by J. T. Edson
Then most of the points which had puzzled the blond giant became clear.
Sparlow and his two companions had been too far away to chance opening fire as soon as they had entered the building. So they had moved to a range over which their weapons would be satisfactory. In addition, they had also taken the precaution of having unsuspected support from another position. However, for some reason Silky had been delayed. xiv So Sparlow had been compelled to keep Viridian’s party occupied in conversation.
‘Get ’em, b—!’ Silky bellowed, halting at the end of the ramp and starting to lift the rifle’s butt towards his shoulder.
That was as far as the burly saloon worker got with his advice. Seeing him appear, the Negro who was in charge of the lever pulled it. Silky’s third word changed into a startled yell as the floor collapsed beneath his feet. Loosing his grasp on the Henry he plunged downwards.
Having observed their companion’s arrival, Sparlow, Shem and Dub were ready to go into action. While puzzled by Silky’s delayed appearance, the gambler had to admit that it was well timed. Rage was contorting Viridian’s face and, before the comment about Dover’s contract had ended, his right hand was flying across to the butt of the Remington. An instant after his boss had started to draw, Roxterby was grabbing with considerable speed towards his Colt. So was the big blond.
Even as Sparlow’s mind was noting the details, he too was making his draw. Not with the right hand, however. He had placed that in his hip pocket to lull his victims into a sense of false security. Turning palm out, his left hand snapped to the forward-pointing butt of his Colt and snapped it from its holster. On either side of him, Shem and Dub pivoted the barrels of their shotguns upwards and their empty hands reached for the foregrips.
Although Viridian and Roxterby had made their moves just that vital split second ahead of the others, they were distracted by the commotion as the trapdoor was dropped from under Silky. First to clear leather, due to the advantage he gained by having reduced the length of his revolver’s barrel, the supervisor was on the point of shooting at Dub. Instead, he hesitated due to his eyes turning towards the ramp. There was a double roar from Dub’s shotgun, for he did not intend to take the chance of Roxterby recovering and throwing lead at him. Eighteen buckshot balls arrived with enough force to fling the supervisor backwards into the wall, from whence he bounced lifeless to the floor.
To Sparlow’s horror, he found that Viridian was much faster than he had imagined. Before his own weapon had left its holster, he saw the Remington turning towards him and knew there was no way in which he might stop it being fired.
Fate took a hand and gave the gambler a respite.
Unlike his companions, Mark had been aware of Silky’s presence. With his hands leaping towards the ivory handles of the matched Colts, he had kept his eyes on the saloon worker. Seeing what the Negro was doing, the blond giant snapped his gaze to the more immediate threat to his life—and not a moment too soon. Shem was turning the twin tubes of the shotgun upwards in his direction. However, without the need for conscious guidance, the revolvers had left their contoured holsters and were lining instinctively. Without trying to establish his exact point of aim, he squeezed a shot from the right hand weapon.
When the lead ploughed into his left breast, Shem was twisted around. Although he jerked at the forward trigger, the shotgun was no longer pointing at Mark. Instead, the balls rushed out and almost tore Viridian’s right arm from his shoulder. Twirling helplessly, the Remington toppling out of a hand that had suddenly become inoperative, he hit the end of the disposal chute and fell forward. The planks were wet and slippery with blood, so he started to slide down them.
Unable to change his aim, or even to avoid firing, Sparlow sent his bullet off just after the buckshot had found its unintended target. Then, as the hide and tallow man disappeared, the gambler thumbed back his Colt’s hammer and started to turn it on the blond giant.
Thinking and acting with lightning speed, Mark saw that he was in double danger. Not only was Sparlow trying to throw down on him, but Dub had flung aside what must be an empty weapon and was clawing for his holstered revolver. Mark did not have time to check on what had happened to Roxterby, but he felt sure that Dub had not missed the supervisor over such a short distance. In which case, the saloon worker would be after him next.
