by Alan Irwin
Josh put the CLOSED notice back on the doors leading into the street, and went out of the rear door to check that there was no one around. Then he and Josh dragged out Eli Brent and Garner, one by one, lifted them on the buckboard, and covered them with a canvas sheet. Will returned briefly to release Haley, then he and Josh climbed on to the buckboard, and headed for the homesteads, while Haley, unobserved, led the prisoners’ horses to the rear of the blacksmith’s shop, where they would be out of sight.
As Will and Josh passed by each homestead, aware that the settlers would be on the lookout for them, they gave a pre-arranged signal to indicate that they were carrying Eli Brent on the buckboard. When they arrived at the Foster homestead, the prisoners were put in the barn, with Josh guarding them for the time being.
There was considerable activity at the three homesteads receiving the signal, and it was not long before a buckboard carrying supplies, and accompanied by a small number of livestock, left each one of them, and proceeded to the Foster homestead. Here they settled down to help guard the prisoners, and await the next phase of Will’s plan.
Will had completed a letter to Luke Brent, and had shown it to the homesteaders. It was addressed to the outlaw, and read: ‘We are holding your father and one of your men at the Foster homestead. Your father will be exchanged for the two boys you kidnapped. If you refuse to exchange, your father will suffer. The same applies if you try to rescue him, or cause any damage to the homesteads. We will communicate only through Penny alone. Anybody turning up here from the Diamond B, without our permission, will be shot. Drummond.’
Will handed the letter, in a sealed envelope, to Bellamy, who had volunteered to take it to Penny, in town, for him to deliver to Luke Brent at the ranch.
‘Take my horse,’ said Will. ‘I reckon it’s the fastest one we have. Ride as quick as you can into town, and do the same coming back. We don’t want to run the risk of you being captured by anybody from the Diamond B.’
When Bellamy reached Danford, he found Penny leaving the store, in which he had been working all morning. He showed him the envelope, and asked him to take it to Luke Brent.
‘We know you do work for Eli Brent,’ he said. ‘This is mighty urgent. Needs to be taken right away. You’ll be in real trouble with Brent if you don’t do what I say.’
Bellamy handed the letter to Penny, and rode fast out of town. Penny followed him a few minutes later. The arrival and departure of Bellamy, and the departure of Penny were closely observed by Haley, who had hidden in the blacksmith’s shop since Will and Josh had left on the buckboard.
Haley left the blacksmith’s shop and ran to the saloon, where he told Fuller and the few customers inside about the capture of Eli Brent and Garner by Will and Josh, who had left him, tied up and gagged, in his shop.
‘I’ve only just freed myself,’ he said. ‘I wonder where they’ve taken their prisoners.’
‘It’s no concern of ours,’ said Fuller. ‘I guess we’ll hear soon enough about what’s happening.’
SIX
Penny found Luke Brent in the Diamond B ranch-house. He handed him the envelope. As the outlaw read the letter, his face suffused with rage. He handed the letter to Penny, and waited while he read it.
‘You knew nothing of this?’ he asked.
‘No, I didn’t,’ Penny replied. ‘I was in the store all morning. Didn’t see a thing. This letter was handed to me by Bellamy, one of the homesteaders, about half an hour ago. He didn’t tell me what was inside it. Just said to get it to you as quick as I could. Then he rode off towards the homesteads.’
‘Damnation!’ said Brent. ‘We’ll have to make the exchange. There’s no option. You ride to the Foster homestead, and tell Drummond we’ll make the exchange before dark. Say I’ll bring the boys to a point about a hundred yards from the house. I’ll be alone, except for them. Then, when Drummond fires his gun in the air, both my father and the boys will start walking towards each other. See if Drummond agrees to this. Then ride back here and wait for me. I’m going to pick up the boys from outside the valley. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.’
Penny rode to the Foster homestead. He was greeted by the sight of all the settlers, carrying weapons, standing near the house, awaiting his arrival. He saw Will, and stopped a few yards in front of him. He passed on Luke Brent’s message.
