Chapter 4 - The Man Thomas Left Behind
Clara's revolver cleared the holster.
The man raised both hands.
"Don't."
She knew him.
Benjamin Reed.
Thomas's closest friend.
The man who had supposedly died in the same cattle-thief attack that killed Thomas.
Clara had attended his funeral.
An empty coffin.
His family had buried a coat.
"You're dead," Clara whispered.
Benjamin looked older.
A long scar crossed his left cheek.
His right hand shook slightly.
"That was the idea."
Clara almost pulled the trigger anyway.
"Explain."
Benjamin glanced at Hale.
"We don't have much time."
"Explain faster."
Benjamin placed the survey on the floor.
"Thomas and I discovered what Silas was doing. He was buying up every piece of land around Red Knife Canyon because he knew the territorial railroad survey would eventually pass near the basin."
"The spring."
"Not just a spring. An underground aquifer."
Clara tightened her grip.
"Thomas found records proving Silas staged raids."
Benjamin nodded.
"We planned to ride to Santa Fe."
"What happened?"
"Someone betrayed us."
"Who?"
Benjamin hesitated.
Clara cocked the revolver.
"Who?"
"Sheriff Coyle."
She had expected that.
It still hurt.
Benjamin continued.
"They ambushed us north of the ridge. Thomas got away for a while. I was shot and left for dead."
"Then how are you standing here?"
"Comanche hunters found me."
Clara looked toward the back room.
"Nokoni's people?"
"Different band. They carried me west. By the time I recovered enough to return, Silas had told everyone I was dead."
"So you stayed dead?"
Benjamin's shame was immediate.
"I had a wife."
"You still had a wife."
"I had two daughters."
"You still had daughters."
His face tightened.
"Silas sent word that if Benjamin Reed returned, his family would die."
Clara lowered the gun slightly.
She understood fear.
She hated understanding it.
"Where have you been?"
"Working freight lines. Watching Silas. Gathering what I could."
"And Thomas?"
Benjamin looked at the floor.
"I found him before he died."
Clara's chest tightened.
"You were there?"
"Near the creek."
"Did Silas shoot him?"
Benjamin swallowed.
"No."
Clara froze.
"What?"
"Silas ordered it."
"Who pulled the trigger?"
Benjamin looked directly at her.
"Amos Vale."
Clara remembered Amos smiling in the desert.
Something inside her turned hard.
"Thomas lived almost an hour."
She didn't want to hear.
She had to.
"He kept asking whether I'd seen you," Benjamin said.
Clara's eyes burned.
"He said he should've told you everything. Said you'd be furious."
Despite herself, Clara let out a broken laugh.
"That sounds like him."
"He gave the map to Nokoni before the ambush. Thomas had helped him months earlier. He knew Nokoni could keep it outside Silas's reach."
"And you?"
"He told me to stay dead."
Clara looked up.
Benjamin nodded.
"He said one survivor might matter more than another body."
Clara wiped her face angrily.
"Thomas always did think he could arrange everybody's life."
Benjamin almost smiled.
Then Hale groaned.
They helped the reverend into a chair.
Hale remembered men entering through the rear.
Martha had fought.
The lockbox was taken.
Samuel remained a prisoner.
Nokoni had escaped through a side window.
That was one piece of luck.
Clara showed Benjamin the message.
Bring Nokoni to Red Knife Canyon.
Benjamin shook his head.
"Silas doesn't only want Nokoni."
"He wants Tahka."
"Exactly."
Silas wanted a confrontation.
A massacre.
If he could lure Comanche warriors into Red Knife Canyon, then claim settlers had been attacked, territorial troops might remove them permanently.
Then Silas would control the basin.
Clara looked at Benjamin.
"So we give him the opposite."
Benjamin frowned.
"We bring witnesses."
By sunrise they had a plan.
Hale would travel toward Fort Selden and find Marshal Everett Sloan, assuming the circuit marshal had arrived.
Benjamin would locate Samuel Bell's hidden survey copies.
Clara would find Nokoni.
Then they would go to the canyon.
Not to surrender him.
To expose Silas.
Clara found Nokoni outside town beneath an abandoned wagon bridge.
