Drummond Takes a Hand

by Alan Irwin

  He told Will and the others that the telegraph message would be despatched later in the day. Then he broke the news of the impending night attack on the house.

  ‘We’ve got to hold out till the law gets here,’ said Will, ‘and that’s going to take more than a day or two. So we’ve got to beat them off tonight, and make them think again about making another attack on us. We’ve got supplies to last us over a week, and plenty of weapons and ammunition.’

  ‘How do we deal with them when they come after midnight?’ asked Ed.

  ‘I think we should keep the shutters on the four windows closed,’ said Will. ‘This will stop them from firing through the windows and injuring somebody inside.’

  ‘But how will we fire at them?’ asked Josh.

  ‘In each wall of the house,’ Will replied, ‘we’ll cut two holes big enough to poke a rifle or six-gun through, and take aim at anything moving outside. We’ll fix something solid on the inside, to cover the holes when they’re not in use. So the men moving up to the house will be facing fire from eight weapons. And we’ll still have people inside who can do the loading.’

  ‘What about their plan to set fire to the house?’ asked Bellamy.

  ‘I’m hoping,’ replied Will, ‘that with eight people firing at them, they won’t have much chance of setting the walls on fire. But, just in case, a little before midnight we’ll give the walls a real good soaking with water.’

  Will’s strategy was agreed, and the holes in the walls were cut during the day. Then the heavy barn doors were securely fastened, to prevent intruders from going inside during the night. At nightfall everyone assembled inside the house for a meal. After this, the young ones were put in an area away from the firing points, and the men and women got the weapons and ammunition ready for use. Firing positions were then allocated to the ones manning the firing points. These would be all six men, plus Jane and Martha. The other three women would help by reloading weapons as required.

  When all were clear about their part in the defence of the house, they waited, with some apprehension, for the signals warning of the arrival of the attacking force.

  SEVEN

  The first alarm wire to be operated was one coming through the front wall of the house. The time was forty minutes after midnight. Quickly, the men and women took up their posts as alarm wires on the other three sides of the house were operated. Outside, the night sky was clear, and it was not long before shadowy figures could be seen stealthily approaching the house on all sides.

  As soon as they appeared in view, and before they had time to reach the walls, the attackers, fourteen in all, came under a sudden hail of fire whose intensity was entirely unexpected. Although, in the darkness, accurate shooting was not possible, and not all the defenders were proficient in the use of firearms, four of the attackers were hit, though not fatally, and turned and moved, as quickly as they could, away from the house. A fifth, hit in the leg by a rifle bullet, fell to the ground, then dragged himself painfully away, in the direction from which he had come. All the bullets fired by the attackers embedded themselves harmlessly in the walls of the house.

  The attackers, including the two Brents, who had not been hit, realized the danger of continuing their approach on the house, and they hurriedly withdrew. Well back from the house, the rancher and his son stopped to assess the casualties.

  Garner, one of Luke Brent’s men, had a flesh wound in the left arm. Three Diamond B hands had been hit in the upper body, and one in the leg. None of the wounds appeared to be life-threatening.

  ‘We can’t risk another attack now,’ said Luke Brent, seething with anger and frustration. ‘The wounded men can go back to the ranch. The cook’s pretty good at tending gunshot wounds. We’ve still got enough fit men to keep watch, and make sure nobody leaves the homestead, day or night. We could starve them out. They must be running low on supplies by now, and they’ll be thinking about the children. But it don’t suit me to hang around that long. There must be some quicker way of getting them out of the house. I’ll work something out.’

  Inside the house, the firing points were manned until daybreak, when it became clear that the Brents had abandoned, for the time being, their plan to storm and take the house.

  ‘There’s no doubting,’ said Will, ‘that we hit several of the men out there, and this probably made them decide not to risk another attack. I’m sure they’ll still be watching us, so’s they can stop anybody leaving here. We’ll carry on watching for anybody heading this way during the day, and during the night we’ll stand ready to beat them off again if necessary.’

