Bloodline of a Kane (Kane Family Saga)

by Bobby Dennis

  “Well you sure found out.” replied Vine laughing. “That I did.” replied Cyrus.

  The sounds of laughter and the tinkling of the piano

  came to a sudden halt. Every eye in the place turned to the door. Raven, Eagle, Hawk, Falcon, Cougar and Wolf had stepped thru the bat winged doors and fanned out. Raven approached the table where Willis and the others sat and Vine jumped up and shouted.

  “Niggers carrying guns in the city has been outlawed for your kind, so I suggest you unlatch the gun belt and let the pistols hit the floor!”

  Raven looked in the man eyes and laughed. “I didn’t know dead men could talk.”

  “We’ll just see who’s the dead man here.” said Vine his hands streaking to the guns on his hips. His two guns were just clearing leather when four rapid shots sounded.

  Raven’s hands had shot to his guns with lightening like quickness when Vine made his move. Raven’s hands moved so quick, they looked like a blur. No sooner than the barrels came clear of the holsters did they belch fire and smoke. The four rounds crashed into the star pinned over Vine’s heart and knocked him backward. He was dead on his feet, as his two pistols discharged their rounds into his thighs. Blood spouted from his mouth as he crashed to the floor.

  “NOOOO,” Lester shouted from the table he was sitting at with a black whore in his lap. He rose to his feet dumping the whore to the floor and reaching for his gun. He never made it as a round from Falcon’s rifle struck him in the bridge of his nose and exploded from the back of his head in a shower of blood and gore.

  Hawk, Eagle, Wolf and Cougar fired their rifles into the throng of men sitting and standing in the big room. They used withering fire to kill as many men as they could. There was little return fire as Raven and Falcon joined the fray.

  Clem and Axel were gunned down at the bar where they stood, neither touching the guns holstered at their waist. For the whores who had witnessed this same type of thing months ago it was like déjà vu and they hit the floor looking for cover.

  In a matter of minutes the floor of the saloon was covered with rivers of blood and floating saw dust. Willis and Cyrus were beneath their table screaming, for neither had witnessed such carnage. After the gunfire all that could be heard was the moaning of the dying and the prayers of those who had survived the deadly fusillade.

  Raven emptied the cartridges from his pistols, then quickly reloaded. His brothers did the same, as he walked to the table that Willis cowered beneath. He kicked the table over and Willis looked up at him with pleading eyes, then said.

  “There’s $50,000.00 dollars in gold in the back room. It’s yours if you let me live.”

  “Now wait a minute there, that gold’s not yours to give away!” shouted Cyrus.

  Raven looked over at Cyrus, raised one of his pistols and shot Cyrus in the face. Cyrus’s head snapped back, as the big slug drilled thru and exited in a shower of blood and brain. Raven holstered his left hand gun then grabbed Willis by the collar and drug him to the back office. Willis opened the safe and gave Raven a strong box. Raven looked in the safe and saw bundles of paper money and stacks of gold. He looked around the office and spotted a pair of saddle bags. He made Willis load them with the gold in the safe, then what paper would fit. He put the saddle bags over his shoulder and the strong box under his arm, then led Willis back to the saloon proper.

  There were several men who were not wounded seriously and some not wounded at all. They were crowded at the back of the saloon unarmed and held at gun point.

  Raven looked to where the whores all stood, then said. “Get what money you find from the dead men, then get out.”

  “What about them?” Cougar asked pointing his weapon at the group of men standing in the corner.

  “Fuck them.” Raven replied.

  Cougar, Wolf and Hawk opened fire on the men and gunned them down.

  “Get a rope!” Raven said to Eagle.

  Falcon walked over and butt stroked Willis in the face with his rifle. Willis crumpled to the floor and Falcon reached down and drug him outside.

  The whores had got all the money and valuables from the dead, then moved to the corner where the others had just been shot. They went thru their pockets, then left the saloon. All of the men weren’t dead, but most were.

