"I know them well," I said.

Jesse fingered the opening in her dungarees, apparently to check that she was properly covered. "Whittle, he makes their Injun Joe look like a piker."

"We're quite better armed than Tom and Becky."

She nodded. "Let's go and kill him."

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE.

The Final Showdown "Let's do some figuring first," I said. "He's bound to be waiting for us, you know." I went to Jesse's side. She leaned against me, and I wrapped an arm across her back.

"That's a sight better," she said. "Now what've we got that needs figuring? Only just one way out. He likely is is laying for us, but he ain't much of a shot." laying for us, but he ain't much of a shot."

"He got you, didn't he?"

"We was pretty sizable targets, and he still missed four outa five."

"He likely only hit you you by accident, anyhow." by accident, anyhow."

"We was both both shooting at him." shooting at him."

"He wants you alive, Jesse. You know...so he can...muck about with you." I hated to tell her that, what with the remains of Whittle's handiwork all around us. But she needed to know the way of things.

Instead of looking troubled by the revelation, she smirked. "Well, if he only hit me with a stray meant for you, he's a worse shot than I reckoned. We oughta just charge on ahead and blast him down."

"That's a terrible idea."

"I'll go first."

"Are you daft?"

"You said your own self that he don't wanta shoot me. Not sure as you're right about that, but..."

"Anyway, there's no telling where he might be. We won't be able to see anything at all in the dark part."

"We could take us a torch."

"And light ourselves up for him?"

"Well, you got a better idea? Maybe we oughta just stay here and wait for him to die of old age. Course, my blood might all leak out while we're at it."

We both looked down at her leg. Thick as the bandage was, some blood had already seeped through it.

I didn't know much about bullet wounds, but it seemed to me that Jesse ought to be lying down and keeping still. Give her blood a chance to quit running out. She wasn't about to do any such thing, though. Not while Whittle still needed killing.

"What we need," I said, "is a good trick."

"One that'll get us through him?"

"Or lure him to us. us. Like the way McSween and I led that posse into the ambush, something along those lines." Like the way McSween and I led that posse into the ambush, something along those lines."

"He ain't likely to fall for any brand of tricks. He's a tricker, himself. Look how he got us in here with his screaming."

That reminded me. "Did you see that he was wearing a badge? Letting on to be a lawman?"

"Maybe he is is a lawman." a lawman."

Whittle a lawman? Odd as the notion seemed, I judged it was possible. Perhaps he'd actually led the posse up here to hunt down Apache Sam. That would go a long way toward explaining how he'd managed to kill the whole bunch. It's easy to kill folks that trust you.

"Perhaps he is above being tricked," I admitted.

"We oughta just go. We'll play the hand that's dealt."

"This isn't a card game, Jesse."

"Well, I'm gonna fold if we don't do something quick. And I ain't bluffing."

"Whittle!" I shouted toward the black opening. "Whittle!"

He didn't answer.

"Jesse's. .h.i.t! You shot her in the leg."

"Trying to trick him with the truth?" she whispered.

"You can have her!" I called. "What'll you give me for her?"

Still, no answer came. But I figured he could hear me, figured I'd caught his interest. Not as he was likely to believe a word that came out of me.

"Give me your gun," I told Jesse.

She looked at me odd, but handed it over.

"I've taken her gun!" I called out. "I'm throwing it away." I tossed it some distance. It struck the rock floor with a clatter, and skidded.

"Trevor!" she whispered, scowling.

"That was her six-gun, Whittle! She's unarmed, now. You can have her. For a hundred dollars. Whittle? Do you hear me?"

"It ain't gonna work," she whispered.

"You've seen how beautiful she is! I only want a hundred dollars for her. She's worth a good deal more than that. Imagine the fine times you'll have with her."

"Trevor!"

"Stripping her down to the skin. Having your first looks. Before you start cutting her."

"Quit it."

I suddenly lurched behind her. She staggered, but I caught her up and hugged her to me, my left arm across her chest. My right hand shoved a Colt in her ear.

"d.a.m.n it!" she blurted.

"Come and get her, Whittle! She won't be much good if I kill her. You'll want those honors for yourself, won't you? You'll want to carve her up slow, a little bit at a time. That's why your brought all these these gals here, isn't it? So you could work on them at your leisure? So you could savor their torment? So you could enjoy the sight of them thrashing about, bleeding and sweating? So you could hear their screams?" gals here, isn't it? So you could work on them at your leisure? So you could savor their torment? So you could enjoy the sight of them thrashing about, bleeding and sweating? So you could hear their screams?"

To Jesse, I whispered, "Scream."

"I don't know how."

"Do it. it. You're You're my hand. You're all the cards I've got." my hand. You're all the cards I've got."

"Just stop all this."

"Scream."

She did it. And a mighty fine scream it was. Whittle himself couldn't have done any better. Her shriek hurt my ears and made me cringe. Even after she stopped, it echoed on through the cave.

"Did you like it, Whittle?" I called. "Did it heat you up? There's more where it came from. With all your talents for torture, you might have her screaming like that for hours. But you won't have the opportunity. Not unless you come out and pay me. Dead gals don't scream. Dead gals don't squirm and plead. You're about to miss out on the time of your life, 'cause I'll be putting a bullet through her head if you don't come out and buy her off me."

