My rifle and those behind me went off, and as they did, I saw three more men run to their horses. They mounted, grabbed up their silver-loaded weapons, and chased down the other wolves. They scattered and soon all was quiet, save for the voice of Dick Brewer.
“You have a lot to answer for, asshole.”
He was already swearing, which meant, in short, it was gonna be a long day.
To say Brewer was “merely upset” with our actions that morning would be like saying an avalanche was nothing more than a snowball. The man couldn’t even get a full sentence out without cursing one of us out.
“What the hell were you thinkin’?” Brewer’s voice boomed.
My head was no longer spinning, but taking that many souls at once had me feeling hung over. “Do you need to yell?”
“Yes! Yes, I need to yell! It’s either that or beat the shit out of you...out of you all!” Brewer shouted as he looked from one man to another, finally zeroing in on me. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You’ve kicked the hornet’s nest, Billy. Any kind of sympathy we had on our side for The House killin’ John will go out the door. And with what Axtel did, we needed that advantage.”
“If we’d had any other choice,” MacNab started to say.
“You did!” Dick said. Walking over to the Scotsman he added, “You are not the leader of this group and the sooner your big head can fathom that, the better. There were many ways to handle this and you chose the worst way possible.”
MacNab opened his mouth but something in Brewer’s eyes stopped him.
“What’s even better is you then lead all of them bastards to my home. My fucking home. I should beat the hell out of you for that alone.” Dick turned back to me. “And you, lettin’ the well go dry you almost got yourself and the others killed. You can’t let that happen again. Ever. Do you hear me?”
I heard fear in his voice now and understood part of his reaction stemmed from knowing I almost died. Because of that, I didn’t reply in kind. Instead, I said, “You’re right. I’ll keep a better eye on that.”
“Damn straight you will.” He walked away and hit a wall of the barn, putting a hole in it. Thinking fast on his feet to explain that, he added, “Damn termites.”
Everything was silent as we all waited for him to say something else. But instead, he left the barn and headed to his home without so much as another look at us.
We took that as a sign and headed off to San Pat for the night hoping that by the next day he’d calmed down a bit. Thankfully, he had. Not by a lot, but enough to understand we’d been trying to save McSween from being killed like John had.
“Look, I’m not happy with what y’all did,” he said to start off with. “I understand it wasn’t a planned thing, that you made call, a bad call, but you really had no other option. Problem is, you killed the sheriff, so we gotta get outta here.”
“Where to, Captain?” Middleton asked.
“We need more men. Let’s go see if the Coes are ready to join us.”
With all in agreement, we hit George Coe’s place first.
Entering his home, I yelled out, “Come across, George, and pay me that five cents you bet me. I’ve won it!”
George came out from his room. “So I heard.” Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out a five-cent piece and handed it to me. “Here you go.”
“Thank you, good sir,” I said, stuffing it in my pocket. “Now pack up your stuff and come with us.”
“Where ya headed?”
Dick walked in. “Spring term of court is comin’ up, which means Judge Bristol is on his way to town. We were thinkin’ that we might run into him on his journey, see if we could have a chat. But on the way, we was thinkin’ of payin’ a visit to George Davis.”
“Isn’t he the outlaw who’s been stealin’ our horses?”
“One and the same,” Dick said. “Heard rumor he’s gonna be on the Tularosa side of Rinconada for a rendezvous.”
“Thought we might blot him off the map,” I said.
Dick sighed. “Not if we can encourage him to move on to another part of town.”
“Or that,” I said, pointing at Brewer.
“Well, I’m in,” George said. “Frank?”
George’s cousin nodded. “Same.”
“What about Ab?” I asked.
Ab Saunders came into the main room. A slight young man with a pleasant face and demeanor. “I’m stayin’ out this time ‘round. Besides, we gotta leave someone here to tend to the farm, don’t we?”
“Smart thinkin’,” Dick said. Turning to the Coes, he said, “Get a war bag packed, both of ya, and let’s get movin’.”
