by Jack Martin
‘No?’ Betty smiled, sympathetically. ‘Then where is he?’
‘He’s –‘ Jessie said but her words trailed away to nothing as she wondered just where Cole was, if he were alive or dead even.
‘He was a brave man,’ Betty said, as if echoing the schoolteacher’s fears that he may be dead. ‘I don’t hold with what some folk are saying about him.’
‘And just what are some folk saying?’ Jessie asked. The worry had gone from her face replaced instead by a deep annoyance.
‘That he was a coward. That he stood by and let them release Sam Bowden, just handed over the keys to the jail. And then had it away on his tail the first chance he got.’
‘Is that what they’re saying? Then should be saying that he stood up to the Bowdens,’ Jessie said, snake venom in her voice. ‘While the rest of the town hid away.’ She wrung her hands together in frustration.
‘ Cole stood in that street alone against Bowden and his men while the rest of Squaw’s good citizens hid away beneath their beds,’ she said, speaking slowly and clearly, his fists clenched so that her knuckles shone a bony white. ‘This town’s full of cowards but Cole Masters ain’t one of them.’
‘No,’ Betty agreed. ‘Guess he ain’t. All the same he ain’t here though.’
‘No,’ Jessie said. ‘He’s not.’ She had to bite back a wave of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her. It wouldn’t do for her to break down in front of the children. She felt a sudden sickly feeling in her stomach and knew that wherever Cole was he was facing the gravest danger.
There was however, one man who could end it all now and that man was Clem Bowden.
The man who carried most of the power in this town.
Jessie looked at Betty and smiled as an insane idea popped into her mind. She had to go and see Clem Bowden, speak to him alone, try to make him see reason. She feared things may have gone too far for that but she had to try. Anything was better than this endless waiting for something to happen.
‘Would you do me a favor?’ She asked.
‘Of course.’
‘Will you stay with the children for a few moments?’
Betty seemed taken aback by the request and she looked at the rambunctious children. Her mouth opened but no words came forth. The unexpected request had obviously gotten her in a flap.
‘I’ll get them inside,’ Jessie said. ‘Set them some work and I’ll be back before you know it. You won’t hear them.’
‘Well,’ Betty said. ‘I’ve got some chores to do but I suppose it won’t hurt for a little while.’
‘Thank you,’ Jessie said.
‘But it will have to be a little while,’ Betty said, firmly. ‘I’ve got a list as long as my arm of things to take care of.’
‘Of course,’ Jessie said. ‘Thank you again.’
Jessie ran to usher the children into the schoolhouse. They didn’t seem at all happy at having their playtime curtailed but when they saw the stern look upon their teacher’s face none dared complain. Within minutes she had them all sat at the desks and had scrawled several sentences on the blackboard for them to copy down.
She introduced Betty as a friend who was going to supervise them while she ran a quick errand.
‘I’ll be back shortly,’ she said, finally and nodded to Betty before leaving the schoolhouse. She hoped the children wouldn’t test their mettle against Betty, you had to be stern with them sometimes, their attention tended to wander and they’d misbehave. But she would be quick and now was an opportune time to see Clem Bowden.
Perhaps there wouldn’t be another.
She walked down Main Street with long strides and paused to take a deep breath when she reached the jailhouse. For a moment she considered turning back but she steeled herself and knocked upon the door. She didn’t wait for an answer before opening the door and walking straight in. Clem Bowden was seated behind the sheriff’s desk, Cole’s desk, writing in a thick ledger.
‘Yes?’ He looked up from the book and a puzzled expression crossed his face when he saw Jessie standing there. For a moment he looked troubled as if expecting the woman to pull a concealed weapon and send him to Hell.
‘I need to talk to you,’ she said.
‘Sit down.’
