Troubled range

by Edson, John Thomas

  This book made available by the Internet Archive.

  For Major "Digger" Radford, R.A.V.C, Rtd., who had the horrible job of putting up with me in two countries.

  Part One

  The Bounty on Belle Starr's Scalp

  Curses crackled around Calamity Jane in a profane cloud as she stood, hands on hips, looking at the left front wheel of her wagon which had sunk through the caved-in roof of a prairie-dog hole; then slowly raised her eyes to study the setting sun.

  With all the west to pick from as digging ground, trust that blasted, fool critter to sink his tunnel right in the route her wagon was taking. Of course it might be claimed that the prairie-dog had been on the range first and she ought to have avoided its hole, but Calamity had never been a girl to admit she might be in the wrong.

  "Dad-blast your ornery, worthless hole-grubbing hide!" she spluttered. "The hosses'll never haul it out and night's near on here. I may as well make camp and cook up a meal, so keep out of sight, prairie-dog, or you'll be that meal."

  Calamity Jane had reached the mature age of eighteen and already bore a name fast becoming famous. Soldiers in the Army's string of forts claimed her acquaintance. Freighters boasted of having been the one who taught her to wield a blacksnake whip. More than one dancehall girl now

  knew to sing low when Calamity Jane swaggered into a saloon.

  Her red hair had a natural curl to it, hung medium long, and carried a U.S. Cavalry kepi perched on it. The face framed by the hair was pretty, freckled and tanned. A merry face with lips made for laughter or kissing, but capable of turning loose a blistering flow of invective should she be riled. Her figure had matured early and now at eighteen the breasts rose round and full. They forced hard against the dark blue Cavalry shirt, its neck opened far enough to give a tantalising glimpse of the opening of the valley between her breasts. The shirt, like her buckskin pants, seemed to have been bought a size too small and shrunk in the wash. The pants clung tight to her hips which swelled out and down to sturdy but shapely legs with Pawnee moccasins on the feet. Round Calamity's neck hung a string of freshwater pearls, her sole concession to feminine jewellery. Her arms, exposed by the rolled up sleeves, looked more muscular than a lady of fashion might have liked—came to a point. Calamity had never laid claim to being a lady of fashion, or any other kind. Nor would a lady of fashion be likely to wear a gunbelt, with a .36 Navy Colt butt forward in a fast draw holster at her right side. Calamity wore such a rig and knew how to use it.

  "I'll light a fire afore I unhitch you, boys," she told her two-horse team. "Maybe somebody'll see the flames and come lend us a hand."

  Collecting wood and buffalo chips from the rawhide possum-belly under the wagon, Calamity built a fire. She took water from the butt on the side of the wagon, filled her coffee-pot and set it to boil on the flames

  All in all, Calamity made an attractive picture as she prepared to make her camp. She attracted the attention of the rider who topped the rim behind her and halted his horse to drink in the scene below.

  Sitting his seventeen-hand stallion lightly, no mean feat for a man who topped six foot three in his bare feet and had the muscular development of a Hercules, the man looked down at Calamity. He shoved back his costly white, low-crowned, wide-brimmed Stetson from his curly golden-blond hair. The blue eyes looked out of a strong, tanned,

  almost classically handsome face. Knotted and tight rolled at his throat, the scarlet silk bandana trailed long ends over the expensive tan shirt. He clearly bought the shirt, and all his clothing, made to his measure. Few stores could supply clothes to fit him off their pegs. His shoulders had a great spread to them, the arms showing their enormous biceps even though the shirt's sleeves had been built generously. Tapering down to a lean waist, the body rested on long powerful legs clad in levis which hung outside his boots and had their cuffs turned back. His boots had the look of good workmanship and the gunbelt, with a matched brace of ivory handled 1860 Army Colts in the holsters, bore the marks of a master craftsman's hands. Whoever tooled that belt knew just what a man needed in the interests of drawing his guns very fast.

  The big man might look something of a dandy dresser, but he had an air of quiet self-reliance. He seemed to be at home on the range, although his home range would lie some distance to the south of Montana Territory.

