by Alan Irwin
‘So what d’you suggest we do right now?’ asked Bellamy.
‘Make sure all your weapons are in good working order,’ Will replied, ‘and that you have plenty of ammunition. Has each one of you received an offer of money from Brent, in exchange for leaving?’
‘Everybody has,’ Ed replied, ‘from Brent in person. But we all turned him down. And yesterday, before Brent’s ramrod Grant was here with Dixon, they had already visited the other three homesteads and got the same answer that Jane gave them. Also, they made the same threats.’
‘It seems likely, then,’ said Will, ‘that Brent’s going to get tougher now, and we can expect some night raids on the homesteads, probably attacking one at a time. I know the Diamond B ranch buildings are between the Bender homestead and town. Is there any place between the buildings and the homesteads where a man could hide and see riders heading towards your places during the night?’
‘There’s just one place,’ replied Ed, ‘about halfway. It’s a small grove of trees that the riders would have to pass close by.’
‘Good,’ said Will, ‘We need some warning of when they’re paying us a visit, and we need somebody out in the open when they reach us. We don’t all want to have to stay inside all night, wondering whether they’re going to turn up, and when and where. But before I go on, is everybody still in favour of standing up to Brent? There’s no denying that somebody might get hurt.’
They all nodded, and Will continued.
‘What I aim to do myself,’ he said, ‘is to spend the nights in that grove of trees, watching for riders coming from the Diamond B towards the homesteads. I can get some sleep during the day. I’ll follow them, keeping as close as I can in the dark. When I know which homestead they’ve turned on to, I’ll give a warning to you that they’re on the quarter-section.’
‘How will you do that?’ asked Ed.
‘I’ll agree with each one of you,’ Will replied, ‘a spot on your homestead which the raiders ain’t likely to be going near, and which is about a hundred yards from the house. From that spot, you can run a length of thin, strong wire along the ground to the wall of the house. The spot needs to be marked somehow, so that I can find it in the dark.
‘The wire needs to pass through the wall of the house, and inside it’s got to be fastened to something so that a pull on the wire by me will make enough of a racket to wake you up. When you get the signal, you can stand by the windows with your weapons, but keep the door fastened on the inside. I’ll be out there, checking what they’re doing, and firing shots in their direction. If they come near the house, you can fire at them through the windows. Maybe, between us, we can scare them off before they cause any damage. Is there any problem about getting the wire?’
‘No,’ replied Ed. ‘I’ve got enough for all four homesteads if necessary. Your plan sounds pretty good to me. There’s still time to get those wires laid before dark. Did you tell Fuller you weren’t going back there tonight?’
‘I said I probably wouldn’t,’ Will replied, ‘but I didn’t say I’d be staying on one of the homesteads. So Brent won’t know where I am, at least for a while.’
Will checked with each homesteader the spot where the end of the wire would be located, and left them to lay it between that point and the house. Arriving back at the Foster homestead, he had a meal with the family, and soon after darkness had fallen he rode off towards the grove, taking some food and drink with him. He had no difficulty finding his hiding place for the night, and tethered his horse well back from the trail.
The night passed without incident, and he returned to the Foster homestead at daybreak. A bunk had been provided for him in the barn, and after telling the Fosters that there had been no sign of Brent’s men during the night, he slept there for a few hours.
During the rest of the day, nobody from the Diamond B was seen in the vicinity of the homesteads, and the settlers carried on with their work as usual, none of them going into town. As on the previous day, Will left after nightfall to take up position in the grove.
Shortly after midnight, standing behind a tree just inside the grove, he heard the sound of riders approaching from the east. As they passed him, he could see that there were three of them, riding slowly towards the homesteads. Quickly, he went for his horse, led it out of the grove, then mounted it, and followed the three riders, keeping just out of sight in the darkness. He could hear the faint sound of horses’ hoofs meeting the ground, and the occasional sound of voices as the riders talked to one another.
