To the right, Lem was sitting on his horse and firing his pistol steadily. The flashes from its barrel were like red and orange streaks in the night. Tabor and Elliot were beside Lem, matching him shot for shot, and Murray’s men, though they were firing back, were the ones getting the worst of it.
Then Fargo was through the crowd and alone, with Angel racing ahead of him and Murray in front of her.
After only a few more seconds, Murray turned back toward the trees, and his dark figure was soon lost in them. It was one thing to ride at speed across open ground. It was something else to do it among trees. In fact, it was impossible, and Fargo knew that Murray must have swerved into them because he had something in mind, maybe some trap he could spring on Angel. Fargo urged the Ovaro to go faster, hoping to reach Angel before she did anything foolish.
He was too late. She rode into the trees after her father.
It was dark in the trees, but they grew far enough apart for Fargo to maneuver the Ovaro through them. He could hear, but not see, Angel up ahead of him. Before she got to the creek, she turned aside, which meant that Murray was also sticking to the trees. Fargo didn’t blame him. You couldn’t ride fast, but you could ride, and there wasn’t much danger of anybody shooting you with all the branches in the way. It didn’t take much to turn a bullet aside.
Fargo drew the pistol he was wearing on the off chance that he’d get a shot at Murray. It wasn’t his Colt, which had disappeared the night he fell from the horse and Murray had hauled him to the cave. But it was a good enough gun. He’d borrowed it from Molly, who was the only person around with more than one pistol. Farmers didn’t generally go around armed. Fargo had shot the pistol a couple of times after borrowing it to get a feel for it, and it had done a good job against Rip. He thought it would do just as well when he had to use it on Murray.
He rode along for a minute or two, hoping to overtake Angel but not succeeding. Then up ahead he heard a horse whinny and someone screamed.
Angel.
Fargo couldn’t go any faster. Limbs were already whipping him across the face, and he didn’t want to damage his eyes. He hoped Murray hadn’t killed Angel, but he wouldn’t put it past him.
Before long, Fargo spotted Angel’s horse standing calmly near a tree. Angel was lying on the ground. She wasn’t moving. Fargo reined in the Ovaro and got down to see if she was just hurt or if she was dead.
She wasn’t dead, and she wasn’t hurt, except for some bruises. And she was angry.
“He waited for me,” she told Fargo. “He hid behind that big tree over there and pulled back a limb. When I rode up, he let it go. It hit me square in the face and scared my horse, but I think I’m all right.”
“At least he didn’t try to kill you again,” Fargo said. “Give him credit for that.”
“He knew the horse would throw me. He thought I’d break my neck.” Angel brushed leaves and dirt off her clothes, wincing only a little, and got back on her horse. “But it didn’t work, and now I’m going to get him.”
“He might be long gone by now.”
“I don’t think so. Where’s he going to go?”
Fargo said he didn’t know, but then he had an idea.
“He knows he’s lost this fight. There won’t be much left of his gang after those farmers get through with them tonight. He might be able to get another gang together, but it would take time, and the farmers would be a lot better organized before he could do it. He’s either got to keep running or try to do something that will really hurt them.”
“He won’t run,” Angel said. “How could he hurt them?” Fargo didn’t agree with her. He said, “I think he’ll run. But I think he’ll cause as much trouble as he can before he does. I think he might try to burn all the houses he can before we catch him.”
“You’re probably right. We have to stop him.”
Fargo hoped they could. “We can try,” he said.
20
They got out of the trees and rose as fast as they could. Fargo was sure that Murray had left the trees, too, and that he was well ahead of them.
“Where do you think he’ll go first?” Angel said.
“Rip Johnson’s house is closest,” Fargo said. “He’ll find out that we’ve done that job for him already, so he’ll head for Lem’s.”
“We’ll never get there before he burns the place.”
“We might,” Fargo said. “It’s not as easy to burn a house as you think it is.”
“Rip’s place went up like a torch.”
“That’s because of the coal oil in the lantern. Murray doesn’t have a lantern.”
“How long do you think it’ll take him to find one?”
“Not long,” Fargo said.
When they reached the farm, Murray was nowhere to be seen, but his horse was outside the barn.
“He’s in there,” Angel said. “I’m going after him.”
“I’ll go,” Fargo said. “You stay here.”
Angel laughed as she slid off her horse. “Don’t try to tell me what to do, Fargo. The only man who could was Pa, and I should never have listened to him in the first place.”
Fargo shrugged and started toward the barn. Angel trailed along after him. They both stopped short of the big doors, which stood open. Fargo could hear someone inside, and he smelled coal oil. He realized that Murray was inside, splashing the coal oil around, getting ready to burn the barn first, and then the house.
“You in there, Murray?” he called.
The noise in the barn stopped. After a couple of seconds, Murray said, “Is that you, Fargo?”
“It’s me,” the Trailsman answered.
“Is Angel with you?”
“I’m here. Come on out, Pa. We can leave here and go somewhere else. Fargo won’t try to stop us.”
“How the hell can you say that?” Murray said. “The son of a bitch has blown up half my men, and I’m sure the other half are dead now. He’ll kill me as soon as I show myself.”
“No, he won’t,” Angel said. “I have a gun on him.”
Fargo turned to see if Angel was trying to fool Murray, but she wasn’t joking. She stood with her feet planted firmly, and in her right hand was a pistol aimed at Fargo’s belt buckle.
“He’s my pa,” Angel said with a hint of apology. “When you get right down to it, I can’t just let you kill him. And I don’t want him to kill you, either.”
Fargo was disgusted, not just with Angel but with himself. He should have known that blood ties mattered more than anything else to the Murrays. After all, hadn’t Angel been with Murray when they’d dug up Paul’s body and thrown Abby into the grave? Angel had changed since then, but she hadn’t changed enough to want her father to die.
“You’re not just leading me on, are you?” Murray asked from within the barn.
“Take a look,” Angel said, her eyes on Fargo.
The Trailsman thought he could get in a shot or two if he went for his pistol, but the trouble with that was, Angel would get the first shot, and at that distance she wasn’t likely to miss.
“You have him, all right,” Murray said, and Fargo turned to see him peering around the opening into the barn. “How do I know it’s not a trick?”
“It’s not a trick,” Angel said. “You can trust me, Pa.”
“You betrayed me before, daughter. I can’t ever trust you again, not after that.”
“I didn’t do anything to hurt you. I just didn’t want you to kill people who’d helped me without giving them a chance to fight back.”
“One thing you should have learned from me,” Murray said, “is that you never give anybody a fair chance. Fargo could tell you that. He blew up that house without a warning. Isn’t that right, Fargo.”