‘Tell Luke Brent we agree,’ said Will. ‘We’ll do it the way he suggests. But if there’s any trickery, his father will suffer for it.’
‘I’ll tell him that,’ said Penny. He wheeled his horse, and headed for the ranch-house.
Jane and Mary walked up to Will.
‘Are we really going to get Davy and Billy back soon?’ asked Jane.
‘I think we are,’ Will replied. ‘I can’t see what could go wrong.’
An hour before nightfall, Luke Brent was seen riding towards the homestead, accompanied by two boys sitting on another horse. They all dismounted about a hundred yards from the house, and the outlaw told the boys that when he gave the word, they were to walk, not run, to their parents.
Will confirmed the identities of the two boys through field-glasses. Eli Brent was brought out of the barn, his legs now freed. Will fired his gun in the air, and the boys and the rancher started walking towards each other. When the boys reached the group of settlers, and were found to be unharmed, there was great rejoicing. Will watched the Brents until they disappeared from view in the direction of the ranch-house. Then he spoke to the homesteaders.
‘We’ve still got one of Luke Brent’s men to bargain with,’ he said, ‘but maybe that won’t stop them attacking this homestead. So we need to make sure that we’re ready for them any time they decide to try, though I doubt if they’ll do anything tonight. And we’ve got to keep a close guard on the prisoner. I guess some of you are worried about not being able to tend your crops, but I reckon we have a much better chance of getting the better of Brent if we all stay together for the time being.’
This proposal was agreed by the homesteaders, and Will went on to discuss the arrangements for guarding the homestead.
‘Between nightfall and dawn,’ he said, ‘I think we should all stay in the house, including the prisoner. I know it’ll be crowded, but I reckon we ain’t got no choice. And to give us warning of a attack from any direction during the night, I think we should rig up an alarm system, first thing tomorrow morning. I expect Brent will have a man watching us, but he’ll be too far off to understand exactly what we’re doing.
‘What I have in mind is a wire circling the group of buildings, and running, just above ground level, through holes in stakes driven hard into the ground. The wire will be divided into six sections, and each section will be connected to another wire running through the wall of the house. Inside the house, each wire will pull on something which will give an alarm, so that we’ll know in which direction they’re coming from. And since this house has a window in each wall, a rifle at each window can cover attacks from all directions.’
‘I reckon that’s a good idea,’ said Josh. ‘We’ve got the wire, and the timber for the stakes. We’ll start on it at daybreak.’
Will went on to suggest that this might be a good time to try and get the law to give them some help. ‘I know there’s a US marshal in Denver called Harper. He’s a federal officer. I met him a few times when I was a sheriff. He’s a good man. I reckon we should send him a telegraph message from Lantry, telling him that Luke Brent, with two of his men, is in the valley, at his father’s Diamond B Ranch, and that he’s holding us under siege, on the Foster homestead, where we’re holding the fourth member of his gang. I’ll ask him to get help to us as soon as he can. I think I can rely on him to respond, because Luke Brent is wanted for robbery and murder in three or four states. But it may take a while before he can get some law officers here. Meanwhile, we’ve got to hold out the best we can.’
‘When do we send the message?’ asked Ed. ‘I’m volunteering to take it to Lantry. It’s clear you can’
t be spared from here yourself.’
‘All right,’ said Will. ‘You’ll leave here in the morning, two hours before dawn. Hand the message in at the telegraph office around noon, and don’t ride back into the valley until after dark. Don’t touch the alarm wires, and give the agreed knock on the wall of the house when you reach it.’
There was no sign of intruders during the night, and Ed departed as planned. He rode into Lantry just before noon, and dismounted outside the telegraph office. He tied his horse to the hitching-rail, already occupied by one other mount.
Earlier that day, on the Diamond B, Luke Brent had prepared a telegraph message to send to a friend of his called Curtis, the leader of a gang of outlaws hiding out near Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. Curtis was expecting Luke Brent and his men to join up with his gang in the near future, to carry out a robbery involving a large shipment of gold by Wells Fargo. The message was to tell Curtis that the arrival of Luke Brent and his men would be delayed.
