Part 37 (1/2)
He shook those thoughts away and returned his attention to the window.
The sound of a trap springing shut slammed through the quiet air. The horrible howling of a man with a crushed leg ripped the afternoon.
Rani came off the bunk, grabbing her rifle, coming to Ben's side.
”G.o.dd.a.m.n, Jake!” a man yelled.
”Lookee there. A d.a.m.ned cabin built into that rise.”
”They're here,” Rani said.
”I believe that would be an accurate statement, dear,” Ben replied.
Chapter 37.
”We're gonna blow you out of there, Raines!”
Jake's voice came through the timber. ”This time, we got explosives.” ”But first you have to get close enough to use them,” Ben said to Rani.
”You hear me, Raines?”
”Yeah, I heard you, fat-a.s.s,” Ben shouted.
”Don't stand out there and brag about what you're going to do-do it!”
Jake flushed. He turned to his men and said, ”Charge the f.u.c.kin' house. Stay in the timber; it leads all the way up there.” He turned to Texas Red's men. ”You boys lay down a covering fire.
Now go!”
Jake and Texas Red had indeed brought several cases of grenades with them. But grenades are useful only if one gets close enough to throw them.
And what none of the outlaws knew was that Ike had stashed several crates of deadly Claymore mines in the cave behind the cabin-and Ben had brought enough wire to battery-activate them from the house.
That smile was on Ben's lips once more as he sat behind the shuttered window, looking through a peephole, the detonator box in his hand. The shadowy figures of the outlaws flitted from tree to tree, approaching the cabin.
Ben pushed the switch activating the THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY mines. The TSTE warning had always amused Ben.
The Claymores were not amusing to the outlaws. Before the reverberating sounds of the explosions had died away, the mangled bodies of half a dozen outlaws lay on the ground. Ben hit the second switch, and Jake was almost out of personnel.
”Jake!” an outlaw slid to a stop in the snowy, muddy ground. ”Them's Claymores. I remember them from ”Nam. He's got 'em all over the d.a.m.n place. Think about this situation, Jake. We can't win. You know how Raines plans things out. The guy's like a screwin” computer or something. He don't miss nothing. You know?”
”Get to the point, Jimmy.” But Jake knew what the point was. He'd already thought about it.
”We can't win, Jake. Look at that d.a.m.n place. No way we could burn them out, even if we could get close enough to do it. It's built into the hill. Raines has probably got food in there to last for months. The guys is afraid to go on, afraid to do nothing ”cept go back exactly the way we come. Raines has them traps everywhere.
I-was Texas Red's insane yelling startled them all.
The outlaw jumped to his feet, a grenade in each hand. He had pulled the pins and was holding the spoons down. ”Cowards!” Red screamed. ”You're all cowards. Ever d.a.m.n one of you. ”I'll take Raines out.
Me!
People will talk about me around campfires for centuries to come.”
”Son of a b.i.t.c.h is crazy,” one of Red's ownmen muttered.
”I heard that,” a buddy said. ”I'm gettin”
the h.e.l.l outta here. You comin'?”
”Right behind you, partner.”
And two more were gone, slipping quietly away, unnoticed.
Texas Red charged the cabin, yelling and cursing as he ducked from tree to tree. He took his last step in this life and stepped into a bear trap, the jaws clamping shut, dropping him to the ground, his left leg crushed.
He fell hard, his hands under him, and for a moment was stunned. Then the pain hit him, the grenades forgotten. They were under his chest, the spoons gone.
”I hate your guts, Raines!” Texas Red squalled. ”I hate you so bad I-was Two grenades exploded within a millisecond of each other, the blasts shredding the outlaw, flinging bits and pieces of him all around the timber. The blast tore his crushed leg free of the jaws, tearing it off at the knee. All that remained of Texas Red was part of a leg and one boot, still trapped in the jaws.
”Jesus Christ!” an outlaw said. ”That's it for me, boys. I'm gonna go be a farmer or something.”
Jake sat behind a thick tree and watched and listened to the men leave, running for their lives. After a time, he knew, without looking around him, he was alone.
Ben looked at what was left of Texas Red, and the remains of him, splattered all over the ground.
Parts of him hung from low branches. ”That's two for Jordy,” Ben called.
”That's what it's all about, ain't it, Raines?”
Jake called, still hidden behind the tree.
”All these men dead, just for one lousy punk-a.s.s kid. You're crazy, Raines. You know that?
Crazy!”
”Jordy was worth more than the whole bag of you filth,” Ben called.
”You're probably right,” Jake muttered, not loud enough for Ben to hear. He shouted, ”Just you and me, now, Raines. How's it gonna be?”
”Call it,” Ben said.
”I'll think about it some, Raines. You and the broad ain't going nowhere long as I'm out here.”
Ben said nothing to that.
”You was a writer, wasn't you, Raines?”