by Saran Essex
Mike was involved in rustling with two other ranch hands, and they often took Leroy and Emmett along with them; they would round up any unbranded cattle they found, put their own brand on them, then sell the beasts at market.
The ranch owner, Dan Marshall, was unaware of the rustling being committed by Mike and the other two ranch hands, but when he eventually heard rumours concerning their unlawful activities from some of his neighbouring ranchers, he decided to confront them. But Mike and the two ranch hands were warned by a friend that Marshall had heard about what they were doing, and they hastily left the ranch.
Leroy and Emmett did not take part in any more cattle rustling after Mike and the other two hands had left the ranch, but carried on with their lives as law-abiding ranch hands.
Nevertheless Leroy had greatly admired Mike, and he sometimes liked to give his name as Leroy Cassidy.
The saloon was fairly quiet, Leroy and Emmett fleetingly noticed as they pushed through the batwing doors, with only three of the six tables in the small room being used. Elias Mangold, the dour-looking bartender and owner, gave a brusque nod to Leroy and Emmett. He knew them from their previous visits to the saloon.
Four bewhiskered, mean-looking men were seated at a table near to the bar, idly playing cards and drinking whiskey. They were dressed like cattlemen. They looked up as Leroy and Emmett walked up to the bar, and their eyes flashed in recognition. They then lowered their heads.
Leroy and Emmett did not pay much attention to the four men. At the bar, and with his usual pleasant smile, Leroy ordered two whiskies from the sullen-looking bartender.
Sitting at another table further back from the bar, was a young man seemingly engrossed in reading a small leather-bound book; he was holding it up in front of his face, and his wide-brimmed hat was pulled down over his forehead. It was difficult to see his facial features, and only a few strands of sandy-coloured hair were visible on his forehead beneath the wide-brimmed hat. An empty whiskey glass was on the table in front of him.
Seated at a table at the back of the room were two men with stubbly grey beards. They wore shabby clothes and sat hunched up in their seats. Their eyes were closed, and they appeared to be asleep, or maybe drunk.
Leroy took some money from out of his pocket to pay Mangold, and asked the bartender if he wanted a drink. Leroy liked buying drinks for people – in general he liked helping folks out in some way if he could. His smile was friendly, and his cheery, kingfisher-blue eyes were compelling, and Elias Mangold very nearly cracked a smile before saying no.
Leroy then turned away from the bar and, casting his eyes casually around the room, and still smiling, asked the other men seated at the tables if he could buy them all a drink. Emmett smiled as he stood at the bar next to Leroy: it was typical of his warm-hearted friend to offer to buy everyone a drink.
The young man who was reading the book did not even lift his head, and the two men seated at the back of the room with the stubbly beards also did not respond. They had now started to snore. But the four mean-looking men sitting at the table closest to the bar began to grin. They lifted their heads, still grinning, to look at Leroy.
The friendly smile on Leroy’s face dimmed a little as he realized who the four men were. Standing beside him, Emmett noticed the sudden change in his friend’s attitude, and turned around from the bar. He felt a sense of dismay as he recognized the four bewhiskered men: they were from the Cottonwood ranch, a neighbouring ranch to Caleb Baxter on the eastern side. An area of rugged, steep and broken country separated the two ranch lands.
The owner of the Cottonwood ranch, Bart Jarvis, was not on friendly terms with Caleb Baxter, and had frequently tried to claim Baxter’s cattle as his own. When Leroy and Emmett had worked for Baxter in the past they had witnessed a few hostile encounters between Caleb Baxter and the owner and ranch hands of the Cottonwood ranch.
One of the four Cottonwood men was of stocky build, with long and straggly dark brown hair and whiskers. He was Archie Burdett, foreman of the Cottonwood ranch, and he was a loud-mouthed braggart and troublemaker. The three men with Burdett were ranch hands – Seth Roebuck, Eli Slater and Bill Gooch – and were his usual companions. The four men had stopped at the saloon for a drink on the way back to their ranch after visiting some ladyfriends of theirs.
A sneer replaced the grin on Burdett’s face, and his eyes glinted mockingly at Leroy and Emmett, who stood back against the bar. He said to his three grinning companions, ‘Look who we’ve got here, boys, it’s Caleb Baxter’s friends, Parker and Layne. . . !’
