Outlaw Legend Begins

by Saran Essex

  For a moment, Leroy thought that Lonzo was going to ignore his question and just walk away, but he did not – instead he looked at Leroy and said curtly, ‘Why is that of any interest to you, Parker?’ His voice was low, yet strong and confident at the same time, and clear enough for Leroy to detect the hint of an eastern accent.

  ‘We’ll be working together,’ Leroy replied with a friendly smile, trying to ignore Lonzo’s curtness, ‘And me and Emmett will be sharing the bunkhouse with you and Marvin, so I’d like to call you by your first name – it’s more friendly that way, don’t you think?’

  At that moment Emmett stepped out of the bunkhouse looking for his partner, and as he started to walk towards Leroy and Lonzo, he heard the rest of their conversation. Lonzo said coldly to Leroy, ‘Like you said, we’ll be working together, and as far as I’m concerned, we’re here to work, not to become friends.’

  Leroy grinned, and burst out: ‘By jingo! You believe in plain speaking, don’t you?’

  Lonzo seemed on the point of saying something else, but instead he glanced towards Emmett who was walking up to them, and then strode away in the direction of one of the stables. Emmett said to Leroy with a grin as he reached him, ‘It don’t look like your charm is working on him yet!’

  Leroy smiled, and said ‘Give it time!’ – and he meant it.

  Emmett laughed, and the two friends began to walk back to the bunkhouse together. They chatted merrily as they walked.

  They failed to see Lonzo halt in his purposeful stride towards the stable to glance back at them, and they did not see the brief touch of warmth that flashed in his usually impassive eyes.

  CHAPTER 4

  Caleb Baxter owned a lot of land and several hundred head of cattle. He had line cabins spaced out across his range land for the ranch hands to live in while they were looking after the cattle.

  The next few days were busy ones for Leroy and Emmett. They spent most of the time in the saddle, and their jobs included moving the cattle on to better grazing land, helping them out of mud holes when they got stuck, and keeping a lookout for predators, mainly cougars and bears, to prevent them from coming too close to the cattle.

  They were usually too exhausted at night to do anything but rest, and even though he shared their bunkhouse, they saw little of Lonzo. He was awake and out with Kilbey, riding a different range to them, before they woke up. He did eat with them sometimes in the evenings, but following that, he would always go off somewhere on his own. Leroy often tried to engage him in conversation, but all he got out of him were a few gruff remarks.

  Leroy and Emmett had been working on the ranch for about a month, when, on one particularly warm evening after they had eaten a late dinner, Leroy found it too warm to sit in the bunkhouse, and he took a walk to Caleb’s library room. Lonzo had gone off on his own as usual, and Kilbey and Emmett were playing cards while taking a swig of whiskey from a bottle that Kilbey kept hidden.

  Leroy had always loved reading, but he had not had the chance to visit Caleb’s library until now. The library room had a separate outside door that could be used by anyone on the ranch who wanted to go in to read, so Leroy did not have to walk through the ranch house to gain entrance to it. It had just one small window, and otherwise the walls were lined with shelves for the large number of books that Caleb had bought or acquired. These were by various authors such as Jules Verne, Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.

  The room was lit by two large oil lamps that hung down from the ceiling, and there were a couple of tables and chairs in the centre – and to Leroy’s surprise, sitting at one of the tables and apparently absorbed in reading a book, was Lonzo. Leroy’s mind flashed back for a second to the saloon in Green River and the first time that he had set eyes on Lonzo. The young man had been sitting at a table in the saloon reading a book, and he seemed to be reading the same small, leather-bound book now (this was not one of Caleb’s books, but his own). Lonzo glanced up at Leroy with no expression on his face.

  ‘So,’ Leroy said with his most charming smile, ‘This is where you disappear to most evenings! I was beginning to think that you had a young lady hidden somewhere. . . !’

  Lonzo said nothing. He dropped his eyes back down to the pages of his book.

  ‘What are you reading?’ Leroy asked, still smiling. He stepped up closer to Lonzo, and tried to see what the title of the book was.

  ‘I came here to read, not to talk,’ Lonzo muttered without lifting his eyes from his book. Leroy again thought he heard the trace of an eastern twang in Lonzo’s voice, and he also caught a glimpse of the title on the book cover. It was a Jules Verne novel entitled From the Earth to the Moon.

