Windblown Saviour

Windblown Saviour - Chapter 4 - Underneath A Blue and Cloudless Sky

"You're scared. And you should be. There's nothing wrong with being afraid and certainly not when you've been beaten. This is the point where you choose though. You can either live here in gentle obscurity until you die, or you can do something about Tennant and his men. There may be more at stake here than you think."

He stood abruptly, taking the dirty plates with him to the small stream outside and left me alone to think over what he'd said. After a few minutes and without saying a word, he walked slowly across the wooden floor to the back wall of the cabin. Turning to make sure I was watching him, he moved to the wooden shelves that stood against the rear wall, reached to the back of the middle shelf and pulled a hidden lever. With an audible clunk, the shelf swung outwards on well oiled hinges to reveal a cavity behind. He beckoned me over and I rose from my seat to join him, peering into the darkness as he lit a candle to show me what lay beyond the cabin walls.

Behind the hidden door was a cave that extended deep into the hillside. Several small shelves were set back into alcoves and odd bits of equipment were stacked neatly here and there. He smiled again and reached into the opening, his questing hand automatically reaching to the shelves just inside the door. Mutely, he passed me several small ingots of silver which I put on the table, and then he reached in again, coming out with a set of twin holsters that held two matching guns. Placing the holsters on the table, I withdrew the darkly metalled pistols, their ebon rosewood grips nestling almost too comfortably into my hands. Smith and Wesson Rimfires, beautifully made and finished, and polished 'til they gleamed.  

"Recognise 'em?" he asked.

In my memory, a body hit the ground again with a dull and dusty thud, and the old man scuttled from the crowd to claim his spoils before being shooed away.

"You took them off Tennant's brother, that day of the gunfight in town?"

"Aye, I don't know if they're as good as the ones Tennant took off you, but there's only one way you're gonna find out. They seem like a fine pair of shooters to me."

I sat down heavily at the table, the guns held loosely in my hands as I stared at them, my thoughts in a whirl. After a few long minutes I placed them down on the table in front of me. They had been kept oiled and well maintained and there was an anticipation in me that I never thought I'd feel again, the thought of trying them excited and appalled me simultaneously. But, as I flexed my left hand, I could feel some resistance to the movement. The quick flexing movement caught Henry's attention.

"Your left ain't quite workin' right?" asked Henry, concern lacing his words.

"No, not yet, it's stiff and doesn't move the same as it used to."

As I looked up at him, he reached into the alcove one more time and pulled out a Winchester rifle, a couple of boxes of ammunition and two more small bars of silver before carefully closing the door. As he did so, he brushed away the traces of the door's passing in the small amount of dust on the floor with one foot and turned back to face me.

"No one but you knows about that door or the silver mine behind it. Do you understand? At the end of that tunnel, there's a decent sized seam of silver. In a small room about halfway down which connects with a small fissure that leads to the sky. I do the smelting there and the cave systems dissipate the small amounts of smoke. It doesn't produce a huge amount of silver, but it's enough to keep me fed."

"Why are you trusting me Henry?"

He smiled again, mischief dancing into his eyes. "Darned if I know boy. Gut feeling perhaps, mebbe you remind me of me when I was young and stupid. Everybody dies sometime son. Now, I ain't ready to go yet, but just in case, it'd be nice to pass it on to someone decent.

"Now, that rifle is a good one. If you can't shoot straight with your left, then learning how to work a rifle properly is a good alternative. Besides, it's a damn sight more accurate than them peashooters." He gestured dismissively at the pair of Rimfires on the table.

"You said you'd grown up on a farm so I'm assuming that you've used a rifle of some sort before."

I nodded.

"Good, then I suggest you practice while I'm gone."

"Gone? Where are you going?"

I must have sounded slightly panicky as I spoke, as he came over and rested a gnarled hand on one shoulder in reassurance. I certainly didn't feel secure and a feeling of loneliness swept over me despite the gesture.

"I'm goin' back into town to trade some silver, get some whisky and see what's goin' on. When I come back, we'll need to work out what we do next. You'll be fine. Look after the goats for me and I'll see you in a couple of weeks. Go shoot some pinecones or sumthin'."

That said, he stomped out of the cabin and I watched forlornly as he and Delilah made their way down the valley and out of sight.