“Yes, Mr. Jaco?”
“Maybe you’d better hold back a barrel of beer. This town is goin’ to have a party!”
“Yes, sir!” Morris said.
Dunn left the bar at a clip, set up the spit, and started cooking the meat. For the rest of the day, an enticing aroma swept through the town. News that there was to be party with free food and beer spread through the community.
By sundown the party was in full swing. The meat was cooked and Sherazade and her provocatively dressed girls moved around, teasing the men.
Jaco climbed up onto a buckboard, and pulling his pistol, fired two shots into the air. That got everyone’s attention, and all looked toward him.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is just an example of what this town is going to be like. We have declared our independence from the state and from the country. We are a free town with our own laws, and we will not allow any U.S. Marshal, Texas Ranger, or county sheriff inside the city limits. If they do come here, they’ll stay here.” He pointed to the cemetery. “We’ll make a special lawman’s section over there in the graveyard.”
The others laughed.
“We can have a fine place here as long as ever’one understands that the only laws in this town are the laws that I declare.”
“Wait a minute,” one of others said. “If we really are goin’ to be a free town, seems to me like we ought to all have some say-so in whatever laws we’re a-goin’ to have.”
Jaco raised his pistol and shot the protester. Gasps and cries of alarm came from several of the others.
“Is there anyone else who wants to have a word about who will be makin’ the laws in this town?”
The others looked at each other with expressions of shock and fear, but nobody spoke.
Smiling, Jaco returned his pistol to his shoulder. “I didn’t think there would be. Now, what do you say that we get back to the celebration?”
Chapter Twenty-four
Onboard the train
“Damn.” Elmer hung his head. “I shoulda know’d better ’n to gamble with a Chinaman. I’ve been to China, I know how good they are.”
“I thought Wang dinnae know the game,” Duff said.
“It don’t make no never mind that he don’t know the game. He’s a Chinaman.”
“How much did he win from you?”
“He won the whole hunnert ’n fifty dollars that was my share of the reward money we got back in Cheyenne.”
Duff chuckled. “Aren’t ye glad then, that you own half the gold mine that’s on Sky Meadow?”
“Yeah.” A broad and satisfied smile spread across Elmer’s face. “Yeah, I reckon when you think about it like that, it don’t really matter all that much that Wang won all my money.”
Duff was referring to an old abandoned mine in which Elmer had discovered a new vein. He had been working the mine before Duff bought the land, but had never filed a claim.
Duff recalled how he and his cousin, Falcon, had first encountered this man who was not only his foreman, but his best friend.
A creature had appeared on the first day Duff and Falcon had been working the mine, but then not again until the third day. For three days, they worked and though they had not made a significant find, they had found enough color in the tailings to make their efforts worthwhile.
Examining the nuggets they had recovered, Falcon estimated that they had at least one hundred dollars’ worth of gold. “If we keep getting these results, you will get enough money to build your herd,” he said.
“Aye, and that is my intention,” Duff replied.
They were ready when something hit the tripwire, causing the empty tin cans to rattle.
“Did you hear?” Falcon asked.
“Aye.”
“Get ready.”
Duff picked up the lantern and moved it about fifty feet back toward the entrance, leaving them in the dark, but that was part of their plan. When the creature passed them, Falcon stepped out behind it and threw a loop of rope down over the creature. Falcon jerked the rope back, tightening the loop, which secured the creature’s arms by his side.
The creature let out a bloodcurdling scream as Duff leaped out behind it to knock him down. The creature struggled, but Duff and Falcon were too strong, and within a moment Falcon had looped the rope around it enough times to have both his arms and legs restricted. The creature continued to scream.
“Get the lantern, Duff. Let’s see what we have here,” Falcon said.
Duff hurried back to get the lantern then returned and held it up.
Falcon rolled the creature over. “I’ll be. It’s a man.”
The man’s hair hung down to his waist and he had a full beard. He was wearing clothes made of wolf skin and his fingernails were long and curled.
“Of course I’m a man! What did you think I would be?” the man replied in a gravelly voice. “Turn me loose!”
“So you can try to kill us again?” Falcon asked.
“I wasn’t tryin’ to kill you. I was tryin’ to scare you away.”
“Like the three men you killed?”
“I only kilt two.”
“There were three—Elmer Gleason, Ethan Post, and Sam Hodges.”
“Is that what their names was? They never told me.”
“Why did you kill them?”
“I kilt ’em ’cause they tried to kill me. They wanted me to show ’em where the gold was, and when I wouldn’t do it, they pointed a gun at me and said they was goin’ to shoot me. I got away from ’em, and when they come after me, I kilt ’em. Then I dragged their bodies outside as a warnin’ to anyone else as might come around.”
“Those were Post and Hodges. What about Elmer Gleason? Did he try to kill you, too?”
The man laughed a high-pitched, insane cackling laugh. Then he stopped laughing and stared at Duff and Falcon, his eyes gleaming in the light of the lantern. “What are you doin’ here? You got no right in here. This is my home.”
“Sure ’n you aren’t for sayin’ you live here in this mine, are you?” Duff asked.