He had heard the attack and assumed Clara had been captured.
When she told him about Benjamin, he listened quietly.
Then said, "Thomas had many ghosts."
"Apparently."
Nokoni studied her.
"You angry."
"Very."
"Good."
She stared.
"Good?"
"Angry people walk farther."
Clara couldn't argue with that.
By afternoon Benjamin returned carrying a canvas roll.
Inside were official land surveys stamped by the territorial office.
They proved Silas's claims were fraudulent.
More importantly, they showed Red Knife Canyon had never legally belonged to him.
The land around the aquifer was shared grazing territory covered by an old federal agreement.
Silas had been murdering people for something he didn't even own.
"This can destroy him," Clara said.
"If it reaches a federal court."
Nokoni looked toward the window.
"Horses."
Clara heard them seconds later.
Not many.
Two.
Benjamin moved beside the door.
A rider called out.
"Clara McKe!"
Cal Pike.
Clara stepped outside with her rifle.
Cal sat on his horse alone.
A second horse beside him carried Samuel Bell.
His hands were tied.
Clara's heart jumped.
"Let him go."
Cal looked over his shoulder nervously.
"I'm trying."
Samuel slid from the saddle.
Benjamin ran forward and cut his ropes.
Cal remained mounted.
"Silas is losing control."
"Silas never had control," Clara said.
"No. You don't understand."
Cal's face was pale.
"He's got twenty men coming from Arizona."
"For what?"
"To hit the canyon tonight."
Nokoni stepped onto the porch.
Cal flinched.
"He'll kill anyone there," Cal said. "Your people. His own men if they know too much."
"Why are you telling us?" Clara asked.
Cal looked down.
"Because Amos shot Thomas."
Clara stiffened.
Cal continued.
"And I watched."
Silence.
"I was nineteen. Silas told me Thomas had betrayed us. I believed him until afterward."
"You had three years to speak."
"I know."
"Three years."
"I know."
Clara wanted to hate him cleanly.
It would have been easier.
But guilt had hollowed the young man out.
Samuel Bell spoke.
"Can you get us inside Silas's camp?"
Cal nodded.
"Maybe."
Clara looked at Benjamin.
Then Nokoni.
"We go tonight."
Red Knife Canyon glowed red beneath the setting sun when they approached through the western ravine.
Silas had built a temporary camp near the spring.
Armed men stood around wagons loaded with rifles.
Clara counted eighteen.
Maybe more.
Cal led them through a dry cut hidden from the main trail.
Benjamin and Samuel carried the survey documents.
Nokoni carried no rifle, only a knife.
Clara carried Thomas's gun.
She felt him with every step.
At the canyon edge, they saw Silas.
Sheriff Coyle stood beside him.
Amos Vale too.
Martha Bell was tied near a wagon.
Silas had not released her.
Clara's jaw tightened.
"We need to get Martha first."
Benjamin nodded.
Then a distant sound rolled through the canyon.
Hoofbeats.
Many.
Nokoni closed his eyes briefly.
"Tahka."
Clara stared at him.
"You sent for him?"
"No."
Then they saw something on the opposite ridge.
A rider holding a white cloth.
Not Comanche.
One of Silas's men.
He had deliberately signaled Tahka's warriors toward the canyon.
The trap was already closing.
Clara hurried forward.
A branch snapped.
Amos Vale turned.
His eyes found her instantly.
"Well, I'll be damned."
Silas looked up.
Clara raised Thomas's rifle.
"Let Martha go."
Silas smiled.
Then he looked past Clara toward Nokoni.
"Perfect."
Gunmen stepped from both sides of the ravine.
They had been waiting.
Clara realized Cal hadn't led them through a secret entrance.
He had led them directly into another trap.
She turned toward him.
Cal's face collapsed.
"I didn't know."
Silas laughed.
"No, boy. You never did."
He raised one hand.
Across the ridge, rifles appeared.
Dozens of barrels aimed toward the approaching Comanche riders.
Clara looked at Tahka in the distance.
Then at Silas.
He wasn't planning a fight.
He was planning an execution.
May you like
And before Clara could shout a warning, Silas gave the command:
"Fire..."
