Stand-off at Copper Town Page 9

  Patrick looked to the station, suggesting he’d made the same observation.

  ‘This way,’ he said, gesturing, and without complaint they hurried around the side of the saloon and back to the station.

  They approached the platform along the tracks. The back of the final car of the three that had drawn up partially hid them from the newcomers and the miners who were processing them. So when they reached the car they slipped around its side to stand with their backs to it.

  To their left was the outcrop and to their right was another set of tracks used to turn the engine for its return journey to Ash Creek. Ahead there was nothing but the slope down on to plains.

  They’d climbed up the slope the week before when they’d first arrived and from memory there were no obvious places to hole up until they reached the river several miles on.

  Nathan risked peering around the corner and then jerked back. Foley was striding around the corner of the saloon a hundred yards away. So they edged along and slipped into the gap between the cars to face the platform.

  The queue was working its slow way onwards. Foley would reach them in seconds, but at least thirty people were around so they could mill in with them and perhaps hide.

  Patrick had been looking the other way and with a grunt of alarm he grabbed his shoulder and drew him back.

  ‘We can’t try it,’ he said.

  ‘We have to,’ Nathan said. ‘Besides, Foley won’t try anything while we’re amongst so many people. We can stay with them, speak to Sherman, and then. . . .’

  Nathan trailed off on seeing that Patrick was shaking his head.

  ‘I’m not worried about Foley. It’s the others.’ He pointed out of town. ‘Tucker and Clay survived the blast too, and they’re heading this way.’

  ‘Trapped,’ Jeff said unhappily. ‘We’ll never reach the mine and our horses now.’

  As Nathan nodded, from ahead the engineer called out to check everyone had disembarked. This made Patrick twitch as if a sudden thought had hit him. Then his gaze turned to the end car.

  ‘There is one way out of this,’ he said.

  Nathan glanced at the car. ‘We can hide in there for a while, but they’ll find us eventually.’

  ‘Perhaps.’ Patrick winked. He took the bundle off Jeff and slapped it against Nathan’s chest. ‘Get on board and hide it. Then keep your head down while me and Jeff organize a little surprise.’

  Nathan didn’t wait for an explanation and did as told. He clambered over the couplings and then up the steps to the door.

  He ducked down and slipped inside. Then he picked a bench where he could look out on to the platform while still keeping hidden.

  With the nugget tucked under the bench, he looked for their pursuers, but none of them was visible. A few clangs and subdued thuds sounded. Then Jeff and Patrick slipped through the door and scurried along to join him.

  ‘Finished?’ Nathan asked.

  ‘We just have to wait and our escape will be complete,’ Patrick said, smiling.

  Outside the engineer again called out, making Nathan shake his head.

  ‘You’re not planning for us to leave on the train, are you?’ he asked.

  ‘Not exactly,’ Patrick said.

  Nathan started to ask for more details, but Patrick put a finger to his lips, so the three men shuffled down beside a window where they’d be out of view of anyone looking in.

  With bated breath, they awaited developments. They didn’t have to wait long.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Sherman Clarke intoned from a position a few windows along.

  ‘We blew up the outcrop,’ Foley Steele said. ‘But the rest decided they’d done enough for the day and came back here. I need to find them.’

  Sherman grunted, Foley having picked the right thing to say to get his attention. Then footfalls sounded, getting closer to their car. Inside, the three men cast pensive glances at the door.

  The train lurched, shunting the cars against each other. Then they moved steadily backwards.

  ‘If they’re going to search, they’ll have to do it quickly,’ Nathan said.

  ‘They might not,’ Patrick said. ‘The engineer is only moving the engine back into the sidings to take on water and to turn it round for the trip back later. The train is going nowhere.’

  ‘How do you know this?’

  ‘I talked to the miners back in the jailhouse.’

  Nathan blew out his cheeks in bemusement. ‘It must have been boring in there if that’s what you talked about.’