  After breakfast, Will spoke to the homesteaders.

  ‘We’ve done pretty good so far,’ he said, ‘but I’ve been trying to put myself in Luke Brent’s place. From what Josh heard on the river bank, Luke’s keen to leave here as soon as he can. So maybe he and the others will come back tonight, and try another way of capturing us. I know what I’d do if I was in his shoes, and maybe he’ll do the same. If he does, we can be ready for him.’

  ‘What d’you have in mind?’ asked Josh.

  ‘The walls of the house are pretty thick,’ said Will. ‘The weakest point is the door. What I’d do is take a buckboard, and fix a long stout piece of timber, or maybe a tree trunk, to the bed of the buckboard, with its end sticking out two or three feet at the back. Then I’d pack something on the bed of the buckboard at the back that would catch fire easy, and soak it with lamp oil.

  ‘I’d drive the buckboard here after dark, unhitch the horses, and stand it just out of sight of the guards, with the end pointing straight at the front of the house. As you know, there’s a clear flat run right up to the door. Put the right number of men on the tongue, and at the front of the buckboard, who’ve had practice beforehand in pushing it backward. Then the fire could be lit, and the buckboard pushed backwards until it rammed the house door. The men pushing it would be screened from any gunfire from the house. and the wall would likely catch fire.’

  ‘I can see that Luke Brent might be thinking along those lines,’ said Bellamy, ‘but what do we do to stop him?’

  ‘There’s a simple answer to that,’ Will replied, and went on to describe the solution he had in mind.

  ‘It won’t take us all that long,’ he added, when he had finished. ‘Might as well get started on it right now, if you all agree.’

  That same morning, on the Diamond B, Luke Brent and his father were discussing their failure to get rid of the homesteaders.

  ‘If it weren’t for Drummond,’ said Luke, ‘I’m sure we’d have driven them out by now. But I reckon there’s a way we can do it, and I think we should give it a try tonight.’

  He went on to describe an operation with a buckboard, which was identical to the one suggested by Will, even down to the burning material which it would carry.

  ‘Let’s try it,’ said Eli Brent. ‘We’ve got plenty of men for the job. And I’m just as keen as you are to see an end to it.’

  During the day, a suitable tree was felled in a nearby grove, The trunk was cut to the required length, which was then trimmed, and fixed firmly to the bed of a buckboard. The end of the trunk was projecting from the rear. The combustible material was then loaded.

  A little after midnight, a group of men from the Diamond B rode on to the Foster homestead. One of them was driving the buckboard. They stopped at a point just far enough from the house to ensure that, in the darkness, they could not be seen by the occupants. The riders dismounted, the horses were unhitched, and the buckboard was positioned so that the projecting end of the tree trunk was facing in a direction which led to the door of the house. The two Brents, with the other members of the attacking force, assembled by the tongue and the front of the buckboard, and the combustible material was set on fire. Then, steered by the tongue, the buckboard was pushed backwards, with increasing momentum. Soon the outline of the upper part of the house was visible, and the buckboard was steered towards the centre of the wall, where the door was located. Ther
e was no gunfire from the house.

  At a point nine yards from the house, when the buckboard was moving at a fair speed, the rear wheels suddenly dropped into a deep wide trench, dug by the homesteaders the previous day, which ran across its path. The buckboard stopped abruptly, and the men who were propelling and steering it, lurched forward and collided with the front. As they recovered their balance, a hail of fire, directed at the buckboard, came from the two holes which had previously been cut in the front wall of the house, and from two additional holes which had been cut in the same wall the day before.

  The attackers cowered behind the buckboard, firing an occasional shot towards the house.

  Luke Brent cursed. ‘We sure can’t attack the house from here,’ he said. ‘We’ve got to draw back. This buckboard’s going to be burnt out before long. We’d better move out while the men firing at us are blinded by the flames.’