Pointing his left hand Colt under his right arm as it rose with the other revolver’s recoil, the blond giant squeezed its trigger. Flame rushed from the muzzle and a hole appeared just above Sparlow’s right eye. His head snapped to the rear and he went down with his weapon unfired.
That left Dub. Twisting his torso, Mark started to turn lead loose. Right, left, right, left and right again, the weapons roared consecutively and at such speed that the detonations formed into a volley as fast as he could have achieved when handling his Winchester. Powder smoke rolled, partially concealing him and obscuring his target. Luck stayed with Mark. Only one of the bullets found flesh, but it served its purpose by shattering Dub’s right arm. The man’s revolver bellowed, but it had been deflected just enough. Mark felt the wind of the bullet against his cheek as it flew by.
Slowly the smoke swirled away and, now the guns had stopped roaring, Mark became conscious of the Negroes’ voices being raised in excited conversation on all sides. Cocking his right hand revolver, the big blond looked about him. Sparlow was dead. From the look of them, Shem and Dub were too badly injured to continue the fight. One glance informed Mark that the same applied to Silky. Having landed awkwardly, he was writhing on the floor and holding what proved to be a leg with a compound fracture.
Satisfied that none of his enemies was in any condition to cause further mischief, Mark sprang to the disposal chute. Staring down, he saw Viridian. Despite the hideous wound, the man was still alive. However, he was pouring blood into the water. Even as Mark looked, a huge body flashed from the depths. Two more followed, converging on Viridian. He screamed once and briefly as the monsters which he had helped to create closed their jaws on his limbs. The sound was chopped off abruptly as he was dragged below the surface and more of the catfish rushed in to rend at his flesh.
A shudder ran through the big youngster and he turned away. Returning the smoking Colts to their holsters, he called to some of the Negroes to attend to the wounded men. Then he walked slowly towards the factory’s entrance. He would have to go into Pilar and tell the citizens what had happened. xv There were a few points which Mark was unable to clear up, as he never learned the answers.
Schweitzer and Profaci had plotted to remove their other partners when they had learned that Goodnight’s scheme was gaining acceptance. The Italian had been on his way to Houston, to hire men to carry out the removals. Meeting Gomez in Bryan and learning of the trouble with Ribagorza, Profaci had paid the Mexican to visit the factory and use the demand for advance payment as an excuse to kill Viridian.
Learning from Gianna of her husband’s departure, Sparlow had set off after him and murdered him, hiding his body and leaving his horse tied up in the woods. The dance hall girl admitted that she had been paid to supply him with an alibi.
Schweitzer’s decision to leave Pilar had come when he had heard of Profaci’s death. Already suspicious of Viridian, guessing that he had been responsible for de Froissart’s murder and the truth about the can of kerosene, he had also believed that Sparlow was hoping to gain control of the Company. So, having taken the precaution of obtaining a spare key for the safe at the factory’s office, he had collected Viridian’s copies of the statement and the incriminating contract. Knowing that he would be able to call upon men hired by Profaci, he had taken the documents and all his money, then had set off with the intention of returning when he had sufficient helpers to protect his interests. On discovering that the storekeeper had fled, Sparlow had given chase. In the hope of saving his life, Schweitzer had handed over the documents and explained how they could be used. The hope had not materialized. Sparlow had killed him and had set out to complete
the task by getting rid of the Viridians. Being short of men, he had yielded to Gianna’s request to be allowed to deal with Marlene.
Then he would have to make arrangements for Marlene and Gianna to be held in custody. He wondered what their fate would be. One thing he felt was sure, both were so involved in the various murderous plots of the hide and tallow men that it was unlikely that they would be able to carry on operating the factory.
Not until Mark reached the Viridians’ mansion did he discover just how true that assumption had been.