The message was taken to Lantry by Arnold, one of Luke Brent’s men. He arrived at the telegraph office not long before noon, and went inside. The operator was busy receiving some messages, and Arnold stood waiting until he finished. Then he waited while his own message was transmitted. He was just about to leave when, through the window, he saw a rider come up to the hitching-rail, and dismount. He looked familiar, and Arnold suddenly realized that he had seen him among the group of homesteaders when Luke Brent had told them of the capture of the two boys. Arnold came up behind the operator, pistol-whipped him over the head, and lowered his body to the floor. Then he stood beside the door.
Ed took the message out of his pocket, opened the door of the office, and stepped inside. As he saw the operator lying on the floor, he felt the barrel of a six-gun pressed into the middle of his back. His own six-gun was taken from its holster, and the message was taken out of his hand.
‘We’re taking a ride to the Diamond B,’ said Arnold, glancing out of the window, where the street appeared to be empty. ‘Go outside in front of me, and get on your horse. Then ride out of town ahead of me. Do anything foolish, and I’ll gun you down.’
Ed had recognized Arnold as one of Luke Brent’s men, and he figured that any attempt on his part to escape was bound to fail. Cursing the misfortune which had brought him to the telegraph office at the same time as his captor, he rode on in silence until they reached the Diamond B ranch-house. Luke Brent came out of the house as they reached it. He recognized Ed as one of the homesteaders.
‘This is a stroke of luck,’ he said. ‘Now we can get Garner back. How in blazes did you manage to capture him?’
‘It was in Lantry,’ said Arnold, ‘just after I’d sent your message to Curtis. He turned up to send a telegraph message, but I got the drop on him before he could send it. I’ve got it here.’
He handed the message to Luke Brent, who read it with mounting concern.
‘If this had gone,’ he said, ‘we could have been in serious trouble. We’ve got to see that they don’t get another chance to send this message.’
He went to discuss the matter with his father, and half an hour later, he rode towards the Foster homestead with Ed as his prisoner. They were spotted when they were some distance away, and Will went to a point well away from the house, out of sight of the alarm wires, to wait for them. Luke Brent and his prisoner stopped when they were in hearing distance of Will, who had recognized Ed, and was wondering how he had come to be captured. Luke Brent called out.
‘You can see I’ve got one of your friends here, Drummond,’ he said. ‘I figured you might like to exchange Garner for him.’
‘All right,’ said Will. ‘You move back seventy yards, and I’ll bring Garner to where I’m standing now. I’ll fire my gun like before, and they can both start walking.’
Will went for Garner in the barn, and led him back, blindfolded, to the spot from which he himself had been speaking to Luke Brent earlier. He took the blindfold off, and the exchange took place. The two outlaws rode off, and Ed and Will returned to the house. On the way Ed told how he had been captured before he had been able to send the message to Curtis.
‘I saw Luke Brent read the message,’ he said, ‘and I could see he was mighty relieved it hadn’t been sent.’
‘This means,’ said Will, ‘that they’ll do everything they can to stop us sending another message.’
In the house, Will discussed the present situation with the men, while Jane and Mary kept a watch outside for approaching riders.
‘The Brents will be aiming to make sure,’ said Will, ‘that no telegraph message gets through to the US marshal. I’m sure they’re keeping watch on us during the day. I reckon that from now, during the night, they’ll have a ring of men around the house, but well back from it, to stop any rider leaving. And I guess it won’t be long before they decide to attack the house, now they’ve got Garner back.’
‘So all we can do,’ said Josh, ‘is do our best to hang on here until our supplies run out?’
‘Not quite,’ said Will. ‘Fuller, in town, told me he was willing to help us any way he could, and I know he goes to Lantry now and again, to send telegraph messages. I reckon that if we got our message to him, he’ll take it there for us.’