Clem pointed to a chair Jessie had sat in so many times before while visiting Cole. She noticed that Cole’s long coat was still hanging on the hook on the far wall and the sight of it made her realize that the old man had no real right to be here at all. This was still Cole’s place, always would be as far as she was concerned. There was a freshly printed wanted poster depicting Cole on the wall amongst all the others and she bit her lip to quell her anger.
‘What can I do for you?’ Clem asked after an awkward silence. He noticed her looking at the wanted poster and smiled, wryly.
‘Cole,’ Jessie said. ‘I want him able to come home. I want this farce to end.’
Again Bowden smiled and said matter of factly: ‘Cole Masters killed the sheriff.’
‘No,’ Jessie shook her head. ‘He killed one of your men and then in a fair fight. Cole is the sheriff.’
Clem Bowden kept his voice level when he spoke but the words might as well have been shouted, such was the power they carried. ‘It is true Steve McCraw once worked for me but he relinquished the position when this town needed a sheriff,’ he said. ‘And he only wore the star for one day before being cowardly gunned down by Cole Masters. He was a brave man and didn’t deserve to die.’
Jessie had to force herself not to raise her voice. ‘Cole was the sheriff,’ she said. ‘It was you and your men who beat him senseless and then put that interloper in his job. And your rotten son’s at the root of all this trouble.’
That seemed to anger the old man and he clenched his fists.
‘My son was framed,’ he said. ‘It was Masters who killed the whore and then framed Sam, who couldn’t defend himself in his drunken state. My son can be foolish granted, high spirits tend to get the better of him, but he’s no killer. The law will see that and I’ve no doubt that Masters will eventually hang for his crimes.’
Jessie shook her head. She realized that there was no pleading with the old man. He was a cold ruthless son-of-a-bitch and had worked out his strategy and would stick to it no matter what.
‘And the next time your son steps out of line?’ Jessie snarled. ‘What’ll you do then?’ She looked deep into Clem Bowden’s eyes. ‘You’re doing him no favors you know. Covering up for him, cleaning his mess with no consequences on his head. One day he’ll do something and you won’t be able to get him out of it. Then he’ll hang and you’ll be responsible.’
Clem Bowden stood up suddenly and reached out, grabbing Jessie by the throat. He pulled his other hand back into a fist and his eyes blazed with fury. He took a deep breath and then gritted his teeth but lowered his fist. ‘Tell me,’ He said, feigning calmness. ‘What do you want me to do?’
Jessie felt a sudden wave of hope. ‘Tell the truth,’ she said. ‘Let your son take his medicine. He’ll spend a few years in jail and then maybe it’ll change him. Maybe he’ll become a son you can be proud of. You can’t go on covering up for him for the rest of his life.’
Bowden released her and sat back down.
‘Cole Masters is guilty of killing that whore,’ he said. ‘Cole Master’s killed the sheriff. And now my son is out there risking his life to bring him to justice.’
‘You’re son is a dirty cheating liar,’ Jessie insisted. Despite being manhandled her blood was boiling and she felt no fear. She no longer saw Clem Bowden as a threat but more the pathetic old man he really was. Maybe he actually believed what he was saying, had convinced himself that it was Cole and not his son behind all this. She had seen it all before, parents whose love for their children blinded them to their faults. They would over indulge the children until they no longer had the power to deny them anything. Children raised in that environment would likely grow up no good.
She was wasting her time here. Clem Bo
wden had stepped over the line from where there was no return long ago. And Jessie felt he realized it, that he knew his son was a cold evil man with no positive qualities. He knew it but didn’t have the strength to admit it to himself.
‘I’d like you to leave now,’ Clem said, keeping an even tone of voice. But in his eyes a tornado had been set loose. He seemed to be struggling to keep his fury under control and he had started to twitch beneath his left eye. ‘Please leave,’ he said, flatly.
‘I’m going,’ Jessie said and got up and went to the door. She opened it but before leaving, turned back to Clem Bowden.
