Fighting with fire

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Jeremiah was not overly happy about stealing the hearse, but he went along with it, anyway. Lex had had a lot of practice at hitching horses to wagons back at the farm he’d grown up on, and even knew how to adapt an ordinary saddle to the task. He was therefore able to do it extremely fast and the undertaker didn’t suspect a thing until it was too late, distracted as he was by Jeremiah’s posh voice and shiny buttons? for wealthy clients meant expensive coffins and thus a larger-than-usual ham to take home to the dinner table. Once Jeremiah saw that Lex was ready, he made his excuses, left the shop and leapt up on to the cart alongside the thief, who flicked the reins to get Sally moving forwards. She soon picked up quite a pace and? aside from a bit of shouting and name-calling from the undertaker? they made a clean getaway.

‘You stink of fish,’ Jeremiah said, once they were clear of the town. ‘Why the heck are you carrying those trout around like that, anyway?’

‘Er…’ Lex looked down at the battered trout still in his hand. He could hardly tell Jeremiah that he had them because a giant, talking fox had told him to get them. He’d sound nuts. He found it difficult to believe, now, that he had actually gone to the kitchens and demanded a pair of smoked trout. Clearly he hadn’t been thinking straight. Really, it was a wonder he’d got out of that house alive.

‘Never mind,’ Lex said, stuffing the fish into his bag. ‘It’s not important.’

‘So, what’s the plan, exactly?’ Jeremiah asked.

‘Well, we’ll ride in, pretending to be there for the body, obviously,’ Lex replied.

‘But the coffin’s got the name Clint Davis written on it on a little brass plaque,’ Jeremiah pointed out.

‘Oh well; I’m sure they won’t notice,’ Lex said carelessly. ‘And even if they do, I bet most of them can’t read. Once we’re there, maybe you can cause a diversion whilst I get Jesse.’

‘ Me? What am I supposed to do?’

‘I don’t know; use your imagination. Do a cartwheel or something.’

‘But-’

‘Let’s just concentrate on getting there, all right?’ Lex said. ‘We’ll worry about the rest later.’

Time had got away from Lex in the town. There was only an hour to go until noon. If Jesse was going to switch them, then he’d probably do it when the noose was actually around his neck and he was on the very verge of being hanged. He wouldn’t want Lex to have time to talk his way out of it, after all.

Lex urged Sally to go faster along the dusty track, past the cactuses and tumbleweed, praying that the directions he’d been given were accurate. He could see the huge rock formations the farmers had mentioned and, after about twenty minutes, he slowed the cart down to go around one and was profoundly relieved, on turning the corner, to see a little gaggle of cowboys grouped around a tree, right where the farmers had said they would be.

They turned to glance at the advancing cart, which Lex forced himself to keep slow, so as not to arouse suspicion. The cowboys watched its approach warily. Lex counted six of them. And a mean looking bunch they were, too? big, brutish and clearly unfamiliar with the concept of regular bathing. Their horses were standing nearby, and Lex instantly spotted Rusty a little to one side.

And there? balancing with some difficulty on a wooden stake? was Jesse with a noose around his neck. The rope was just short enough and the noose was just tight enough to make the cowboy extremely uncomfortable. It was cutting into his neck and causing red welts to rise up on his skin. Really, Jesse was being half-hanged already. The area he had to stand on was extremely small? it was only because he had such a good sense of balance that he hadn’t fallen off yet, especially seeing as his hands were tied behind his back. But he couldn’t keep it up all day. And as soon as he fell off that stake, the rope would go taut and that would be that. He looked positively astonished at the sight of the approaching wagon but Lex couldn’t work out whether that was because he was pleased to see them or dismayed.

‘What is this?’ one of the cowboys demanded as soon as the wagon ground to a halt. ‘Why have you come here?’

‘We’ve come for the body,’ Lex replied blithely. ‘Can’t have it lying around stinking up the place. Not in this heat.’

