Breakheart Pass

NINE

The aptly named Breakheart Pass, a barren and waterless gully, carried the railway line up to a small divide. The left or southern hand of the gully was bordered by an almost vertical cliff; the right-hand side by a fairly shallow slope leading down to the long dead watercourse, a course liberally strewn with large boulders which offered splendid cover – splendid, that was, for men but quite useless for horses. The nearest shelter of any other kind was offered by a thick clump of pines a mile distant across the valley. It was within the confines of this copse that White Hand waved his weary troop of horsemen to a grateful halt.

White Hand dismounted. He pointed to the boulder-strewn gully. 'There the train will stop. There we will hide. We must go there on foot.' He turned to two of his men. 'The horses. Keep them here. Take them even deeper into the woods. They must not be seen.'

In the dining compartment of the train Henry sat by the wood stove, drowsing. Fairchild, O'Brien and Pearce, seated and with their heads resting on their forearms, were asleep or appeared to be asleep over the dining tables. On the footplate, Deakin, very far from being asleep, was peering ahead through the cab window; snow was still falling and the visibility was poor. Marica, equally wide awake, was making the final adjustments to the white sheet which was so wrapped round Colonel Claremont that, his unencumbered arms apart, he appeared to be cocooned from head to foot. Deakin beckoned to him and pointed ahead.

'Breakheart Pass coming up. Maybe two miles to go. For you, one mile. See that big clump of pines to the right of the track?' Claremont nodded. 'They'll have hidden their horses there. There'll be guards.' He nodded to Rafferty's rifle which Claremont held in his hands. 'Don't give them a sporting chance. Don't give them an even break.'

Claremont shook his head slowly and said nothing. His face was no less implacable than that of Deakin.

White Hand and another Indian were crouched behind a craggy rock on the boulder-strewn righthand slope of the gully. They were staring down towards the lower, easternmost entrance to the pass. The thinly falling snow let them see as far as the furthest bend of the track; so far there was nothing to be seen. Suddenly the other Indian reached out and touched White Hand on the shoulder. Both men turned their heads slightly and adopted an intensely listening attitude. Far off, faintly but unmistakably, the puffing of a straining locomotive engine could be heard. White Hand glanced at his companion and nodded, just once.

Deakin reached under his coat and brought out the two sticks of blasting powder he had earlier filched from the supply wagon. One of these he carefully placed inside the tool-box, the other he held in his hand. With his free hand he gently eased the steam throttle all the way off. At once, the train began to slow down.

O'Brien woke with a start, moved swiftly to the nearest window, hastily cleared away the condensation and peered out. Almost at once he turned to Pearce.

'Wake up! Wake up! We're stopping! Nathan, know where we are?'

'Breakheart Pass.' The two men looked questioningly at one another. Fairchild stirred, sat upright and came to the window. He said uneasily: 'What's that devil up to now?'

Deakin was indeed up to something. With the train now almost brought to a complete standstill, he ignited the tube of blasting powder in his hand, judged his moment to what he regarded as a nicety, then tossed it out of the right-hand cab opening. At the same moment Claremont moved on to the steps of the left-hand side of the cab. Pearce, O'Brien, Fairchild and Henry, all with their faces pressed to the window, recoiled involuntarily and threw up defensive hands as there came a blinding flash of light and the flat sharp crack of an explosion immediately outside. The window did not shatter and after a moment or two they pressed close to it again. But by this time Claremont had dropped off the left-hand side of the cab, rolled down the embankment and come to rest at its foot. Wrapped in the white sheeting, he was almost entirely invisible and remained quite motionless. Deakin jerked the throttle open again.

The bafflement of the four men in the dining compartment was of a lesser nature altogether than that of White Hand and his Indian companion. White Hand said uncertainly: 'It may be that our friends wanted to warn us of their approach. See, they are moving again.'

'Yes. And I see something else.' The other Indian jumped to his feet. 'The troop wagons! The soldier wagons! They're not there!'

'Get down, fool!' White Hand's habitual impassivity had, for the moment, completely deserted him. His face was baffled, uncomprehending, as he saw that the train, now well into Breakheart Pass, clearly consisted of no more than three coaches.

O'Brien's face was now equally uncomprehending. He said: 'How the hell should I know what he's up to? The man's a lunatic'

Fairchild said: 'You could try to find out, couldn't you?'

Pearce handed Fairchild one of his guns. 'Tell you what, Governor. You find out.'

The Governor grabbed the gun. For that brief passing moment he was clearly out of his mind. 'Very well, then. I shall.'