  A touch of the Kelly spurs on the heels of his fancy-stitched boots started his bloodbay stallion moving. Before the horse had taken five steps Calamity heard its hooves and turned, hand hovering the butt of her gun.

  "Texan," she mused, studying his hat, then the low horned, double girthed saddle between his knees. "Cowhand. A good 'un or I've never seen one."

  Despite her thoughts, Calamity did not relax until the Texan halted his horse before her and doffed his hat in a gallant gesture, then nodded to the wagon.

  "Howdy, ma'am. You-all having trouble?"

  "jVavv/" she scoffed. "I just naturally like sitting herewith the wheel all bogged down and the wagon stuck. 'Course I'm not in trouble."

  "That being so," he replied calmly, his voice a deep, cultured southern drawl, "I'll be on my way again. Actios."

  Calamity stared at him for a moment. Then a curse ripped from her lips as he started the horse moving, setting his hat on his head once more. Her hand turned palm out, closed on the butt of her Colt and brought it from the holster. Its hammer clicked back under her thumb.

  "Hold it!" she snapped. "You come back here and lend me

  a hand to get the wagon out, or I'll put lead into you."

  Turning, the blond Texan surveyed her gun with calm detachment. He twisted in his saddle to do so and made no attempt to turn the bloodbay around.

  "Say please," he answered.

  "Do you know who I am?"

  "No, ma'am."

  "The name's Canary! Martha Jane Canary. Which, if you're so damned all-fired un-eddicated, spells Calamity Jane—and means I'm Wild Bill Hickok's gal."

  If Calamity expected her words, or fear of the famous Wild Bill Hickok's name to bring the Texan to a condition of servile obedience, she was to be disappointed. Tapping his Stetson to the correct "jack-deuce" angle over his off eye with the forefinger of his right hand, the Texan answered:

  "Which same's as good a reason as any I know not to help you. I never took to Wild Bill in any size, shape or form."

  Once more he started the horse moving and Calamity's temper popped right over the boiling point.

  "Hold it, damn you!" she howled and fired a shot, the bullet hissing by the big Texan's head.

  This time she got a reaction, although not the one she wanted. Barely had she fired when the Texan turned—only he held an Army Colt in his left hand.

  Calamity had not been watching his left hand. She knew that most men only carried two guns to have twelve shots handy instead of six. The Army Colt might be one of the finest percussion-fired revolvers ever made, but it still took time to reload with combustible cartridges or powder flask and ball. Only a few men could handle the left side gun worth a damn. It was in keeping with her lousy luck that she should tie in with a jasper who not only could, but just had showed remarkable skill when using his good left hand.

  Flame spurted from the Texan's Colt and dirt erupted between Calamity's feet causing her to take a hurried, if involuntary, step to the rear.

  "Leather it!" snapped the Texan, cocking his gun on the recoil, "or I'll blow it out of your hand."

  He could likely do it too. Calamity had not failed to notice

  the smooth ease with which he threw lead at the end of a very fast draw. It struck between her feet, but she was willing to bet the bullet went within an inch or two of where the big feller aimed it to go.

  "Wild Bill's not going to like this," Calamity
warned, twirling her Navy Colt on the trigger-finger, twisting it around and thrusting it back into the holster. Her attitude was one of "that showed him how to handle a gun."

  "Which same, looking at your wagon, you won't be headed anywhere to snitch to him about me," the Texan replied.

  The gun in his hand spun in a flashing arc, pinwheeled up into the air and slapped its barrel into his palm, curled around his hand like a trained pig on a barrel, rose into the air once more, was caught and went back into the holster.

  Calamity stared, her eyes bulging like organ-stops. Having seen a number of prominent gentlemen of the gun-fighting fraternity, she felt she could speak with some authority on the new and honourable art of pistol-juggling— which was not a show-off stunt, but a method of strengthening the wrists and improving the ability to handle the weapon. One thing Calamity knew for sure. The display she had just seen equalled the best it had ever been her privilege to witness.

  "What do I have to do afore you help?" she asked.

