We could have got Javier Rodriguez to Bear Creek without any trouble if we’d done this my way, but riding openly down Devil’s Canyon is
inviting
disaster, and hiring Hiram Deeds was utter madness.’
Shackleton could have gone on to detail
everything
Kurt had done wrong in setting up this mission, but Kurt’s sneer said it’d fall on deaf ears, so he turned away, giving the marshal no chance for a retort. Now he welcomed the opportunity to spend time with the two-man team he’d worked with for the last three years.
With his head down he snaked along the top of the ridge to join Barney Clarke and Elwood Brown.
The two men noted Shackleton’s firm-jawed
expression and each cast a smiling glance at the other, acknowledging their own thoughts about Kurt and his methods. Then they settled down to await darkness.
An hour later they made their move.
Elwood pointed out their destination and route in a silent and quick manner that only people who have worked together for years could understand.
Then they made their way down from the ridge and into a winding gully that came out 400 yards from the edge of the canyon and slightly further away from the cage. There, a bright fire was now lighting up a semicircle a hundred yards wide.
Flickering light even played along the rim of the other side of the canyon a quarter-mile away.
Elwood and Barney murmured their disapproval of the lack of a guarded fire, but Shackleton said nothing. They had both heard enough of his complaints.
Now they just had to wait to see if Pablo would show. As the northern route to this point had plenty of cover, whereas the southern route was more open, Elwood judged he’d pass them here.
‘Do you reckon he’ll come?’ Shackleton asked.
‘Ain’t got a clue,’ Barney said, while Elwood gave the question more careful consideration.
‘If I were Pablo and I knew that double-crossing snake Hiram Deeds was looking after the cage, I’d …’ Elwood looked around then lowered his voice. ‘I’d already be here.’
Shackleton flinched, not having expected this
answer. He then followed Elwood’s gaze to look at the ridge, then along the route that Elwood
indicated
with an outstretched finger. He nodded, seeing what Elwood had noted.
Although the fire was bright enough to appear to have been carelessly situated, a large boulder could be seen between the fire and the cage; it prevented the prisoners from getting any of the warmth and light, and also ensured that were shrouded in
darkness
. Between the edge of the canyon and the ridge there was 400 yards of open space, but there were enough mounds and hollows to mean that long stretches of the ground were in shadow.
‘So Hiram is doing precisely what I tried to warn Kurt about,’ Shackleton murmured, aghast.
‘Yup. He’s lit up the area to let us all see that
everything
is fine. Except, come the morning, the cage will be one prisoner short.’
‘Or will have one prisoner more if I have anything to do with it.’
‘There is no dark place,’ The Preacher muttered to himself, ‘no deep shadow, where evildoers can hide, Job thirty-four, verse twenty-two.’
The Preacher was now talking loudly enough for Nathaniel to hear him, not that he cared to spend the night listening to an endless series of Bible
quotations
. Although, mindful of the man’s reputation, he’d decided not to antagonize him by telling him to be quiet.
Around the cage rasping snores indicated that
most of the prisoners were asleep. When he
abandoned
his own attempt to sleep and opened his eyes he saw that, opposite him, Turner Jackson was asleep but Javier Rodriguez was awake. Javier’s eyes reflected the limited light as they darted around following the guards on their regular patrol.
The tense yet poised way he sat leaning back against the bars suggested he hadn’t given up hope of escape. That made Nathaniel wonder whether something might happen tonight that could give him a chance to escape too.
The first hint that something really was amiss came when Nathaniel heard a thud nearby, then the sound of a large object being dragged along.
Javier’s eyes followed the motion of whoever was doing the dragging. When that man came into Nathaniel’s view he saw that Hiram Deeds was
dragging
an unconscious guard towards the large boulder that stood between them and the fire.
Then Hiram made his stealthy way towards them, holding a bunched set of keys.
Nathaniel closed his eyes to slits and let his mouth fall open as if he were snoozing. He watched Hiram open the cage door in a slow way that ensured it didn’t creak and awaken the prisoners.
Hiram appraised The Preacher, but he continued to babble, showing no interest in the proceedings, as usual. Then he leaned over to Javier and passed him a key.
Javier settled back and considered the prisoners, assuring himself that they were all still asleep; then
he looked at Turner, then at Hiram who followed his gaze. Nathaniel guessed that a silent discussion was taking place as to whether to release Turner. That discussion ended when Javier reached down to his ankle.
While carefully avoiding touching Turner’s body he released his leg manacles, then drew his leg away from him. Again he waited for a few moments before he released his wrist from both Turner and the bars. Then he stood slowly and moved towards the open door.
Nathaniel waited until he raised the hand holding the key to the bars to steady himself as he climbed down. Then he lunged out with his own free hand, catching Javier’s wrist. He squeezed.