The Coes nodded and headed off to prep for our new mission.
25
Brave As A Lion
We started out on our new mission, and because we were passing by the old Dowlin Mill on the way, we stopped to pick up supplies at his store and eat something. That’s when he informed us that there was a one-hundred-dollar reward for each head of the Regulators, dead or alive. George was a hair startled to hear this, but I was a bit offended.
“Only a hundred? That’s just shameful,” I said.
“You rather it be higher so more would try and kill you?” Frank asked.
I thought on that. “Well, when you put it that way...”
Dick laughed. “Billy likes to speak and act before he thinks.”
“Better than not actin’ at all if you ask me,” I retorted.
“I concur,” Charlie agreed.
I grinned but could feel Brewer was still mad about Brady, so I shut my mouth, and we mounted back up.
We rode through to Rinconada on Wednesday the third, where we camped for the night, eating good on a steer we butchered earlier that evening. I thought we would lose our kill to the Apaches who were nearby watching us, but they didn’t speak to us. Either we got lucky or they had a Supernatural Tracker with them. Word was, one of those could smell a werewolf a mile away and they likely smelled Brewer and thought we had one tailing us, so they stayed far away.
“Billy cooked, so y’all boys can clean it up and fetch more wood for the fire,” Brewer told them. “If ya aren’t doin’ that, help the Coes with settlin’ the horses in for the night.”
The group quickly began to do as he asked, leaving me alone with Dick. This was obviously his objective, since the minute we were alone, he spoke to me without a snide tone under it for the first time in days.
“Did you get the black water?”
“Oh, now you want to know.”
Dick glared at me. “Did you or didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I did.” I went and grabbed the sack from my saddle and handed it to him.
He looked inside. “Two? Wow, I guess you did do somethin’ worth a damn while I was gone. Here, keep one just in case.”
“Sure,” I said, taking the sack back from him. When he said nothing, my anger became sarcastic rage. “Thanks, Billy, I know you put your life on the line to get that for me. Oh, you’re welcome, Dick. It was no problem at all. Not like I got paralyzed doin’ it and was lucky enough to figure out how to stop the poison before I was useless. But sure...you go on and just keep being a prick about Monday mornin’.”
Mad as hell, I threw the sack toward my things and headed back to the fire, being sure to hit him with my shoulder as I went past. This knocked him off balance, which surprised him and me, but I said nothing and went back to stoking the fire.
It was quiet, the only sound the crickets and other animals coming out for their nightly prowl, as I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Tossing the match into the flames, I decided to use my elevated sight to help find more wood and walked off.
“Billy, wait,” Dick said.
I stopped but didn’t turn toward him.
“I’m sorry,” Dick said, his voice quiet as a mouse behind me.
Too mad to reply, I just stood there smoking my cigarette, wishing my feet would take me out to hunt for wood, but they seemed rooted to the spot.
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“Thank you for this,” Dick added. “I’m sure it’ll help me stay human during the day when the moon’s up.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, my jaw clenched.
“Billy, I’m allowed to be mad that you killed Brady.”
I turned on him. “Did I say you couldn’t be mad? I did not! But you weren’t there! We had to make a decision, and I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but it’s done, and we saved two men’s lives and took out a pivotal component in Scáthach’s army.”
Brewer sighed. “I know. It’s just...it makes us look bad. Public opinion matters, and I’d bet we just lost a lot of credibility due to your stunt. Not to mention Jim’s side is hurtin’ him bad. I’m sendin’ him back to Fort Stanton to be seen.”
“Soul well was empty, and I was worse off. I had no choice but to let him leave injured. It’s been eatin’ me up inside.” I inhaled on my cigarette in the silence that followed.
“Ya can’t save everyone.”
Blowing out the smoke, I laughed as I turned around to face him. “First you say I shoulda not left him injured, and now I can’t save everyone? Which is it, Dick? ‘Cause I’d like to know.”