He took the gun, moved forward, opened the front door of the leading coach no more than a crack and slid an apprehensive eye round the edge. A second later there was the boom of a Colt and a bullet struck the coach less than a foot from his head: Fairchild withdrew with speed, banging the door behind him, his momentary period of insanity clearly behind him. Severely shaken, he re-entered the dining compartment.

Pearce said: 'Well, what did you find out?'

The Governor said nothing. He threw the gun on the table and made for the whisky bottle.

Up front, Deakin said: 'Company?'

'My uncle.' Marica examined the still smoking Colt with aversion.

'Get him?'

'No.'

'Pity.'

Claremont, still swathed in his white camouflage, inched slowly towards the edge of the embankment and hitched a wary eye over the top. The train, almost a mile away by that time, was well into the pass. He scanned the boulders in the dry watercourse ahead but could detect no sign of movement. He had not expected to see any, not yet; White Hand was far too experienced to make his presence known until the last moment possible. Claremont then looked across the valley to the distant clump of pine trees. If Deakin were right and horses there were, that was where the horses would be held in concealment; and Claremont no longer questioned Deakin's judgment. The approach to the pines would be difficult but not impossible: a smaller branching watercourse led up to the very edge of the copse and if he could reach the foot of this dry gully unobserved he should be under concealment for the rest of the way. The only danger lay in crossing the railway line, and while he was far too experienced a soldier to discount the possibility of any danger, he thought that the odds on a safe traverse of the track lay in his favour. The guard or guards in charge of the horses would, in the normal course of events, be taking a lively interest in what was happening, or what was about to happen across the valley. But their attention would almost certainly be fixed on the train and the hidden Paiutes and those were now a mile away to his left. Besides, it was still only dawn and the snow had not yet ceased to fall. Claremont did not hesitate, if for no other reason than that he knew that there were no options left open to him. Wraith-like, and using only his elbows and knees, he began to slither across the track.

Deakin eased back the throttle. Marica, from her observation post at the back of the tender, spared him a brief glance. 'Stopping?'

'Slowing.' He indicated the right-hand side of the cab. 'Leave the tender and get down there. On the floor.'

Hesitantly, she moved forward. 'You think there'll be shooting?'

'Well, there won't be too many rose petals thrown, and that's a fact.'

The train was now crawling along at between ten and fifteen miles an hour but clearly was not about to come to a complete halt, a fact that was becoming increasingly obvious to White Hand. His face registered at first faint puzzlement, then exasperation, then finally outright anger.

'The fools!' he said. 'The fools! Why don't they stop?' He jumped to his feet, waving his arm. The train continued on its way. White Hand shouted to his warriors to follow him. They all broke concealment and came running and stumbling up the slope as quickly as the shingly and snowcovered terrain would permit them. Deakin judiciously opened the throttle a notch or two.

Once again O'Brien, Pearce, the Governor and Henry were peering with what was by now a degree of justifiable anxiety through the window. Pearce said: 'White Hand! White Hand and his braves! What in God's name is the meaning of this?' He ran towards the rear platform, the others closely behind him. As they arrived there the train perceptibly began to slow.

Fairchild said: 'We could jump for it now. White Hand could give us cover and–'

'Fool!' Whatever respect Pearce might ever have had for the governor of his state had clearly diminished to vanishing point. 'That's just exactly what he's inviting us to do. It's still a long, long walk to Fort Humboldt.' He waved to the rear and pointed towards the driving cab. White Hand waved a return acknowledgment, turned and shouted some unheard order. Immediately a score of rifles were levelled.

Deakin dropped to the floor of the cab as a fusillade of bullets struck the locomotive, then, in a momentary lull in the firing, risked a quick glance through the footplate doorway. The Indians, running as they reloaded, were clearly gaining. Once again, Deakin opened the throttle slightly.

O'Brien said with increasing unease: 'What in hell's name is Deakin playing at? He could leave them behind if he–'

He and Pearce stared at each other.

Claremont, safely arrived in the shelter of the wood, was moving swiftly and stealthily through the trees, circling so as to approach from the rear. The guards, he was certain, would be at the lower edge of the wood, watching the scene across the valley, which meant that their backs would be towards him. From the implacable expression on his face it was clear that Claremont had no compunction in the world about gunning down unsuspecting men from the rear; far too many lives, not to mention a fortune in bullion and all his men he had so recently lost, made any consideration of fair play seem totally irrelevant.

There were about sixty horses all told, none of them hobbled or tied – Indian ponies were as well trained as those of the United Stares Cavalry. Claremont picked out what he thought would be the three most likely horses – the rest he would stampede – and slowly worked his way through them. They neither whinnied nor neighed, some glanced incuriously at him, some not at all – despite the thickness of their coats, they were all clearly preoccupied with their own frozen miseries.

