“Going my way?” he said, joking as he swung himself onto the platform beside Casings and the Giant. The Giant grabbed the young man’s shoulder and steadied him until he secured his footing.
“Depends on where you’re going,” Casings replied, recognizing the man.
The Giant gave his big grin and said, “And what you’re going to do when you get there.”
Casings looked him up and down, took the lantern he was holding and hung it on an iron hook beside the rear car door.
“Well, Sharp,” he said, “it looks like you finally landed yourself work with some real long riders.”
“Yeah, and I can tell you, I’m damned grateful for it,” said the young outlaw. “I’m so sick of working with rubes and pumpkin busters.…” He leaned forward and looked around Casings at the Giant. “You must be the Stillwater Giant. I’ve heard so much about you,” he said.
“What tipped you off?” the Giant asked with a flat, harsh expression.
Sharp stared up at the huge man, not knowing what to say.
Finally he managed “I—I didn’t mean nothing—”
“He’s funning with you, Sharp,” Casings said, cutting the young outlaw off before he embarrassed himself.
Sharp looked relieved. “I’m mighty glad of that,” he said.
“Tell me, Sharp,” Casings said, “how many of you Denver City boys did Grolin bring in on this?”
“I don’t know. Seven, eight maybe?” said Sharp, estimating. He shrugged. “I see some faces here that I’ve never seen before.”
“Jesus…,” said Casings, shaking his head, staring ahead into the darkness as the loose cars slowed to a crawl along the iron rails.
As the train rounded a long turn in the darkness, the Giant nodded toward a glaring headlight shining through a stand of pine.
“Here comes our ride now,” he said to the other two, even as they themselves spotted the huge outline of a train engine pushing a single freight car back toward them. Smoke billowed up from the engine’s stack.
“Watch the bump,” Casings cautioned the younger outlaw standing beside him.
“You don’t have to worry,” Sharp rattled on nervously. “I learned the hard way about holding on back last year when I was working with some of the—”
“Shut up,” Casings said, cutting him off. “Pay attention here.” He turned and took the lantern down from the hook and held it ready.
The three watched as an engineer backed the engine and its one car closer to the severed cars, slowing, judging as the three cars rolled forward at a snail’s crawl. By the time the sets of link pins met and touched against each other, the engine had actually braked and started forward just enough to make a smooth, easy connection.
“Way to go, hoss,” the Giant said to the engineer under his breath. He jumped down from the platform on the ground beside the railcars and stepped between them close enough to line up the link and stick the pin down to hold the cars together.
“All right!” Casings said with a gleam in his eyes. “Let’s get out of here and start robbing.” He held the lantern out sidelong and waved it up and down. From a rear door on the freight car, Grolin stepped out into the night, carrying a lantern of his own. In seconds the engine started pulling faster on the level terrain.
“Where’s Rock?” the Giant asked Grolin as he swung up from the ground and joined the others on the rear of the freight car.
“He’s close by, waiting safe and sound—itching to get to work as soon as we bring him this nice big Treasury car,” Grolin replied. Holding the lantern up and looking at Lionel Sharp, he said, “You’re Sharp, right?”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Grolin, I’m Lionel Sharp,” the young gunman said proudly. He started to say more, but Grolin cut him off.
Behind Grolin two riflemen rushed out of the freight car and stepped over onto the Treasury car platform.
“Go with these men,” he said to Sharp. “The three of yas guard the rear door.”
“Come on, hurry up,” said one of the riflemen, already headed up the iron rungs toward the catwalk on top of the car.
Sharp hurriedly followed the riflemen.
As the three moved out of sight, Grolin gave a shrug and smiled in the glow of lantern light.
“These farm boys and guttersnipes are showing up younger all the time,” he said. “Crime is about the only thing that pays these days.” He looked at Casings and the Giant and said, “Did everything go as expected?”
“Yes, it did,” Casings said. “But I need to tell you, there were guards or lawmen of some kind waiting to ambush us. We’ve got their horses in a freight car behind us.”
“Well,” Grolin chuckled, “if we’ve got their horses, I fail to see them as a problem.”
“Just thought you’d want to know,” said Casings.
“You’re right. Good work,” said Grolin. “We’ll chase the horses away when we stop and unload the gold.”
Behind Grolin, Frank Penta and Bryce Shaner appeared out of the freight car, their rifles at port arms. They followed Grolin over to the rear door of the Treasury car. Grolin looked around at Casings, the Giant and the other two gunmen. He smiled as he took a piece of paper from inside his coat and unfolded it in the light of the lantern.
“I love this part,” he said, holding the paper up toward the car door.
“Hello, you two guards inside the car,” he called out loudly enough to be heard through the thick closed door. “Hello? Hello?”
When no one answered, he called out, “Don’t be bashful, now. Just answer right up when I call out your names.” He consulted the piece of paper, then called out confidently, “Peter Joseph Campbell. Husband of Barbara Mae Campbell, father of two sons and one daughter, whose names I can also give you…”
Inside the car, the gunmen heard a rustle and the frightened whisper of lowered voices.
Grolin grinned and continued, “Alvin Carter, husband of Lynn Ann Carter. Father of a—”
“Hold on, mister!” a voice said through the door, cutting him off. “We’re coming out!”
“Leave your guns on the floor,” Grolin called out. He pulled his bandanna up over his nose and stepped back, watching Penta’s and Shaner’s rifles cover the door as it opened slowly and two men stepped up, their hands raised in the air.
“Here’s where you get off, fellows,” Grolin said, shoving them toward the iron step on the side of the platform. “Hurry up now, jump, before we gain any more speed.”
The two men made their way down onto the step and leaped out, away from the moving train. They landed rolling alongside the track and came to their feet just before vanishing into the darkness.
“That’s how easy it is,” Grolin said, “when you have the right information at your fingertips.” He laughed aloud and said joyously, “Bless you, Inman Walker!”
“Who?” said Casings.
Grolin had made a slip of the tongue; he caught his mistake quickly and said, “Nothing, forget it!” He turned and called out toward the woods at the two fleeing men, “If we see you come out of there, you’re both dead!”
But the Giant and Casings had clearly heard the name, and they weren’t about to forget it. They looked at each other guardedly, on into a dark stand of timber and through the purple darkness as the train continued on.
Rochenbach sat with the other men inside the dusty, abandoned depot. They had arrived in the night after forcing the engineer to drop the rest of his train midrun and bring them and their freight car to the old trade settlement. On their train ride across a stretch of rolling plains, Penta and Shaner had kept watch on him, seeing to it that Dent Spiller left him alone.
But when they’d meet Grolin at the depot, and Penta and Shaner had both left with him on the engine to go meet the stolen Treasury car, Rock saw the gunman stand and start walking toward him with a dark look on his face.