  "Like I said, say please."

  "Wouldn't want me to say pretty-please, would you?"

  "Adios" drawled the Texan and started the bloodbay moving.

  "All right, blast you!" Calamity wailed. "Please, damn you, please!"

  "Now that's a heap better," grinned the Texan, swinging his horse towards her. "World'd be a happier place happen we all asked each other polite."

  "I hope Wild Bill asks you polite when he blows your ears off for what you done to me!" Calamity howled.

  "That'd be the only way he could do it, gal," the Texan told her as he dismounted and looked around him. "There's nothing handy we could use as a lever?"

  "Which same I saw hours back, you danged knobhead!" gasped the infuriated Calamity. "What're you fixing in to do about it?"

  "Think first," answered the Texan calmly. "What'd Wild Bill do?"

  "He'd lay hold of that wheel and heft the whole blasted wagon up!"

  "Would, huh? Have you any more logs under the possum belly?"

  Reaching into the rawhide carrier, Calamity hauled out two thick logs.

  "These do?" she asked, having decided sarcasm would get her nowhere.

  "Why sure. Get set to slide them in under the wheel."

  "How?" she snorted. "Or are you kin to that prairie-dog and aim to dig the wheel out with your paws? Some pesky varmint stole my shovel back in Hays."

  "Wasn't Wild Bill there to watch it?" asked the man.

  Only with an effort did Calamity prevent herself throwing the logs at the Texan. She had considerable knowledge of men, far more than a girl her age in conventional circles would have gained in a life-time, but that Texan sure licked the bejeesus out of the others when it came to riling a girl and getting her pot-boiling mad.

  After waiting for some comment for a couple of seconds, the big Texan walked to the wagon. For a moment he stood looking at it, then turned his back to the trapped wheel, bent his legs slightly and gripped the spokes.

  "Quit trying, feller," Calamity said. "Not even Wild Bill could lift that wagon."

  The handsome blond giant did not reply. Standing with his back to the sunken wheel, he took a firmer grip and slowly put on the pressure in an attempt to raise it.

  For almost thirty seconds nothing happened, except that the Texan's face showed the strain, twisted into determined lines and became soaked with sweat. Calamity opened her mouth to make some comment about the foolishness of a lesser mortal attempting something which would have been beyond the power of even the eighty Wild Bill Hickok.

  Her words never came. Before her eyes the wagon began

  to rise, lifting a fraction of an inch at a time, but going steadily upwards. Calamity stopped thinking about Wild Bill Hickok and grabbed a log ready to thrust it under the wheel.

  "Just a HI mite higher, friend!" Calamity breathed, kneeling by his side and lowering the log into the hole. The wheel rose a couple of inches higher. "Easy now! Can you hold it?"

  With his breath hissing through his teeth and every muscle and fibre of his giant frame concentrated on the effort, the Texan made no attempt to reply. But he braced himself firmer and held the wagon. He looked like he might be posing for a painting of some legendary classic hero performing a super-human feat, like Hercules carrying out one of his labours, or Atlas limbering up to heft the world on his shoulders once more. Calamity did not have a classical education, in fact beyond being able to read slowly and write a painful, childish scrawl, her schooling had been remarkably poor. To her the big Texan sure looked a heap of man.

  Not that she wasted much time in staring. Calamity was an extremely practical young woman, if hot-tempered and hot-headed, she knew there would be limits to the giant Texan's strength and that she must get the supporting log under the wheel before the wagon's weight proved too much for him.

  "Lower away, friend!" she said, satisfied the log under the wheel would hold.

  Slowly the Texan bent his legs, letting the weight settle down gradually, not dropping it as most men would have, not that most men could have performed the task of lifting the wagon's weight. Calamity watched it sink, biting her lip in anxiety. If the log did not hold she would be to blame, not the Texan, and she could imagine the Texan's blistering comments if she failed in her side of the business after he had succeeded so well in his.

  The log held, and Calamity breathed a sigh of relief. Springing to the heads of her horses, she looked at the big Texan. He had moved away from the wagon, turned to face it and now stood with his head hanging, chest heaving as he sucked air into his lungs.

