Sabrina's Man (34 page)

The hours crept by. Marianne and Sabrina found a few moments alone to talk in whispers about what was going to happen.

“I'm afraid it won't work,” Marianne said. “Even if it did, they may just kill us. These men are all murderers.”

“Waco won't let them do that.”

“He's only one man.”

“I know, but he can do things. I have confidence in him.”

Marianne stared at Sabrina. “Why do you feel like that about him? You've known him only a short time, and you know he's a criminal.”

Sabrina could not answer. She dropped her head and said, “I don't know, but there's something in him that I trust.”

The next day as they were pulling out, Waco was saddling Sabrina's horse. When she came to mount up, he whispered, “There's a way to get out of that house. If you can get out, fine. There's some woods over to the north of it. I'll come for you if I make it.”

“Don't take any chances.”

He suddenly grinned. “Life is a chance, but if I don't make it, I want to tell you, Sabrina, I've never felt about any woman like I have about you. I know it's useless. We have no future together, but if things were different, I could see it would be great for me.”

“Maybe for me, too. Oh, be careful!”

As the band rode off, Callie rode up to ride beside Waco. “We're going to get that gold,” she said quietly so that it could not be heard over the sound of the horses' hooves hitting the hard ground. “I mean we'll get all of it.”

“Your plan could get us both killed.”

“No. We'll get that gold. We'll leave, and we'll find a place where we can spend the rest of our lives doing whatever we want. We'll have a new life.” She suddenly looked very young, and there was something like joy in her face that Waco had never seen. “I can change, Waco.”

“I guess you can. I guess any of us can.”

“I'm tired of being what I've been all my life, a bad woman.” She laughed and said, “Wouldn't it be something if we got married and had a house full of kids? Can you see me changing diapers?”

“Can you see me doing that?” He grinned and said, “Both of us need a change, but we'll have to be careful. If LeBeau even suspects either one of us, he'll kill us in cold blood. Stick close after we get the gold.”

“We don't have much of a plan.”

“Impossible to plan for a thing like this.” Waco felt a sharp pang as he realized that he was being as deceitful to this woman as a woman had once been to him. He knew he did not love Callie, never had really, but when he saw the joy in her eyes, he felt like a traitor. He said no more. The troop headed steadily toward the site of the holdup.

T
he room was crowded, but Heck Thomas, the chief marshal, wanted to see all of the men he had chosen at one time. He looked over the room and saw that at least four regular marshals were there plus six more that he had recruited. These were men who he knew were tough and could shoot and would not hesitate in a fight to take Trey LeBeau and his bunch down.

Thomas started to speak, and then his eyes fell on Charles Warren and Frank Morgan. They stood out blatantly against the other members of the posse. Both were wearing suits and looked like what they were, businessmen ready to go to work in an office but hardly fitted to go up against hardened, cold-blooded outlaws who would kill them without a second thought.

Shaking his shoulders in a gesture of dismissal, Heck spoke up in his husky voice. “All right, you men, we've been over this war plan, I like to call it, several times. Let me repeat. There will be no passengers on this train. This a special train designed to do one thing—to wipe out LeBeau and his band once and for all. Now I put most of the men in the car next to the mail car where the gold and silver is usually hauled. Nothing in there now, of course, except two of you who will be ready in case LeBeau does get the door open. They think only one man will be waiting for them, but I think they're going to come with all guns blazing. That's the way they always do, and they're convinced that they've got the inside track on the biggest train robbery since there were trains. All right. Any questions?”

For a moment there was silence; then one of Isaac Parker's marshals, Ted Summers, said, “You want us to try and keep 'em alive, Heck?”

“No. Put them down any way you can. If they live, they'll be hanged. If they get shot in the heart, that'll just save the judge an extra trial. All right. If there are no more questions, we'll meet at the train. I've already assigned you your places. When the train slows down, that'll be when they'll send a man to go up and stop the engineer. The train will stop, and that's when they'll come in. All right. Let's get at it.”

The men started to leave, but Heck said, “Mr. Warren, you and Mr. Morgan, just a word.”

Charles Warren and Frank turned and faced Heck. “What is it, Mr. Thomas?”

“Just Heck will do. I'm gonna tell you one more time. This ain't a good idea.”

“Don't try to talk us out of it, Marshal. We're going. Those are our folks that LeBeau is holding. We're going to get them back.” Frank's face was paler than usual, but his jaw was set. He glared at Heck Thomas, daring him to reply.

“Well, I can see your mind is set on this, Mr. Warren, and you, too, sir, but let me bring this up. How would you feel if I came into your business office and tried to take over your duties there? You wouldn't permit it for a minute.”

“Not the same thing,” Charles Warren said abruptly. “This is a matter of family, and you know it.”

“Can you shoot?”

“I can shoot this.” Warren reached over to the wall and picked up a double-barreled shotgun. “I've got plenty of extra shells. If they get within range, I can blast their heads off.”

Despite himself, Heck smiled. “That'll do the job, I guess. What about you, Mr. Morgan?”