  Raven and the others grabbed lanterns and set the place on fire, then walked outside where Eagle and Falcon held Willis with a noose around his neck. They walked him to a tree that stood in the middle of town. Raven threw the rope around a low lying limb, then pulled it until Willis was on the tip of his toes and tied it off.

  “Your death will not be sudden.” said Raven as he moved to bind Willis’s hands behind his back. As long as Willis stayed on his toes he would live, but should he leave them he would strangle.

  Raven looked at his brothers, then said. “Not a building will be left standing!”

  The six men got torches, mounted their horses and systematically set every building and house on fire. Those occupied by Indians and Blacks were left alone.

  When the town was blazing they rode back to the tree where Willis stood red faced, sweating in the flickering light on the tips of his toes. The men sat on their horses and watched as the man’s legs trembled, then finally his heels hit the ground. He started strangling and raised back up on his toes, stood there for a moment then dropped back to his heels. This time he didn’t raise back up on his toes. His body thrashed, his eyes bulged, then he pissed in his pants. There was the sound of a loud fart, then he voided his bowels and went still. The men sat there for a few minutes, then Raven wheeled his horse and they rode off into the fire illuminated night.

  * CHAPTER # 9 *

  Raven and the remaining members of the Bird Clan set off north the next day. They encountered a few bandits and cattle rustlers, but they easily dispatched them. Three months after they had set off, they came to a small town that was started by black union troops after the Civil War. The town was called LaVilla, and it sat on the outskirts of a bigger town called Cowford. It would in the future be given the name of a Confederate General, Andrew Jackson.

  Jacksonville would become the biggest city in the U.S, land wise, in the future. The Bird Clan settled around LaVilla and soon became upstanding citizens.

  Raven’s second son was named Ransom, by his father. The other wives all bore children and it seemed the clan would flourish. By the turn of the century, Raven was forty years old and Dove had bore him several more children both sons and daughters. Crow had been killed in a gunfight ten days after his twentieth birthday. Ransom at twenty four was the spitting image of his father and had married a beautiful woman named Emma Jean who had given birth to two sons; Marcellus and Brooks.

  The Kanes prospered in LaVilla. Ransom fought in France during World War I, and was highly decorated when he came back from the war. In 1920 he got involved in the underworld. Raven at sixty was still a robust man. Dove had died a few years earlier, and he had taken up with a young woman named Celia Mace. She was thirty years old and was the daughter of the biggest bootlegger in town.

  Brandford Mace was a big light skinned man, who was the product of a slave woman and her master. He was sixty five years old, and had five sons and one daughter that he doted on. He didn’t like the idea that Celia had moved in with Raven, but he couldn’t do a thing about it. Raven was a powerful man and had a large family.

  Raven’s two youngest sons, Turk and Prince were terrors and Ransom was even worse. Crow had been the meanest of Raven’s sons and the man who had shot him in the back faced the wrath of the whole clan. He was killed by Falcon’s son Lao Tzu Kane, who hunted the man down. The Kanes then hunted the male members of the man’s family down and killed them all.

  Brandford Mace, was called Mace by all of his friends and enemies. His sons were, Brandford jr. called Ford, Louis called Lefty, Drake, Vernon and Preston. Their mother was a big light skinned woman named Lola. The Maces had the bootlegging locked down.

  If Mace had had his way he would
have killed Raven, but it was too much trouble and he didn’t want to go thru it if he didn’t have to.

  Ransom came home to his family and started up his own business, he stopped in to see his father and brothers. They sat in the parlor of Raven’s big house, and he told his father his plans.

  “Pa, I’m thinking we should get in on the bootlegging.” said Ransom.

  Raven looked at him, then said. “You know that could cause us some problems.”

  “I’ve got a plan Pa.” said Ransom.

  “Does this plan move us in competition with Mace and his boys?” asked Raven.

  “No it doesn’t. My plan is to sell to the blacks in Cowford which Mace doesn’t do. They have to come here to get their liquor.” said Ransom.

  “That’s not a bad idea son, but I heard the bootleg business over there is ran by a group of crackers named the Bellamys.” said Raven.

