The Spirit of Iron Eyes (8 page)

It had sounded like something from another
world to the painted braves. None of them could believe that
anything on this earth was capable of making such a horrific
sound.

None of the tribe had ever heard anything
like the noise which had bellowed out above them. The painted
braves ran in confusion and gathered around the silent figure of
their chief, Conchowata.

‘
What
was that?’ It was as if every one of the braves asked exactly the
same question at the very same moment. The chief glanced at Diamond
Back Jones who was sitting on his saddle next to his grazing
horse.

‘
Has
my brother ever heard such a sound in his time with the white
eyes?’ Conchowata asked.

Diamond Back Jones rose from his saddle near
the blazing camp-fire and strode across the sand until he could see
the high cave.

‘
Even
a stuck pig don’t make that kinda noise, chief.’

‘
Then
what was it?’ Conchowata asked the outlaw.

‘
I
have never heard
anything like that, great chief,’ Jones admitted as he felt a bead
of sweat run down from his hairline and drip from his furrowed
brow. ‘But we know that the evil one is up there. Could he have
killed something in the cave, or maybe it killed him?’

‘
Nothing of this earth made that noise,’ one of the Apache
warriors said.

‘
The
shooting was real enough though!’ Jones muttered as he tried to
work out if it were possible for the bounty hunter to have cried
out so chillingly.

‘
The
evil one tried to kill something up there!’ a warrior
suggested.

‘
Was
it a demon?’ Conchowata swallowed hard as the question came from
his lips. ‘Could there be a demon in that cave?’

‘
I
don’t know,’ Jones
admitted. He stepped even closer to the ridge and continued to
stare up at the small cave opening far above them.

‘
Could
a man make such a noise?’ another of the warriors asked.

Diamond Back Jones rubbed his
face.
‘I
have heard many men cry out in pain and fear, but none of them
sounded like that.’

Conchowata rested a hand on the
shoulder of the Apache who was dressed like a white man.
Jones
’s head
turned and looked into his chief’s eyes.

‘
Do
you think that there are animals up there in the cave, my brother?
One of which was killed by the bullets of the evil one?’

‘
Or
killed the one called Iron Eyes!’ another brave said.

Jones returned his eyes to the cave. The
light of the moon made the entire ridge appear to be glowing in an
unholy shade of blue.

‘
What
animal could reach that place? The cave is too far up for most
animals to reach.’

‘
A
mountain lion could!’ another of the braves declared firmly. ‘They
can leap ten times their own height. A lion could reach the cave in
three or four strides.’

Jones nodded.

‘
That
is true. But was it an animal that cried out or Iron
Eyes?’

‘
But
was that the sound of a lion?’ the chief asked, feeling the hairs
on the nape of his neck tingle in fear beneath his long grey
hair.

‘
I
think not!’Jones
shrugged.

‘
Are
there evil spirits in that place?’ the eldest son of the chief
asked.

Conchowata had seen many things
in his long
life and knew that a wise chief never dismissed anything.
For as soon as a man said that something did not exist, it usually
appeared and made him look foolish.

‘
I can
not say, Geroma. But whatever made that sound, it was either to
mark injury or death.’

Diamond Back Jones sighed heavily, pulled
his guns from their holsters and checked their chambers.

‘
I’m
going up there, Conchowata.’

The sound of disbelief raced
through the assembled Indians as they watched Jones start to walk
towards the foot of the rugged
rock face.

‘
Do
not go up there, my brother!’ Conchowata demanded as he paced after
the Apache outlaw. ‘The gods will not allow any of our people to
fight after the sun has set. You know that is bad
medicine.’

Diamond Back Jones looked again into the
familiar eyes of the chief.

‘
I
have lived with the
white eyes long enough to know that there is no such thing as bad
medicine, Conchowata. Only bullets make medicine. I have killed
many white eyes since leaving the tribe. Many of them during the
hours of night. I am not afraid. I’m going up there to see if Iron
Eyes is still there.’

The chief grabbed
Jones
’s arm
firmly.

‘
I
am chief! I say
no!’

‘
This
is nonsense! I wanna see if the evil Iron Eyes is still alive up
there! For all we know it was he who screamed out. Maybe there is
an animal up there and it has killed him!’

‘
What
if he is still alive?’ Geroma asked as he stood next to his
father.

Jones narrowed his eyes.

‘
If he
is alive, I shall kill him, Geroma!’

‘
You
cannot defy the gods!’ Conchowata raged. ‘This is our land but we
are only here because of the mercy of our gods. We cannot fight
until the sun rises.’

Diamond Back Jones pulled his
arm free of the chief
’s grip and waved his hands at the rest of the
tribe.

‘
No
wonder our people have been driven into such arid lands by the
white eyes. You are all women who fear unseen gods and allow our
enemies to take advantage of us.’

Conchowata squared up to the outlaw.

‘
You
will not go up there to fight!’

‘
I
can and I will!’
Diamond Back retorted.

Conchowata
signaled to his braves. They
all advanced with their daggers drawn.

The two men gazed angrily into
each other
’s
souls. Neither was willing to back down.

For more than five eternal minutes the
bounty hunter had been racked by feverish delirium as he rolled
over and over on the floor of the cave tunnel. His mind was melting
into a soup of confused fog, yet he was fighting the unseen enemy
which surged through his veins and arteries with every scrap of his
dogged determination. Iron Eyes gritted his teeth as his entire
body arched in violent agony for the umpteenth time.