“I spend my winters hunting ducks. Not the same as hunting men, I know that's what you're going to say. But I've been in several shooting matches. I've got this rifle. I don't think I can hit anything with a handgun, but with this rifle I won't miss.”

Heck paused and tried to summon another argument, but one look at their stern faces and the determined light in both their eyes and he finally shrugged and said, “Well, some of our men are liable to get shot, and you may be the ones.”

“We're going to get our womenfolk, Heck,” Charles Warren said grimly. “Whatever it takes.”

“All right. When the shootin' starts, just be sure you shoot one of them and not one of us.”

The mounted party arrived at the cabin where the women were to be kept. It was set back in deep woods, and the path had almost grown over. “This house hasn't been used in a long time,” Waco said. “Nobody ever comes here.”

“I still don't like it,” Breed Marcos said. “They could get loose.”

“No, they can't,” Waco spoke up at once. He stepped off his horse and saw that LeBeau had done the same and the outlaw was eyeing him with a hard look.

“Why'd we bring all these extra horses?” Rufo Aznar said. He required a big horse himself since he was over six two and weighed well over two hundred and thirty pounds.

“We want fresh ones,” LeBeau said, not taking his eyes off Waco. “When this is over, they'll be sending a posse after us. We've got to outrun everything.”

Waco said, “That's good thinking.”

Le Beau said, “Well, let's see the inside of this place.” The men all dismounted, and Waco stepped up to the door. It was a solid door made of two-inch-thick oak. “They're never gonna break this down,” he said. He shoved the door open, and they stepped inside. LeBeau saw that there were only two windows, and a large fireplace dominated one side. The furniture was simply a battered old table, a few chairs, and what was left of a bed.

“This won't do, Waco,” LeBeau said. “All they have to do is shove the door open. It locks from the inside.”

“We're going to nail it shut on the outside. I already thought of that,” Waco said. As a matter of fact, he had not, but he could not show a moment's hesitation. The men were walking around, and Zeno Shaw said, “They must have been expecting Indians or something. This place is like a jail.”

“That's right. They can't get out of here. That's why I thought of this place. We can fasten them in, come back after the job's over, and turn 'em loose.”

Waco walked over and pulled Sabrina off her horse. “Come on, sweetheart,” he said.

Marianne slid off her own horse, and the two walked inside.

Waco said, “Don't be tryin' to bust out of here. If you do, it'll be bad for you.”

“We won't do anything,” Sabrina said, staring at the rough outlaws.

“No, you won't,” LeBeau grinned. “I'm leaving a guard here.”

“You can't do that,” Munro protested. “We need all the firepower we got.”

“No, Callie will watch these women.”

Callie said, “No, I won't do it.”

“Do it or I'll shoot you in the leg,” LeBeau snapped. “Somebody has to watch these two, and you're the right one.”

Waco said, “That's a good idea, Trey.” He was facing Callie and winked at her. She caught his meaning and nodded, saying, “All right, I'll do it.”

Waco said, “Let's get out of here. We don't have all that much time.”

They started out, and Waco saw to it that he was last. He said, “Oh, I forgot something.” He turned and came to stand before the two women. “You two women don't try anything funny. You'll be all right if you do what we say.”

Sabrina was watching his eyes, and he winked at her, his back to LeBeau. “If you try anything funny, you could get killed, both of you.”

“We won't do anything,” Sabrina said quietly.

Waco turned and walked outside.

“We'll leave the horses here in that corral right there, tied out back here,” LeBeau said.

It took a few minutes to get the extra horses tied out so they could get to water in a trough, and then they all mounted up. “Let's do it,” LeBeau said. He turned to Waco and said, “This better work, Waco, or you'll pay for it.”

“It'll work.” Waco nodded and said, “Go this way.” He led the band to the place that he had selected. He pulled up and said, “There. You see that steep curve. Every train that goes through here has to slow down to no more than ten miles an hour.”

“Why'd they make it curve like that?” Breed Marcos asked.

“Because they couldn't run it through that big rock formation over there, so they just laid the tracks around it. It slows the train up, and then they have to get up speed again.”

“Where are we going to hide out where they can't see us?” LeBeau demanded.

“Right over there in that patch of trees. By the time the train slows down, it won't be going over more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour. So all you have to do is put one man on that train; he goes up and puts a gun on the engineer and makes him stop the train. As soon as the train stops, go for that gold, LeBeau.”

“Well, you're always wantin' to show off, Waco.” LeBeau smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. “It'll be your job to stop the train.”

“I can probably do that better than anybody I see here,” Waco said, holding LeBeau's glance.

“All right. Let's get the horses hidden.”

“I'll stay here, and the rest of you get on down about a hundred yards. It'll take that long for the train to stop. You can hide out behind those oak trees.”

“If anything goes wrong, I'll put a bullet in you, Waco.”

“Nothing will go wrong.” Waco stepped off his horse, tied it up, and said, “All we have to do is wait.”

LeBeau stared at him for a moment then said, “All right. Let's get on down there and get ourselves ready. How long will it be?”

“It'll be another hour,” Waco said, “but we'll need to stay under cover.”