Ray rode as fast as he dared back to camp. He was helped by the full moon illuminating the trail like those new street lamps he had seen at Blackrock City.
The moon had been hidden by clouds all night but now it lit the trail ahead like a headlamp on a steam train. Ray couldn't help but feel that it was a good omen.
He thought about the best way to approach when he got there. He would have to sneak up and take out Flint first. Boyd was a fool and wouldn't be hard to intimidate into giving up. He had already done it once this evening.
No, Flint was the problem. He liked killing, Ray could see that. He had encountered many men like him who liked living out West, precisely because out here, you could kill and get away with it.
The West was a murderer's paradise. The thin line of law that tried to protect decent folk was getting more and more invisible all the time. Most people had given up their claims and went to live in mining towns. At least there the mine's paid for security. Although the security was often a bunch of paid murderers who were protecting the people from another bunch of freelance murderers.
Ray shook his head. Focus on the problem at hand Ray, not Philosophy of The West.
He would have killed for a rifle, but Lou didn't have one. What kind of outlaw didn't have a rifle! Judging by how inept Boyd and Lou had been he wasn't surprised though. Without Flint to tell them what to do they would likely have been rustling cattle or horses. Or more likely they would have been dead already, at the end of the noose for some or other petty crime.
Stealing a mining company payroll was way above their intellectual capabilities. Flint was definitely the brains. He preyed on stupid men like Lou and Boyd and got them to follow. Ray had met a few such men in his life. He always wondered what good they could accomplish if they turned their attention to organizing men to do good instead of robbing and stealing. But building churches didn't satisfy men's base desires as much as killing and raping.
Ray's mind was still turning over all the possibilities of how he was going to get the drop on Flint without him hurting the mother and child as he drew close to the camp.
As he got near the camp, he dismounted, drew the rusty revolver and snuck through the trees towards the light of the fire as quietly as he could.
YOU ARE READING
Red Beak
Action***COMPLETE*** Bounty hunter, Ray Knox is on the trail of what should be an easy mark. But this seemingly simple bounty keeps getting more and more complicated at every turn. What's really going on here? And why are so many people after such a low...
