Rose(143)

“That won’t do you any good, will it?” George taunted, still walking toward the old man. “You’ll be dead and in hell.”

Even as George felt his body tense, his arm begin to rise, he made one last attempt to fight down the blood lust which filled his brain. Never in his life had he acted out of blind rage. He would kill to protect Rose, he would exterminate the entire McClendon clan if necessary, but he wouldn’t kill out of rage. He must always be able to face the consequences of his actions.

Gradually George felt the grip of insane fury begin to loosen, the light of reason begin to return. At the same moment, the old man stumbled over a root, and Rose pushed away from him. As she started to run, the old man raised his gun and fired.

George saw Rose stagger and fall. He fired almost instantly. Without waiting to see if he’d hit the old man, George raced for Rose.

“It’s just a scratch,” she said, pointing to the place on her shoulder where blood stained her dress. “I’m not hurt.”

Gunfire erupted all around them.

George pulled Rose to her feet and, in a crouching run, raced toward the creek and over the edge. Salty was firing as rapidly as the rifle would let him.

“They’re coming from everywhere,” he said. “I don’t know how long we can hold them off.”

They took up rifles just as the McClendons burst through the brush. With deadly determination, George and Rose picked them off one by one. It wasn’t long before the charge slowed.

Then it stopped.

George waited, but nothing happened. He waited longer. Still no shots. Still no charge from the brush.

“Anybody out there?” he called out.

Silence.

He didn’t dare leave cover. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was convinced the McClendons were still there.

“Anybody there?” he called again.

After a time, a voice answered, “Yeah.”

“There’s no gold,” George said. “There never was. I tried to tell the old man, but he wouldn’t listen. You’re welcome to dig up every square foot around the house.”

“We already have,” the voice answered.

“There’s no use in anybody else getting hurt.”

There was a long pause.

“You still out there?”

“Yeah.”

“You going to leave us alone?”

Another long pause. George thought he could hear them talking, but he had no idea what they were saying.

“Can we come get Pa?”

“Yes.”

Moments later a tall, thin man who looked exactly like McClendon must have looked years ago stepped out of the brush. He paused a moment, then walked over to where his father lay.

“I told him there weren’t no gold. I told him rich people didn’t work hard like you. But that Silas fella kept swearing he knew where it was. All we had to do was get you outta the house.”

“What happened to Silas?”

“Pa killed him. Got so mad when he couldn’t find no gold he just shot him.”

The man looked down at his father.

“I told him not to bother your woman. No man puts up with nobody messing with his woman, I told him. It makes ’um madder than hell. But he wouldn’t listen. Pa wouldn’t listen to nobody. Thought he knowed everything. Now look what it’s got him. And the rest of us,” he said, looking at the wounded men who were beginning to get up off the ground.

And the men who didn’t.

“You boys sure know how to shoot. Told Pa that, too. He said you was from back East. He said nobody back East except mountain folks knowed how to use a gun. I told him about that brother of yours, how he picked off Klute and Buddy without nobody even seeing him, but Pa wouldn’t listen to that neither.”

“What are you going to do?” George asked.

“Take him home and bury him next to Ma. She’d like that. Me, I wouldn’t care if the coyotes got him.”

George watched as the man picked up his pa and draped him over the saddle of a horse someone led out of the brush. The old man was dead. George had lost his battle with himself.

“I meant to shoot him in the elbow,” George said, more to himself than to Rose and Salty. “I just wanted to make sure he couldn’t shoot Rose after I hit him.”

“You did,” Salty said. “But he could use both hands. He was drawing a bead on you while you were helping Rose up. I had to put a bullet into him. Only I’m not as good as you, so I aimed for something bigger than his elbow.”

George felt a tremendous flush of relief. He had won. If he could do that when Rose’s life was in danger, he could always do it.

“I’ll go see if they’re really gone,” Salty said. He climbed out of the creek and disappeared into the brush.