The sun beat down upon them quite relentlessly. Lex wished he had his hat, but it had come off when the chandelier had fallen on him. Flies, drawn out by the heat, buzzed around his face and he had to keep swatting them away.

‘Never bothered anyone before. Besides, you don’t look like undertakers. Especially that one-’ one of the cowboys began, gesturing towards Jeremiah and his expensive coat and posh haircut.

‘Oh, come on!’ Lex replied in an impatient voice. ‘Obviously we’re not undertakers! Don’t be so daft! We stole this hearse. I have a personal vendetta against that man,’ Lex said, pointing an emphatic finger at Jesse. ‘He stole from me and then left me for dead.’

‘Aw, come on, kid, it was only a little knock on the head, after all-’ Jesse began in rather a strangled voice? the noose clearly making it painful for him to speak.

‘Shut up!’ Lex snapped. Turning back to the cowboys he said, ‘I want the satisfaction of seeing that bastard hanged and then? if you don’t object? I’d like the body. I’d be happy to pay you for it, of course.’

That caused a pleased smile to spread across their faces. ‘Sure,’ one said, ‘we’ll sell him to you. He’d only be wasted on the vultures, otherwise.’

Jeremiah leaned closer and hissed in Lex’s ear, ‘Just what sort of rescue is this?’

Lex nudged him hard in the ribs to shut him up.

‘Look, fellas,’ Jesse said hoarsely, starting to sound rather desperate. ‘Ain’t there some way we can work this out?’

‘No, there ain’t, you good-for-nothin’ double-crosser! If you’ve got any final prayers, say ’em now, because your time in this world is done.’

‘ Lex — ’ Jeremiah tried once again.

‘Sshh!’

‘What’s the matter with him?’ one of the cowboys asked, staring at the nobleman.

‘Him? Oh, he just… he just heard this rumour, that’s all.’

‘What rumour?’

Lex rolled his eyes and said, ‘Some nonsense about that half-wit — ’ he pointed at Jesse? ‘learning some sort of dark magic on a library tree during the Game that we’ve been playing.’

‘Say, I heard he was in a Game,’ one of the cowboys said. ‘How about it, Jesse? Are you gonna curse us all a hundred times over before we hang ya?’

‘I was with him the whole time on that tree,’ Lex said firmly. ‘Almost the whole time, anyway. He didn’t see any magical secrets. And even if he did, he wouldn’t have the sense to know how to use them. Hang him. Go on. Do it now. What are you waiting for? I want him dead!’

‘Lex,’ Jesse croaked. Lex turned his head to meet his eye. There was a beseeching look in the cowboy’s face that was almost painful. ‘Please…’

With his face set like stone, Lex looked at Jesse and said coldly, ‘I told you? more than once? that there would be consequences if you crossed me. Well, you crossed me. And now you’re going to pay for it.’

‘This is outrageous!’ Jeremiah exclaimed standing up. ‘I won’t stand by and watch a man being killed in cold blood-’

He broke off as Lex gripped his wrist and yanked him back down. ‘Close your eyes, then!’ he snapped.

‘Any last words, Jesse?’ one of the cowboys grinned.

‘When I say “go”,’ Lex whispered urgently in Jeremiah’s ear, pressing the reins into his hand, ‘whip the horse up as fast as you can. Doesn’t matter which direction. Just get the cart out of here.’

Then he hopped down on to the ground, as if he wanted to get a closer view of the imminent hanging. As casually as he could, he moved a little closer towards Rusty.

‘Yeah, I got some last words,’ Jesse said, glaring ferociously at Lex. ‘You just better hope this rope don’t break, you little brat, because if it does then I’ll be coming straight for you, soon as I’ve finished with these guys.’

‘Brave words for a man what’s strung up by his neck,’ one of the cowboys laughed. ‘Shame you ain’t gettin’ outta this in one piece. Not this time. This is for double-crossin’ us. I sure hope it was worth it.’

And? with that? the cowboy kicked the stake out from beneath Jesse’s feet.