Now Playing: The Songbird of the West
Episode Seven concluded with:
“Good luck,” Dehner
said as the sheriff quietly got up and made his way down to the ranch.
The lawman moved stealthily and quietly. He seemed to be swallowed by the
darkness of the night. Dehner watched Streeter through his field glasses, but
not for long.
“Lost him,” Rance whispered as he put the
glasses down. “But I think he is almost at the back of the house.”
More time passed; the detective didn’t even try
to guess at how much. The tense circumstances made an accurate assessment
impossible.
Two shots sounded from the direction of the
house. “The sheriff’s in trouble!” Curt yelled. He sprang to his feet and
began to run down the knoll before Dehner could stop him. Weldon’s brashness
may have put both the sheriff and Carrie Whiting in even worse danger.
Episode Eight
As
he moved cautiously down the slope, the detective thought he saw two shadows
emerge from the barn. His uncertainty was quickly shattered. One of the outlaws
who had been tending the horses fired at the deputy. Weldon stumbled and fell.
Dehner squeezed off a shot at the flash of red which had cut the night.
A
man’s cry of pain joined the sound of gunfire as another red explosion launched
from the bottom of the knoll. Dehner hit the ground, returned fire and missed.
Instinctively, his target snapped two shots at the detective. The shots
telegraphed his location. Rance’s third shot took the outlaw down.
Dehner
heard approaching footsteps, but this time the deputy was being more cautious.
“You all right?” Weldon’s whisper was laced with anxiety. He had made a major
blunder and knew it.
This
was not a time for lectures. “I’m fine. You?”
“Okay.
The shot surprised me and I fell, sorry--”
“Never
mind.” Dehner spoke as he reloaded .“We have to check on those two outlaws.
Make sure they are really out of action.”
The
two men proceeded quietly down the knoll, guns in hand. They found two bodies
lying on the ground. One was dead, the other seriously wounded. Dehner removed
the bandanna from the wounded man and used it to gag him. The bandanna from the
dead outlaw was used to tie the wounded man’s hands behind his back.
“That
should hold him. He’s very weak.” Dehner whispered as he tossed the outlaws’
guns up the knoll. “Now, we have to get to the sheriff.”
An
exchange of shots came from within the house as the two men circled around to
the back. The back of the house had one window. As Streeter had indicated, the
window was large. The curtains were open and the glass shattered. Dehner peered
inside while Curt Weldon checked the other side of the house.
Tomorrow:
Episode Nine of the Songbird of the West