‘That’s fine,’ said Josh, ‘but how do we get it to him?’
‘A rider would never get through to Danford,’ said Will, ‘because a rider is what they’ll be looking out for. But a man on foot would stand a good chance. You’ve seen how low the river is just now. The bank on both sides, for well over a mile from here towards town, is over two feet high, and right now the water doesn’t come up to the foot of the bank. A man could crouch down there, and move along without being seen. As soon as it’s properly dark, I’ll leave. Should be back long before dawn.’
‘Not a good idea,’ said Josh. ‘You’re needed here. We don’t know what might happen during the night. I’ll take the message to Fuller myself.’
‘All right,’ said Will. ‘I’ll write it out again for you.’
Josh set out an hour after nightfall. The sky was overcast, and visibility was low. He jumped down to the bed of the river, crouched down, and moved along the bank towards Danford. The night was still, and as he progressed, the only sound he could hear, faintly, was that of his footsteps along the bed of the river. Then he froze as he heard a man’s cough, a little way from the river. As he waited there, the cough was repeated, then there was silence. Cautiously, he continued along the river bed until he had covered a further mile. Then he climbed to the top of the bank, and headed along it, towards town.
He reached Danford before midnight and, keeping off the street, he went to the rear of the saloon, and tapped on the window of Fuller’s private room behind the bar. Luck was with him. Fuller opened a door not far from the window, and Josh walked up to it. Recognizing the man outside, Fuller beckoned him in, and took him to his room.
‘I’ve been wondering,’ said Fuller, ‘what’s been happening on the homesteads.’
Josh related to the saloon-keeper events which had occurred since he and Will had taken Eli Brent and Garner prisoner in Danford.
‘Will figured,’ said Josh, ‘that you might be willing to help us by getting the telegraph message to Marshal Curtis sent from Lantry. He reckons that the marshal will be keen to get his hands on Luke Brent and his gang.’
‘I can do that for you,’ said Fuller. ‘Everybody knows that I use the telegraph office in Lantry now and again. I’ll take the message there tomorrow morning. And I’m hoping you folks manage to hold out till help gets here.’
‘We’re obliged to you,’ said Josh, and handed the message over. ‘I’d best be getting back now.’
Josh left by the rear door, and retraced his steps, dropping to the bed of the river at the same point at which he had left it earlier. Then he moved towards the Foster homestead. He was approaching the point from which he had earlier heard the sound of coughing, when suddenly, without warning, a man dropped down from th
e top of the bank several yards in front of him, and filled a mug with water from the river. The outline of the man, against the night sky, was just visible to Josh, and he pressed himself hard against the bank, and crouched there, motionless.
The man stood there for a while, looking across the river. Then he climbed back to the top of the bank, and sat down, with his legs hanging over the edge. Josh stayed motionless, fearing that any movement on his part would attract the attention of the man seated nearby. Several minutes passed, then Josh heard the sound of a man’s voice calling from a little way back from the river. The man seated on the bank responded, and he was shortly joined by another man, who sat down beside him.
Listening to the ensuing conversation, Josh received some very interesting information. The man who had just arrived brought orders from Luke Brent that the men surrounding the homesteads were to leave just before daybreak. They would be replaced by fewer guards whose job was to ensure that nobody left the homesteads during daylight. Later, the night guard would be resumed until after midnight, when a combined assault would be launched on the Foster house by Diamond B hands and Luke Brent’s men.
‘Mr Brent and Luke have lost patience,’ said the man who had just arrived. ‘For one thing, it seems Luke has some business to attend to in the Texas Panhandle, and this trouble with the homesteaders is holding him up. When we attack the house, we’ll be hitting it from all sides, and the plan is to set fire to the walls so that the settlers will have to come out and give themselves up.’
The conversation which followed was of no interest to Josh, and it was not long before the visitor stood up and left. Then the guard himself rose, and walked away from the bank. Josh waited a few minutes, then continued on his way to the Foster homestead, where his arrival was greeted with considerable relief.