  Jeff chuckled and cast an amused glance at Patrick, suggesting he knew the full plan, but Nathan resisted the urge to ask what it was as the cars clanged together and then were shunted backwards. Nathan relaxed as it was unlikely that anyone would search the cars while they were moving.

  They’d moved on for a few dozen yards when a cry of alarm went up from the platform that made Patrick smile.

  Then the clanging of the cars and engine stopped, but Nathan’s limited view of the roofs showed that they were still moving backwards. It was only at a walking pace, but they did appear to be speeding up.

  ‘It’s working,’ Patrick whispered, as if he didn’t want to jinx his plan by speaking loudly.

  ‘What’s working?’ Nathan said. ‘We’re still being shunted backwards.’

  ‘We’re not,’ Jeff said, raising himself to look at the station. ‘We uncoupled us from the next car.’

  ‘Why?’ Nathan said. ‘That’ll just make sure someone searches in here.’

  ‘Only if they can catch us.’ Patrick joined Jeff in raising himself to look through the window. What he saw made him pat Jeff on the back.

  Nathan joined them to see the station slowly receding. They were already closing on the outskirts of town.

  People were moving towards their car, but in a bemused way with their hands on their hips. Foley and the rest of their pursuers weren’t in sight.

  ‘Is someone going to tell me what’s happening?’ Nathan said.

  ‘We’re leaving town,’ Patrick said.

  ‘Backwards,’ Jeff added with an incredulous raising of his eyebrows as if he didn’t believe it himself.

  Nathan recalled that the tracks were on a slight slope. A free car given momentum by being shunted into by the engine could be easily sent on its way.

  ‘We won’t be riding a runaway car all the way to Ash Creek,’ he said. ‘So what do we do when it stops?’

  Patrick rubbed his jaw while biting his bottom lip.

  ‘It won’t get us that far, but it’s getting us out of town unseen. We wouldn’t have got away from the people looking for us, so this is the only option I could see.’

  Nathan accepted this explanation with a nod as he watched the last building drift by. They were now moving at a fast walking pace. When he pressed his face to the glass, he couldn’t see anyone coming after the car.

  He went to the door at the front and glanced through the small barred window. The distant figures at the station were congregating to discuss the situation and the engine had stopped moving.

  ‘Did the miners who gave you this idea say how far the slope goes on for?’ he asked, turning back to face the others.

  Patrick winced and shuffled round to sit on a bench. He dragged the rolled-up jacket out from under the bench and unwrapped it.

  The sight of the gold in full light made him sigh with relief. Then, seemingly emboldened, he looked up.

  ‘Apparently this happened accidentally last month. The couplings came apart and the end car went trundling off down the tracks. It was too dangerous to try to stop it, so it went faster and faster until it disappeared out of town. Sherman was annoyed about it, so I guess he’ll be even more annoyed this time.’

  Jeff nodded happily and settled down on the bench beside Patrick to consider the gold at their feet, but Nathan had noticed Patrick’s pensive expression and tone. He walked down the aisle towards him.

  ‘That didn’t answer my question,’ he said, lowering
his voice.

  Patrick cast him a quick glance and then returned to looking at the gold.

  ‘The car kept going for some miles, perhaps even a quarter of the way back to Ash Creek. . . .’

  ‘That still leaves a long way to go,’ Jeff said. ‘We’ll never reach Ash Creek afoot.’

  Patrick shrugged, not meeting either man’s eyes.

  ‘I don’t reckon that’s the problem, is it, Patrick?’ Nathan said.

  Patrick gave a barely perceptible nod. ‘The car kept going until it reached this place called Devil’s Bend. By then it was going so fast it came off the tracks and smashed to pieces.’

  Jeff swirled round to look at him.

  ‘You never told me that when you asked me to remove the coupling.’

  As Patrick and Jeff snapped comments at each other, both men raising their voices and talking over each other as their anger grew, Nathan looked outside. The terrain was now moving by at a speed he would struggle to achieve on foot.

  He went to what was now the front window to look down the track at the route they would follow; it was straight with the slope being shallow enough to suggest they wouldn’t speed up much yet. The land on either side was barren.