Leroy relaxed back against the bar and began to smile easily at the four men. He sensed they wanted to stir up trouble, but they did not frighten him. Leroy was an easy-going young man who always tried to avoid violence and trouble, but he had a fearless nature. He could be tough when he had to be, and he wasn’t afraid to stand up to anything or anyone. Emmett was no coward, either, and he was ready to take on the four Cottonwood men if he had to.
Burdett and his three friends laughed loudly and mirthlessly. The sneering Burdett then said to Leroy, ‘I’m guessing that you two are on your way to work at Baxter’s ranch again. . . !’
‘What if we are?’ Leroy asked coolly, still keeping his easy smile.
Burdett said menacingly to Leroy, ‘The four of us ain’t forgotten, Parker, that you and your friend, Layne, called us liars the last time that you were working for Baxter!’
Leroy still smiled. He said calmly to Burdett, ‘You got a bad memory, Burdett, it weren’t me or Emmett who called the four of you liars – it was Caleb Baxter.’
Leroy and Emmett remembered clearly the incident that Burdett was talking about. It had happened on Caleb Baxter’s land. Archie Burdett, along with his three cohorts, Roebuck, Slater and Gooch, had been trying to herd away a bunch of unbranded calves from Baxter land, when Caleb, Leroy and Emmett, alerted by the bawling of the animals, had ridden up to them and challenged them about what they were doing.
Burdett and the three men with him had claimed that because the calves were unbranded they belonged to the Cottonwood ranch, and had somehow wandered on to Baxter land. Baxter had called the men liars and told them to get off his land.
Burdett and his three companions had then started to draw their guns, but Leroy and Emmett had drawn their own weapons faster, and ultimately, Burdett and his friends had ridden away cursing.
Archie Burdett was obviously still angry about the incident, and about being forced to back down by Leroy and Emmett. He pushed his chair back, scraping it on the wooden floor, and rose to his feet.
The young man reading the book at the table further back, lifted his eyes from the pages of his book, though no one noticed him doing it.
Burdett approached Leroy and Emmett. He stood in front of Leroy, only about a foot away from him. The easy smile stayed on Leroy’s face, but Burdett said in a dangerous tone, ‘Let’s hear you call me a liar now.’
An uneasy atmosphere filled the room. The dour bartender, Elias Mangold, backed away from the bar, muttering something about not wanting any trouble. He had seen Burdett and his friends beat up men in his saloon on previous occasions. The two men with the stubbly grey beards sitting at the back of the room carried on snoring.
The young man with the book lifted his eyes up some more, and placed the book down on the table next to the empty glass. He then sat upright in his chair and pushed his hat up off his forehead to watch with interest the fraught scene at the bar.
Leroy said mildly, ‘I never called you a liar before . . . but I reckon Caleb was right in what he said.’ Leroy did not want a confrontation, but he knew that Burdett did, and that the man could not be reasoned with.
Burdett’s hands were at his sides, but his fists had started to curl up. Meanwhile Emmett kept his eyes on the other three men still seated at the table – and sure enough, three more chairs scraped the floor of the saloon as Roebuck, Slater and Gooch rose to their feet, and began to move slowly but purposefully towards the
bar.
While Emmett watched the three men as they moved towards them, Burdett suddenly brought up his fist and threw a punch at Leroy’s belly. But Leroy swiftly caught the fist in his hand, and at the same time drove his knee forcefully into Burdett’s groin. The man howled in pain and sank to the floor, clutching his groin.
Leroy did not see it, but a glint of curiosity appeared in the icy, steel-like, grey-blue eyes of the sandy-haired young man as he stared fixedly at Leroy Parker. He was impressed by Leroy’s actions.
Roebuck, Slater and Gooch stood still for a second to gape open-mouthed at the wailing Burdett, then they bounded forwards at Leroy and Emmett. The two young men met them head on. Leroy ducked a swinging right blow from Seth Roebuck, and smashed his fist into the man’s jaw, sending Roebuck crashing heavily to the floor.