  ‘I like Jules Verne too,’ Leroy said cheerily.

  Lonzo looked up at him again with annoyance showing in his eyes, and Leroy began to feel worried that he might just get up and walk out, so he quickly moved away from him and grabbed a book off the shelf to read. He sat down at the other table in the room and commenced reading. Lonzo looked back down at his book, but not before a faint smile had touched his face.

  Leroy had not noticed Lonzo’s smile, nor did he know that he had already impressed the young man from Pennsylvania, in much the same way that he had been equally impressed and intrigued by Lonzo.

  After that night, there would be many more evenings that Leroy and Lonzo spent together reading in the library room. There wasn’t much conversation between the pair, but at least Lonzo appeared to accept Leroy’s presence in the room.

  Two weeks later, and towards the end of a very warm afternoon, Leroy and Emmett rode into the ranch yard and dismounted near to one of the corrals. They had been busy out on the range since dawn, and were feeling weary – they could feel their bones aching with tiredness as they tended to their horses and let them loose in the corral. Carrying their saddles, they walked towards the bunkhouse; they felt in need of some rest and possibly sleep – but their attention was unexpectedly drawn to something else.

  They heard shouts, and a few feet to the left of the bunkhouse they saw a group of five men standing in an untidy sort of circle watching something. Deke Hogan was one of the men in the circle. Feeling curious, and temporarily forgetting their weariness, Leroy and Emmett walked up to join the disorderly circle of men to see what was going on.

  A wrestling match of sorts was taking place, and the two men wrestling each other were Marvin Kilbey and Lonzo.

  When they had some free time, the ranch hands liked to amuse themselves by taking part in a few friendly sports, and wrestling was one of these. Leroy sighed, and remarked to Emmett that Lonzo might not want to make friends with anyone, but he apparently didn’t mind taking part in a friendly wrestling match with other ranch workers.

  Emmett smiled and said, ‘Perhaps he likes a challenge.’

  The ranch hands usually made up their own rules for all their sports contests, and the rules for this wrestling match were, that once one of the contestants had been thrown or forced to the ground in some way by his opponent, then the match was over.

  Lonzo’s youthful face was set in determination. Although the contest was a friendly one, he wanted to win: losing was out of the question for Harry Alonzo Longbaugh, alias the Sundance Kid. When growing up along the canals in Pennsylvania, he had quickly learned how to wrestle and fight with the local bullies. He hadn’t always won the fights, but he had never liked the taste of losing, and had grown up into a proud, stubborn and fearless young man who loved challenges and adventure.

  As Leroy, Emmett and the other men in the circle stood watching, the contest between Lonzo and Kilbey did not last for much longer. The two men were gripping each other by the upper arms, and kicking out with their legs in an attempt to trip each other up. This went on for about a minute, and then a faint smile seemed suddenly to touch Lonzo’s face – a smile that Leroy noticed – and in one incredibly fast movement, he pulled down on Kilbey’s right arm, pushed hard on his left shoulder, and swept his foot round his ankles, hooking the ranch-hand’s rig
ht leg and sending him off balance. Lonzo then pulled down harder on his opponent’s right arm – and Marvin Kilbey fell to the ground.

  At the same instant that Kilbey hit the ground, Lonzo’s eyes focused for a second on Leroy and Emmett – but he did not acknowledge them, and then his eyes turned swiftly away as though he had not seen them.

  Leroy felt a deep inward flush of irritation at Lonzo’s rather insulting behaviour towards himself and Emmett, but after watching him in action in the wrestling contest with Kilbey, and witnessing his faint smile, he also felt that he knew a lot more about his character. He realized that not only was Lonzo a man who hated to let anything beat him, but that Emmett was right when he had said that Lonzo also loved a challenge.

  Lonzo went on to win the next two wrestling contests against ranch hands who stepped out of the circle to challenge him. Only two young ranch workers were left in the group of onlookers who wanted to challenge him, but before either of them could do so, Deke Hogan took a step forwards to face Lonzo and said firmly, ‘I’m next’ – and the friendly mood of the contest straightaway changed.

  Tension suddenly hung in the air. The wrestling contest was only meant to be between the young ranch hands, and Hogan was only supposed to be there as an interested spectator. But he was watching in the hope of seeing Lonzo lose: he was still angry with him over the episode with the mustang – he felt that the young man had shamed him in front of his boss – but now, Lonzo had not yet lost a contest, and it seemed unlikely that he would, and Hogan wanted to change that.