As Will drew near to the point where the track leading to the Bender house led off to the right, he could tell, from the sounds he heard, that the riders had turned on to this track. He followed them, and shortly veered off to his left, and went to the end of the alarm wire, over which a large piece of timber was lying. He dismounted, removed the timber, and pulled as hard as he could on the wire.
Inside the house, the Benders were fast asleep. In the bedroom, the alarm wire was attached to the bottom end of a heavy crowbar leaning against the wall. When Will pulled on the wire, the crowbar clattered down on to the bare timber floor. Instantly awake, the Benders each took hold of a rifle, and stood at one of the windows of the house, watching for any movements outside.
Will left his horse tied to the piece of timber, and cautiously, on foot, he made his way towards the buildings. He circled round them, and came up behind the barn. Looking round the rear corner, he saw the outlines of two figures stealthily approaching the house. He fired several shots towards them, and at the same time Bender and his wife opened fire from the windows. The two intruders stopped short, then ran away from the sources of the shooting, towards their horses. Will, too far away to be seen by the Benders, ran to the front of the barn, and saw a third man come out of the barn door, and run after the others. He sent a shot after him, then noticed a flickering light coming from the interior of the barn. Running inside, he saw that a small pile of hay standing against the timber wall had been ignited, and was now well alight.
Will grabbed a rake, and pulled the burning hay away from the wall, then spread it over the earthen floor. Using a big pail of water standing just inside the door, he doused the flames, making sure they were all properly extinguished. He was certain that had his intervention come more than ten minutes or so later, the timber wall would have caught fire, and the building and its contents would then most likely have been destroyed.
Convinced that the three intruders had left, he quitted the barn. Bender and his wife had stopped firing. Will circled the house at a distance, and ran up to the rear wall, which had no windows. He struck the wall four times with the handle of his six-gun. At this prearranged signal, indicating it was safe to do so, Bender opened the door to let Will in.
Will explained what had happened, and went with Bender to the barn.
‘Like you see,’ he said, ‘you’ve lost a little hay, is all. It could have been a lot worse. I shot at the man who did it. Winged him, I think. It didn’t stop him running off. As for the other two, I don’t know whether they were hit or not. They were moving pretty fast when they ran off.’
‘We owe you a lot,’ said Bender, back in the house. ‘What do we do now?’
‘You can both go back to bed,’ said Will. ‘I don’t think there’ll be any more trouble tonight. But just in case, you’d better rig up your alarm again. I’ll go back to the grove until daybreak.’
There was no further sign that night of riders from the Diamond B, and Will returned to the Foster homestead at dawn. He told them what had happened during the night.
‘So Brent’s stepping up his operation against us,’ said Ed. ‘Things are getting serious. What do we do now?’
‘I think,’ Will replied, ‘that we should carry on as we are for the time being. There’s no doubt in my mind that the three men who rode on to the Bender homestead during the night were from the Diamond B, but we can’t prove that. We need to get certain proof that Brent’s acting outside the law.’
‘All right,’ said Ed, ‘I’ll let the others know.’
Will took some sleep, and in the afternoon he helped Ed with a few jobs around the homestead. After dark, he rode to the grove.
THREE
Will dismounted outside the grove, and led his horse into it. Threading his way through the trees in the darkness, he was suddenly joined by three men, two of whom jabbed the barrels of their six-guns into the small of his back. The third man stood in front of him, and ordered him to put up his hands. From his voice, Will recognized the man as Grant, the Diamond B foreman. Grant took Will’s gun, and tied his hands. Then he lit a match, and looked into Will’s face.
‘We figured it was you, Drummond,’ he said. ‘You were a fool to join up with the settlers. You should have left the valley when you had the chance. Your luck ran out when you were spotted leaving this grove at daybreak. Mr Brent ain’t too happy about one of his men getting shot last night. But you’ll be seeing him soon. He’ll tell you about that himself.’
One of the hands collected three horses from further inside the grove, then Will was taken to the Diamond B two-storey ranch-house. Grant took him into the living-room, where Brent was waiting. The rancher regarded the prisoner with grim satisfaction.