The guards – there were two of them – stood at the very edge of the wood, just beyond the last of the horses, looking speculatively at each other as they listened to the now desultory gunfire from across the valley. Because of the cushioning effect of the snow, the occasional restless stamping of the horses, and the Indians' complete absorption with the running battle now almost two miles away, Claremont was able to approach within twenty feet before taking up position behind the sturdy bole of a pine. At that short distance the use of the rifle seemed superfluous. He laid his rifle silently against the trunk of the tree and brought out his Colt.

Aboard the train, both Pearce and O'Brien gestured frantically to the rear, pointing repeatedly towards the distant pine wood and motioning that White Hand and his men should return there. The Indian chief, comprehending, stopped in his tracks and indicated that his men should do the same. He wheeled and pointed to the pine wood.

'The horses!' White Hand shouted. 'Back to the horses!' He took just one running step, then stopped abruptly. The two distant revolver shots carried very clearly in the freezing air. White Hand, his face impassive, tapped two of his men on the shoulders. They set off at a jog-trot towards the pine wood, not really hurrying. From White Hand's demeanour it was apparent that the time for haste was already past.

Pearce said savagely: 'Now we know why Deakin slowed the train and set off that damned blasting charge – to distract our attention while Claremont dropped off the other side.'

'What worries me is the two things we don't know - why is White Hand here and how in the name of all that's holy did Deakin know he would be here?'

The Indians, guns lowered, now stood in a disconsolate group almost three hundred yards behind the train. Deakin, looking back, eased the throttle slightly.

'We've got to stop him.' The hysteria in Fairchild's voice was now unmistakable. 'We've got to, we've got to, we've got to! Look, we're hardly doing more than a walking pace. We can jump down, two on either side, out-flank him and–'

O'Brien said: 'And watch him wave goodbye as he opens the throttle wide?'

'You sure that's why he's going so slow?'

'What else?'

Claremont, his two riderless horses trailing, urged his horse up to the top of a narrow divide in a valley. Ahead of him, the rest of the troop of stampeding horses were now spread out, now gradually coming to a halt. Claremont reined in his horse at the top of the divide and looked into the middle distance. Less than three miles away, even through the still gently falling snow, the mouth of another valley could be seen branching off to the right. The telegraph poles issuing from the valley could be seen. It was the western exit of Breakheart Pass.

Claremont grimaced with pain and looked down at his bandaged left hand. Both it and a section of the rein it held were saturated with blood. He looked away and kicked his horse into motion.

The train was moving more quickly now, leaving the stationary Indians steadily further behind. White Hand, immobile and expressionless, watched the two scouts return from the pine wood. The leading scout said nothing, merely lifted his forearms, palms upwards. White Hand nodded and turned away. His men followed and they walked quickly, in double file, along the sleepers in the direction of the vanishing train.

Aboard the rear observation platform of the train Fairchild, O'Brien, Pearce and Henry looked acutely unhappy as they watched White Hand and his men becoming lost to sight round a bend in the track. Their unhappiness deepened further as they heard two pistol shots in rapid succession. Fairchild said, almost in despair: 'And what was that about?'

'Claremont, for a certainty.' Pearce spoke with conviction. 'Probably a signal to Deakin that he's driven White Hand's horses to hell and gone. Which means that White Hand's braves are going to have a long walk back to Fort Humboldt and by the time he gets there Deakin will be ready for him.'

'Sepp Calhoun will be there,' the Governor said hopefully.

'Calhoun has as much chance of coping with Deakin as my grandmother has,' Pearce said. 'Besides, he's usually half-drunk anyway.' His face tightened in a thin ugly line. 'What did I tell you? He's speeded up the train.'

No question, the train was accelerating. The four men looked at each other with even greater unease. O'Brien said: 'He's probably given up all hope of tricking us into jumping off.' He leaned out over the safety rail and looked ahead. There was a sharp crack and O'Brien jerked back into safety. He removed his hat with none too steady a hand and examined a jagged hole torn in the brim.

Pearce said drily: 'It would appear that he doesn't given up hope in other directions.'

Up front in the locomotive Deakin peered ahead through the cab window. The v snow had stopped now. The junction of the western exit of Breakheart Pass and the valley to his right – the agreed rendezvous with Claremont – was now less than two hundred yards away. Deakin said: 'Hold tight.' He closed the throttle and jammed on the brakes. The traction wheels locked to the accompaniment of the violent clanking of buffers crashing together. The four men on the rear platform regarded one another with a steadily increasing mixture of perplexity and apprehension. Deakin handed Banlon's gun to Marica, took the second tube of blasting powder from the toolbox.

The train ground to a standstill, Deakin said 'Now.' She stepped off the footplate and jumped, falling heavily, with an exclamation of pain, and rolling over several times. Deakin released the brake, put the lever in reverse and opened the throttle wide. Moments later he had joined Marica on the track-side.