Brewer sighed, and his head dropped backward. Looking up at the stars, he said, “You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just...it’s the new moon and I’m all messed up. I know you did what ya had to. That you coulda died savin’ McSween...that you almost died gettin’ me the black water. I’m grateful. I really am.”
After a moment, I said, “Don’t thank me yet. Wait and see if it helps.”
He laughed lightly. “Good point...but thanks anyways.”
“Men are comin’ back, I can hear ‘em,” I said. “Are we good?”
He lowered his head to look at me. “Yeah. We’re good. I’m gonna go put this with my things.” He got a few feet away from me and added, “Ya know killin’ Brady is gonna come back to bite you in the ass, right?”
I inhaled on the cigarette, slowly exhaling the smoke with a sigh, and said with utmost sincerity, “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”
With a nod, Dick left as the men returned with wood, and I headed to check on Colonel.
Sitting around the large bonfire drinking coffee spiked with a touch of whiskey, the fifteen of us also began to pass the bottle around for a little extra swig here and there. The men swapped stories, bragging about how they were going to wipe out the little bunch on the other side of the mountains. Then they talked about riding into Lincoln and settling in short order all the difficulties that were troubling the people there.
They sounded like a brave band of heroes to hear them tell it, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Most of these men were an inexperienced bunch of greenhorns, and as I looked around the campsite, the proof of this was staring me in the face; guns lay all over the campsite, carelessly left here and there near trees and out of arms’ reach. I sat near Dick and whispered this under my breath.
“What do you want to do?” he whispered so quietly that no one but me could hear him.
I told him my plan.
He grinned and gave a nod.
As they told story after story, I found a chance to slip five or six lead cartridges out of my belt and toss them into the fire. I sat and waited as they continued to chat, wondering what they would do. After about a minute, I found out.
The cartridges started to explode in the fire, going off one by one. Lo and behold, all the men, except Dick and I, made a mad dash for the tall timber faster than anything I’d ever seen, taking nothing with them. Dick stepped aside to let me take the fall for this prank, which was fine by me. I stood by the fire, arms folded, and unconcerned.
Slowly they returned to the fire like whipped curs, and I said, “You’re a damn fine bunch of soldiers, aren’t ya? Runnin’ like a bunch of coyotes and forgettin’ to take your guns.”
“Damn you, Billy!” someone shouted.
“I just want to break you in a little before we met the enemy, and, boys, I’m sure proud of your nerve.” I smiled and laughed. “You should’ve seen your faces!”
For a moment, they seemed to stand there, embarrassed and upset. But they soon swallowed their medicine and laughed along with me.
March, 1949
Leaving my car parked a short distance from the entrance, I walked past a man smoking a cigarette and into Bobby’s Bar and Grill to find it was more bar than grill. The primary seating was at the bar, with a few tables scattered about that didn’t seat more than two each. Most folks stood, beer in hand, talking with their friends as I made my way through the crowd to the back. Here I noted that the building took a sharp turn to the right, and the short part of the L-shaped building held a pool table. Currently, it was in use, coins lined up on the side for those waiting their turn to play the winner.
The green of the pool table was a bit worse for wear, as were the bar’s walls, floor, and stools, but no one seemed to mind. I ordered a whiskey on the rocks and knowing how Fletcher loved to play pool, I requested my change be in coins. Laying down enough to hold my spot in line, I sat down at the back of the bar to keep an eye on both rooms. If Fletcher had met someone who gave him info, it would’ve been at this pool table or the bar.
Drinking my whiskey, thinking about my upcoming trip, my mind drifted back to April third, the last night the Regulators were all together. It was a fun evening of drinking whiskey by the fire as George Coe told us a story about Brewer and his trip to where I’d soon be heading, Las Cruces.
April, 1878
Were you in on this prank, Dick?” Charlie asked.
Brewer just grinned.
“Of course he was,” George said. “If he hadn’t been, he’d have had his gun out and shooting. Have you all not heard of Richard M. Brewer’s resolve?”