  There was a smirk on Hogan’s face as he stood in front of Lonzo, and the habitual, menacing gleam in his eyes appeared to be more prominent. His mighty frame seemed to dwarf the young Lonzo. There was no trace of fear in Lonzo’s impassive grey-blue eyes as he gave a casual nod to his challenger. He would not back down: Hogan knew it, and Leroy and Emmett knew it.

  Concern suddenly sprang into Leroy’s eyes, and Emmett was not surprised when his partner abruptly dropped the saddle that he had been holding and rushed forwards to say to Hogan in a light but firm tone, ‘This is hardly fair, Deke, Lonzo is just a boy compared to you, pick on someone your own size!’

  Leroy knew that Hogan was trying to punish Lonzo because of what had happened with the mustang. He also knew that Lonzo would not thank him for interfering.

  Hogan turned angrily on Leroy, ‘Shut your mouth, Parker,’ he snarled, ‘or I’ll wrestle you instead!’

  Hogan had moved up close to Leroy and was looking down on him as though daring him to wrestle with him. Emmett frowned anxiously, but before Leroy could respond to what Hogan had said, Lonzo darted forwards and shoved him back out of the way.

  ‘Stay out of this, Parker!’ Lonzo snapped. ‘No one asked you to interfere, this is between Hogan and me!’

  Leroy reluctantly stayed back, and as he looked at Emmett, there was no mistaking the worry in his eyes.

  Emmett felt puzzled at Lonzo’s reason for shoving Leroy back. Was Lonzo concerned about Hogan’s threat to wrestle Leroy, and Leroy getting hurt? Or was he worried that it would look as if he were backing down to Hogan by letting Leroy wrestle the man in his place? Emmett concluded it was the latter, that Lonzo did not want it to look as if he were backing down to Hogan – but in fact he was right on both counts.

  Lonzo pushed Leroy back out of the way partly because his pride and stubbornness would never allow him to let anyone else wrestle Hogan in his place, and partly because (if he allowed himself to admit it) he was indeed concerned that Leroy would be hurt.

  Hogan and Lonzo began their grappling, and Hogan quickly had a tight grip on Lonzo. He had hold of the young man by the thighs and was trying to lift him off his feet, and once he had Lonzo off his feet, he would then throw him to the ground.

  Lonzo pushed down on Hogan’s arms in a desperate effort to keep his feet on the ground. But Hogan squeezed on Lonzo’s thighs more and more tightly as he tried to lift him – and he was grinning, as though he was confident he was going to win the contest easily.

  Lonzo kept pushing back on Hogan’s arms, and tried to kick out at him. Sweat trickled down his face. He was in pain, and only his determination was keeping him on his feet. Leroy wanted to run forwards to try and stop the contest, but he stayed where he was, as he didn’t want to cause any more upset to Lonzo’s fierce pride.

  The minutes passed by, and Lonzo could not break Hogan’s strong grip on his thighs, and his feet were beginning to slide. Hogan knew this, and his grin widened as he finally succeeded in lifting Lonzo a few inches off the ground. But somehow, either by sheer willpower or brute force, Lonzo pressed strongly down on Hogan’s arms and regained his footing, but very shakily.

  Hogan howled in rage, and forcefully flung Lonzo to one side. Inevitably Lonzo lost his footing and began to fall – but as he fell, he grabbed hold of Hogan’s arm and pulled down hard on it with surprising and remarkable strength, and his unexpected action caused Hogan to lose his balance and fall forwards on to his face in the dust.

  Leroy smiled at Emmett, and there was both relief and admiration in his smile. Marvin Kilbey and the other four ranch hands who were watching also had huge smiles on their faces. Hogan was not liked by any of the workers on Baxter’s ranch as he intimidated them all too much.

  Hogan raised his head up out of the dirt, and angrily saw the smiles of the men looking down on him – then he looked across at Lonzo, who was lying on his back just to the side of him.

  Lonzo lay unmoving, but his eyes were open. The back of his head had struck the ground hard when he fell, and he felt a little faint. His thighs were throbbing with pain from Hogan’s punishing hold, and for a second or two he had to lie still.

