“Of course I did,” Hayes replied as he checked the Henry rifle yet again. “There aren’t many people who are as knowledgeable on the matter of firearms. But we can’t second-guess a lawman unless we have good reason. And from everything I saw, it seems very clear that Marshal Borden has no love for anyone belonging to that gang of vigilantes.”
Aldus let out a tired grunt of a laugh. “I only saw one man in a mask and another with a bandanna over his face. That doesn’t exactly add up to a gang.”
“Maybe not, but one of those men stormed into your hotel without anyone standing in his way to threaten you. The other killed a man right in front of us. I don’t need to see much more than that to convince me that something needs to be done around here. It may be a lawman’s job to bring killers to justice, but it’s our duty as citizens to help if we can.”
Aldus let out a long, haggard sigh.
“What’s wrong now?” Hayes asked.
“I hate it when I actually fall for one of your speeches.”
“And I hate it that some of your fighting spirit has rubbed off on me. I guess that means we’re both in a pickle, eh?”
“It sure does.”
• • •
The Overland spread was four miles south of Seedley on a narrow trail that could just be seen through all the tall grass growing on either side of it. As the grass started to thin out, Aldus could see a fence line up ahead. There was no gate, so they continued along the path toward a large house in the distance. Although there were some crops planted here and there, it was obvious that Cal Overland was no farmer. A bit closer to the middle of the property was a pasture where about twenty head of cattle grazed on whatever they could find.
“Better put that rifle down,” Aldus said.
“You’re wearing that Schofield. I can carry a rifle.”
“No! I mean you should put it down. Right now. Look!”
Following Aldus’s line of sight, Hayes quickly spotted the trio of riders crossing through the field to his left. In the distance to the right of the wagon, two more riders could be seen. The pair of riders held position about a hundred yards out while the trio rode to stand in the middle of the road in front of the wagon. Aldus pulled back on his reins, stopping well short of forcing the riders off the trail.
Having set his rifle down behind his feet, Hayes waved to the riders and shouted, “Hello there!”
“Howdy,” one of the riders said. “You men lost?”
“No, sir. We’re here to see Mr. Overland.”
“Well, this is his property. Is he expecting you?”
“I don’t believe so. That is, unless Jack Grable managed to send word that we’d be arriving.”
The riders all looked to be in their twenties and sat in their saddles with a young man’s confidence that nothing on earth could knock them down. The man who’d been doing the talking wore a simple brown vest over a blue shirt and chaps over faded jeans. The other two seemed more than comfortable in their saddles and were dressed in a similar fashion. The lead rider looked back to the man closest to him and asked, “Mr. Overland mention anything about expectin’ anyone?”
“Nope,” the other rider said.
“What about Jack Grable? He mention that name before?”
The other rider shook his head before spitting tobacco juice onto the ground.
“Well, I was told to mention that Jack Grable recommended I come to see Cal Overland once I got to Seedley. My name is Zachariah Hayes. I sell firearms of all kinds, repair them, even modify them to perform better than you could imagine. I understand Mr. Overland has made several trips to Cedar Rapids for guns, and I thought I might be able to save him a trip.”
All three riders merely looked back at them. After one spat some more tobacco juice, the young man at the head of the group shrugged and said, “I suppose you can come to the house. Can’t guarantee that Mr. Overland will talk with you.”
“That’s fine. All I ask for is a chance,” Hayes said.
“Follow us, then.”
The three riders split up so the talker was still in the lead and the other two were behind and slightly to either side of the wagon. Aldus snapped his reins to follow his escort, fighting back the impulse to pull the leather straps to one side and go back the way they’d come.
As they ambled toward the house, Aldus spotted a barn on one side of it and a smaller outbuilding on the other that could have been a smokehouse or something used for storage. The pair of riders who’d been keeping their distance thus far hung back, making sure to keep pace with the wagon. About fifty yards from the house, the trail widened into a flat patch of land that was big enough to encompass the house, the barn, and the outbuilding before narrowing back into a trail past the spread.
“Wait here,” the lead rider said.
Aldus set the brake and nodded. Leaning over to Hayes, he whispered, “Still think this was a good idea?”
“I believe I said it was our duty to help,” the salesman replied. “Not that it was necessarily a good idea.”
“Great. That’s just . . . great.”
The rider who’d been their guide went all the way to the house, where he was greeted by a man who seemed almost too big to fit through the door. He had wide shoulders and girth that looked to be more muscle than fat. Standing on the porch, he listened to what the rider had to say while staring out at Aldus and Hayes as if he were close enough to see the whites of their eyes. Before long, the big man strode forward. He moved fast for a man of his size before coming to a halt just close enough to the wagon to be heard.
“I’m Cal Overland,” he said. “What brings you here?”
Hayes stood up in the wagon’s seat and gave a slight bow. “Good day to you, sir. I’ve heard many good things about you.”
“I’m told you sell guns.”
“That’s right. I’ve recently arrived in Seedley and thought I’d come out here to give you first chance at some of the finest firearms available in this or any other state.”
“I’ve already got plenty of guns.”