“Yes, I am a-sayin’ that. Now, I want you to turn me a-loose and get out of here.”
“How do you live? What do you eat? What do you drink?” Falcon asked.
“Bugs, rabbits when I can catch ’em, such wild plants as can be et. And they’s a pool of water back a-ways.”
“What is your name?” Duff asked.
The man laughed again, the same, high-pitched insane laugh as before. “You already know my name. You done said it.”
“What do you mean we’ve already said it?”
“I’m the feller I didn’t kill.”
“Mister, you’ve been in this mine too long,” Falcon said. “You aren’t making any sense at all. What do you mean, you are the man you didn’t kill?”
“Wait a minute,” Duff said. “I think I know what he means. Are you trying to tell us that you are Elmer Gleason?”
“I ain’t tryin’ to tell you nothin, sonny.” He laughed again. “I’m a-doin’ it. I am Elmer Gleason.” 1
Duff shook his head to clear it. By rights, he knew the entire mine would have belonged to him, but he’d filed the claim in both his and Elmer’s names. They kept the mine secret, accessing it only rarely when there was a need for funds. None of the cowboys on the ranch were even aware of it, and as far as they knew, Elmer was no more than a ranch foreman.
“What?” Duff had been lost in his memories and hadn’t paid a bit of attention to Elmer.
“Yeah,” Elmer repeat. “Having part of that mine does make it easier for me to be a good loser.” He glanced toward Wang. He’d already put the money away and was preparing their lunch in the small kitchen that was part of the private railroad car.
Eagle Pass
Taylor could have eaten his breakfast in the hotel, but he chose to go to the saloon for bacon and biscuits. The real reason was because he wanted to see Peggy one more time. He went right up the stairs and knocked on the door to her room, taking a chance
that she didn’t have anyone with her.
To his surprise, she opened the door immediately. She was dressed, not in the provocative attire of her profession, but in the more modest clothes any woman might wear. On the bed behind her, he saw her luggage.
He frowned. “You are really leaving town?”
“Yes.”
“Well, before you go, can you at least come down and have breakfast with me?”
Peggy smiled. “I can do that.”
Half an hour later, Taylor pushed his empty plate away and lifted his cup of coffee. Peggy was still eating, and he studied her over the rim of his cup. “I wish I could talk you out of leaving. Especially out of going to that place.”
“And I wish I could talk you into coming with me. My friend, Sherazade, said that everyone who is there can make a lot of money, not just the working girls. Ernie, you could get a real good paying job. We would stay there no longer than a year, save our money, and we could go someplace where nobody would ever know I had been a soiled dove. We could buy a ranch and have a good life.”
“I think we could have a good life working for Mr. Hanson. And we could get married right now.”
Peggy shook her head. “No, Ernie. I’m sorry. I’m going to Shumla, and I wish you would come with me.”
Taylor stood up. “Good-bye, Peggy. I hope it all works out for you.” He turned and walked away.
He had been assured that the train bringing the rest of the cattle would arrive this morning, so he headed to the depot to meet it.
One of the most important events in any town in the West was the arrival of the train. Many people would come to watch the trains even if they had no personal stake in the arrival or departure. As the townspeople began to gather, the crowd would take on a carnival atmosphere, the environment often accented with salesmen, and sometimes, entertainment.
Outside the Eagle Pass depot, a fiddler was playing for the crowd, an upturned hat on the ground in front of him inviting people to express their gratitude for the music by making donations. The high, skirling sound of the fiddle could be heard all over the depot, even above the laughing and joking of those waiting for the train.
Taylor found a place away from the jostling crowd and leaned against the depot wall. He rolled a cigarette, lit it, and smoked quietly as he waited. He had asked Peggy to marry him last night, and she had turned him down. As he thought about it in the light of day, he realized it was probably a pretty good thing that she had turned him down. She was a soiled dove, after all. Someone was bound to make a comment about it, and he’d wind up killing him. Or getting killed.
Besides, he didn’t even know her last name. For that matter, he wasn’t even sure that her name really was Peggy.
He had left her on a sour note but had to admit that he was worried about her going to an outlaw town. He wasn’t all that sure exactly what an outlaw town was, but it didn’t seem like a place a normal person would want to be.
“Here comes the train!” someone shouted.
Immediately upon the heels of the shout came the sound of the train whistle, announcing its arrival.
“It’s right on time,” another said.
It wasn’t the train that Taylor was waiting for, but he wasn’t surprised. He had worked as a brakeman for the railroad once, and he knew that “the varnish” as passenger trains were called, always had “the high iron.” That meant they always had the right of way, Freight trains would be pushed onto a side track to allow the passenger trains uninhibited passage.
The laughing and joking ceased as everyone grew quiet to await the train’s arrival.
Taylor didn’t join the crowd of people as they pushed closer to the track to stare in the direction from which the train would come. It could be heard quite clearly, not only the whistle but the hollow sounds of the puffing steam coming from the engine, then rolling back as an echo from the surrounding hillsides. As the train drew even closer, the crowd could see clouds of black smoke billowing from the diamond stack.
