Ellen and Abigail appeared then. Ellen held a hunting rifle and wore a pistol belt over her dress. Abigail had a rifle of her own.
“Martha is with the children,” Ellen said. “She’s got her pistol.”
“Good,” Jim nodded. He tried to give her a confident smile. “There’s a chance they’ll try to talk first.”
“How will we know when it’s time?” Ellen said.
“You’ll know.”
Ellen and her mother took up positions near the cabin’s second window.
Jim closed the door, leaving it cracked thin enough for a rifle barrel as the riders came closer. The moon was high and bright and he could see them out there. Some held torches, others only their rifles. The torchlight cast their shadows over the cabin, the barn, and the empty space between.
“Jim Heston!” Bannen said. He was near their center, a wide, powerful man on a tall horse. “We’ve come to buy you out and settle accounts. Can you hear me in there, Heston?”
“I hear you just fine,” Jim said through the cracked door. He didn’t bother shouting. Bannen could hear him well enough and if he couldn’t, then he was welcome to step up a little closer where Jim might line up a shot.
“Good, glad I’m in the right place. Your neighbors were right helpful, pointing us in this direction.”
No one spoke and the silence stretched on.
“I can get two of them from here,” David whispered.
“Stay out of sight for now,” Jim answered. “Let him worry about how many of us there might be.”
“You’ve got nothing to say to me, Heston?” Bannen said. “You were willing to talk earlier. Surely you aren’t afraid.”
“Just wondering when you’d get down to it,” Jim said.
Bannen laughed at that. “Down to it. Well, here’s my offer. You sell me your claims, all your claims, then you and your family can leave with whatever you can carry.”
Jim eased the door open another half inch. He could get a shot on one man, maybe a second, but Bannen was keeping the barn between the cabin and himself. Jim hadn’t been thinking of defense when he built it, but convenience. Having it close had been a blessing during the snowy winter. Now Bannen could use it for cover to get close to the cabin.
My fault for building the barn there. Should have put it farther away.
“Well, what do you say?” Bannen bellowed. “It’s as fair an offer as you’ll get from me.”
“It’s a sorry offer from a sorry outfit,” Jim said.
“Now there’s no need to get nasty,” Bannen said, and Jim could hear the man’s greasy smile. “What about those others in there with you? They all willing to fight it out? Some of them will surely die. How many are you willing to bury before you lose it all anyway?”
Jim thumbed back the hammer on his rifle. “David, line up a shot on one, and when I start the music, you get him. Don’t worry about the second man until the first one is down and dying.”
“I will,” David said.
“Ellen, you and Abigail stay low. If they rush us, let them have it.”
“Ready,” Ellen said.
Jim gave her a smile, then leaned his face close to the door. He eased it open another half inch.
“Well, what do you say?” Bannen repeated.
Jim could see Bannen now, but his shot was poor. He had a much better target in the man next to him.
“I was just wondering how desperate a buzzard would have to be before he ate a son of a bitch like you.”
Jim’s rifle came up, and the man beside Bannen suddenly realized how exposed he was. Too late. Jim’s shot took him low in the stomach. Gutshot wasn’t a good way to die, but he’d come hunting trouble and he’d found it. Jim levered another round into the chamber and tried a quick shot at Bannen. A clean miss. Bannen was safely behind the barn now.
Shots rang out from David’s rifle, and he whooped in triumph.
Two down then, at least six still out there. Maybe more.
Return fire clattered against the cabin’s heavy logs. Jim had no fear of a bullet making it through the thick walls. They’d built it solid to keep out the cold. The shutters were thinner, but even they were half-inch planks. Fire, though. It had been rainy recently and it would take them a good deal of work to set the cabin ablaze, but it could be done with enough work.
While they’re doing that, though, we’ll be peppering them with lead.
With the barrel of his rifle, Jim opened the door a hair more and several bullets smashed it. He smiled. They weren’t going anywhere. Well, they’d have a long, cold night ahead of them.
“Go ahead and put some food on,” Jim said. “We’ll let those boys get good and hungry out there.”
“I got one for sure,” David said. “I might have winged the second one.”
“You did better than I did. One gunshot. Missed Bannen clean, though.”
“Will they come for us tonight?” Ellen said.
“No time soon,” Jim said. “We have to be ready at any time, but I think they’ll wait until just before morning.”
