Johnnyboy Miller cowered behind the stone wall, listening carefully. It had been a while since the last gunshots had died away, but the young man still shook in terror. He has no idea whether he was the last survivor from the gang or whether they had triumphed over their pursuers.
From somewhere on the other side of the wall came the muffled thumps of something solid rolling down the hill into the valley; then the silence of a cold spring day. A desperate curiosity overtook him, and Johnnyboy hugged his bag of loot close. "Hey! Is there anybody out there?"
"I'm still here, son!" came the reply. The words echoed off the sides of the valley, making it impossible to guess where they had come from. "I ain't goin' nowhere. How about you?"
Johnnyboy didn't recognise the voice. That meant it had to be one of the people who had been chasing him for the last day. "I don't hafta go nowhere!" Johnnyboy called back. "You better have your friends with you!"
"Don't need 'em. There's just you and me here, and I'm more than you can handle."
Johnnyboy swallowed nervously. "Well, soon as my friends are done with your friends, they're gonna come here and - !"
"And do nothing, boy!" his unseen pursuer barked. "Last I saw of your friends, two were dead and the third was cryin' out for his mamma. Now, less'n there's someone we missed, that leaves just you! So, what's it going to be?"
Johnnyboy's guts turned to ice-water. What if he was the last one left? He glanced around, looking desperately for any way out of the valley. There was a brook that ran down from the head of the valley, heading back the way he had come from. To either side there were steep, bare slopes - not impossible to climb, but anyone caught on them would be an obvious target. Further up the valley was a tumbledown shack; its wooden walls leaning crazily. Maybe, if he kept low, Johnnyboy could get there without being seen. He didn't know, but he had to try.
"What happens if I surrender?" Johnnyboy began to crawl along the side of the wall, hoping to get closer to the shack.
"We ain't savages! We'll treat you fair. And that's better than you deserve."
"Right," Johnnyboy muttered. "Gunned down like an animal." He glanced up towards the shack, gauging the distance to it. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"Stand up and find out!"
Johnnyboy took a deep breath. It was now or - !"
"Don't run boy."
This time the speaker was right next to him! Johnnyboy reached for his gun, then stopped as he felt cold metal against his temple. "And no sudden moves neither. You familiar with the Gospel of Mark?"
Johnnyboy stared straight ahead, not daring to move. "Wha'?"
"'For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?' Take all the time you need, boy."