The train pounded into the station with sparks flying from the drive wheels and glowing hot embers dripping from its firebox. Following the engine and tender were the rapidly passing windows of the passenger cars. The train squealed to a halt. Inside, people who would be getting off there stood and moved down the aisles toward the exits at the end of the cars.
Several who weren’t getting off the train remained in their seats, some reading a paper, some engaged in conversation, and many of them just looking out at the town they were passing through.
Taylor watched the arriving passengers, then he watched the departing passengers board the train. Not until the train had left the station, and the crowd dispersed, did he go speak with Sterling Bobe, the station master.
“What’s the latest?” he asked. “Any news on the train I’m here to meet?”
“I just got a telegram from Spofford,” the dispatcher told him. “The stock was shunted aside while the varnish came through. The stock train left about ten minutes later. There’s nothin’ else in front of it, so I expect it’ll be here in another ten or fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks, Sterling.” Taylor went back outside, and finding an empty baggage cart, sat on it as he waited.
A few minutes later, Sheriff Bowles, his family, and another lady came walking up.
As they approached, Taylor hopped down from the four-wheeled baggage cart. “Hello, Sheriff.”
“Hello, Taylor. Hanson send you in to meet the train?”
“Yes, sir. Sterling said the train would be here in another few minutes.”
“Yes, he called my office to tell me.”
“You brung your whole family to meet the train?”
Jason nodded then turned to Megan. “This is my wife’s sister, and we have a friend on the train.”
“You don’t say.”
“What about Hanson? Does he know the train is arriving this morning?”
“Mr. Hanson don’t have no telyphone out at the ranch, so I sent someone to tell him the train would be here this mornin’. I expect he’ll be along soon with enough hands to take the cows on out to the ranch.”
Onboard the train
Even though the special car Elmer, Duff, and Wang were riding in had four beds, privacy provided by curtains, as well as a small kitchen, dining, and seating area, it hadn’t all been plush and comfort during the journey. It had been necessary that they stop several times during the trip in order to make certain that the cattle were well watered and fed.
“I reckon this must be Eagle Pass,” Elmer said as the train began slowing. “You think we’ll be takin’ the beeves right out to Mr. Hanson’s ranch or will we be puttin’ ’em in a holdin’ pen?”
“I expect that Cal will meet us or make arrangements for us to be met,” Duff replied.
Even as the train was coming into the station, it was shunted onto a side track to keep it out of the way from regularly scheduled trains passing through.
Elmer looked out the window. “The whole Bowles family is here and I see Megan, but I don’t see Mr. Hanson.”
“I expect he’ll be along shortly,” Duff said.
Chapter Twenty-five
Runnels, Texas
Initially, Jaco and his gang, which had grown to twelve men, called themselves Jaco’s Raiders. One newspaper had dubbed them the “Kingdom Come Gang” because they slaughtered every man, woman, and child in sight during their raids. That name stuck and became a sobriquet that the men wore as a badge of pride.
As a single column, their leader A. M. Jaco at the head, they had ridden through the star-filled, moonless night, arriving just as the sun was coming up, a red disc on the horizon behind them. The town had been built in the hope that it would become a railroad stop, but the tracks had bypassed it, and it was already struggling for survival.
Jaco held up his hand, bringing the column to a halt.
For a moment, the riders were quiet, staring down at the just awakening town.
A rooster crowed.
A baby cried.
Blue Putt, his milky white skin nearly luminescent in the dawn’s early light, rode up alongside his leader, spit out a wad of tobacco, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Look down there,” Jaco said. “If ever there was a town just waitin’ to be picked, like pullin’ an apple from a tree, this here is the one. They don’t have one idea that we are here.”
“What if they heard about us, ’n they’re just waitin’ for us?” one of the gang’s newer men asked.
The door opened at the rear of one of the homes and a man started across the back yard toward the outhouse. He hadn’t put on a belt or galluses, and was holding up his pants as he walked.
“Does that feller look to you like he’s waiting on us?” Jaco asked as the man stepped into the outhouse and closed the door behind him.
“Well, it ain’t like they’d be likely to let us know they’re expectin’ us, is it?” the new rider asked.
“Why don’t we find out?” Jaco pulled his pistol and looked at the others. “Let’s ride in, makin’ a lot of noise ’n shootin’ up the town. Anyone you see out in the street, kill ’im.”
The others pulled their pistols and looked over at their leader, waiting for orders.
“Let’s go!” Jaco shouted, firing the pistol toward the town.
The twelve men of the Kingdom Come Gang started forward at a gallop.
Just as they entered town, they saw a woman heading to the barn with a milking stool in one hand and the milk bucket in the other. Frightened by the sound of gunfire and thundering hoofbeats, she dropped stool and bucket and started running back toward the house.
“Kill her!” Jaco shouted, following his own order by shooting toward the woman.
Several of the riders fired at the same time and the woman fell, bleeding from a dozen bullet wounds.
A small group of workers had gathered outside the freight wagon warehouse, waiting for it to open. None of them were armed. They were more curious than alarmed by the unusual activity of the riders coming into town.
MacCallister Kingdom Come Page 17