‘Cole’s worth more than you and your son mixed together,’ she said. ‘And you won’t stop him and I tell you here and now, Cole will be back behind that desk long after the Bowden name is forgotten.’
With that she left, slamming the door behind her, and swiftly marched back to the schoolhouse.
Chapter Sixteen
Cole spotted them first.
‘Seem to be just the two men,’ Cole said, giving Em a puzzled look.
Em shrugged his shoulders. ‘They were all together when I passed them half a day ago.’
There were most definitely only the two riders and they were still some distance off and were only just about recognizable as two mounted men. Cole guessed they were still quite a few miles away and riding at speed they would reach the mountain range well before sundown. He carefully scanned the full horizon, squinting his eyes against the glaze, but there was no sign of any other men.
‘Do you think they’ve split up?’ Em asked.
‘They must have,’ Cole said. ‘Though I don’t see to what purpose. There’s no way for a second party to approach without us seeing them. You sure you counted right?’
‘My counting was right,’ Em insisted. ‘There were ten men that left town and the same number earlier.’
‘You sure?’ Cole asked, remembering the only passage from Shakespeare that had stuck in his mind, “In the night, imagining some fear. How easy the bush is supposed a bear. He had Sergeant Brannan to thank for his limited cultural knowledge; the big Englishman had quoted the great bard almost daily during the time Cole had served with him in the War Between the States.
‘Damn right I’m sure,’ Em said, clearly annoyed. ‘I rode all this way to warn you off the posse. I’m not some dude who blows wind.’
‘No,’ Cole said. If the old man said the posse had been ten strong then that was good enough for him.
‘I’m sorry. But where are the others?’ He asked, presently.
‘That’s got me in a right shindy,’ Em said.
‘That makes two of us,’ Cole said. ‘They seem to know where they’re heading.’
Em realized that the fact that the men could make such good time may be his fault since his trail would be fresh enough to follow without any particular care. But they would have found Cole in any case, had followed his track thus far already. They seemed to have the tracking skills only possessed by a few breeds of man—mountain men, scouts, Indians. Still, Em thought, at least he had forewarned Cole.
That gave him a better chance.
Gave them both a better chance.
The two riders looked to be keeping a steady pace as the crossed the grasslands, pushing their horses to the extremes. They still had some distance to come and wouldn’t be able to keep it up, they’d have to slow their speed or risk losing their horses. And a man in this country without a horse would find the odds of survival heavily stacked against him.
It would be some time before the riders were close enough to catch a glimpse of them and Cole didn’t feel like waiting around for them.
‘Come on. Get everything together,’ Cole said and went to the cave entrance and kicked the dirt about a bit, scrapping his feet in the mud. He tore off a shred of his shirt and tossed it into the darkness.
‘You gone loco?’ Em watched him, scratching his head.
‘Let’s move out. ‘Cole said, without explaining his actions, and after taking another look at the approaching riders he went and got his bedroll and belongings.
‘First we climb up,’ Em complained. ‘And now you want to go back down. This got me feeling like a child’s yo-yo.’
‘Afraid so,’ Cole said.
He unhitched his horse and started to lead it down into the mountains,
Em following closely behind.
‘So what’s your intention?’ Em asked and cursed as he almost stumbled, forcing the roan to pull sharply on its reins. The old man soon regained control and slowly coaxed the horse forward.
‘We’ll try and avoid them,’ Cole said. ‘Get away and hope they go up into the mountains looking for us.’ He thought of the caves wondered what the chances were of the two men entering them in their search, hoping they would fall for the little signs he had left in the cave entrance to entice them. If they did and got lost then he and the old man could be long gone before they found their way out.
It was a long shot but if he, someone who had explored the caves many times previously could get lost, then he was sure these two men, whoever they were, would find themselves fumbling about in darkness for some considerable time.
‘I say we hide and shoot the bastards. We could pick them off before they even see us,’ Em said. ‘Wouldn’t need to go up and down these mountains like a pair of cougars neither.’
