The big gundown by J.A. Johnstone Read Free Book Online

of the house, as if something had smashed through it. He didn’t know what could have inflicted the damage but it didn’t really matter. He hauled back on the reins and slowed the buckskin, swinging down from the saddle even before the horse came to a halt. The Kid landed running, with the Winchester held ready for instant use if he needed it.
    He recognized the man lying facedown as Sean Williams. The Kid dropped to a knee beside the young rancher and set the rifle on the ground. He took hold of Sean’s shoulders and carefully rolled him onto his back. The Kid’s hard-planed face took on an even grimmer cast as he saw how sodden with blood Sean’s shirt was. The rancher was shot to pieces.
    But somehow, he was still alive. His eyelids flickered open. The Kid slipped an arm under his shoulders and lifted him a little. He peered up at The Kid without seeming to recognize him. “F-Frannie?” he husked.
    “It’s Morgan, Sean,” The Kid said. “What happened?”
    Blood dribbled in a crimson stream from the corner of Sean’s mouth. He still didn’t seem to know who The Kid was, but he answered the question.
    “Men…rode up…started shooting…we’d just sat down…to breakfast…I ran to the door…oh, God!” His face twisted, either from pain or the memory of what had happened or both. “There was…a terrible noise…something came through the wall…Frannie and Cyrus were still at the table…Oh, God! No! No!”
    The Kid glanced at the hole in the wall. If whatever had caused that destruction had gone on through and hit Frannie and Cyrus, there was no way they had survived. And if they were still in the burning house, there might not even be anything left of their bodies.
    Sean’s fingers clutched at The Kid’s arm. “You’ve got to…save them…get them out…”
    “Sure,” The Kid said. “I’ll do what I can, Sean. I swear.”
    But he didn’t get up, knowing that there was no point. He had already seen the light fading in Sean’s eyes, and a moment later, the young man’s grip relaxed and his fingers slid off The Kid’s arm. His breath came out of him in a long, final sigh. The Kid closed Sean’s eyes and eased him back to the ground.
    The Kid stood up and looked toward the house. He had promised Sean that he would do what he could for Frannie and Cyrus, and he fully intended to keep that promise. He would also do the one thing that was within his power.
    He would avenge their deaths.
     

    The Kid checked on the three vaqueros who lay near the bunkhouse and found that they were dead, also shot full of holes just like Sean. He didn’t see the fourth member of the crew, but he assumed the man’s body was inside the bunkhouse, being consumed by the flames. He couldn’t put out the fires. They would just have to burn themselves out.
    In the meantime, he covered the bodies with blankets from his bedroll to keep scavengers off them, then mounted up and rode in a large circle around the ranch headquarters. He saw numerous hoofprints, and while he wasn’t an expert tracker like his father, he could tell that the men who’d attacked the ranch had approached the place from the southeast.
    The Kid noticed something else that was odd—two parallel lines etched into the sandy ground that looked like the tracks of wagon wheels. They were too close together to be wagon tracks, though. He wasn’t sure what had made the marks, but he was reasonably certain it was something the raiders had brought with them, then taken away again, because the marks turned and went back in the other direction.
    The place where they turned around was on top of a small ridge that commanded a good view of the ranch house. The Kid sat there on the buckskin for a long moment, frowning as he thought about what he was looking at. An idea played around in the back of his mind, but he didn’t know if there was any truth to it.
    The fires inside the buildings were starting to die down. The roofs had collapsed, but the adobe walls