‘You realize now what a fool you were to meddle in my affairs, Drummond,’ he said. ‘You had your chance to leave. But now you’ve gone too far. I’m sure you had a hand in wounding one of my men last night.’
‘Yes, that was me,’ said Will. ‘It seemed to me to be the natural thing to do to somebody trespassing and setting fire to somebody else’s barn.’
Brent ignored the remark, and spoke to the foreman.
‘Put him in that small bedroom upstairs,’ he said. ‘Tie him up good, and put a guard inside the room with him. Then bring Dixon here.’
In the bedroom, Will was tightly bound, and laid on the bed. A hand sat on a chair near the door. Downstairs, Brent spoke to Grant and Dixon.
‘We’ve got to get rid of Drummond,’ he said, ‘but not here in the valley. We can’t risk being blamed for his death if somebody comes looking for him. I reckon our best plan is to take him out of the valley before daybreak, and fake some sort of fatal accident. And I’ve got a plan to cover that.
‘Before you leave, return all the things we’ve taken out of his pockets. Then take him out of the valley to Eagle Bluff, and ride to the top of the sheer side. Then throw his body over the edge. Blindfold the horse, then manoeuvre it over the edge as well. After that, ride to the bottom, take the ropes off Drummond, and the blindfold off the horse. Then put Drummond’s six-gun on the ground nearby, and come back here.’
Grant and Dixon left with their prisoner three hours before daybreak, and it was still dark when they rode out of the valley. Will was riding his own horse, with his hands tied behind him, and Dixon was leading it. Will was sure that the two men with him had orders to kill him somewhere outside the valley. When dawn broke, he could see that they were riding south towards a tall bluff he could just see in the distance, and which he recollected passing on his way to the valley a few days earlier. He wondered how much further they were going to ride before they reached the spot where he was to die. But there was one glimmer of hope.
Three months previously, Will had been in Amarillo. Before leaving, he had been looking around for a new saddle to replace the one which had given him many years of service, but had reached the end of its useful life. In the livery stable where he had left his horse, he noticed a Denver saddle, in excellent condition, for sale. This, he decided, would suit his purpose, and he asked the liveryman where it came from.
He was told that the saddle had belonged to an outlaw called Nolan, who was shot dead while he and his gang were robbing a bank in Amarillo a couple of weeks earlier. The rest of the gang had escaped,. The saddle had been handed to the liveryman by the law, to cover the cost of bills for stabling which two members of the gang had left unpaid.
Will bought the saddle, and it was on his horse when he left next day on his way to Pueblo, Colorado. He found that it suited him perfectly, and when he stopped for a break at noon, he took a close look at it. He had noticed that the horn at the front of the saddle, and the cantle at the rear, were both thicker than normal. Examining them closely, he noticed that, unusually, there was a small metal knob on top of each.
Curious, he pulled upwards on the knob on the cantle, and a stout blade about three inches long, came slowly into view, before it was prevented from moving out any further. The blade had two sharp cutting edges.
Very ingenious, thought Will. Some saddle maker must have incorporated the blades at the request of Nolan, an outlaw under continuous threat of capture. The blades would provide a chance of escape for a prisoner who, after capture, was being led to jail, on his own horse, and with his hands bound.
*
When Will rode off from the Diamond B, as prisoner of Grant and Dixon, with his hands tied behind him, his ankles were also tied together with a piece of rope passing under the belly of his mount. Dixon was leading Will’s horse, and Grant was riding side by side with Dixon. Will pulled on the knob at the top of the cantle until the blade was fully extended.
Then he started work on the rope holding his two wrists together. The sharp blade made short work of the job, though he suffered a number of cuts on his wrists in the process. Well before they rode out of the valley, his hands were free. But he found that it was impossible to untie the rope holding his ankles together. He would have to wait until they were freed by his captors before making his bid to escape.
