Along The Fortune Trail Read Online Free PDF

gladly accepted at the price of listening to the lad ramble on. Lonny came to know the boy was just smart enough to be of some use in his plan, and so he befriended him.
    Within a few weeks, a deal was cut. Cody would hold the horses at the rendezvous point for seventy-five dollars per man. Lonny knew it was a bargain, and Cody thought he'd hit the mother lode.
    Cody decided he'd have one more cigarette and had just put the match to another perfectly-rolled smoke when he heard the train. “Well partners, guess it's time to burn some oats,” Cody proclaimed to the horses, who looked at him with blank expressions. “You just wait here a few minutes and enjoy the shade. You'll sure nuff be lathered up soon.” Cody carefully snubbed his smoke, put it in his shirt pocket, and began working his way down the hill toward the tracks.
    Lonny pulled back hard on the handbrake with both arms, ratcheting all the clicks he could before he could move it no farther. He looked up the hill at the patch of boulders he had used as a landmark, feeling proud that he'd managed to stop the train right where he had wanted to. As he jumped off the train, he saw Cody coming down out of the trees. “Where's the horses?” Lonny yelled up at him in an impatient tone.
    Cody stopped and stood dumbstruck a moment. “Well, damn yes, I guess I oughta bring ‘em now,” he finally blurted out and began marching back up the hill.
    “When you get ‘em down here, stay with ‘em at the front of the train and keep ‘em tied good. I don't want that dynamite spookin’ ‘em loose, you hear?” Lonny yelled. Cody didn't look back, but nodded just before he disappeared into the trees.
    Bones jumped off the front platform of the vault car as Lonny approached. “I got one wired and ready to go. Best to blow ‘em one at a time so's one don't foul up the other,” Bones proclaimed.
    “Light it up,” Lonny commanded. Lonny turned facing up the hill and yelled with all the force he could, “Cody! Keep them horses tied up there until after it blows, you hear?”
    “Yep,” Cody yelled back in a sharp report.
    Lonny and Bones had just gotten to a safe distance when the dynamite blew. The concussion shook the ground and sent shards of lumber flying from the side of the car, causing Lonny and Bones to instinctively throw their arms up in front of their heads and fall back against the hill. “That shoulda got somethin’ open,” Bones said after a moment on the ground.
    Lonny was on his feet and moving to the car, now pouring smoke from a ragged, new hole in the side. They wasted no time getting in and immediately had to use their hats to fan the thick smoke.
    As the air cleared, they could see one of the vaults had toppled over and was pressed against the sidewall of the car. The one that Bones wired lay face-up near the back wall, its door bulging upward along the hinge seam. A sliver of an elliptical opening, several inches at the widest point, had been created by the blast. “That sure as hell ain't gonna be enough. Did you wire two at each hinge?” Lonny asked in an accusing tone laced with rising anger.
    Bones shot Lonny a piercing gaze and spoke in a steady, even tone. “I sure wired it the way you said it should be wired—the way you planned it—a two bundle on each hinge with the same length fuse for each bundle. Looks like the top one went but the bottom didn't. You said even if they weren't timed right, one would set off the other. You were the dynamite expert here, as I recall.”
    Lonny's temper held check. He knew Bones was worn thin and ready for a fight if Lonny wanted one. Lonny turned his attention back to the safe. The top hinge was gone, but the door and frame were warped together at the point where the hinge had been. “Get a breaker bar. Maybe we can pry this thing open. That's the only way we can save the rest of the dynamite for the second safe,” Lonny said with obvious disgust. Bones said nothing and was instantly