Appendix One
During the War Between the States at seventeen years of age, Dustine Edward Marsden Fog had won promotion in the field and was put in command of the Texas Light Cavalry’s hard-riding, harder-fighting Company ‘C’. xvi Leading them in the Arkansas Campaign, he had earned the reputation for being an exceptionally capable military raider the equal of the South’s other exponents, John Singleton Mosby and Turner Ashby. xvii In addition to preventing a pair of Union fanatics from starting an Indian uprising which would have decimated most of Texas,xviii he had supported Belle Boyd, the Rebel Spy xix on two of her most dangerous missions. xx
When the War had finished, he had become the segundo of the great OD Connected ranch in Rio Hondo County, Texas. Its owner and his uncle, General Ole Devil Hardin, had been crippled in a riding accident xxi and it had thrown much of the work—including handling an important mission upon which the good relations between the United States and Mexico had hung in the balance xxii —upon him. After helping to gather horses to replenish the ranch3s depleted remuda, xxiii he had been sent to assist Colonel Charles Goodnight on the trail drive to Fort Sumner which had done much to help the Lone Star State to recover from the impoverished conditions left by the War. xxiv With that achieved, he had been equally successful in helping Goodnight to prove that it would be possible to take herds of cattle to the railroad in Kansas. xxv
Having proven himself to be a first class cowhand, Dusty went on to be acknowledged as a very capable trail boss, xxvi round up captain, xxvii and a town-taming lawman. xxviii In a contest at the Cochise County Fair, he won the title of the Fastest Gun In the West, by beating many other exponents of the pistolero arts. xxix
Dusty Fog never found his lack of stature an impediment In addition to being naturally strong, he had taught himself to be completely ambidextrous. Possessing fast reflexes, he could draw and fire either, or both, of his Colts with lightning speed and great accuracy. Ole Devil Hardin’s valet, Tommy Okasi, was Japanese and from him Dusty had learned ju jitsu and karate. Neither had received much publicity in the Western world, so the knowledge was very useful when he had to fight barehanded against larger, heavier and stronger men.
Appendix Two
With his exceptional good looks and magnificent physical development, Mark Counter presented the kind of appearance which many people expected of Dusty Fog. It was a fact of which they would take advantage when the need arose. xxx
While serving as a lieutenant in General Bushrod Sheldon’s cavalry regiment, Mark’s merits as an efficient and courageous officer had been overshadowed by his taste in uniforms. Always a dandy, coming from a wealthy family had allowed him to indulge in his whims. His clothing, particularly a skirtless tunic, had been much copied by the other young bloods in the Confederate States’ Army, despite considerable opposition and disapproval on the part of hide-bound senior officers.
When peace had come, Mark followed Sheldon to fight for Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. There he had met Dusty Fog and the Ysabel Kid, helping with the former’s mission. On returning to Texas, Mark had been invited to join the OD Connected’s floating outfit. xxxi Knowing that his elder brothers were sufficient to help his father, Big Ranee Counter, run the R Over C ranch in the Big Bend country—and suspecting that life would be more exciting with Dusty and the Kid—he had accepted.
An expert cowhand, Mark was known as Dusty Fog’s right bower xxxii and gained acclaim by virtue of his enormous strength and ability in a roughhouse brawl. However, due to being so much in the small Texan’s company, his full potential as a gun fighter received little attention. Men who were in a position to know stated that he was second only to the Rio Hondo wizard in speed and accuracy.
Many women found Mark’s appearance irresistable, including Miss Martha Jane Canary; xxxiii who was better known as Calamity Jane. xxxiv Only one held his heart, the lady outlaw Belle Starr. xxxv It was several years after her death that he courted and married Dawn Sutherland, who he had met on the Goodnight trail drive to Fort Sumner.