When they reached the bluff, and started to climb the sloping side, Will was sure they had arrived at their destination. Reaching the summit, they rode across to the top of the sheer drop to the plain below. Here, Grant and Dixon dismounted, and walked back to Will, who was holding his wrists together behind him, praying that his captors would not immediately check that they were still securely tied. His prayer was answered. Dixon removed the rope between his ankles, and ordered Will to dismount.
Will pulled his feet out of the stirrups, swung his right leg over the neck of his mount, and slid out of the saddle to the ground, his hands still clasped together behind him. As his feet hit the ground, he exploded into action.
Dixon was to his right, only a couple of paces away, and Grant was behind Dixon. Will turned, and moved rapidly towards Dixon, whose gun was plucked from its holster by Will before he realized what was happening. Now without a weapon, he ducked, twisted round, and ran behind the ramrod, who was drawing his six-gun. Will concentrated on Grant, and shot him in the chest. The ramrod’s hasty shot missed Will by inches.
Dixon, shielded by Grant, ran to his horse, pulled his rifle from the saddle holster, and turned to face Will, just as Grant collapsed on the ground. Will’s second shot hit Dixon in the head before the Diamond B hand had triggered his rifle, and Dixon fell backwards on to the ground. Will walked up to each of his victims to check their condition. Both were dead, lying on the ground about twenty feet back from the top of the sheer face of the bluff.
Will left the horses and the bodies where they were, He was sure that Brent would send men out to look for them when they failed to return, later in the day. He mounted his horse and rode back towards the valley. He waited outside until after dark, then entered it by a route different from the one by which he had been brought out earlier. Once inside the valley, he rode to the Foster homestead, where the family was taking supper.
Ed Foster opened the door to Will’s knock. Greatly relieved at the sight of Will, he beckoned him inside.
‘We sure are glad to see you,’ he said. ‘When you didn’t turn up this morning, we figured Brent’s men must have captured you.’
‘That’s exactly what happened,’ said Will, and went on to tell them about his capture, followed by the attempt to murder him, and his escape, leaving Grant and Dixon dead at Eagle Bluff.
Ed and his wife were clearly shocked by the news.
‘So now we know,’ said
Ed, ‘that Brent’s ready to commit murder in order to get his own way. I’m sorry you got dragged into this affair. It looks like you were lucky to escape.’
‘I wasn’t dragged into it,’ said Will. ‘I have my own reasons for wanting to help you homesteaders. And I figure to carry on doing that, if that’s what you want.’
‘What’s Brent likely to do next?’ asked Jane.
‘He’s lost two men,’ said Will, ‘and he’ll suspect that I’m back in the valley. I think there could be a lull for a few days while he thinks about the situation. He could just back down, and drop the idea of bringing more cattle into the valley. But having met Brent, I think that’s unlikely. I think he may bring in somebody from outside to do his dirty work for him. How do you two feel about carrying on the fight against Brent? And how about the others, when they’ve heard the news?’
‘We’re here by right,’ said Ed, ‘and it’s a pity the law ain’t here to back us up. But we’ve got roots here now, and I figure this place is worth fighting for. And I think Jane feels the same way.’
He looked at his wife.
‘I agree with Ed,’ said Jane. ‘It’s all wrong that we should be forced to leave here just because of one man’s greed. I’d been hoping that maybe more homesteaders would turn up so that we could start a school in Danford for the children. After all, the land covered by a quarter-section is nothing compared to the whole of the land in this valley.’
‘I’ll go and talk with the other homesteaders right now,’ said Ed, ‘and tell them what’s happened, and see how they feel about the situation. But before I go, what do you think we should do for the time being?’
‘Carry on as usual, during daylight,’ Will replied, ‘but keep weapons close by, and watch out for riders from the Diamond B. I’ll keep watch at night, like I was doing before, but it’s clear I can’t do it from the grove now. I’ll find a place on the Bender homestead where I can watch out for them, whichever homestead they’re aiming for. If they turn up, I’ll follow them, and raise the alarm like I did before. I might as well go along with you now.’