Angel woke him just before sunup. The light in the barn was dim at best, but Fargo could see well enough to tell who was crouching near his foot, shaking it lightly, as soon as he opened his eyes. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, thinking that he hadn’t had nearly enough sleep.
“Don’t you think it’s a little bit dangerous for you to be here?” he asked.
Angel sat on the floor, her knees drawn up and her arms clasped around her legs. She looked at Fargo over the tops of her knees and said, “I know it’s dangerous, all right, but I came to do you a favor. Do you want to listen?”
Fargo yawned and sat up. “I’m listening.”
“I didn’t think you’d get away in that cave. I still don’t know how you did it, but you made Pa really mad.”
“As I remember it, he’s never been a very happy man, anyhow,” Fargo said. “So I guess he hasn’t changed all that much.”
“No, he hasn’t. But this time he’s worse than he usually is. He’s sorry he didn’t kill you when he had the chance, and he blames me for that.”
“Seems like I ought to thank you.”
“You should. It was a weakness in me, and I know it, just like coming here now is a weakness. Pa doesn’t like weakness in a man, or in a woman, either.”
“I wouldn’t call it a weakness,” Fargo said. “And I do thank you.”
“You’re welcome, then. But we’ve talked about it enough. What you’d better do is get yourself out of here, because Pa and the gang aren’t far behind me. He’s coming to get you, and anybody else that’s here, no matter what. He’d skin me alive if he knew I came to warn you.”
“Won’t he find out?”
“I don’t care if he does. I’m not going to stay around any longer. He never really cared for me, not the way he did for Paul. He thinks a woman is prone to weakness, and I guess I’ve proved him right about that.”
“Maybe you just don’t enjoy killing as much as he does.”
“He doesn’t enjoy it. It’s just something he has to do.” Angel unclasped her hands and stood up. “I have to go now. You’d better get yourself ready. He’ll be here mighty quick.”
She didn’t say anything more, just turned and went down the ladder. By the time Fargo got his boots on, she was gone.
There was no time to plan anything elaborate. Lem wanted to send Abby to fetch help from the nearest farm, which happened to be Frank Conner’s.
“The only one there will be Frank,” Abby said. “And maybe one hired hand. You’d be just as well off if I stayed here. I can shoot as well as Frank, and better than any hired hand he might have. You just want to get me out of the way.”
She’d seen through Lem’s plan, and he gave in reluctantly.
“You can stay, then,” he said. “What’re we gonna do, Fargo?”
“Try to catch Murray’s bunch in a crossfire. Molly and I will set up in the barn, and you and Abby can get ready in the house. We might kill enough of them so that they won’t stay around long. If Angel was telling the truth, they won’t know we’re waiting for them.”
“I’d still like to know how you and Angel got so close,” Abby said. “Thicker than thieves. I find it hard to believe she’d come to warn you and betray her father.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Molly said, helping Fargo out. “Worry about staying alive for the next hour or so.”
Abby looked at Molly thoughtfully, then nodded. Fargo and Molly went to the barn.
“Looks like you get around even more than I thought, Fargo,” Molly said. “I never would have thought Abby would give in to you.”
Fargo didn’t tell her that he was the one who’d done the giving in. He said, “I can be mighty persuasive when I try. Do you want the loft or the doors here?”
“It’s not easy shooting down at an angle, but I can do it. I’ll take the loft.”
While she climbed the ladder, Fargo dragged a couple of wooden boxes over to the door of the barn and stacked them so that he could use them for cover. It wasn’t much cover, and he didn’t have much of a plan, but it was the best he could come up with. Now there was nothing to do but wait for Murray to show up.
Time dragged along with no sign of the gang. It was well past sunup, and there was no sign of anyone.
“What do you think, Fargo?” Molly called from the loft. “Did Angel lie to you?”
“I don’t know why she would. And it sure sounded like she was telling me the truth.”
“Maybe they’ll show up, then,” Molly said, but there was no conviction in her voice.
Another few minutes passed, and then Fargo heard shooting. It wasn’t coming from anywhere nearby, but Fargo thought he could guess the location.
“Connor’s farm,” he said.
“That’s right,” Molly said. “Angel lied to you. What do we do now.”
“We go help Conner,” Fargo said.
By the time Fargo arrived at the farm, there wasn’t much he could do for Conner, who was already beyond help. He’d been shot, and then someone had dragged him outside his house and tied him upright to the scarecrow in his vegetable garden. His head drooped down on his chest, and his body slumped against the ropes that held him.
There was nothing Fargo could do for Angel, either. She was tied up hand and foot and propped against the side of Connor’s house. Unlike Conner, however, she was still alive.
Murray and his men were waiting when Fargo rode up. Murray sat up straight on his horse like a general in command of an army. His beard stirred in the breeze, and he looked at Fargo with his mad eyes. His men were lined up on either side of him. They had their pistols and rifles pointed straight at Fargo.
“My daughter betrayed me,” Murray said. His voice was deep and strong. “There are traitors in every army, but I never thought there would be one in my own family.”
“He caught me,” Angel said, her voice shaky. “He made me tell him. He’s going to kill me.”
Fargo didn’t have any reason to doubt her. Murray was crazy enough to kill anybody, even his daughter.
“He’s not going to kill you,” Fargo said.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Murray told him. “I’m in command here, not you, Mr. Fargo, and she will die by my orders. And you will follow her to hell.”
“Not if you get there first,” Fargo said, drawing his pistol.
Murray stared in blank surprise. He clearly hadn’t expected Fargo to do anything so foolhardy, not with twelve or fifteen guns on him.
But then Murray didn’t know that Fargo wasn’t alone. Lem, Abby, and Molly had circled around behind the gang, and now they came riding through the cornfield, firing as they came.
Two of Murray’s men pitched off their rearing horses as the others turned to meet the unforeseen threat.
Fargo fired at Murray, but the big man reacted quickly, spurring his horse and making a run for Connor’s house. As he rode, he fired two shots at Angel. At least one of them struck her, and she fell sideways to the ground. Then Murray was around the house and gone.
Fargo would have pursued him, but he had to deal with the remaining gang members, some of whom had turned their attention back to him. For a few minutes the shooting was loud and fast, and then it was over, smoke drifting in the air and the smell of gunpowder filling Fargo’s nostrils.
Four of the gang members were dead, and the rest were hightailing it. Nobody went after them, as Fargo was sure it wouldn’t do any good. And he wanted to see if there was anything that could be done about Angel.