  “I know that, but I still think we should do it.” said Ransom.

  “Let me get with the others and see how they feel about it first.” said Raven.

  “I don’t think we should let them crackers sell that rot gut to our folks, Pa.” said Ransom.

  “He’s got a point Pa.” said Turk who was twenty two years old.

  All of the men and women had married and had children, and the family grew. Wolf and Swallow’s son Timothy, could have passed for Raven’s boy and he was proud of the fact that he resembled his uncle.

  Raven looked at his sons, then said. “I wish you boys could have known your grand parents, they would be proud of you. I can’t see why we should prolong this. I want you to go get your uncles and cousins and let’s sit down and see how we can do this.”

  After his sons left, Celia came into the parlor and sat in his lap. “Raven I got some news for you.”

  “What’s that woman?” he asked gruffly.

  “I’m pregnant.” she answered.

  Raven laughed then said, “You sure it’s mine, I’m an old man.”

  She slapped playfully at him, then said. “If it ain’t, then the good Lord done did another miracle.”

  “So I guess we got to go and get married like we white folk now, huh?” asked Raven.

  “Honey I’m alright with the way things are, but it would be nice to get married in a church like other folk do.” she said wistfully.

  “Woman if that’s what you want we can do that. I ain’t much for that God and Jesus stuff. I believe a little different as far as religion is concerned, but if it’ll make you happy I’m all for it.” Raven said.

  “How do you think the others will feel?” she asked.

  “I’m head of the clan and if I choose to marry you in a church they’ll all be there. They will abide by the customs, because I will.” said Raven.

  “I don’t know if my folks will come.” she said.

  “I’ll go talk to your folks. Me and your Ma has always gotten alone fairly well, but your Pa has always seen me as competition. It’s been that way since we come here. All I want is the best for mine and I’ll fight for it. I don’t look for opportunity to try and bring the next man down and as long as he brings no harm to me or mine he won’t have a problem from us. If trouble comes we don’t run from it, we run to it, to head it off. We’ve all lived thru some troubled times, so trouble ain’t no stranger to us. I’ll talk to your folks tomorrow.”

  She hugged him close, and said. “I love you old man.”

  * * * * All of the adult men in the Kane Clan were seated in the parlor of Raven’s house. Raven looked at his brothers, nephews and sons, and noticed for the first time that his brothers were getting old. Yet they all still looked to be in fighting shape. He was 60, so Cougar and wolf had to be 63 or 64 .

  “I know you have an idea as to why you’re all here. The big war hero Ransom, has an idea about taking over the crackers bootlegging operation.”

  “That would open up a can of worms.” Eagle said. “I know that and I told the young buck that, but he had all the answers.” said Raven.

  “How do you justify stirring up the shit, Ransom?” asked Falcon.

  Ransom looked to his father then to his uncles and said. “Why should them crackers get rich off of our people? It’s always been that way and if we don’t draw the line somewhere it will always be. I fought in France and I can tell you from first hand experience. Crackers look the same all over the world and they treat us like shit all over the world too. Prohibition is making them rich and it could do the same for us. That’s the only justification I need.”

  All of the young Kanes murmured their agreement.

  “Believe me, I know how crackers are. We’re where we are today, because of their conniving ways. There’s nothing I’d like to do better than to hit them where it hurts, but think of the danger and death it could bring. The law, or what law there is, is made for them and will surely be used against us.” said Raven.

  “It’s gonna always be that way, so we’ve got to carve out our place in this world. It’s ours, as much as it is theirs.” said Prince.

  “I see this boy been listening to Ransom.” said Hawk smiling.

  “He’s right though Pa.” said Trace. “We got to walk on tiptoes when white folks come around afraid to make eye contact for fear we’ll offend them.”

  “I’ll look at them eye to eye, because I’m a man.” said Lao. “If they’re looking for trouble, here it stands.”

  Falcon looked at his eldest son and smiled with pride, then said. “If it comes to it brother we can raze the town.”

