Slocum's Silver Burden Read Free

know.”
    â€œYou said we ain’t got much time. The engineer’s gonna find a telegraph wire alongside the tracks and send a message.”
    It was a risky job climbing a telegraph pole and hooking a loop around the strung telegraph wire. Somehow this made a connection so a man who knew Morse code could send along a warning. Jackson had tried to find out if anyone on this train knew the technique. Even if they did, they had to send a coded message. As malingerers, telegraph operators were about the worst. They had a valuable skill and seldom got fired, no matter how bad their misdeeds. Even if the operator received a message about the train robbery, it might be a spell before the information got passed along to the law.
    Or it might be in the hands of a sheriff right now.
    Jackson eyed the mountain of silver bars. A dozen ideas flashed through his head.
    â€œWe can toss the bars over the cliff and come get them later,” he said.
    â€œLike hell I will,” said Drury. “What’s to keep you from getting there first and taking it all?”
    â€œOr you?” said Baldy. “You and a dozen pack mules would be more ’n up to the chore.”
    â€œYou haven’t looked over the side,” Montague said. “That’s a sheer drop. You got any notion how to reach the bottom?”
    â€œI don’t, and even if we figured it out, we couldn’t heave the silver out far enough to get all the way down. There’d be silver strewn the whole way down for the railroad dicks to recover.”
    â€œWe don’t have much choice, not if we want to take it all.”
    â€œWhat’s your plan, Jack?” Baldy looked eagerly at his boss.
    â€œWe load our horses with as much as they’ll carry, get down the mountainside, then split up. Hide the silver wherever you like or try to make it away with your horse loaded down. Whatever we do, we scatter to the four winds.”
    â€œYou want to know where I’m gonna hide my share?” Baldy frowned as the other three glared at him.
    â€œDon’t tell us,” Jackson said. “Keep it a secret. If one of us gets caught, the other three’s stashes will be safe.”
    â€œWhat if all of us are caught?” Drury thrust out his chin belligerently.
    â€œThen you’ll get a chance to shoot it out, like you been itchin’ to do. Or we can all watch one another get our necks stretched. Men died in this robbery.”
    â€œWe didn’t kill ’em,” protested Baldy. “They jumped on their own. ’Cept the ones Montague shot.”
    â€œI’m not going to argue that with a jury,” Montague said. He bent to the task of moving the silver bars to the edge of the car.
    Jackson saw him fetch his horse and begin working to use the saddle blanket and his duster as a way of keeping the metal bars on his horse’s back. Montague had started back for another load when Jackson joined in. He said nothing as Drury and Baldy began moving their share of the silver, too.
    Every second dragged like an eternity. He expected the sound of a steam whistle on a train bringing the railroad bulls.
    â€œI can’t load the rest,” complained Drury. “My horse’s belly’s about draggin’ on the ground.”
    Jackson tugged on his horse’s reins.
    â€œDo what you want.”
    â€œSee you in hell, Jackson!” Drury shouted, then returned to the final few silver bars still in the vault.
    Jackson saw that Montague and Baldy were already ahead of him, heading down the hillside. He reached the level spot where a couple canyons branched away. Montague had already disappeared down one. With luck he wouldn’t follow the one the other man already had. Or he could keep moving and hunt for a different place to go, but this looked chancy. Baldy had stopped and eyed him, as if waiting for orders.
    Deciding it was for the best, Jackson motioned for Baldy Wilson to take one of the