  They all left the shelter of the buckboard together, and sprinted away from the house. Josh and Will, manning the two holes closest to the side walls, caught a glimpse of them in retreat, and fired a few shots at them before they disappeared into the darkness. Eli Brent was hit in the shoulder, and two Diamond B hands were shot in the arm, though their injuries were not serious. When they reached the horses, Luke Brent helped his father on to his mount.

  ‘We’d better get back to the ranch,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to think up some other way of getting them out.’

  They posted guards to keep watch on the homestead, and the rest rode back to the ranch. The cook, who had had some experience in the army as a nursing orderly, looked at the bullet wound in the back of the rancher’s shoulder. The bullet was not deeply embedded, and he extracted it without difficulty, and cleaned and dressed the wound. Then he attended to the minor injuries suffered by the two ranch hands. A little later, in the living-room, Luke Brent discussed the problem of the homesteaders with his father.

  ‘I’ve had an idea,’ he said. ‘I’m going to send a telegraph message to Armstrong, in Cheyenne. I know he’s there. I called to see him on the way up here. He’s the man who helped me blow open the safe in a bank in Pueblo. I’ll get him to bring some dynamite here, and we’ll blast the settlers out of that house. I’ll tell him it’s urgent. He should be here tomorrow.’

  ‘All right,’ said the rancher. ‘In the meantime we’d better make sure none of the settlers leaves the homestead.’

  When dawn broke on the Foster homestead after the unsuccessful attempt to ram the door of the house, Will and the homesteaders had breakfast. Then, after Will had taken a look at the burnt-out buckboard and the tracks left by the raiders, they assembled to discuss the current situation.

  ‘I know,’ said Will, ‘that we hit some of them when they were running off. There’s some blood on the ground. The question is, what are they going to try next? I’ve got to say I don’t take kindly to just waiting here, wondering what devilry they’ll be up to next.’

  ‘I know how you feel,’ said Ed, ‘but what else can we do?’

  ‘We know,’ replied Will, ‘that a man on foot can slip by the guards out there, and the Diamond B ranch-house is closer to here than Danford. When they took me there as a prisoner, I noticed there was a big covered water trough just outside the cookshack. I saw a couple of hands take a drink from it with a ladle, and the cook took some water from it and carried it into the shack. What if I slip out after dark, and put something in that water that don’t kill, but puts the men there out of action for a while? We do need a bit more time for the law to get here.’

  ‘Maybe I can help,’ said Mary Miller. ‘Before Josh and me got married, I worked with a doctor back East for a while, and he invented his own cure for patients with constipation. He taught me how to make it up for him. It didn’t have no taste, and you could mix it with water. And it sure did the trick. I never once knew it to fail.’

  ‘That is interesting,’ said Will. ‘Could you make up enough to treat a full trough of water about half as big again as the one outside this house?’

  ‘I reckon I can do that,’ said Mary. ‘Using what I brought with me, and with the help of the other homesteaders, I should be able to get all the ingredients I need. I’ll make up an extra strong mixture that Doc Lilly used to hand out sometimes. He called the remedy Lillylax.’

  ‘A good idea,’ said Will. ‘It’s settled, then. I’ll leave after dark, and aim to get there after midnight, when the men who aren’t out watching the homestead will likely be asleep. I don’t think they’ll attack the house tonight, now they know how well it’s guarded, and considering their casualties so far, but you’d better keep a watch for them, just the same.’

  During the day, Mary, with the help of Jane, prepared sufficient concentrated Lillylax to fill a large can.

  Will departed with the can, on foot, an hour before midnight, following the same route as that taken by Josh on his recent visit to Danford. When he climbed on to the top of the bank, he headed directly for the Diamond B buildings. So far, he had neither seen nor heard any sign of men from the Diamond B. As he cautiously approached the buildings, it became clear that the Brents had not thought it necessary to station guards.

  A light was showing in the bunkhouse, also one in the house. Will walked along the rear of the house, and came up behind the cookshack. He walked along the side, and stopped as he reached the corner. There was no sign of movement outside the buildings. He moved up to the water trough, and lifted the cover. The trough was not quite full of water, and there was plenty of room for the contents of the can, which he poured in. Then he replaced the cover, and left.