  Raven made eye contact with his brothers after Falcon made the statement and they were each taken back to 1876. Each man nodded imperceptibly.

  “The first thing we need is to set up several stills, get a fleet of trucks, stock up on weapons and find someone that can supply us with top quality whiskey.” said Raven. “If were going to do it, let’s go all out.”

  Ransom looked at Raven and his uncles, and said. “I got a supplier for weapons and whiskey, but not the money to purchase them.

  All of the old men laughed, then hawk said. “We’ve got the money, you just set it up.”

  “I’ll get the trucks and the supplies to build the stills.” said Falcon.

  “I’ll get what we need to brew the liquor.” said Cougar.

  “Do any of you know how to build the stills, or brew liquor?” asked Raven.

  All of the men looked at each other and shook their heads.

  Raven laughed, then said. “I thought so. We’ve got to find someone to teach us then.”

  “Tigger Wells use to do that for Mace, until they had a falling out.” said Wolf. “He does odd jobs at my place from time to time. As a matter of fact he’s in my barn sleeping off a drunk now.”

  “Sober him up and see if he wants to work for us.” Raven said.

  “I’ll do that.” Wolf said.

  * * * * Brandford Mace looked at his sons and thought. “Drake is the best one of the bunch.” All of his sons were big, red men. Lefty was the meanest, and most dangerous physically. Drake could accomplish the same feats, but was much more shrewd and could almost match Mace in intelligence and cunning. He alone of the Mace clan saw the good in Celia being with Raven Kane. He knew that once the family bond was solidified, Raven and his clan would be duty bound to assist them if trouble came. And he knew that the Kanes were merciless, when it came to enemies.

  Mace shouted. “I don’t like the idea of Celia shacking up with that black ass nigga!”

  “I think them Kanes need to be taught a lesson anyway.” said Ford. “They been lording it around town every since Lex Clanton killed Crow. Just because they massacred the Clanton males it seems a big cloud of fear has come over certain people, but I ain’t scared.”

  “Then you’re a damn fool.” said Drake. “I’ve sat and listened at you Pa, and you Ford. Let me tell you what I see. If you fuck with the Kanes you can kiss our asses goodbye. They won’t leave a threat, and that thing with the Clantons should’ve showed you that. The young ones are
trouble, but the old men are the ones that scare me. If you sit back and think about it, there are benefits to Celia being with that old black ass nigga as you called him, Pa.”

  “Benefits my ass!” shouted Mace. “We ain’t did too bad protecting ourselves or defending what’s ours. What the hell are the benefits?”

  “Pa, you may not be looking at it from the same perspective, but think about it like this. It’s better that were friends with the Kanes, than the other way around. This alliance could be valuable in the future.”

  “Damn it boy, the future is now!” shouted Mace.

  “Pa, could you just cut out the screaming. Celia done made her choice. She won’t have nobody but him so we might as well get use to it.” said Drake.

  “So you’re grown enough to make decisions for the family now?” asked Mace.

  “I am if it seems the survival of the family is at stake.” said Drake.

  “And how many of you boys think Drake is right?” asked Mace.

  Lefty, Vernon and Preston generally agreed with Drake, while Ford was just the one to agree with Mace. As the elder, Ford was an ass kisser and Mace secretly despised him for it.

  “So now I ain’t smart enough to head my own family?” asked Mace softly.

  “Pa it ain’t that. It’s just that Drake makes sense, is all.” said Lefty.

  “So I don’t make no sense then?” asked Mace.

  “That ain’t what he means Pa.” said Vernon.

  “What the hell does he mean Vern, you tell me?” Mace said.

  “Drake doesn’t see the point in hunting trouble with the Kanes. It ain’t about fear. What do we gain by teaching the Kanes a lesson? It could end with some of us dead for no good reason. We don’t stand to benefit from it, at least not as far as I can see.” said Vernon.

  “In all of your twenty five years that might have been the smartest observation you’ve ever made.” said Mace. “So what do you suggest?”