Crow Creek Crossing by Charles G. West

workin’ inside that barn, I’da seen him.”
    â€œAll right, then,” Slade ordered. “We ain’t doin’ no good just settin’ around this fire. Let’s get goin’ and welcome these homesteaders to the territory.”
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    â€œSomebody’s comin’,” young Elliot Cochran an- nounced.
    â€œWhere, son?” John paused, giving his axe a rest.
    â€œYonder, by the bank,” Elliot said, and pointedtoward the trees lining the creek upstream. Everyone stopped to look.
    â€œI see ’em,” John said when he spotted the five riders breaking free of the trees along the creek.
    â€œWho do you suppose they are?” Mabel asked, shading her eyes with her hand while she gazed at them.
    â€œWhy, I don’t rightly know,” her husband replied. “But you and Ann best go in the house till we find out. Take Skeeter and Lucy with you. Elliot, look inside the barn door and bring me my carbine.” They all did as they were told. When Elliot brought the cavalry rifle and handed it to his father, he took a firm stand beside him. “You’d best run on in the house with your brother and sister,” John told him.
    â€œI’ll stand by you, Pa,” Elliot insisted.
    It was too late to argue with the boy. The five riders were already approaching the cleared yard before the barn, so John remained standing in front of the barn, his son beside him.
    â€œAfternoon,” Slade called out when they drew up before him. “Looks like you folks have done a lotta work on the place.”
    â€œAfternoon,” John returned. “There’s a lot left to do. Where are you fellers headin’?”
    â€œNowhere in particular,” Slade said, then very deliberately reached inside his coat and pulled the Colt revolver from its holster.
    Although he was standing there, holding his Spencer carbine by his side, John was too surprised to act before the .44 slug slammed into his chest. Elliot screamed in shocked horror as his father dropped to the ground. He turned to run but got no farther thana few yards before a bullet from Tom Larsen’s pistol struck him in the back.
    â€œNow,” Slade calmly said to Smiley, “if what you said is a fact, then there ain’t nobody in that house but two women and two young’uns, right?”
    â€œThat’s right,” Smiley assured him. “There ain’t nobody else around.”
    Always eager to use his knife, Sanchez stepped down and knelt beside John Cochran. “I take his scalp. Anybody comes along after we leave will go looking for Injuns.” He pressed the point of his skinning knife against John’s hairline, causing the dying man to make a feeble effort to resist. “Hey,” Sanchez announced, “he ain’t dead yet.” The discovery seemed to please him. “I finish him off after I scalp him.” He took pleasure in knowing the man would experience the pain of having his scalp lifted before he was mercifully killed. “I get the boy next.”
    Unwilling to wait while Sanchez enjoyed himself, the other four rode on toward the house, where the two horrified women sought to protect the children and themselves. Paralyzed by the shocking scene just witnessed, Mabel could not think until Ann screamed, “Get the shotgun!” Only then did Mabel seem to remember the weapon by the fireplace, and she went at once to retrieve it.
    â€œTake the children into your bedroom!” she told Ann as she opened the breech to make sure the gun was loaded. Then she took a stand facing the front door and cocked the hammers. There was nothing else she could do, so she waited, tears streaming down her face at the thought of her husband and firstborn lying dead on the ground. In the bedroom, used now by Ann and Cole, her sister huddled in thecorner with Lucy and Skeeter close up under her arms.
    Slade wasn’t sure what