Cole grinned coldly but said nothing. The thought had occurred to him but that wasn’t his way of doing things. It would be safer and would permanently remove the obstacle from their path but a man had to live with himself.
They continued downwards, entering a flat tree lined area. At the moment they could still see the riders, they kept descending at more speed than was good for their horses, but as soon as they entered the trees they would lose sight of the riders for perhaps twenty minutes.
The track led down into a valley between two peaks and then when they emerged they would be in danger of being spotted by the riders. They had to get down and with the utmost care if they were to slip away without the riders noticing them.
‘Careful not to skyline yourself,’ Cole said. ‘Let’s get down into the valley and we’ll head east awhile and then come back on ourselves.’
‘Still rather fight them’ Em muttered.
‘Might come to that,’ Cole said and mounted the horse.
The trail had leveled out and gave less difficulty to the horses. It was here that they would make their best time and the more they gained before the men saw them, the better their chances of escaping without the need for a bloody showdown.
Cole thought of the possibility of the other eight men Em had spoken off cutting them off when they got out into the open, trapping them between the two parties. That would make them vulnerable, sitting ducks, but that was a chance they would have to take. Those other men were out there somewhere but he couldn’t think about that now and had to focus on the matter in hand.
Chapter Seventeen
The descent took longer than expected.
This was largely because Em’s horse seemed to be terrified of the steeper sections of the mountain and took some considerable coaxing to move. Eventually though they made it.
‘Where now?’ Em asked, panting from exertion. The climb down had, if anything, been worse than going up. His legs ached, his back ached, his arms ached—in fact if there was a part of his body that didn’t ache then he couldn’t locate it.
‘They can’t be far off,’ Cole said.
There was no sign of them at the moment but they didn’t have the view they’d had up in the mountains. There was a trail to the east that led them amongst the tall pines and rolling hills. They’d be able to remain hidden and get far enough away to turn back towards Squaw unnoticed, crossing the river upstream of the rapids.
The only problem with the plan was that Cole had no idea where the rest of the posse were and he feared riding straight into them.
‘Then let’s get moving,’ Em said. ‘If you’re going to hang arou
nd for a fight then we should have done so back up there.’ He motioned back the way they had come.
‘You’ve lost your bloodlust?’
‘Hell no,’ Em retorted. ‘But coming down here takes away our best advantage.’
‘Then let’s ride,’ Cole said. ‘And try and keep that horse of yours under control.’
‘She don’t like heights is all,’ Em said.
Cole chuckled and spurred his horse onwards, leading the way into the thicket and the forest beyond. They rode for a few hundred yards and then once again had to dismount to lead the horses down a steep incline.
Eventually after much cursing and coaxing the horses they reached the foot of the mountains. They led the horses off into the tress and rode them for perhaps half a mile before Cole pulled his horse to a stop.
‘We’ll tether the horses here,’ Cole said. ‘Walk back a’ ways and watch the posse approach. Make sure they go up into the mountains.’
Em nodded.
It seemed like a prudent idea to him. If they had managed to shake the two riders off their tail then it made sense to know one way or the other. And from what he had seen of the two men shaking them off was anything but a sure thing. Those men stuck to them a cheap whore to a paid up cowboy.
He checked his rifle and dismounted.
On foot, they made their way back through the thicket, and climbed the banking that had proved so troublesome for the horses. Once on top, which offered them a good view, towards the mountains they saw the two riders. They were not more than a couple of thousand feet away, almost within earshot.
Lying in the long grass Cole watched as the two men stood beside their horses and seemed to be contemplating which way to go. He didn’t like the look of them. Em had been right—these men were both professional killers. They each had rifles in their saddle boots and wore long trail coats.
Cole could see that one of them was indeed a half-breed, either Indian or Mexican blood running through his veins. Even from this distance he looked impressive. Long jet black hair hung from the sides of his hat and framed a cruel looking set of features.