He took up a small handful of dust and let it fall from his fingers. Looked like a wind just south of east, blowing maybe 5 miles an hour. He dropped another handful and judged it the same. He watched the dust settle behind Nick's horse and thought the wind looked about the same down on the trail, the easterliness of it meant it was blowing from his left straight down the trail. He had a clear shot at the two men on his side of the trail, the two on the other side obscured by the rocks they had hidden behind. Two of the men had rifles, the other two had drawn handguns.
He didn't want to shoot those two men with his rifle from ambush. He hoped they would just stop Nick, steal his horse and not shoot him. He rested his rifle on the rock in front of him and kept his eye on the two men with rifles. If anyone was going to shoot from ambush, it would be the rifles.
They didn't. Just as Nick rode between the four men, one of them jumped out in front of his horse, threw up his arms and spooked the horse back. Two of the other men stood at the same time, forestalling any action on Nick's part by their numbers. Good plan. He kept his eye on the fourth man, the man hidden with his rifle pointed at Nick's back.
He was too far away to hear what was said but he didn't need to hear to know what was coming. He knew this brother well enough by now to know the general shape of what was going to happen.
About a minute into the conversation, Nick spurred his horse into the two men on the opposite side of the trail, threw himself from the saddle just as the horse jumped forward. The horse knocked one of the men down and Nick shot at the other, driving him to cover. When the fourth man, the one covering the other three with his rifle, stood to shoot Nick in the back, Heath shot him in the shoulder. Then he pulled his rifle to the left and shot the second man who stepped past Nick's horse, rifle raised and pointed at Nick. Nick'd shot the man his horse hadn't hit by this time. The man the horse had run into was now on his feet with his handgun pointed directly at Nick.
Heath didn't have time for a good shot and just had to shoot the man in the chest, killing him. He held his position, watched the first two men he'd shot. One was hit in the shoulder, the second one in the leg. They were both down and didn't look like getting up, but he knew he hadn't killed them and would cover them until Nick got things sorted. He watched his brother stand up, unharmed, and move to each of the men, kicking their guns out of reach carefully, staying out of his line of fire.
This was just as it should be, he almost smiled. If he hadn't had to kill that man, this would have been perfect, brothers covering for each other. He felt righteous just as he had in Stockton and at Sample's. He wondered could he just follow these siblings around for the rest of his life, pulling their bacon out of the fire. Sure looked like they needed someone just to do that.
Once Nick had cleared the guns, he stood up slowly and stepped from behind the rocks, holding his rifle away from his body, so Nick could see he wasn't in a position to fire. He waited until he was sure Nick had seen. He knew Nick would be jumpy after the ambush and gave him a chance to get a good look before moving. Always wanted to let friendly troops identify a sharpshooter as not a threat before moving too close. Once he was sure Nick had him, he slowly made his way down the slope and walked over toward him.
"Afternoon," he said, "small world, ain't it."
"AFTERNOON? HOW DO YOU COME TO BE UP THERE? Not that I'm not happy you were." Nick picked his hat up from the side of the trail and beat the dust off against his leg before returning it to his head. This sounded a lot like a "what are you doing here, boy" question and he was tempted to let it slide with no answer. He reloaded his rifle while he thought on the question. Maybe it just sounded like a "you don't belong here" question because Nick was upset, being ambushed and all.
"Watching my back trail."
"Thanks. Nice shooting." He saw Nick look up the slope, judge the range and gave a slight shrug. Hadn't been anything special, hardly any wind, clear targets. The down hill made it a little tricky to judge the angle but nothing special and plenty of time to set up the shot, except that last one. He glanced over at the dead man and sighed. He was sorry about that killing shot, taken from hiding.
"Nice job tracking." He was really impressed that Nick had been able to trail those three brood mares all that way. Even more amazed he'd realized they were stolen in the first place, them running in a herd a good thirty miles from the ranch buildings.
"Wasn't really tracking you, just figured you'd head for Plymouth Pass or Truckee," Nick said, giving a small shrug at the praise.
He didn't say anything thinking on that. Nick'd been tracking him. Had Nick thought he'd stolen the mares? He glanced up at his brother. He didn't look angry. Didn't look like a man who'd just caught someone he thought had stolen his horses.