Simultaneously, Emmett charged at Slater and Gooch as they leapt towards him: he drove his right shoulder into the chest of Eli Slater, knocking the man off his feet, then buried his fist into the stomach of Bill Gooch, following it up with a blow to his face. Gooch crashed over backwards, his head striking the wooden floor with a sickening thud.
Eli Slater had fallen awkwardly to the floor after being knocked off his feet by Emmett, but he suddenly sprang, clumsily but hastily, to his feet with his gun in his hand: before Leroy and Emmett could do anything, he aimed it at them and ordered them coldly to stand still and raise their hands.
Taken by surprise, Leroy and Emmett could do nothing but obey.
Slater’s eyes were without pity, and it was chillingly obvious that he intended to kill the two men: he had pulled back the trigger of his gun ready to open fire. But suddenly he was grabbed from behind by the sandy-haired young man who had been reading the book.
The young man who intervened to save the lives of Leroy and Emmett was Harry Alonzo Longbaugh, who went by the name of Lonzo. He was twenty-two years old (although he looked younger), and he had been born in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania. He had left home at the age of fifteen to work on an uncle’s ranch in Colorado. After leaving this he had worked at various other ranches around Colorado and Wyoming. He was skilled at breaking in and training horses; he was also very fast and accurate with a gun, a skill he tried to hide.
A little over seven months previously, Lonzo had been released from prison in the black hills town of Sundance, Wyoming. He had been imprisoned for stealing a horse and some food from a ranch where he had previously been employed. He had been dismissed from the ranch because there had been no more work for him to do, and he had been unable to find suitable work anywhere else. He had been forced to sell his horse for money to survive.
Finally, having no other option, he had sneaked back into the ranch where he had been last employed to steal a horse and some food. But he had been caught by some of the ranch hands and turned over to the law, and was sentenced to eighteen months in prison in the town of Sundance. When his jail sentence had finished, Harry Alonzo Longbaugh came out of prison with a new name: he was now known as the Sundance Kid, a nickname given to him while he was in jail.
After leaving prison, Lonzo – under his new identity of the Sundance Kid – had become friendly with a couple of outlaws, who had involved him in a few gunfights; after one of these they had tried to pin the blame on him and get him arrested, and had deserted him. He had not killed any of his opponents in the shoot-outs, only wounded them, but he had gained a reputation for being fast with a gun – and ever since, he had tried to conceal the fact that he was known as the Sundance Kid from anyone he met. He always gave his name as Lonzo, as he didn’t like having a reputation for his speed with a gun.
Lonzo swung Slater round to face him, and before Slater could open fire with the gun that he still held, or react in any way, rammed his bunched-up fist into the man’s midsection. Slater moaned and crumpled to the floor, barely conscious. His gun slipped from his weakened hand, and Lonzo kicked the weapon across the floor.
Leroy stared intently at the young man who had come to the aid of himself and Emmett, trying to weigh him up. The man was a stranger to them both, and had undoubtedly saved their lives.
Lonzo was tall – he touched the six-foot mark. He was dressed all in black – his pants, shirt and hat. His body was long and lean, but his frame was developing a strong musculature. His facial features, from what Leroy glimpsed of them, were youthful and tanned, but also well defined, and with more than a hint of impressive good looks. In the few seconds that Leroy was able to appraise Lonzo and busily scrutinize him, he sensed the quiet strength and fearlessness of the man – and to his inner delight, he also sensed that Lonzo had the same kind of adventurous spirit that he had.
Leroy started to speak – he was going to thank Lonzo for saving his own and Emmett’s life – but he didn’t get the chance, because, without a glance at anyone, Lonzo quickly turned, and avoiding stepping on the four Cottonwood men, strode across the floor and pushed through the doors, and stepped out into the dusty street.
Leroy felt a little disappointed as he stared after him. He would have liked to have spoken to the strangely reticent young man.
Elias Mangold, who had taken a few steps back from the bar when all the trouble had started, moved back up to the counter. He almost gave way to an amused smile as he glanced down at the scene in front of the bar. Archie Burdett was curled up practically into a ball on the floor; he was making a wailing sound. Seth Roebuck sat on the floor, rubbing his jaw; he looked dazed, and blood trickled through his fingers. Slater lay on his side, groaning and clutching his midsection; while Bill Gooch was lying on his back, out cold.