"Such an amusing lad," Whittle said from the darkness ahead.

At the sound of his voice, my heart gave a jump. I'd intended him to hear. I'd hoped he would answer. But it came as a shock when he actually spoke out. Maybe I'd hoped, deep down, that he'd considered himself lucky to escape from us, fled the cave and hightailed aboard his horse.

"Are you ready to pay?" I asked. "Or shall I put a bullet through her head?"

He laughed. "Come now, Trevor. I know you far too well. You would sooner die yourself than shoot that sweet morsel."

"She's little more than a stranger I met on the trail," I told him. "I've no use for her."

"Do you take me for a fool? Shoot her? You, who attacked me for the sake of an East End s.l.u.t? You, who froze through half a night aboard the yacht to prevent Trudy from hanging? You, who leaped into the sea to save her from drowning? Though it was quite apparent that you disliked her from the start? Please. This is so obviously a primitive ruse to lure me into the light."

"Believe what you will," I called, and thumbed back the hammer of my Colt. "Show yourself, or I'll blow her head off."

"Proceed," he said.

"Take that outa my ear," Jesse muttered. "He ain't falling for it."

"Listen to her," Whittle said. Mimicking Jesse, he added, "I ain't falling for it."

I kept the gun to her ear. "I'll count to three," I told Whittle. "It's your play."

"Take care you don't shoot her by accident. Poor lad, you've already put several bullets into one darling tonight. She wasn't alive to notice, of course. But it was was such a shame. She was quite fond of you, really." such a shame. She was quite fond of you, really."

He made little sense. Still my stomach went cold.

"I rode into Tombstone recently to deliver a prisoner. I've become a Deputy U.S. Marshal, did you know that? Deputy John Carver. John Carver, Jack the Ripper. Clever, what? And fancy, me me a lawman." He laughed. "A marvelous job, actually. It allows me splendid opportunities for travel. I've quite the knack for pursuing felons, you know. However, the job also gives me the liberty to pursue a fairer game." a lawman." He laughed. "A marvelous job, actually. It allows me splendid opportunities for travel. I've quite the knack for pursuing felons, you know. However, the job also gives me the liberty to pursue a fairer game."

"What happened in Tombstone?"

I didn't ask that. I was too full of shock and dread for words. It was Jesse who put the question to him.

"Why, a sweet thing recognized my horse. Seems I'd stolen it from her grandfather's stable."

Sarah!

"Quite the spirited wench, she was. She had a go at shooting me down in the very streets of Tombstone. Naturally, I prevailed."

"You killed her?" Jesse asked.

"Oh, not at the time. My bullet merely knocked her senseless. Fortunate, that, as it prevented her from speaking out against me." He chuckled. "I simply explained that she was wanted for harboring a fugitive bank robber, and bustled her out of town. Being an officer of the law does have its privileges, you know."

As I heard all this, I took to trembling fitfully. Fearing an accidental discharge, I turned my gun away from Jesse's head.

"You can't imagine my surprise, Trevor, when she spoke of you. I was rather certain that you'd drowned in Gravesend Bay. You'd not only survived, but captured the fair creature's heart. It's there on a pike to your left, by the way."

Though my mind reeled, I kept my eyes on the dark where Whittle lurked. One of Jesse's hands gently pressed my leg.

"Oh, she told me so much about you. She was just full of fascinating news. In fact, I've a bit of news for you. She confessed that she interfered rather heartlessly with your mail. She loved you dearly. Not wisely, as they say, but too well. It seems that she chose not to post several of the letters which you intended for your mother. And she intercepted those that your mother sent to you. In the end, she rather regretted that she'd done so. In the end, I daresay, she regretted quite a lot. Most particularly, that my bullet hadn't killed her outright on Toughnut Street."

I struggled not to believe Whittle. But his words gave me no choice.

"She was quite the most entertaining of my ladies. Indeed, she also proved the most useful. Ironic, that. I do relish life's amusing little ironies. That she who died under my knife should save me from the bullets of the chap she loved most."

That hideous thing-that scalped and mutilated carca.s.s-was Sarah?

"You b.l.o.o.d.y fiend!" I yelled.

He laughed. A merry cackle that echoed through the chamber.

"You'll not get your knife on this this one!" I yelled, and threw Jesse to the floor of the cave. As she fell asprawl on the scattered clothing, I swept my revolver down at her and fired twice. With each shot, she flinched and cried out. one!" I yelled, and threw Jesse to the floor of the cave. As she fell asprawl on the scattered clothing, I swept my revolver down at her and fired twice. With each shot, she flinched and cried out.

Whittle shouted, "No!" through the roar of the blasts.

He rushed out of the dark, raising his six-gun.

"She's better dead than in your hands!"

"d.a.m.n you!" He took aim at my head.

I got off my shot first. It took him in the left shoulder, turning him so his bullet missed me clean. He was staggering sideways when my next struck his chest. It ripped the leather of a knife scabbard, and sang off the blade. But the blow knocked him off his feet. As he fell, I put a round into his stomach. He grunted. He landed on his b.u.m.

I stepped over Jesse's motionless body, halted, and leveled my Colt at his face. At the satin patch covering the remains of his nose, actually. Then I thumbed back the hammer. "This is for all of them," I said.