  On his return journey to the Foster homestead, as he was passing the point where Josh had been delayed by the appearance of one of the guards, he heard the distant sound of voices, which lasted for only a minute or so. He continued on his way to the Foster house, where he gave the prearranged signal, and was admitted. He told them his mission had been successful, and they reported that there had been no attack during his absence.

  ‘Good,’ said Will. ‘Now we just sit tight, and see what Lillylax can do for us.’

  EIGHT

  On the Diamond B, a little before dawn, the men who were to keep watch on the Foster homestead during daylight had breakfast, and rode out to their posts. The men who had been on night watch returned to the ranch for a meal and some rest.

  The first effects resulting from Will’s visit during the night were experienced by two hands in the middle of the afternoon, when they were struck down by a succession of severe abdominal pains, interspersed with hurried dashes to the privies. Then, in swift succession, everyone on site, including the two Brents, was affected in a similar way.

  The cook, himself suffering badly, was immediately suspected of handing out contaminated food, but he could think of nothing which might have caused the trouble. Water from the trough was not suspected, because it came straight from the river, and the trough was covered, and regularly cleaned out. So, to satisfy the thirst induced by the illness, they all drank water from the trough.

  The men watching the Foster homestead, who had taken food and water with them, were also badly affected in the afternoon, but they stuck to their posts, knowing how important it was that no one should be allowed to leave the homestead. At dawn, they were replaced by the day guards, all suffering in the same way as themselves.

  Armstrong arrived at the ranch just after noon, carrying the dynamite with him. In the living-room, the Brents told him of the current internal turbulence from which they were all suffering, and which was showing no sign of abating. Then, as they were about to discuss the operation for which Armstrong was being hired, the rancher and his son both rose abruptly and ran out of the room, heading for the privies. They returned ten minutes later.

  ‘We figure it’s something we all ate,’ said Luke Brent. ‘The water we use is all right. Comes straight from the river. Never gave us any trouble. What it was that we ate, we don’t know, but you’ll be all right. The cook will only give you foo
d that can’t possibly be contaminated.’

  They went on to discuss the operation on the Foster homestead.

  ‘We’ll do it tomorrow night,’ said Luke Brent. ‘I’m hoping everybody’s feeling better by then.’

  But early in the evening Armstrong was struck down by exactly the same illness as that affecting the others. Suspicion immediately fell on the water supply, and the trough was drained, thoroughly cleaned, and refilled from the river. From then on, the condition of the affected men started to improve, and on the following morning, at breakfast, it was finally decided that the operation on the Foster homestead would take place during the coming night. Meanwhile, the watch on the homestead would be maintained.

  But there was an unexpected development, reported by the men on watch during the night, when they returned shortly after the Brents had finished breakfast. One of their number, a ranch hand called Melville, had disappeared from his post sometime during the night. His horse was still picketed there, but there was no sign of Melville anywhere in the vicinity.

  ‘It’s the homesteaders and Drummond,’ said Luke Brent. ‘Must be. They’ve snuck out in the night, and captured him. I figure we’ll find him there when we raid the place tonight.’

  On the afternoon of the day that Armstrong arrived at the Diamond B, a posse of ten men, led by Deputy US Marshal Harding, reached the high ground bordering the south side of the valley. They stopped there and dismounted. US Marshal Harper in Denver, in response to Will’s telegraph message, had formed a posse of US deputy marshals, and deputy sheriffs from Colorado and Wyoming, to ride to the aid of the settlers, and arrest Luke Brent’s gang of outlaws. In his message, Will had given information on the location of the Foster homestead, and had said that it was under surveillance day and night, by men from the Diamond B.

  Harding moved forward to a point from which he had a clear view of the valley below. He soon located the homesteads, and in particular, the Foster homestead. Then he picked out the men who were keeping it under surveillance. He called for one of the deputy sheriffs, a man called Clinton, to join him. Clinton had served as a US Army scout for several years.