Mangold was pleased to see the four loud-mouthed intimidators being beaten for a change, and he poured out two fresh whiskies for Leroy and Emmett. The two men drank them up while keeping an eye on the four Cottonwood men.
Leroy’s thoughts, though, were focused on the bold young stranger who had saved the lives of his partner and himself, and he remarked thoughtfully to Emmett, ‘That young man saved our lives – I wonder why he didn’t hang around long enough for us to thank him?’
Mangold, having heard Leroy’s words, said, ‘I wouldn’t worry about not thanking him, you’ll be seeing him again soon enough. . . .’
Leroy shot him a look, and said ‘What do you mean by that? Do you know who he is?’
‘Sure, I know who he is,’ Mangold answered, ‘His name is Lonzo, and he sometimes comes in here for a drink when he picks up supplies in town for his boss. He works at the ranch of a mutual friend of ours, Caleb Baxter – and I think that you two are riding to Caleb’s ranch to work for him again, aren’t you?’
A slow smile spread across Leroy’s face as he nodded to Mangold. It seemed as if he was destined to meet Lonzo again. He wasn’t sure why the thought pleased him so much – but then he frowned, and said in a puzzled tone to Mangold: ‘But why did he rush off like that? Why didn’t he wait for us to ride with him to Caleb’s ranch? He must have heard what Burdett said about me and Emmett being on our way to work for Caleb again. . . !’
‘He heard all right,’ Mangold replied, ‘He don’t miss nothing, but he ain’t the friendly type – he’s a loner and likes to keep to himself. . . .’
Mangold’s words puzzled Leroy even more, and he said, ‘Well, why then did he step in and save me and Emmett?’
Mangold shrugged, ‘Who knows why he does anything? He’s a strange one.’
Emmett suddenly grinned at his partner and said, ‘It looks like you’ll find it hard to work your magic on him.’
Leroy grinned back at him. They both knew that Emmett was referring to the special charm that Robert Leroy Parker possessed – the charm that sometimes compelled even total strangers to suddenly trust him.
The two men said farewell to Mangold and left the saloon, stepping around the Cottonwood ranch hands as they left. They mounted their horses and rode south towards Browns Hole and the ranch of Caleb Baxter.
CHAPTER 3
Leroy and Emmett camped overnight near a steep bank a
nd under the shelter of some trees before continuing their ride to Browns Hole.
Leroy had a restless night. He found himself thinking about the mysterious Lonzo, and wondering if he had camped somewhere nearby. For some reason the man intrigued him a lot, and he wondered if, maybe, it was because he had sensed that they both had the same kind of adventurous spirit. Then, as he lay awake, his thoughts turned to someone else: a young lady named Amy Bassett. Amy was the girl he had promised to marry at only six years of age. She was intelligent and caring, and she had a natural beauty.
Amy’s family had been neighbours of Leroy’s family in Circleville, Utah. He had grown up with her, and had loved her for as long as he could remember, but he had left her, and his parents, brothers and sisters, when he was seventeen years of age because he wanted adventure. He did not want an ordinary, mundane life. Settling down and raising a family, and working at a hard and tedious job for long hours, was not for him.
Early the following morning, and even before the sun had started to appear over the horizon, Leroy and Emmett awoke, and after eating a meal consisting of a few strips of dried meat and some biscuits, they climbed on to their horses and continued riding on the trail that would take them to the mountain-ringed valley of Browns Hole. There were only a few trails through the mountains and steep canyons that led to Browns Hole, and they were difficult to traverse.
The next part of the trail that Leroy and Emmett would follow would take them through mountain passes, across creeks and streams, and then through the Red Creek Badlands before finally entering Red Creek Canyon; from there, the trail sloped steeply downwards into Browns Hole. The lush valley of Browns Hole was located part in the territories of Wyoming and Utah, and part in the state of Colorado. It was over fifty miles long and over fifteen miles wide, and was bordered by hills, canyons and mountains of various colours and vegetation. The Green River flowed through the valley.