Aldus didn’t have to look far to verify that. Apart from the five riders who’d come out to greet them, another four had drifted in from all sides. Two emerged from the house and another two came from the barn. When Aldus glanced back to the field they’d crossed to get to the house, however, he could no longer see the pair who had been keeping pace with them ever since the wagon had crossed the fence line.
“I’m sure you do, sir,” Hayes continued. “And some of those guns surely need to be repaired while others could stand to be replaced. When you get a look at my inventory, you may even find one or two that you simply won’t be able to resist.”
“All right, then,” Overland said. “Since you came all this way, let’s get a look at what you brought. Jesse, go have a look inside their wagon.”
One of the men who’d come from the house behind Cal Overland hurried down from the front porch and strode past him. “Sure thing, Pa,” he grunted as he hurried toward the wagon.
Aldus was feeling uncomfortable after losing track of the two riders in the distance. That feeling grew worse when he could no longer find the men who had come from the barn. He didn’t feel any better once he got a closer look at Jesse Overland.
Although shorter than average height, Jesse had a wide, barrel chest and thick arms. His face sported several bruises, which could have been put there by a few strong punches. The damage to his face wasn’t bad enough, however, to hide his dark green eyes. As Jesse moved past the wagon to circle around to the back, he grinned up at Aldus.
“That’s him,” Aldus whispered to Hayes. “The one who stormed in on me at the hotel.”
“Are you sure?” Hayes asked.
“As sure as I can be.”
Aldus could hear Jesse rummaging around in the back of the wagon. When he took another look around, he could see one man kne
eling up in the loft of the barn and two more hurrying out through the wide double doors toward the back of the house.
“He’s right, Pa,” Jesse called out. “There’s a whole lot of guns back here.”
“What kind?” Cal asked.
“All kinds, looks like. Also some tools.”
“Those are the instruments I use to ply my trade,” Hayes said in a voice that was lacking some of its former confidence. “As I mentioned before, I’d be happy to make myself available for any services you require.”
Cal’s brow furrowed as he placed his hands on his hips. Eventually he said, “Why not? I’ll take them guns you brought.”
“Really? What can I interest you in? Rifles? Pistols? A little of both?”
“I’ll take all of them. Jesse, start unloading that wagon.”
Aldus reached for his pistol while climbing down from his seat. Before his boots touched the ground, several rifles were prepared to be fired. When he spun around, however, he saw fewer gunmen than before. One of the men who had been standing to the left of the house was now missing. Several others had appeared scattered in various spots around the wagon. Some of them looked familiar to Aldus, while others were just men pointing guns at him.
“Go on, big man,” Jesse snarled. “Take one more step so you can be cut down.”
“Sounds about right,” Aldus said. “Especially from a man who has to wear a sack over his head for him to feel tough.”
Although Jesse flinched at that, he quickly recovered. “It don’t matter what you know, boy. You won’t make it off this property, anyhow.”
“Boy?” Aldus growled. “Did you just call me boy?”
Cal’s voice rolled through the air like a clap of thunder. “Jesse! Stop talking and start unloading those guns! Someone help him.”
As two of the remaining gunmen started approaching the wagon, a tall figure strode forward as if he’d been dropped from the sky to land halfway between the house and barn. “What do you need to steal guns for?” the man asked. “You’ve got more than enough money to buy them.”
Cal shifted on his feet and turned to face the new arrival. “That you, Marshal?”
“It sure is, Cal.” Marshal Borden stood his ground about twenty paces from Cal Overland. “You don’t even need guns,” he said. “I saw the armory you have stored in your barn.”
“I guess you would have seen them pretty soon, anyway,” Cal said. “Seeing as how you don’t have the sense God gave a mule to step aside when you were asked. When my boys roll through Seedley, you’ll get a real good look at them guns.”
“I wasn’t asked to step down,” Borden said. “I was threatened by a gang of vigilantes. The same vigilantes who killed my deputy.”
“You were told blood would stain your streets if you didn’t step down as marshal,” Cal said through a cruel gaze that was colder than a slab of ice. “Whatever happened after that is on your head.”
“It’s funny,” Borden said. “I was thinking it would be tougher to get you to fess up to being behind those men in the masks.”
“And I thought you’d never try hard enough to figure it out for yourself. You forced my hand, though,” Cal said. “And you’ve got Frank Healey’s boy locked up in your jail. Did you even bother questioning the man I handed over to you? He should have confessed to anything you liked. You could have strung him up for the death of your deputy and you would’ve looked like a hero.”
“That man was beat to a pulp. Anyone could see that. Killers don’t just start talking when they’re caught. Besides, that man who confessed wasn’t no killer. He held his gun like he barely knew which end fired a bullet. Recently I got plenty more evidence to let me know he was a fraud.”
Aldus listened to the exchange as he stood in front of Jesse. The younger Overland stepped away from the wagon to square his shoulders to him as an ugly, anticipatory smile crept onto his face.
“So you came up here on a hunch?” Cal asked. “That takes some sand, I’ll give you that.”