It took the four men on the rear observation platform several minutes to realize that the train was moving backwards, not forwards. O'Brien, the first to recover, leaned out. His eyes widened as understanding came: Deakin, by the track-side, had his gun lined up on him: O'Brien had barely time to fling himself back even as the gun was fired.

'Jesus!' O'Brien used some choice language. 'They've jumped the train!'

'No one at the controls?' Fairchild was close to hysteria. 'For God's sake, jump off!'

O'Brien reached out a restraining hand. 'No!'

'God's sake, man, remember what happened to the troops in the runaways!'

'We need this train.' He pushed his way to the rear door of the leading coach. 'Drive a train, Nathan?'

Pearce shook his head.

'Me neither. I'll try.' He jerked a thumb forwards. 'Deakin.'

Pearce nodded and swung down from the platform. The train was already gathering speed and Pearce rolled over and over as he hit the trackside. But the steeply snow-covered slope of the embankment helped cushion his fall and he arrived at the bottom of the slope rather winded but unhurt. He rose at once to his feet and looked around.

The train, still accelerating, was already fifty yards away. Pearce glanced in the other direction where he could just see Deakin's head and shoulders; he was supporting a rather shaky Marica.

'This,' Deakin said, 'is just what I needed. Where are you hurt?'

'My ankle. And my wrist.'

'Can you stand?'

'I don't know. I don't think so.'

'Well, sit then.' He dumped her rather unceremoniously into a sitting position by the trackside. She favoured him with a very old-fashioned look, but Deakin's attention was already engaged elsewhere. Glancing back along the track, he could see that the train was already more than a quarter of a mile distant. What he could not see was O'Brien slithering down the cordwood in the tender and halting, his face an odd mixture of urgency and indecision as he found himself confronted with the baffling array of engine controls.

Deakin stooped and inserted the blastingpowder tube under a rail close to a sleeper. He tamped it all round with earth and stones, leaving only the fuse free.

Marica said in a noticeably cool tone: 'You're going to blow up the track?'

'That's the idea.'

'Not today, it's not.' Pearce advanced, Colt in hand. He glanced at Marica who was cradling her left wrist in her right hand. 'Maybe that'll teach you to jump off trains.' He closed on Deakin, ignoring Marica. 'Your gun. Under your coat. By the barrel, friend.'

Deakin reached under his coat. His gun came slowly into view.

Marica said: 'I've got a gun, too. Turn round. Marshal. Hands high.'

Pearce turned slowly, his eyes widening as he saw that Marica's right hand now cradled a revolver.

Deakin switched his grip on the barrel of his Colt. Pearce, who sensed what was coming, flung himself to one side, so that the blow lost some of its impact. But it was sufficient to make him stumble and fall, the gun coming free from his temporarily nerveless hand. He dived after it but Deakin was even quicker, jumping forward with his right foot swinging.

Marica winced in horror and revulsion at the sound of the heavy blow. She said in a whisper: 'You hit him when his back was turned, when his hands were up and then – and then–'

'And then I kicked him on the head. Next time you point a gun at a man like Pearce make sure the safety-catch is off.'

She stared at him, stared down at the gun in her hand, then shook her head slowly. After a moment she looked up.

'You might at least say thanks.'

'What? Oh, sure. Thanks.' He glanced down the track. The train, rapidly dwindling into the distance, was now going very quickly indeed and beginning to sway wildly. He switched his gaze. Claremont, two other horses held on loose reins, came cantering round the spur of a hill. At a gesture from Deakin he reined the horses in and held them where they were. Deakin dragged Pearce along the line, dropped him in unceremonious fashion, hurried back up the line, stooped, lit a fuse, picked up Marica and came quickly down the embankment. He helped her on to one of the spare horses, swung aboard the third himself and gestured that they should move away. After a short distance, as if by mutual consent, they stopped and looked back.

The explosion was curiously quiet. Rubble and dirt flew through the air. When those and the smoke settled, it could be seen that one sleeper was twisted and the left-hand line badly distorted.

Claremont said uncertainly: They can fix that, you know. They can unbolt the damaged section of the track, take it out and replace it with a section from behind the train.'

'I know. If I'd wrecked it permanently with a large charge, they'd have no option but to walk to the Fort.'

'Well?'

'That way they would arrive at the Fort alive, wouldn't they?'

Marica looked at him in horror.

'That means that we would all die.'

Marica's expression did not change.

'Don't you see?' Deakin's voice was gentle. 'I've no option.'

Marica shuddered and turned away. Deakin looked at her without expression, urged his horse into a canter. After a moment, the others followed.