Iron Eyes Must Die by Rory Black Read Free Book Online

fewer
options came to him. He was still somehow alive, but still trapped just
as he had been in the jail.
    At least there were no iron bars here to
taunt his injured spirit, he silently told himself.
    He still had a small chance of survival. The
hanging judge would not be able to pass judgment on him here and
have him dragged helplessly to the nearest tree with a high broad
branch.
    If they caught up with him here, he would
fight!
    Only death would drag his bleeding body from
this fragile sanctuary, he concluded. They would taste the fury of
his Navy Colts as so many others had done over the years.
    He would not die alone!
    If he was headed to Hell,
he ’d be
taking company. A whole lot of company.
    Iron Eyes dropped his head back
on to his coat sleeve and licked his dry cracked lips. There was only
one way to get out of this town and that was on horseback, he told
himself.
    There was no other way of escaping Rio
Concho!
    Iron Eyes finished the whiskey and then
closed his eyes. This time he would sleep.

Chapter Six
    The gleaming wheels screeched.
Sparks flew out in all directions as metal skidded across metal.
The driver held on to the heavy metal lever and slowed the massive
locomotive. Herb Snape and his engineer Ty Flynn had obeyed every
command that had been shouted into their ears since the five armed
men had boarded the train back at Deadman ’s Flats.
    The cold steel barrels of the cocked Colt
.45s which pressed into the nape of their necks were other good
reasons to listen. For men like outlaw Snake Adams never liked to
repeat themselves.
    Their trigger fingers were far too itchy for
that.
    ‘ That’s right!’ Adams breathed into Snape’s neck. ‘Stop the
train along here!’
    ‘ Here?’ the anxious train driver muttered.
    ‘ Yep!
See them two riders with the string of horses?’
    ‘ I see
’em OK!’
    ‘ Stop
when this old loco is level with them!’
    ‘ No
problem, mister!’ Herb Snape gulped. ‘You’re the boss. I’ll get as
close to them hombres as you want.’
    A multitude of steam jets
seemed to spit from behind the locomotive ’s gleaming wheels as Brewster and
Mayne showed themselves at the mouth of the narrow gulch. The two
riders had the five other horses tied securely to their saddle
cantles.
    The driver had been as good as his word. He
managed to stop the huge locomotive within inches of where Adams
had indicated.
    The two horsemen silently
acknowledged the nods of their five companions as Snake Adams
forced the two men down from the high engineer ’s platform on to the dusty
ground.
    Adams dropped down on to the
soft sand, poked the barrel of his gun into the engineer’s belly and waited
for Lynch and Parker to escort the rest of the train’s crew from
the passenger cars.
    ‘ What
do you want of us exactly, mister?’ the sweat-soaked engineer asked
fearfully. ‘What’s all this about?’
    ‘ Hush
up and you’ll live longer!’ Adams said, his eyes narrowed. ‘It
don’t pay to get too nosy. I’ve heard it can reduce a man’s life
considerably.’
    ‘ We
ain’t carrying no gold or nothin’, mister! Honest!’ the stoker
snapped. ‘If ya holding up this train, you’ll go away
empty-handed!’
    Adams lowered his head, then
swung his gun hand with every ounce of his strength. He smashed the
barrel of his weapon across the stoker ’s face. Ty Flynn’s neck almost
snapped as his head was violently struck. Blood and teeth hit the
largest of the train’s wheels before the man fell unconscious into
the sand.
    ‘ Reckon that dumb ox didn’t quite understand me when I said
for you guys not to ask any more questions.’
    The engineer was about to speak when he felt
the gun return to his middle. He sucked in air and swallowed
hard.
    ‘ Stop
shaking! He ain’t dead!’ Adams snorted. ‘But it don’t matter none
to me if we have to kill all of you. My boy Buck there wants to
kill everyone he meets. I only have to snap my fingers and it’ll
happen. Savvy?’
    The engineer