He walked over to the man he'd shot in the shoulder and checked the wound. The man was conscious and didn't look too happy. The bullet hadn't gone through, not surprising at that range. He took the man's bandana off his neck, stuck it in the wound and then gave him a small drink from his canteen. He helped him lean back against one of the rocks. The other man's leg wound had gone clean through the thigh. Didn't look too bad at all. Man didn't have a bandana so he took the man's belt and wrapped it around the wound twice and buckled it. That would keep pressure on the bleeding until he could get something better.
Nick's man was dead, shot twice in the chest and probably dead before he hit the ground. He didn't bother to look at his chest shot, he'd known the man was dead as soon as he pulled the trigger, and didn't need to see any more men he'd killed.
Having thought on Nick's remarks, he turned back to him. Nick was standing in the trail, having caught his horse and was checking him for any injury.
"I didn't take your horses." He figured best to be straight and avoid any more confusion, any more hurt.
"WHAT? WHAT HORSES?"
Nick hadn't thought he'd stolen his horses. Heath smiled at him, a quick half smile. He was glad Nick didn't think he was a horse thief. Nick didn't think much of him, but he didn't want him to think he was a horse thief on top of everything else. Maybe some day Nick would think back on him, play his own version of what if, his own version of the Brother Game. When he did, he didn't want him to wonder, was his maybe brother a horse thief.
"Brood mares," he told him.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Nick stood in the road, glowering at him, getting angry now. He didn't say anything, thinking on this some, trying to get straight what was happening. What was Nick doing here, if he wasn't chasing those three brood mares?
Nick couldn't hardly help himself from talking. He'd give Nick time, he'd talk his way around to what he was doing here.
"I'll get their horses." He left his brother; he surely did love the sound of that even if Nick didn't. He left his brother standing in the middle of the road, his hands on his hips, looking down his nose at Heath and the four ambushers and walked off to the southeast where he'd seen the man ride with the seven horses. He found the horses a hundred and fifty yards off the trail, tied up to some aspens.
He mounted the pinto and led the other six horses back toward the road. He wanted to just try riding the pinto. See if there was maybe something special he hadn't been able to see watching the horse, make that funny color worthwhile. Certainly couldn't feel anything on the short ride to the road, but wasn't sure he would have. The brood mares didn't like leading, all those horses pulling was hurting his stomach so much he figured that pinto would need to be Pegasus to feel anything special.
Nick was still standing in the road glaring at him when he rode back. The sight of his brood mares just seemed to confuse him even more. "WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?"
Since it was apparent to an idiot where the horses had come from, he didn't say anything, slipped off the pinto and examined him up close. He had a nice slope to his shoulder and was clean limbed, albeit a bit cow hocked. Maybe he was faster than he looked. A man on the wrong side of the law would want a fast horse for sure, might forgive a funny color was the horse fast enough.
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, BOY. WHERE DID THOSE MARES COME FROM?"
Heath looked at him, now really confused. Had he misread this whole thing? Well certainly not the ambush. He'd had that right. Surely, Nick recognized his own brand. Heath looked and could see the brands clearly so Nick must know they were his mares. He'd seen him ride out of the woods leading them, so he knew where they'd been. He figured he'd wait on Nick to explain a bit more, couldn't make any sense out of that question at all.
"I got to get my mare," he told him. He walked over to Leg Wound and tossed him a shirt from one of the saddlebags. Let the man wrap his leg up some before they rode. Then he took the pinto and headed around the hill to where he'd left Gal. He heeled the pinto hard and put him into a strong gallop over the smooth ground. By the time he got to where he'd left his saddle he decided he wouldn't take the pinto as a gift even if he were a good color. Horse was slow, gaits weren't great and he was no more then indifferently broke. Was a pleasure to get back on Gal and lead the pinto back around the hill.
Nick was still standing in the middle of the road, examining the mares like he'd never seen them before. Heath wondered, were his brothers and sister a little slow on the up take? Did having all that money and all those people working for you, waiting on you, making you fancy breakfasts, make you a bit slow-witted?
He led the pinto over to the man with the hole in his shoulder. Going to need to get that man to a doctor, get that cleaned up. He handed the man one rein, took out his knife, cut the other rein off just at the bit and unbuckled the throatlatch on the bridle. The man was already struggling to his feet didn't look too bad off. The man talked at him a bit, about his pain and his life and his troubles while Heath helped him on to the horse.
Leg Wound was standing up on his own so Heath brought him a horse as well, removed the rifle from the scabbard before relinquishing the horse, again cut one rein off at the bit and unbuckled the throat latch. A man might stop a horse very carefully with one rein and no throatlatch, but he would have a hard time turning a horse away from its mates with the bridle held on with a wish and a prayer and only one rein.