Appendix Three
The only daughter of Long Walker, war leader of the Pehnane—Wasp, Quick Stinger, or Raider—Comanche Dog Soldier lodge and his French Creole pairaivo xxxvi married an Irish Kentuckian adventurer called Sam Ysabel, but died giving birth to their first child. Given the name Loncey Dalton Ysabel, the boy was raised in the fashion of the Nemunuh. xxxvii With his father away much of the time on the family business of first mustanging, then smuggling, his education had been left to his maternal grandfather. xxxviii From Long Walker, he had learned all those things a Comanche warrior must know; how to ride the wildest, freshly caught mustang, or when raiding—a polite name for the favorite Nemenuh sport of horse-stealing—to subjugate a domesticated mount to his will; to follow the faintest of tracks and conceal traces of his own passing; to locate hidden enemies, yet remain concealed himself when the need arose; to move in silence through the thickest of cover or on the darkest of nights; and to be highly proficient in the use of a variety of weapons. In all these subjects, the boy had proved an excellent pupil. He had inherited his father’s rifle-shooting skill and, while not real fast on the draw—taking slightly over a second, where a top hand would come close to half of that time—he could perform adequately with his Colt Second Model Dragoon revolver. His excellent handling of one as a weapon had gained him the man-name Cuchilo, ‘the Knife’ among the Pehnane.
Joining his father on smuggling trips along the Rio Grande, he had become known to the Mexicans of the border country as Cabrito; which had come from hearing white men referring to him as the Ysabel Kid. Smuggling did not attract mild-mannered, gentle-natured pacifists, but even the toughest and roughest men on the bloody border had learned that it did not pay to tangle with Sam Ysabel’s son. His education and upbringing had not been such that he was possessed of an overinflated sense of the sanctity of human life. When crossed, he dealt with the situation like a Pehnane Dog Soldier—to which lodge of savage, efficient warriors he belonged—swiftly and in a deadly effective manner.
During the War, the Kid and his father had commenced by riding as scouts for the Gray Ghost, John Singleton Mosby. Later, their specialized talents had been used by having them collect and deliver to the Confederate States’ authorities in Texas supplies which had been run through the U.S. Navy’s blockades into Matamoros, or purchased elsewhere in Mexico. It had been hard, dangerous work and never more so than on the two occasions when they had been involved in missions with Belle Boyd. xxxix
Sam Ysabel had been murdered soon after the end of the War. While hunting for the killers, the Kid had met Dusty Fog and, later, Mark Counter. Engaged on a mission of international importance, Dusty had been very grateful for the Kid’s assistance. When it had been brought to a successful conclusion, learning that the Kid no longer wished to continue a career of smuggling, Dusty had offered him work at the OD Connected ranch. When the Kid had stated that he knew little about being a cowhand, he had been told that it was his skill as a scout that would be required. His talents in that line had been most useful to the floating outfit.
In fact, the Kid’s acceptance had been of great benefit all round. Dusty had gained a loyal friend, ready to stick by him through any danger. The ranch had obtained the services of an extremely capable and efficient man. For his part, the Kid had been turned from a life of petty crime—with the ever-present danger of having it develop into more serious law-breaking— and became a useful member of society. Peace
officers and honest citizens might have been thankful for that as he would have made a terrible and murderous outlaw if he had been driven into such a life.
Obtaining his first repeating rifle while in Mexico with Dusty and Mark, the Kid became acknowledged as a master in its use. In fact, at the Cochise County Fair he won the first prize—one of the fabulous Winchester Models of 1873 ‘One of A Thousand’ rifles—against very stiff competition. xl Also it was in a great part through his efforts that the majority of the Comanche Indian bands agreed to go on to the Reservation. xli Nor could Dusty Fog have cleaned out the outlaw town of Hell without the Kid's assistance. xlii
The Floating Outfit Series by J. T. Edson
The Ysabel Kid
.44 Caliber Man
A Horse Called Mogollon
Goodnight’s Dream
From Hide and Horn
Set Texas Back on Her Feet
The Hide and Tallow Men
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i Details of Dusty Fog’s career and special abilities are given in Appendix 1.
ii Details of the Ysabel Kid’s career and special abilities are given in Appendix 3.
iii Details of Mark Counter’s career and special abilities are given in Appendix 2.