“Men were sent to try and weasel Frank Healey out of jail,” Borden said. “I figured it wouldn’t be long before them vigilantes would take a more direct approach. Considering my suspicions from before and the things that came to light now, this seemed like the best time to make my play. Seems it was worth the ride all the way out here.”
“I’ve got ten gun hands on this property,” Cal declared. “That’s not including my son and me.”
The marshal nodded. “My deputies saw some of your men as we rode in. Didn’t have much trouble bringing down the two with the rifles on horseback. Them other two posted near the barn were a little tougher . . . but not much. I’d say we’re about even now. I might even have an advantage with the high ground.” As Borden hooked a thumb over his shoulder, the man kneeling in the barn’s loft tossed back a casual wave. It was Mark, the deputy who had stitched Aldus’s side. Setting his sights firmly on Cal Overland, the marshal said, “So you’ve got two choices. You can hand yourself over and order your men to do the same or you can stand and fight like a man instead of shooting at me like a bunch of cowards in masks. Either way . . . this vigilante business ends right here and right now.”
“Vigilantes?” Cal bellowed. “That’s all you see after you got a look at the guns I got stored in my barn? I’ve been stockpiling weapons for months right under your nose! I may have started off taking the law into my own hands, but there ain’t no reason to stop there. Not when there’s so much money to be made by instating my own law.”
“Are you really crazy enough to try and pull away from the Union?”
“The federals can keep running things how they like. No need to take such drastic action. Me and Niles Healey will just run all the roads coming through Iowa into Nebraska and Missouri. Once we get our militia armed and bringing more order to the towns around here than any lawman could, we’ll be able to do as we please. Hell, I haven’t even straightened out all the possibilities open to us once we kick out the idiots like you and take control.”
“You’ll be wiped out as soon as the army gets wind of it,” Borden said as he shook his head.
Cal grinned and puffed out his chest. “See, that’s just it. Nobody’s gonna get wind of anything until me and my boys have run roughshod over three states. Once things get too hot, we pack up, head somewhere else for a while, and start again.”
“Why would you do this?”
“Because the opportunity is there,” Cal replied. “Taking risks that other men wouldn’t is how I got to own half of Seedley. Me and Niles weren’t happy with the way things were being handled in town, so we rode in to handle them ourselves. Since that became so easy, we both figured we could grab even more if we set our minds to it. The real beauty of it is that the Overlands and Healeys have enough money to pave the way for just about anything we like. As of a few weeks ago, I’ve got the guns and men to open a lot of doors. The only ones who suspect much of anything are you and yours. Fortunately you’re all in one place . . . and all of you will be buried in that field out yonder.”
“This is insane!” Borden said. “You can’t really think you’ll get away with this.”
Cal shrugged again. “We have so far. It was even easier than I thought it would be. Didn’t cost us much to buy the loyalty of one of your deputies. When he found his conscience and went to tell you about what happened, it was a simple matter to take him down. To be honest, me and Niles have only started putting our ideas together. All we know for certain is that we’re the ones who need to run Seedley and we’ve got more than enough firepower to clean you and your deputies out. After that . . . we’ll come up with something. You don’t need to worry about any of that, though. Your time is done, Marshal! You may have had good intentions, but it’s time to step down.”
“Don’t do this!” Borden said. “Men will die here today unless you come to your senses.”
“M
ore men will die if we live under laws that allow killers to go free or wile away their time in a cell. You’ll see, Marshal. It’ll be a lot better my way. Oh, wait,” Cal added. “You won’t see. But the others will and I’m sure they’ll remember you fondly.”
Aldus listened to the exchange as if he were distanced from it all. A big part of him scarcely believed it was happening, much like when he had his first professional bout. The next couple of seconds dragged on heavy feet.
Jesse stood in front of him, ready to fight. Prepared to kill.
When those slow seconds finally passed, the world around that homestead came apart at the seams.
Chapter 16
Aldus didn’t know who fired the first shot. His eyes were fixed on Jesse because that was the only man he could do anything about. As soon as one of the men in the standoff pulled his trigger, gunshots ripped through the air in sporadic bursts. Aldus reached for his Schofield as hot lead whipped past him to dig into the side of the wagon. He cleared leather, only to take quick aim from the hip and pull his trigger. Even at such close range, Aldus’s shot went wild, allowing Jesse to step aside and bump his shoulder against the rear corner of the wagon.
Men were shouting to one another nearby. Some were hollering in pain or desperation. Others were cursing and yelling like the ones Aldus had read about in the Bible who spoke in tongues. All of those words blended into more noise, which Aldus pushed aside so he could focus on the task at hand.
Jesse glared at him with his burning green eyes. The hatred in them was so distinctive that he might as well have not worn a mask at all when he’d stormed into the Main Rose Hotel. Aldus had no idea why this man hated him so much, and he didn’t bother wasting time in trying to figure it out. Some men hated just to hate. Others just liked to hurt folks, and that kind of joy was a brutal, ugly sight with which Aldus was all too familiar. Since the only cover to be found was the wagon itself and getting to it meant either rushing Jesse or putting his back to him, Aldus took the only other option left to him and dived to the right.
Ralph Compton Straight Shooter Page 16