  "Giddap!" she yelled, pulling on the horses' head stalls.

  "Come on, you no-good, slab-sided, spavined, wored-out worthless apologies for crowbait Pull."

  Throwing their weights into the harness, the two horses pulled. The wagon rolled forward, stuck for a moment as its wheel hit the rim of the hole, lurched, rose up on the rim and forward. Calamity grinned broady. She aimed to show—

  "Hold it! Throw back on those horses, you fool female!" An angry bellow left the Texan's lips and, without meaning to, Calamity obeyed the order and stopped her team. Hot and angry words bubbled inside her. She did not take to any man, even if she maybe owed him thanks for helping her out of a tricky spot, talking that way to her.

  "What's eating you?" she asked, deciding to start the horses moving again and to hell with him, but not doing it until she had asked the question.

  "Leave us not drop the back wheel into the hole," the Texan answered dryly. "Where in hell did you learn to handle a wagon?—from Wild Bill?"

  "You wnit, mister. You just wait!" Calamity said, but she said it under her breath for she was writhing with shame at having forgotten something the rawest cook's louse in a freighting outfit would have remembered. Being Calamity, she blamed the Texan's attitude for causing her to forget the important detail of ensuring the rear wheel did not follow its leader into the hole, miss the log and bog the wagon down again.

  Stamping her feet down angrily, Calamity stormed towards the wagon and studied the hole. The Texan's warning had come just in time. Another second and the wheel would have sunk down into the hole.

  Taking the second log, Calamity packed it into the hole alongside the first. Grubbing some earth from the sides, she piled it over the logs, then stood up.

  "That do it?" she asked.

  "Reckon it might. Give her a whirl."

  The Texan's cool, relaxed attitude almost pushed Calamity to the bursting point. Turning on her heel, she threw herself at her horses' heads and gripped the nearest reins. Common sense returned the moment she touched the reins. Instead of giving the word and making the horses jerk,

  she eased them forward inch by inch. The wagon advanced steadily, its wheel rolling on to the logs, with Calamity Jane holding her breath, leaning to one side so she could watch it roll on to the logs.

  "Keep it going easy, gal," the Texan said, also watching the wheel.

  At the edge of the hole, the wheel stuck for an instant, then
lifted and passed over on to solid ground. Calamity was clear of the stoppage which had delayed her. Bringing the team to a halt, she walked towards the big stranger.

  "Thanks, feller," she said.

  "Think nothing of it," he replied. "That coffee smells good."

  "Tastes the same way. Set and rest up a spell while I unhitch my team. Then I'll cook us up a mess of vittles."

  "Never could stand by and watch a lady work. So I'll just tend to my horse while you're unhitching and cooking."

  While she worked, Calamity threw interested glances at her rescuer, trying to decide who he might be. One prominent Texas name fitted his appearance and stength, way other Tejanos boasted about it, only that one wore his guns butt forwards for a cross-draw, or so she heard tell. This big feller's matched Army Colts were real fine weapons, with the deep blue sheen of the Hartford factory's Best Citizens' Finish; they rode in contoured holsters which hungjust right, but those holsters had never been designed for cross-draw work.

  After tending to his horse, the Texan walked back to the fire and laid his saddle carefully on its side. No cowhand worth his salt ever chanced damaging his rig by resting it on its skirts. Without a saddle he could do no cattle work. He set down his saddle so the butt of the Winchester Model 1866 rifle in the boot remained on top and ready for a hurried withdrawal should one be necessary.

  With this done, the Texan walked across and started to help Calamity unhitch her horses. Her first inclination was to tell him she didn't need his help even though she could use it. Only she knew if she did he was likely to take her at her word and leave her to it.

  "Going to say something?" he asked.

  "Sure," she replied, then to hide her confusion. "I told you my name."

  "Yep."

  "Yep!"

  "And now you're wanting to know mine?"

  "Me! Hen!" snorted Calamity, tossing her head back in an entirely feminine manner which brought no reaction from the man. "All right then, I want to know."