The concussion of the rifle shots inside the room almost deafened Rose. She was certain the noise would permanently scramble her brain, but she concentrated fiercely on the men who were even now preparing for a second run at the house.
“Do you know who they are?” she asked Tyler.
“McClendons!” the boy shouted at her without slowing his firing.
“Who’s the leader?”
“The old man. The one who looks like he’s been smoked and cured.”
“I’ll aim for him,” Rose said. “You get the one closest to you.”
She discarded a second rifle just as they started a second charge. She peered into the heaviness of the night, waiting for the grizzled old man to appear.
“They’re circling the house from both sides,” Tyler warned.
“Get to the other window,” she called without taking her eyes off the heavy black mist that shielded the raiders from her view. Rain had started to fall, making it even harder to see. Maybe it would wet the raiders’ guns, making them harder to fire.
They burst out of the darkness almost at her window. Startled by the suddenness of their appearance, Rose nearly failed to shoot. Gathering her wits quickly, she aimed for the old man. She missed, but she had the satisfaction of seeing shock on his face. She must have come close.
When he turned she saw the tear in his sleeve. She had hit him. She fired again and again without hitting him, but she did hit one of the others. She discarded her rifle without looking back, picked up the next one, and resumed firing.
“How are you doing on your side?” she asked Tyler.
“I winged a couple. They’re drawing off, but there’re so many of them.”
“Do you think we can hold them off?”
“Not if they decide to rush the breezeway.”
“I don’t think they will,” Rose said, surprised she had a definite opinion about fighting, something she knew nothing about. “The old man looked pretty surprised when I hit him. And that bullet couldn’t have done more than graze him.”
“What are they doing now?” Tyler asked. “I can’t see anything.”
“I don’t know. I’m afraid they’re going after the bull. Did you hide him, Zac?”
“I couldn’t find him,” the boy answered. “They came too quick.”
Rose heard a single shot in the distance. She didn’t hear a second. The raiders had obviously shot at something. The single shot meant they had hit their target. She felt sick. They had found the bull. George would be enraged. It would destroy all his plans.
“Tyler, grab a rifle and follow me.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to chase them off. They don’t know the ranch, and they can’t see us in the dark. We ought to be able to get a couple of them before they know we’re out there.”
“But they’ll kill us once they locate where our rifle fire is coming from.”
“We aren’t going to stay out there. Zac, you stand by the door. Don’t open it until you hear my voice. Do you understand?”
The child nodded.
Rose hadn’t gone five steps outside the door when she wished she were back inside. She had never realized how comforting it was to be behind a thick wall. No bullet could penetrate those logs. Out here there was nothing to stop them.
“They’re by the corrals,” she whispered to Tyler.
“I bet they’re pulling them down, the bastards,” he hissed back.
They were. They tied several ropes to each post and one by one pulled them out of the ground. They probably would have burned them if it hadn’t been raining so hard.
“Sons-of-bitches!” Tyler hissed and raised his rifle.
“Wait!” Rose hissed. “We’ve got to shoot together. We won’t get more than one or two shots before they see us.”
“Let’s get the men pulling up the posts.”
“No, let’s go for the old man and the man next to him. If we get them, maybe the rest will leave.”
“Okay.”
“Three quick shots, then head for the house as fast as you can go.”
“Gotcha.”
Rose waited until the men in question were still. “Now!” she hissed and fired as rapidly as she could.
She saw the old man flinch before she turned her rifle on the man next to him. She fired both her shots, grabbed Tyler by the arm, and hollered, “Let’s go.”
She didn’t try to hide or be quiet. The raiders had to know where the rifle shots came from. They knew they would be trying to get back to the house. Using the speed of their horses, they would try to get to the house before Rose and Tyler.
Rose ran as fast as she could, but she was no match for Tyler’s long legs. He was in the house before she was much more than halfway there. Then she heard the sound of hoofbeats. Someone was bearing down on her at breakneck speed. No, it was two of them. Fear gave her limbs extra speed. She would make it, but it would be close.