Don't waste ammunition on bad targets. " The attack began not with a charge, but with probing fire. Morrison's men testing their defenses. Jake held fire, waiting beside him. Catherine breathed steadily, the shotgun ready. Then Morrison appeared again, this time staying well back.
Last chance. Sullivan, send them out and everyone else lives. Go to hell. Rose shouted from the barn. So be it.
Morrison raised his hand, then dropped it. The world exploded. Gunfire erupted from all directions as Morrison's men charged. Jake worked his rifle mechanically. "Aim!
Fire! Lever! Repeat! Beside him! " Catherine's shotgun boomed, dropping a man who'd gotten too close to the porch. "The barn! " Someone shouted, "They're rushing the barn. " Jake could see Rose and the Coulson brothers firing rapidly.
But there were too many. Morrison had sent the bulk of his force that direction, recognizing it as the weak point. Catherine, stay here," Jake ordered, rushing from the house. He sprinted across open ground. Bullets whining past, diving through the barn door just as a wave of attackers reached it.
The fight inside was brutal. Close quarters chaos. Jake used his rifle as a club when men got too close. Felt Rose at his back. Heard her fierce war cry as she fought.
One of the Coulson brothers was down, blood spreading beneath him. "We can't hold," Rose gasped, reloading with bloody fingers. "We don't have to," Jake said. "Just long enough. " "Long enough for what? " He wasn't sure, but they fought on, desperate, savage. Through the melee, Jake caught glimpses of the continuing battle.
Martinez's buffalo rifle booming from the roof. Margaret appearing at windows like a ghost, firing and vanishing. Then impossibly Jake heard something that made his heart leap. Hoofbeats. Many hoof beatats and a voice roaring.
For justice, for the law. Sheriff Thompson from Milfield burst onto the scene with 20 deputies, catching Morrison's men from behind. The tide turned in seconds. Attackers becoming defenders. Hunters becoming hunted.
The sheriff. Billy Chen was shouting from the house. He brought help. Later, Jake would learn that Judge Watson's telegram had finally stirred the territorial governor to action, that Sheriff Thompson had been waiting for just such an excuse to move against Morrison. But in that moment, all that mattered was that help had come.
The battle became a rout. Morrison's hired guns caught between the ranch defenders and the lawmen threw down their weapons or fled. Jake emerged from the barn supporting a wounded Rose to see Morrison himself trying to escape. It was Catherine who stopped him. Quiet, gentle Catherine stepped into his path, shotgun raised.