He'd always found that no steering pretty much kept a man from much chance of making a successful break for it. Hadn't always kept them from trying, but so far he'd never had one succeed. This man just watched him ready the horse and accepted a hand up. Didn't have much to say. Since the other outlaw was still talking, he probably didn't feel like he needed to say anything. Other man had so many excuses for trying to kill Nick and for having those three mares stashed in the woods, hardly seemed worth taking him to the law.
He could hear Nick talking at him, raising his voice to be heard over Shoulder Wound as Heath got the horses sorted out and the wounded men mounted. He was still worrying on where the brood mares had come from and what was Heath doing in the rocks.
"I'll need help," Heath told him, nodding toward the two dead men.
"HAVEN'T YOU HEARD A THING I'VE ASKED YOU?"
"Well yes, Nick, I have. Hard to miss it, you yelling in my ear." He figured that would keep Nick talking for a while. He enjoyed listening to this brother talk. Boy howdy, this man could talk. He guessed those Barkleys had some special kind of talking thing in them. He'd never heard folks could talk so long and so thoroughly as his two brothers and sister. It pleased him no end to listen. Didn't know how sensible they were, but they could talk.
Nick came over, picked the men up effortlessly and threw them across the saddles as Heath held the horses for him. He'd always known that his brother was going to be a big man and strong. No point in imagining a big brother if he isn't big enough and strong enough to watch out for you. Nick sure didn't disappoint. Heath rigged the two horses with the dead riders so one horse was tied to the other horse's saddle and then tied the bodies to the saddles. Sure seemed a shame those men dead for three horses they didn't need, alive half an hour ago and now dead for nothing.
He stopped for a moment, tuned Nick's talking out of his head while he said a quick prayer to the Lord to watch out for those dead men's souls if he could. Figured men who stole horses and robbed strangers on the road would need a good word spoken for them, if they were to have any chance in the next life. He didn't want to yammer on at the Lord too hard on their account though, as he suspected they might have quite a bit to answer for he didn't know about. He'd just let the Lord know he held no grudge on their actions today, no harm being done.
Nick had moved on to talk about how these four men must have stolen the brood mares and been going to sell them. He talked about recognizing the pinto from Sample's. He gave Nick another half smile to encourage him. Sounded like he was beginning to figure it all out.
"Jackson's probably closest?" he asked Nick. Nick, being from around here would probably know was anywhere closer with a sheriff and a doctor. The man with the shoulder wound wasn't looking too chipper and he wondered, should he have tried to bandage it better before they rode.
"Yeah, Jackson's maybe five hours ride." He was aware of Nick examining Shoulder Wound as well. "Maybe six with these two and the mares."
"Won't make it today." Trying to lead those mares and keep track of their prisoners in the dark would be asking for trouble. Better to stop for the night and go in the morning. He gathered up the reins on the two horses with the dead bodies and handed them to Leg Wound, who took them without comment. He nodded down the road to get Leg Wound moving.
Took a few minutes for all the horses to sort themselves out where they wanted to travel in the group but after about half a mile, things were moving pretty good. He was pleased Nick was riding with him to Jackson. He'd been afraid Nick might just head home with his mares, leave him to try and explain horse thievery with no stolen horses to show. Nick didn't seem so angry as he had back at the house. Getting horses back that Nick hadn't known were stolen had maybe cheered him some, or maybe it was finding him on the road riding away.
He liked that after that first little bit of sorting riders and horses, Nick dropped back to ride beside him at the back of their band, watching the two thieves in front. That's the way he figured two brothers would ride, side by side. Nick had taken two of the mares and he had the other on a lead rope around her neck. She was leading a bit better now she wasn't mixed with all the other horses, not pulling back so hard, just following Gal on a loose line.
"So, how did you come to be sitting in those rocks shooting ambushers?"
"Saw them this morning, camped. Didn't want them riding behind me," he explained more fully to Nick.
He wondered what Nick was doing on the way to Plymouth Pass if he wasn't chasing horse thieves, but decided it was none of his business. He'd learned a long time ago, a man went through life not knowing a lot of things he wondered about.
"Wondered. Was surprised to see you there. I think you saved my life."
Figured he probably had. Figured that made all three he'd saved in three days. He wondered again what the Barkleys normally did for life saving before he'd come around.