  A sudden, murderous fury flared up inside Hogan as he looked at Lonzo. The young ranch hand had shamed him again. His fist closed around a large rock on the ground near to him, and with an angry roar he got to his knees and lunged at the motionless Lonzo with the rock – but before he could smash it down on Lonzo’s head, his hand was grabbed from behind in a grip of steel by Leroy Parker.

  Leroy’s usually pleasant kingfisher-blue eyes were like ice. His voice was quite cold as he said to Hogan, ‘Don’t do it, Deke, this is supposed to be a friendly wrestling contest between the young ranch hands, and you wouldn’t want to kill someone in a friendly contest that you weren’t supposed to be taking part in, would you?’

  Hogan’s murderous fury was still raging through him, and his face was crimson with rage as he twisted his head to stare furiously into Leroy’s face.

  ‘I’m gonna kill you, Parker!’ he growled out, and went to pull his hand free of Leroy’s grip and leap to his feet to grab hold of him – but as he did so he caught sight of Caleb Baxter in the distance staring curiously at them all, then starting to walk over to them.

  Cursing, Hogan made an effort to control the intensity of his raging anger, and with Leroy still gripping his hand, he opened his fingers and let the rock fall harmlessly to the ground. Leroy let go of his hand, and Hogan stood up. The ranch foreman said angrily through clenched teeth to Leroy, ‘You’d better stop pushing your luck, Parker – being a favourite of Baxter’s won’t always save you!’

  Hogan then roughly pushed past Leroy and the on-looking ranch hands, and strode off to meet Caleb halfway as his boss walked towards the group. He took Caleb’s arm, and carefully steered him away from Leroy and the other ranch hands, saying jovially, ‘Me and the boys were just taking part in a bit of friendly wrestling. . . .’

  Leroy and Emmett went over to Lonzo, and Kilbey and the other ranch hands followed after Hogan and Caleb.

  Leroy reached down to help Lonzo to his feet, but Lonzo brushed aside his help, and struggled awkwardly and painfully to his feet himself. He stood a little shakily, and rubbed the back of his head, which was grazed and bleeding.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Leroy asked.

  Lonzo was not in a grateful mood. He looked at Leroy with angry eyes, and said sharply, ‘You didn’t have to interfere, Par
ker, I don’t need your help or anyone else’s!’

  Leroy grinned genially, ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘You do definitely believe in plain speaking – but I owed you that!’

  ‘You owed me nothing!’ Lonzo kept his sharp tone, ‘Just stay out of my business in future, I don’t want any more help from you, and don’t expect any thanks!’

  Leroy shrugged, ‘Well, don’t think of it as help, just think of it as a kind of favour from me to you.’

  ‘To hell with you and your favours!’ Lonzo snapped, and began to walk rather unsteadily away and towards the bunkhouse.

  Emmett said to Leroy with a slight grin, ‘I don’t think your charm has won him over yet!’

  Leroy felt a sudden feeling of exasperation at Lonzo’s attitude as he looked at Emmett, and he said almost angrily ‘That Lonzo has to be the most unfriendly, stubborn and arrogant man I have ever met!’

  To Leroy’s surprise, Emmett laughed and said, ‘But that doesn’t stop you from liking him!’

  For a moment, Leroy just stared at Emmett in astonishment, ‘Like hell I do!’ he finally burst out.

  Emmett only laughed again. He knew that although his partner hotly denied it, Leroy felt an unexplainable liking for Lonzo.

  As Leroy stood staring at him, Emmett picked up Leroy’s saddle from where he had dropped it. He handed it to his partner, saying, ‘We’ve been up since dawn and we’re tired, so let’s take these saddles into the bunkhouse, and get something to eat before we get some sleep . . .’ and then he grinned, and added, ‘That’s if you don’t mind being in the same place as Lonzo!’

  CHAPTER 5

  Over a week had passed since the wrestling contest, and Leroy and Emmett were out riding over the northern range of Caleb’s ranch land. Grassy pastures, scrubland and low hills interspersed the northern range. A fiery sun blazed down on them, and both men were feeling the heat. After herding a bunch of cattle on to better grazing land, Leroy and Emmett dismounted and sat down amongst some rocks at the base of a low hill, known as Creek Hill by Caleb Baxter and his ranch hands.