“George, don’t start,” Dick said, looking embarrassed, which was a new thing to see.
“Oh, do start, George,” I said. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“That’s right, this was before you got to Lincoln, Billy. I must say this here is my favorite Brewer story ever.”
“Must you, George?” Dick pleaded.
“Oh, I must tell how you stuck it to The Boys and the Caseys in the same month. Come now, this is a fun story!”
Dick sighed. “I’m goin’ to bed then.” He stood, his tall frame lit by the fire, and added, “Don’t believe all he tells you.”
Brewer headed to his bedroll, the one farthest from the fire, saying he could keep an eye on us all better from there, but I knew it was because he just ran hotter than the rest of us now.
As he bunked down, everyone else fetched their guns and kept them handy as they sat back down by the fire for the story.
George took a sip of whiskey and began. “As many of you know, Tunstall was travelin’ this summer to purchase items for the store. On his way home, he contracted smallpox and was laid up in Las Vegas. Well, Dick bein’ foreman an’ all, that left him in charge when The Boys stole John’s horses. So, what does Dick do? He gets Charlie and Doc, and they chase ‘em down.”
Charlie picked up the tale. “We ride through the Tularosa valley, skirtin’ ‘round the White Sands area, and head on to Shedd’s ranch.”
“Why there?” I asked, pretending I had no idea what was out there.
“Everyone, well not everyone if you don’t know,” Doc said, “but most everyone knows that’s the clearin’ house for stolen stock. It’s located on the eastern slope of the San Agustin pass.”
“So, we get there,” Charlie says, “and I’ll be damned if the animals weren’t right there in plain sight! Obviously, Dick goes to talk to the seven Boys that are there at the time. Has a long parley with them and finally they tell him, ‘Well, we’ll give you back your horses and keep the balance to pay our expenses in the matter.’”
“And what does Dick say?” Doc said, laughing. “He said somethin’ that could only come out of his mouth, ‘If you can’t give me the Englishman’s, you can keep them all and go to hell.’”
“Brave
as a lion, that man!” George said with pride and a chuckle.
“Agreed!” Doc replied. “Of course, he doesn’t stop there. He then goes on to Las Cruces and tries to round up men to assist him to go back and take The Boys on. Thing is, everyone in that town is either friends of The Boys or members. After three days he had nothin’. Even the sheriff there was crooked, and he tells Dick that there’s nothin’ he can do since the actual theft didn’t happen in his jurisdiction.”
“Of course he did!” I said with a laugh. “If that was the case, what did y’all do?”
“We went back to Lincoln to tell McSween. Thankfully, he’d heard that The Boys were down at Seven Rivers. He went to Sheriff Brady and demanded that he appoint Brewer a deputy sheriff, raise a posse, and go after ‘em. He even offered to supply the arms and provisions from the store.”
I took the bottle passed to me. “Let me guess, Brady still said no.”
“At first,” Doc said, “but eventually he agreed. So, on the twelfth of October, fifteen men thundered down the valley toward the Pecos and Seven Rivers.”
“Oh, remember how when we hit Peñasco, Brady wanted to turn back?” Charlie said. “Guess what does Dick does! He says he’s pushin’ on and asks what men will follow him.”
“Hell, Dick woulda gone on alone if no one had agreed to go,” Doc said.
“Truth!” Charlie shouted, pointing at Doc. “But all of ‘em wanted to follow Dick. So we rode all night, and in the gray dawn, we surrounded the place. It was one of those houses built over a hole so that when you’re inside, half of the room is underground while half is above ground.
“We yelled out that they were surrounded and should surrender. They started firin’ at us, and we returned it. A lot of shots were fired that day. Hell, three shots were within four or five inches of Dick but missed.”
Doc hummed in agreement. “Later on, Jessie admitted that he had taken those three shots and had no idea how he missed, seein’ as he had good square shots at him, and he’d saved those for him alone.”
The Curse of Billy the Kid: Untold Legends Volume One Page 28