  ‘This wouldn’t have been my first choice for a way to escape, but it might work,’ he said silencing the two men. ‘We stay on board until we’re out of town. Then, before we reach Devil’s Bend, we find somewhere soft to jump off. Then we return to Copper Town at night, find our horses, and leave.’

  Jeff slapped his hands together with a determined clap.

  ‘That sounds like a plan to me,’ he said.

  ‘So come over here and enjoy the sight of what this has all been about,’ Patrick said.

  Nathan hurried down the aisle to the other door to check nobody was pursuing them. Then he did as suggested and sat on the bench opposite Patrick where he relaxed for the first time in a while.

  They still had plenty of problems to resolve, but the gold nugget looked more appealing now and he could imagine it really would change their lives for the better. After drinking in his fill, he shuffled along the bench and looked out the window.

  For the next hour the car never went faster than a gallop and on flat stretches it slowed down to a fast canter before again picking up speed. So it wasn’t hard for Nathan to believe they were on a normal train journey and not on a runaway car that was hurtling to its destruction.

  When he judged that they were around twenty miles out of town, the terrain changed. The river from which they’d collected water swung round to run alongside the tracks, but it was a hundred feet below and faster-flowing than further upriver.

  Nathan peered out of the windows on every side.

  ‘It’s getting more rugged out there. I reckon Devil’s Bend must be close.’

  As if to confirm his thoughts, the timbre of the car’s trundling over the tracks changed in rhythm and he was sure the terrain was noticeably passing by more quickly.

  ‘We need to jump off the first chance we get,’ Patrick said, joining him.

  Nathan nodded and while Jeff folded his jacket around the nugget, he headed down the aisle to the door.

  The slope ahead was the steepest he’d seen. Even more worrying the tracks were swinging towards the river on the start of a long curve.

  Judging that this was the time to get off, he pushed the door, but then slammed into it.

  He shook himself and tried the door again, confirming to his irritation that it was locked. Patrick and Jeff smiled at his discomfort as he headed back down the aisle to the door through which they’d entered.

  He pushed, but the same thing happened again. The second door was locked, too.

  They were trapped inside, and they were speeding up with every passing moment.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘Both doors are locked,’ Nathan said, swirling round to face the others.

  ‘They can’t be,’ Patrick said, hurrying past him.

  Nathan stood aside to let him try, but Patrick also failed to budge the door, as did the burlier Jeff.

  ‘It can’t be locked,’ Patrick said, tipping back his hat. ‘We came in this way.’

  ‘Yet the door won’t move,’ Nathan said as Jeff gave up on trying the handle and put a solid shoulder to the door, again without success.

  ‘It must have locked itself.’

  Jeff tried again and then turned to them.

  ‘Stop worrying about how it happened and just work out how we get out of here,’ he said.

  Nathan looked around the car for something they could use to batter down the door. He experimentally kicked a bench, but it was bolted down. Then his gaze alighted on the gold nugget.

  He smiled. ‘The nugget was supposed to change our lives, but perhaps it can save them.’

  Jeff nodded and hurried past him to gather it up. When he reached the door, he glanced at Patrick, who stood back nodding.

  Jeff rolled his shoulders. Then he crunched the sharpest end of the nugget against the wood beside the handle. It hit with a thud, so he swung back his arm for the second attempt, but he didn’t follow through.

  ‘Do it,’ Patrick said. ‘It won’t matter if you knock bits off.’

  ‘It’ll matter to us,’ a voice said from beyond the door.

  Then Tucker stepped into view on the other side of the glass. Clay was at his side.

  ‘How did you two reach us?’ Jeff said, backing away for a pace.

  ‘We got on board the car at the station, except we can leave it when we want to and you can’t.’ Tucker hammered a fist on the door to emphasize his point. ‘We’ve barred the door. You’ll never break it down.’

  Nathan stepped up to the door and looked down. He could see the solid beam they’d placed across the doorway, and the barred window was too small to climb through.