He had suffered many things since he first
stood upright and challenged the world, but nothing that came close
to the pain he was now consumed by. Pain was one thing but to lose
control of your mind made him angry.

He had always been a fighter and would never
allow anything to defeat him without giving of his best. He had to
try and beat this too. Whatever was happening to him as the poison
infested his body, he would try and fight it.

Sweat had soaked his long hair
as he had tried
to escape the monsters who now brought nightmares to his
fevered brain. It clung to his wet face like spiders’ webs. He
punched out violently at the black air trying to hit the invisible
foes who tormented him. His knuckles glanced across the cave walls
taking the skin off them but he did not feel a thing except the
cruel venom which continued to tear through his innards.

The bounty hunter threw himself through the
blackness at the wall of the cave as if attempting to knock himself
out. Anything to escape the vicious torment which was engulfing
him.

Sweat poured from him as the
snake
’s
venom flowed through his bloodstream. He felt as if his head were
about to explode when he managed to regain part of his
wits.

Without even knowing why, he grabbed the
handle of the long Bowie knife protruding from the tall neck of his
boot and hauled it out. He shook his head in a vain attempt to free
his mind from the fog and thunder which was overwhelming him. Again
he managed to regain his thoughts for the briefest of seconds and
honed his every thought on the rattler which still clung to his
leg.

The snake
’s fangs had driven so deeply
into his boot and calf-muscle that it could no longer free
itself.

Iron Eyes shook the sweat off
his face and then groped for the viper
’s neck in the darkness. He found the
wriggling serpent and squeezed it as hard as he could as the
snake’s body wrapped around his arm.

With the other hand Iron Eyes moved the long
honed blade closer to the sidewinder. Pain racked his head and body
as if he were being torn apart by a hundred wild mustangs but he
continued to force himself to try and kill the creature that had
almost certainly killed him.

His heart pounded in his chest
as it tried to fight the poison which was now being sucked through
his heart. Iron Eyes felt giddy and rolled over. His skull hit the
cave wall. It was like a slap in the face for the feverish man.
Suddenly he remembered what he was doing and tightened his grip on
the snake
’s
neck once more. The lethal blade of his knife sought out the neck
of the rattler in the darkness. He could feel it cut his hand time
and time again as he searched for the head of the snake. The hand
holding the rattler became wet with his blood, but he could not
feel the injuries he was inflicting upon himself.

They were mere scratches compared to the
agony which racked the rest of him.

The snake
’s venom had deadened his
entire body to anything except itself. Then the bounty hunter slid
the curved blade under his thumb and pressed it into the throat of
the determined sidewinder.

‘
Gotcha, ya bastard!’ Iron Eyes growled.

He dragged the knife across the
flesh of the snake with every ounce of his remaining strength. The
body was severed from the head of the rattler
but its fangs were still buried
deep into his calf muscle. The poison still pumped from the twin
fangs even though the creature was now dead.

Iron Eyes felt himself fall on to his side
again. He was tired and yet knew that he dare not allow himself to
sleep. For sleep meant certain death.

A swirling sickness seemed to be flowing
into his mind. He could hear his heart beating like a drum. Louder
and louder until he thought that he would go insane.

‘
No!’
He cried out angrily forcing himself back up into a sitting
position. ‘No damn snake’s gonna get the better of me. I ain’t
ready to go under just yet!’

Iron Eyes released his grip on the body of
the snake and then poked the long edge of his Bowie knife into his
boot. He dragged its razor sharp edge through the leather until it
reached the fangs of the rattler still embedded in his leg.

He searched with the fingers of his free
hand until he located the fangs, then placed the blade of his knife
beneath them.

As if he were sawing wood, Iron Eyes carved
at the creature until he felt it finally prised free from his
flesh. He threw the head across the cave tunnel and began to feel
as if he were about to pass out. He knew that if he did, he would
never awaken again.

Iron Eyes inhaled deeply and
tried to recall what he had planned to do next. He reached down and
dragged the split boot off his foot and then pulled
his leg up across
his lap. He wiped his fingers free of the blood and blindly
searched for the wounds left by the snake’s fangs.

He could feel the blood and venom weeping
under his fingers.

‘
Gotta
do somethin’!’ Iron Eyes mumbled as his head filled with agonizing
bolts of lightning. ‘But what? Think, dammit! Think!’

Suddenly the bounty hunter remembered the
matches in his shirt pocket. He rested the knife on his bleeding
leg and shook his coat off his shoulders. Without even knowing why,
he removed the box of matches from his pocket and then tore his
shirt from his back.

Another sickening feeling overwhelmed him.
His head rolled and fell against the cave wall beside him. He heard
his skull crack under the impact but he felt no pain.

He started to count.

Louder and louder until he recalled what he
was doing.

Somehow Iron Eyes forced himself back up on
to his rear. His hands found the shirt again and he placed it next
to his leg. He fumbled with the matches until he located one and
struck it across the hard stone wall beside him.

The flame was almost blinding
when it first ignited but within seconds its flame calmed down.
Iron Eyes placed the match to his shirt and watched it catch
alight. He pulled out a crumpled wanted
poster from his deep coat pocket and
placed it on the small blaze.

His bony fingers managed to pick up one of
his bullets from out of the same pocket. Iron Eyes placed it
between his small sharp teeth and the bit it with all his might. He
felt the casing bend slightly. The acrid taste of gunpowder
granules found the tip of his tongue before his fingers carefully
removed the damaged bullet. Iron Eyes picked up his knife and
prised the small lead ball from the bullet casing. He discarded the
ball and put the casing next to his bleeding leg.