Only 06 - Winter Fire

relentlessly, Case closed in on the area where the false owl call had come from.
    A shape that only a seasoned night fighter would recognize as a man slipped through the clump of tall sagebrush and paused at its edge.
    Case recognized the human outline instantly.
    Can you see him, Conner? he asked silently. He’ll be at the back of the cabin if I miss him .
    But Case didn’t plan on missing the raider. He kept hearing what the other man had said just before he died.
    You’ll get your turn on that gal after I break her .
    Case was certain the man hadn’t been talking about Big Lola.
    Wonder where that third man is? he asked silently. And why he’s so quiet .
    At the moment, there was nothing he could do about the missing raider.
    The man in the big sage was moving again.
    Silently Case inched closer to the outlaw who was even now heading for the cabin.
    Hope to hell Conner follows orders. If he unloads his shotgun at the raider, he’ll get me in the bargain .
    Case was eight feet from the outlaw before the man sensed that something was wrong. The raider spun around, drawing his gun.
    A shotgun butt hit the outlaw like a falling mountain. With a hoarse sound the man folded up and dropped to the ground.
    As quickly as Case had come out of the darkness into the cleared area, he vanished back into the clump of tall sagebrush.
    The outlaw stayed where he fell.
    Silence came.
    Breathing deeply yet very quietly, Case strained to hear any sign of the third man.
    He heard nothing but the unnatural silence of the night.
    Guess the third man isn’t as impatient to get his hands on Sarah as the others were , he decided.
    After five minutes the normal night sounds slowly resumed. Case settled in for a long wait. He had played this deadly game many, many times before. The first man to lose patience was usually the one who died.
    Behind him the night sounds abruptly stopped. Silence descended.
    The hair on the back of his neck stirred. He threw himself to the side just before a six-gun shattered the silence with two rapid shots, then one more for good measure.
    Lead whined through the thicket where his head had been. Even as he dove for cover, he turned and brought the shotgun to bear on the muzzle flash of the raider’s six-gun.
    Case triggered the first round of buckshot so quickly that its deeper sound masked that of the outlaw’s fourth bullet. Lead pellets shredded through the sagebrush, then went ripping through the night in a deadly metal hail.
    The raider grunted twice.
    If he made any other noises, they were lost beneath the sounds Case made as he rolled swiftly to a new position. He knew his own muzzle flash had given away his location.
    Yet even as he rolled, he realized there wasn’t any place to hide. The outlaw was too close to fool for long.
    The fifth bullet tugged at Case’s sleeve. Another sprayed dirt and pieces of bark over his face even as he scrambled for better cover.
    From the darkness came the distinctive sound of a second six-gun being cocked.
    Case triggered the second barrel of the shotgun toward the sound and threw himself in the opposite direction. Before he hit the ground, his six-gun was in his left hand.
    Forcing himself to breathe quietly, he waited.
    No more tongues of fire leaped toward him out of the darkness.
    There was a groan, a thrashing noise as though a large animal was staggering through the brush, a thud…
    And then nothing.
    He waited.
    Cold sweat ran down his forehead and his ribs. His lungs ached for deep, sweet gulps of air rather than the stingy, shallow breaths that were all he permitted himself.
    No more sounds came from the darkness.
    He kept on waiting.
    And waiting.
    Long after other men would have moved, Case lay absolutely still, eyes closed but for the narrowest of slits. Six-gun in hand, he waited with all the skill he had learned during the war.
    He waited as death waited. Patiently. Relentlessly.
    The brush stirred and crackled. Uneven steps came toward his hiding place.
    He didn’t move.
    The outlaw wasn’t trying to be especially quiet. He simply wanted to make sure Case was dead.
    The instant the raider saw the dark, motionless form against the lighter brush, he brought his six-gun to bear and started to pull the trigger.
    Three shots split the night.
    All of them went into the raider.
    This time when the man fell, there was no theatrical thrashing and groaning. The outlaw simply slumped facedown on the ground and