  ‘So what’s the deal?’ Nathan asked, spreading his hands and putting on a pleasant smile.

  ‘There isn’t one. We heard the tales about the car that got loose last month. It went faster and faster until it hurtled off the tracks. We reckon we’ll jump off before it reaches Devil’s Bend and then dig the gold out of the wreckage.’

  Tucker and Clay both backed away for a pace to the rail. They looked down at the tracks speeding along below, and then faced them while smirking.

  ‘It’s a good plan, except Devil’s Bend has a drop of several hundred feet,’ Nathan said. ‘Nobody can get down there.’

  Nathan firmed his jaw and kept still, hoping they wouldn’t detect his lie. On the other side of the glass, Tucker shook his head.

  ‘We’ve survived falling down the slope and being blown up. We’re feeling lucky enough to risk it.’ He folded his arms with a show of defiance while Clay edged to the side to peer around the side of the car. ‘I hope you three feel lucky in there.’

  Nathan turned away from the door and faced the other two.

  ‘We’ve used up our luck,’ Jeff said. ‘So what can we do?’

  ‘Exactly what we were doing before,’ Nathan said. ‘We break down the door.’

  ‘But they’re on the other side.’

  ‘They are, but they’re not armed.’ Nathan smiled. ‘They can’t stop us.’

  Jeff joined Nathan in smiling. Then he turned on his heel and strode down the aisle to the other door. He wasted no time in swinging back his arm and then using the rock to batter the side of the door.

  Nathan stayed to watch Tucker’s and Clay’s reaction, and it was the one he’d expected. They glared through the glass at them. Then Clay moved away.

  A few moments later thudding sounded as Clay clambered on to the roof.

  ‘Let’s hope he falls off,’ Patrick said.

  Nathan left Patrick watching Tucker and joined Jeff, who was maintaining a steady rhythm battering the door. He gouged out a small hole. Splinters flew suggesting that if they had enough time, this tactic would work.

  Nathan looked through the window and winced.

  The slope was becoming mor
e pronounced, as was the long sweep of the tracks, and two miles on that sweep took the tracks over a deep gorge through which the river ran. The approach tracked around the side of a steep-sided ridge with a sheer drop on one side before it slipped into a cutting that led on to the bridge over the gorge.

  ‘Devil’s Bend,’ Nathan said.

  Jeff broke off from hammering to look up through the window.

  ‘It has to be,’ he said before he restarted.

  The footfalls on the roof had now stopped, but then again the car was rattling as it built up pace and Nathan wouldn’t have been surprised if Clay had decided against clambering over it. He relayed this information to Jeff, encouraging him into delivering a huge swipe with the rock.

  The strength of the blow made slithers of gold spray around, but the door cracked down the side from top to bottom and jerked out to come to a halt against the bar Clay and Tucker had put across. That didn’t keep Jeff at bay for long – he put the rock down and kicked with the flat of his boot against the broken door.

  Two kicks knocked the bar away and let the door fall over, giving them a full view of the scene ahead. The tracks were blurring towards them faster than Nathan had ever seen them do on any train ride and they were speeding up with every turn of the wheels as they hurtled on towards the cutting.

  ‘We have to find a place to jump,’ he said, beckoning Patrick to follow them.

  Jeff nodded and with the nugget tucked under an arm he headed through the doorway to the rail.

  In a blur of motion Clay dropped down from the roof. He landed on Jeff’s shoulders, knocking him forward into the rail before he slipped off him and to the floor.

  The gold nugget came loose and went skittering along to slam against the railing. Everyone turned to watch its progress.

  Clay was the first to get his wits about him. He leapt at the nugget, scooping it up in his arms, but that gave Jeff enough time to get to his knees and leap on his back.

  He pushed him down, sending him to one knee hunched over the rock. Nathan moved into the doorway where he looked for an opening to help his friend, but Jeff had the upper hand.

  Rapid footfalls sounded behind him. He expected them to be Patrick’s and he half-turned while raising a hand, a comment that they had the situation under control on his lips.