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Knowing ho rounds remained in his pistol, Bell held his fire until he had better situational awareness and fully understood the scope and press of the attack Near the gate they’d entered, he saw the upper half of severalatop the delivery wagon Yves Massard was there, holding a sun pressed to his shoulder as he prepared to fire another shot Otherto find a way over the coiled barbed wire that topped the fence

Bell didn’t knohy Massard hadn’t used the gun back at the dock unless he and Gly thought they could get the job done with muscle alone or they didn’t want to draw undue attention As he’d thought at the tiun battle would have brought the police

Two thoughts struck hisheads of distilled Scotch whiskey The first was that the shotgun had to be an expensive e Massard had engaged froood shot, because he’d pulled it to the left and killed the brakeht into Bell’s back

The shotgun roared again, and the gravel in front of Bell’s position turned into so much shrapnel when the lead pellets raked its surface His eyes were spared the worst of it, but they teared up frorit His skin burned where sharp stone chips bit into his flesh As the French, Al Coulter, who’d reached the loco blast of steam from the boiler that enveloped the train in a dense white cloud Unseen in theof s to clank taut

Under cover of the cloud of steam, Bell scra l

ocoht fit, with all fourcoal from the tender into the firebox would be better shared with him present

Massard fired two ed off the rolled-steel boiler, but a couple found their way into the cab and ricocheted for a couple of terrifyingharmlessly to the floor Massard’s h the concertina ithout tearing theate remained is trying to force it from the outside

For good athered speed out of the rail yard Bell watched the wall, where Massard’sto the realization that they’d failed and were giving up their struggle to breach the wire They watched bovinely as the train continued to pull inexorably from the depot Massard was ready when it drew abreast of his position It was his best angle from which to fire down on the loco the ore and the re e was focused on the cab

Unwilling to risk Massard’s getting off a lucky shot, Bell fired off three rounds just before both barrels of the Purdey 12-gauge thundered Frohty paces, one of Bell’s shots still ed to strike one of Massard’s h of a distraction to throw the Frenchine’s tender

And then the train was past the danger zone The relief at h aloud The others—Coulter and the two acting stokers, Hall and Caldwell—joined in

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The depot’s six rail spurs le track out of the yard, and, by necessity, Coulter kept the speed down so the train didn’t derail They were also hauling at least a dozen cars, and the weight slowed the locomotive

Bell holstered his weapon

“How’d they find us, Mr Bell?” Alvin Coulter asked

Bell could safely remove Coulter fro about knowing how to drive the locomotive and potentially strand them at the yard or, had he been the saboteur, he could have jammed up the controls once he was in the cab The fact they were under way and alht depot ic didn’t hold true for young John Caldwell Volunteering to shovel coal put hients than had he relad Vern Hall was the second stoker because he was one less unknown variable